UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.

Mark Bridge writes:

Here in the UK, we have a double Bank Holiday weekend to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. That means two days away from work for many of us (and also two days of unseasonably bad weather, according to tradition).

In fact, the three of us at The Fonecast are celebrating our own anniversary this month. It’s been six years since we started podcasting about the mobile phone industry. We’ll be revisiting some of those early programmes - and the biggest mobile news headlines from 2006 - in this week’s podcast on Wednesday.

The fifth annual Over The Air event - a combination of 36-hour mobile hack day and conference - takes place at Bletchley Park on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd June.

This year’s event is also honouring the contributions of mathematician Alan Turing to the invention of the programmable computer, code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War 2 and developments in other scientific fields.

Mark Bridge writes:

Just over a week ago Motorola Mobility lost a patent-related legal case against Microsoft in the USA. A couple of days later the company was formally acquired by Google – and a few days after that it lost a patent case against Microsoft in Germany. Business as usual, you might say.

Mark Bridge writes:

What a week for Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Not content with transforming his company through its stock market flotation, he then went on to marry. What does this reveal?  Well, he’s clearly capable of multi-tasking and he’d rather wear a suit for social occasions than for work.

Mark Bridge writes:

A horse box and eight SIM cards. That’s the basic technology keeping the BBC’s Olympic Torch Relay broadcasts on the air and on the road.

The converted DAF horse box is being driven in front of the runners as they carry an Olympic torch along the relay route. It’s equipped with four cameras and a mixing desk, enabling a choice of views to be recorded and broadcast for 12 hours per day throughout the 70-day relay.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

Time for another podcast presented by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge. They begin this week's programme by talking about the latest enterprise-friendly developments from BlackBerry.

Next comes a new survey from Ofcom about the UK's 4G data speeds, followed by news about TalkTalk's MVNO deal with Telefonica, the growth of WiFi in the home and a report from AVG about social media sapping smartphone performance.

The new Microsoft Band, the Samsung Galaxy A smartphones and the Huawei Honor 6 are all discussed in this week's podcast.

We also look at some of the mobile industry's other big stories, including Amazon UK's mobile phone deals, the Lenovo purchase of Motorola Mobility, LG's quarterly results and the anticipated increase in WiFi hotspots.

The new Apple iPad tablets, Google's latest Nexus devices, Android Lollipop, wearable tech from will.i.am and the world's slimmest smartphone all feature in this week's podcast.

We're also talking about free mobile data for Christmas, 4.5G technology being rolled out in the UK, 5G technology being tested in South Korea, the end of an era for webOS and video messages that self-destruct.