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:

Nottingham-based Esendex Limited has been supporting businesses with messaging services for over ten years. Yet with SMS messaging celebrating its 20th birthday in the UK this year, it would be easy to think the no-nonsense short message is now being threatened by social networking, mobile email and picture messages.

That’s not the case, explained Geoff Love, Chief Commercial Officer of Esendex.

Mark Bridge writes:

I still have my Nokia 2110. When the world is taken over by cockroaches and the MRSA bug, my Nokia 2110 will still be in working order. The MRSA-infected cockroaches will probably use it to build their own cellular network.

I loved the Nokia Communicator. It was a real game-changer, a device that paved the way for today’s smartphones.

Textlocal’s top tips on how to use the Olympics to boost your profits and make mobile work for you:

With only 80 days to go until the start of the Olympics 2012, most businesses will have already outlined their marketing strategies to reach out to the new audiences it will attract to the UK. Leading mobile company Textlocal explains how limited time isn’t an issue where mobile messaging is concerned.

Mark Bridge writes:

It's a hard life being an early adopter. Last week in London I walked past a bus shelter that displayed a sequence of posters. Next to the changing display panel was a blue NFC logo.

“For advertiser links and travel information touch your NFC enabled phone above”

Mark Bridge writes:

What a week it was for mobile manufacturers. RIM revealed the BlackBerry 10 platform to its developers, while Samsung announced a new flagship Android phone. Both offer a number of distinctive features, with fans commending them and critics suggesting they didn’t go far enough.

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.

This week's podcast begins with a report about a delay - or perhaps even cancellation - for the UK launch of HTC's Facebook phone, the HTC First.

We then move on to Vodafone's results, an Android app scare for Sky, Samsung's successes, contactless payments, potentially life-saving QR codes and an uncomfortable story about a smuggled mobile phone.

One of the biggest companies meeting the UK's demand for public WiFi is The Cloud, which has spent the last few years putting its network into thousands of venues.

In this programme we interview Vince Russell, managing director of The Cloud, to discover what the company's doing... and to see whether mobile operators should be worried.