New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.

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:

Happy New Year and welcome back to our weekly news summary. Thanks to the Bank Holiday last Monday we’ve had a relatively gentle start to the year, although I’m sure this week’s CES show in Las Vegas will generate plenty of product news.

Mark Bridge writes:

Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE has just announced a new mobile phone design philosophy. It’s called “Caring, Creative, Simple, Smart” and - let’s be honest - you could say it sounds a little trite.

Mark Bridge writes:

In today’s podcast - our last programme in 2011 - we’re doing our best to predict what’ll be happening in the mobile industry next year.

Will there be big announcements from the Wholesale Application Community?  Innovation from Intel?  Falling sales at Apple?  Reorganisations at RIM?  Listen to find out what we forecast.

Mark Bridge writes:

“He knows if you’ve been bad or good...”

You don’t need to be Santa Claus to appreciate that RIM’s quarterly results have marked a disappointing end to a disappointing year. Yes, the company’s sold millions of BlackBerry phones - but PlayBook sales haven’t been good, its new OS is delayed and its market share appears to be falling. You could argue that 2012 is a make-or-break year for Research In Motion... or at least for its current management.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s been an annus horribilis for Research In Motion. In fact, the BBC was already using that very phrase about the BlackBerry manufacturer two months ago.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

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.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

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.