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:

I've previously talked about my Google Nexus S and the challenges of synchronising it with Microsoft Outlook. Well, more like the problem of finding anything that'll do the job.

Mark Bridge writes:

So there I was with my Nexus S, a cup of tea and the challenge of synchronising calendar, contacts, tasks and notes from Microsoft Outlook. I’d found Syncdroid.net and its list of suggestions… and then an email arrived on my phone from the ‘Android Team’

Mark Bridge writes:

So, I’ve just upgraded to the Google Nexus S. The Samsung i9020. That was pretty easy. The local branch of Carphone Warehouse had one in stock.

It’s my first Android phone. In fact, it’s my first upgrade for a few years.

Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry event of the year. It takes place in Barcelona from 14th February this year – and The Fonecast will be heading there to listen to the keynote speeches, attend the briefings and interview many of the visitors.

 

Mark Bridge writes:

Every year since we started podcasting in 2006, we've used our last regular show of the year to make some predictions for the following 12 months.

This year's podcast on 22nd December was no exception.

This week's podcast begins with the latest news from Phones 4u, where hundreds of jobs have been saved but there are a large number of redundancies as well.

Iain, James and Mark then talk about new products from Amazon, BlackBerry and Panasonic, mobile payment innovation from Indonesia and the UK, the acquisition of IoT specialist Neul and Apple's updated privacy policy.

The Smart UK project is an annual government-supported competition looking for the UK's Most Innovative Mobile Company.

A few days ago, all 20 companies on the competition shortlist gave a short presentation to the Smart UK panel of judges. Afterwards, Mark Bridge spoke to some of the entrants to discover exactly what they had to offer - and how they planned to disrupt the mobile industry.