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:

In recent months we’ve run some surveys on our home page. The results make interesting reading (although we’ll happily admit they’re not likely to be representative of UK mobile users in general).

First, we asked “Which Operating System will be on your next handset?”

Mark Bridge writes:

Santa’s bringing tablets this Christmas – and I’m not talking about the plink-plink-fizz of Alka Seltzer. These are tablet computers… and they’re going to be everywhere.

It all started with the Apple iPad; a device so widely anticipated, the TV advertisements didn’t even need to say what it did.

The Definition of Mobile event promises a distinctly different perspective for those interested in the future of mobile, summarising the key facts big business needs to grasp to execute a successful mobile strategy.

We'll be bringing you a summary of the key points during mid-September.

The best and brightest mobile-related blogging from the last seven days is now online at MSearchGroove.com. Peggy Anne Salz, this week's Carnival host, looks at a wide range of topics – including an in-depth post from Ajit Jaokar refuting recent suggestions that the web is dead.

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a feature that explained how techies in New York wanted the city’s 212 area code as part of their mobile phone numbers. This may seem strange from a UK perspective until you realise that American mobile phone numbers don’t have dedicated mobile ‘dialling codes’. Instead, they’re all prefixed with a local area code and cost the same to call as those landline numbers they mimic.

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.

There are many mobile boundaries being blurred in this week's podcast.

Topics include Truphone's combined WiFi and mobile service, Skype's move to direct mobile billing, the rise of 4G and an Android-controlled satellite.

Ofcom, the UK government and the major networks have all agreed a timetable for 4G to be launched across the UK.

We're talking about those plans in this week's podcast - and taking a look at all the other top mobile industry stories as well, from US mergers and leaky tablets to free WiFi and forthcoming quarterly results.

Nokia reveals its first two Windows Phone 8 smartphones in this week's podcast, while Amazon announces a handful of new tablets.

And if that wasn't enough, there's an update from Everything Everywhere about its plans for 4G in the UK.

We talk to two very different companies at Mobile World Congress about their businesses and their relationships with mobile networks. Rebtel is a mobile voice-over-IP provider, while Mosaik Solutions produces mobile network coverage information.