Mark Bridge writes:

This week, new Ofcom rules came into force. They’re designed to avoid unexpected price rises during the minimum term of a mobile phone contract. Yes, just because you signed a fixed-term contract doesn’t mean the charges can’t increase. Networks said they needed this option in case of inflation or regulatory changes. Customers felt trapped.

Qualcomm Incorporated has acquired a collection of patents from three HP companies: Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett-Packard Development Co LP and Palm Inc.

The patent portfolio comprises approximately 1,400 granted patents and patent applications from the USA plus approximately 1,000 patents and applications from other countries.

Samsung has reported a drop in quarterly profit, the first such decrease for two years. Operating profit fell to 8.31 trillion South Korean won (£4.6 billion) for the October to December quarter.

That’s an 18% drop compared to the previous quarter and a 6% fall year-on-year. Consolidated net profit was 7.30 trillion won for the quarter.

Ofcom’s proposal to increase annual licence fees for the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands in the UK could adversely affect investment in the UK’s 4G services, according to the GSMA.

A consultation into the proposed increases ended on 16th January, with an Ofcom decision expected in the next few weeks.

Berg Insight forecasts that the total number of cellular (mobile) machine-to-machine connections in the global retail industry will grow from 18.4 million last year to reach 33.3 million connections in 2018. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 12.6%.

Cellular M2M connections are used on a range of retail devices including Point-of-Sale terminals, ATMs and ticket machines, avoiding the need for a fixed-line data connection.