Trend Micro Mobile Security 30/11/06 A new version of Trend Micro Mobile Security adds protection against hackers and intrusions while improving on the previously available mobile malicious code protection for mobile malware and SMS spam.  Trend Micro’s new offering claims to be the only mobile security product on the market that has anti-virus prot...Read More Benefon fills key post 30/11/06 Benefon, the Finnish satnav specialist looking to push the Twig phone-plus-GPS handset, has appointed Louise Turley as international marketing manager. Turley was formerly channel marketing manager at Orange PCS and knows indirect marketing well....Read More Fusion tops 100,000 30/11/06 BT isn’t confirming the numbers, but observer say the Fusion broadband-plus-mobile service now has more than 100,000 subscribers after a slow start. The introduction of the RAZR as a handset option was probably the kicker. High-profile success for Fusion will help legitimise converged products for the whole industry....Read More iPhone sightings continue 30/11/06 A Chinese-language business newspaper claims that Taiwanese manufacturer Hon Hai Precision (aka Foxconn, and maker of the iPod) has received an order from Apple for 12m mobile phones. That would suggest a launch around next Spring....Read More Orange’s quarterly price book delayed 30/11/06 Orange has joined Vodafone and O2 in running a quarterly price book that will guarantee airtime commissions for at least three months at a time. The original reports that it would be available in January were optimistic, though: Orange says the price book won’t be ready for some months. ...Read More Update public sector, says O2 CEO 30/11/06 Speaking at an FT conference, O2 CEO Peter Erskine said the public sector “is still in the dark ages with mobile communications”. He blamed the industry for not showing what mobile could do, citing the potential of text messaging for the NHS to make or confirm appointments. ...Read More   Access control by Pointsec 30/11/06 Pointsec for Symbian 3.0 S60 Edition is a new version of Pointsec’s data protection and access control system for users with Nokia Eseries handsets based on the S60 platform. Supported models include the Nokia E50, Nokia E60, Nokia E61, Nokia E62, and Nokia E70. “Mobile service providers and organizations with large...Read More TV Channels 30/11/06 Up to 27 Sky Mobile TV channels are now available to users on the 3 network. Customers choose from three themed packs of channels – News & Sport, Entertainment and Music – each of which is charged at £5 per month for unlimited access (subject to a fair use policy)....Read More Phone books 30/11/06 ICUE has launched a mobile book service offering thousands of books to read on your mobile phone with prices from £3 per book. It uses technology that flashes words one-at-a-time, at speed, on the phone screen, which ICUE says makes reading “interesting and efficient”. ICUE says it will invest profits back...Read More Virgin Mobile scores highly for customer service 30/11/06 Virgin Mobile has been recognised as leaders in customer service in the Telecoms sector and 2nd overall in a survey of the UK’s biggest companies published in Marketing magazine, which polled 1,300 consumers for their views on 58 companies in eight sectors....Read More Sub-$15 phones by 2008 30/11/06 Mobile phones costing less than $15 will be available in developing countries by 2008, Motorola UK chairman Sir David Brown has predicted. That price point could see another 100m people a year getting their first phones, he said, citing a London School of Economics report that a 10% increase in mobile penetration creates a 0.6% ...Read More Motorola eyes Sagem 30/11/06 Motorola is reported to be considering a takeover bid for Sagem, according to Le Figaro. The French mobile phone and fax company is losing money hand over fist for its parent Safran, and a Motorola spokesperson was quoted as saying his company had “a serious interest” in Sagem....Read More   Superslim HTC 30/11/06 HTC is steaming into the end-user market. It’s seventh HTC-branded product in what about as many weeks is the P4350, a slim (17mm thick) Windows Mobile phone with a slide-out QWERTY keypad, the HTC touchscreen, and all the usual Windows goodies. Connectivity options are extensive, giving users a rich internet browsing, mes...Read More   Broadband costs clobber Carphone Warehouse 30/11/06 Roger Taylor, finance director, Carphone Warehouse  First-half profits at Carphone Warehouse fell sharply due to the escalating cost of building up its broadband business. Pretax earnings dropped 62% £14.1m for the half-year to the end of September. But excluding the investment in broadband and its joint venture at Vi...Read More The Mobile MySpace 30/11/06 Tocmag, a free service that allows anyone to create mini-magazines and mblogs for mobiles, has just launched in the UK. Tocmag is talking about “the mobile MySpace” – the magazines can be filled with up to six pages of text, photos, audio and even video, and they are reputedly very easy to create.  On...Read More   Mobility central for European enterprises 30/11/06 European firms now spend 32% of their telecom and networking budgets on mobile applications, according to Forrester Research. The analyst says more than 70% of enterprises are using some type of mobile app. A third of businesses say that setting mobile and wireless strategy and policy is a priority in 2006; for another 16%, it&r...Read More   Vodafone signs up with Yahoo 30/11/06 Nick Read, CEO Vodafone UK: giving advertisers a compelling propositionVodafone has signed a mobile advertising deal with Yahoo! that promises to create “an innovative mobile advertising business that will enhance the customer experience on mobile phones while providing both companies with a new revenue stream”. ...Read More   The future of TV will be personal 30/11/06 Personalisation and interactivity will be the key drivers of mobile TV according to a new report commissioned by Nokia and conducted by Dr Shani Orgad from the London School of Economics.  The report, titled ‘This Box Was Made For Walking’, predicts that the introduction and adoption of mobile TV will ultim...Read More "Killer" Walkman coming soon 30/11/06 Sony Ericsson will look to extend its recent run of good form in the market early next year with the launch of a ‘killer’ ultra-slim Walkman phone. The new handset, dubbed Ai, is slated to launch in March. It follows in the footsteps of Motorola’s stunningly successful RAZR handset, which has spawned count...Read More   Mainline Expands Sales Support 30/11/06 Mainline MD Andrew Boden: “Enhancing our business platform” Burton-on-Trent distributor Mainline Digital Communications is restructuring and expanding its field-based operations to increase support and boost sales within existing its dealer base.   The Orange-only distributor will increase its dealer sales ...Read More   Fone Logistics promotes low-cost internet calls 30/11/06 Fone Logistics has joined forces with mobile communications provider, aql, to promote aql’s VoIP to users of Nokia Eseries phones – free calls via broadband, routed through aql’s VoIP network wherever there is an accessible WiFi hotspot.  This will offer subscribers the possibility of escaping from th...Read More   UIQ goes back to Sony Ericsson 30/11/06 Sony Ericsson is to acquire UIQ Technology, the Swedish software company that is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Symbian. UIQ Technology, which uses Symbian OS, licenses the UIQ user interface and application development platform to mobile phone vendors worldwide – and is responsible in particular for the look and f...Read More   eBay goes mobile with Bango 30/11/06 Bango and Bonfire Media have teamed up to deliver the award-winning Pocket Auctions for eBay app to millions of mobile phone users in Europe. eBay subscribers in Europe can now bid and buy, search active and completed items and check their My eBay accounts at anytime and from anyplace, direct from their mobile phones. “eBa...Read More Orange tests broadband in the channel 30/11/06 Orange is using EBS to test-market its broadband services. The Northampton-based distributor will sell through five selected dealers; they won’t be able to give customers the subscription-free service that Orange stores can offer, but the sign-up fee is reported to be modest....Read More Motorola counters mouldy mobiles 30/11/06 What would you think were the major problems facing the mobile phone user these days? Smelly phones, right? Absolutely. So it’s good to hear that Motorola has announced that the AgION antimicrobial coating features on two more iDEN phones. The new i835 and i880 handsets join last year’s i870;...AgION’s technolo...Read More Virgin brand spreads 30/11/06 Following its acquisition of Virgin Mobile, NTL:Telewest will be rebranding the business as Virgin Media sometime during the first quarter of 2007....Read More Nokia plans huge New Year’s Eve party 30/11/06 On 31 December Nokia will welcome the New Year in unique style – by connecting millions of music lovers from around the world as they count down the final minutes of 2006.  Nokia New Year’s Eve, a global music event stretching across four continents, will feature a number of international artists including Black...Read More   Wireless Fabric Keyboard 30/11/06 Avenir Telecom is to become the exclusive UK distributor for the very funky wireless fabric keyboard developed by Eleksen and G-Tech. It’s essentially a Bluetooth enabled cloth that provides all the functionality of a standard QWERTY keyboard yet rolls up to fit into a pocket or the smallest briefcase. Avenir’s RRP i...Read More   Free Download Promo by Fone 30/11/06 The X Factor phenomenon is making its way into the stores of independent dealers. Fone Logistics, one of only four accredited distributors for Nokia, has invested in a music download package to support dealers in their campaigns to promote and sell the Nokia X Factor handsets.Nokia is sponsoring X-Factor TV talent show this year...Read More   3 beefs up channel for quality 30/11/06 3 is aiming for 50% of its business to come from direct selling: more stores, more content, more qualityJust a year after launching its music download service in anger, 3 has 10% of the entire UK singles market. At an extended briefing for the press, marketing director Graeme Oxby also said that 3 was the market leader in mobil...Read More   Ciao Voda Fixed-Line 29/11/06 A court in Rome has blocked a Vodafone promotion in Italy which suggests clients transfer their landline telephone number to their mobile phones.Italy's dominant telecoms firm, Telecom Italia, had appealed against the launch of the service by its rival, arguing it broke competition rules.Vodafone have been heavily promoting thei...Read More MySpace seeks friends 29/11/06 MySpace has confirmed that it is looking for European mobile service distribution and marketing partnerships similar to deals already in place with US carriers Cingular and Helio. ...Read More Users like MP3 phones 29/11/06 According to Continental Research's Autumn 2006 Mobile Report, people like using the MP3 facility on their mobile handsets. Among those that had listened to MP3 music on their phone, 13% did so every day and 70% at least once a week. Phones aren't replacing iPods, though. Two-thirds (67%) of MP3 phone listeners also have a separ...Read More Lobster gets 24hr ITN 29/11/06 Virgin Mobile has added ITN News to the TV line-up offered with its Lobster 700TV phone. The 24 hour news channel joins four other services plus up to 50 DAB digital radio stations on the handset. ...Read More Made-for-mobile mini-movies 29/11/06 The Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project is a groundbreaking exercise to showcase independent short films to mobile users worldwide. Organised by Sundance Institute, a champion for independent filmmakers for over 25 years, with the GSM Association, it involves commissioning five made-for-mobile movies of up to five ...Read More Rail tickets by phone 29/11/06 Chiltern Railways, which runs the scheduled passenger services between London Marylebone and Birmingham, will be the first UK train operator to deliver tickets to rail passengers on their mobile phones. Beginning this month, Mobiqa's unique mobi-ticket technology will be used by YourRail, Chiltern's chosen partner, to improve cu...Read More O2 opens Blue Book 29/11/06 O2 has unveiled a content-sharing service called My Blue Book that enables consumers to upload text, photos and video clips to a dedicated website to share with friends and family. O2 customers can also use the service to back up their contacts. ...Read More   Happy Birthday, Jag Comms 29/11/06 Entertaining stuff from John George, founder and MD of Jag Communications, reflecting on the company’s 16th birthday last month.  “It really doesn’t seem that long ago that I was setting things up in a disused railway carriage in my back garden – and now we have over 80 locations and a thriving ...Read More   Alcatel Targets Prepay Music 29/11/06 Alcatel has its eyes on the UK market again. This time, lift off comes in the form of the OT-E801 music phone-- and its destination is the low-end prepay sector. Alcatel, which is now owned by Hong Kong-based TCL Communications, reckons mobile music is most popular in the youth market. It claims that the OT-E801 is one of t...Read More   Strong Q3 for O2 29/11/06 O2’s third quarter results made surprisingly good reading - year on year growth of 14.9% for net service revenues in the UK, blended ARPU of £272 against £265 a year ago, 524,000 net new customers taking the base to 17.4m. Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Erskine said: “This faster than expected growth ...Read More Virgin Mobile TV... 29/11/06 outscored Vodafone Live! Mobile TV in a Strategy Analytics study provocatively titled “Will DAB Kick-Start Mobile TV Adoption in the UK?”. Vodafone Live! 3G’s streaming TV offering had previously been rated `Best Mobile TV Service’ in the UK, but Virgin Mobile’s DAB was a massive winner on all crite...Read More MediaPlazza 29/11/06 Bango has announced a deal with MediaPlazza, the world leader in mobile entertainment affiliate programs, which sees Bango browse and buy technology being integrated into their white label solution. This enables any of MediaPlazza’s 60,000 affiliates to sell mobile content from their own store on the mobile internet and &l...Read More Mobile advertising in the States 29/11/06 Total spending on mobile advertising in the States will grow from $1.4bn in 2006 to $2.9bn in 2011, says Jupiter Research....Read More InfoGin 29/11/06 Mobile internet enabler InfoGin has won Frost & Sullivan’s annual award for Customer Value Enhancement. The award recognises “innovative companies delivering strategies that significantly improve customer interaction and contribute to customer satisfaction”; InfoGin’s success is down to “enablin...Read More A free MVNO... 29/11/06 offering voice, text and content is planned for a European launch next summer. Blyk is entirely ad-supported, is targeted at 16 to 24 year-olds, and will go live first in the UK from June. Said Blyk marketing director Jon Fisher: “By signing up, consumers agree to take ads so it’s effectively 100% opt-in”....Read More   Fantasy Football - Week 14/15 29/11/06 Due to an odd mid-week game week where hardly anyone scored points, there's not much to talk about regarding movement on the table. So, this week we look at transfer targets. Simply looking at a player's total points will not give a complete picture of high scorers. You should also check points per game to find players who are m...Read More   Mobile TV: Where’s the money? 29/11/06 Ovum has released its latest research round-up on mobile TV. Key issues under the spotlight are the role of advertising in mobile TV and the cost implications of deploying a DVB-H mobile broadcast network.Mobile TV is seen as having good potential because it is a service that should have mass appeal across the whole customer bas...Read More   Navteq gets into content 29/11/06 NAVTEQ is trying to change its image from that of a mapping company to something more like a location-oriented content supplier. That’s the thinking behind its $179m acquisition of the US traffic information supplier Traffic.com. That company has lots of state and federal contracts; more interestingly, it earns most o...Read More   Roadtesting Headsets 29/11/06 Top headset maker Plantronics has come up with an interesting new marketing initiative – end users can road-test any of its wireless office headsets for 14 days before deciding to purchase it or give it back. Gina Mehmert, EMEA business marketing manager for Plantronics comments, “We are confident that once you ...Read More   Buyer research from Strategy Analytics... 29/11/06 suggests that the appeal of a superthin device is “less than universal”. In the States, more people are likely to consider buying a conventional clamshell device then an ultra-thin clamshell for their next mobile phone;...in Europe there’s little difference, but thin doesn’t have an obvious advantage anyw...Read More   Opting in for free content 29/11/06 The use of advertising to fund mobile services will significantly increase the consumption of mobile content and generate a new revenue stream for operators, according to live trial results released today by Amobee Media Systems. Data from multiple trials suggests for every person who paid to download mobile content, up to ...Read More   Maxfield joins the market 29/11/06 Better know for its MP3 players, but still a small voice in the consumer electronics market, German company Maxfield has come up with its first navigation system. The MAX-TRACK appears well specified, starting with a pacy 400MHz Samsung processor running Windows Mobile and including maps for all of Western Europe – most of...Read More   ... has USB modem for all 29/11/06 The much anticipated Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem is a simple version of the company’s established 3G broadband data card for users who don’t have a PC Card slot – notably those with Apple MacBook laptops. This is the first USB wireless broadband modem to be launched in the UK, says Vodafone, which is clai...Read More Bumper Quarter 29/11/06 ABI Research anticipates that Q4 will prove a bumper quarter. “The market topped 245m mobile devices shipped in 3Q 2006 and the global mobile devices marketplace is on target to reach 1bn devices by the year’s end”, said Jake Saunders, research director of ABI Research....Read More 100m Symbian smartphones... 29/11/06 have now been shipped to over 250 network operators worldwide. Handset vendors shifted 13m Symbian smartphones in the third quarter, up 52% on a year ago....Read More Juniper Research 29/11/06 According to Juniper Research, the global market for mobile sports content and services will grow from just over $1bn in 2006 to $3.8bn in 2011 – an average annual growth rate of 27%....Over the five years, mobile sport, leisure and information content and services are expected to generate a cumulative revenue stream of ov...Read More PDA shipments 29/11/06 Gartner reports that worldwide PDA shipments totalled 4.5m units in Q3, a 32% increase on the year before that was largely down to an influx of new “cellular PDAs” – smartphones such as Nokia’s E61 and E62, the Motorola Q, and especially the BlackBerry. That remained the most popular PDA, accounting for 2...Read More Cameraphones 29/11/06 Worldwide sales of cameraphones will reach 460m in 2006, an increase of 43% from 2005, and they account for 48% of total worldwide mobile phone sales this year. The total will hit 1bn in 2010, according to Gartner, by which time cameraphones will represent 81% of the total....Read More Using the mobile web 29/11/06 Europeans are way ahead of Americans when it comes to using the mobile web. The comScore Mobile Tracking Study for September shows that 29% of European Internet users (from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) regularly access the web from their mobiles.  By comparison, only 19% of Americans use the internet from a cel...Read More   NOKIA continues SMARTPHONE supremacy 29/11/06 Growth in the EMEA smart mobile device market in Q3 rose slightly from the previous quarter, but remains well below the 100%-plus rates seen for most of last year. Nokia remained on top of the smartphone market in Q3, thanks largely through shipments of its consumer-focused Symbian S60 devices. Researchers Canalys gives it a 75%...Read More   Pitching for the mobile community market 29/11/06 Pitch, the UK’s first ad-funded mobile content provider, has launched a new service offering users a fully-interactive entertainment community on their mobile handsets – a kind of MySpace for the mobile.  It features instant messaging, photo and video upload and sharing as well as access to an online commun...Read More   Satnav for Orange Phones 29/11/06 Orange Business Services has launched a GPS navigation application to be downloaded on to a range of mobile devices. Powered by Webraska, a leading provider of GPS navigation solutions, Sat-Nav from Orange can be used when walking, cycling or driving. Maps and live traffic updates are held on a central server and are downlo...Read More   Unique to Grow 29/11/06 Unique Distribution this week announced the acquisition of a new £12.5 million purpose built distribution complex in Hayes Middlesex to facilitate its plans for dramatic future growth.Unique’s investors, Innovative Global Business Group Ltd (IGB), who have a number of businesses in diverse industries including; finan...Read More Jag Communications 29/11/06 says it is struggling to honour customer warranties on BenQ Siemens phones, following the recent insolvency of the handset company in Europe.  Over the last month the company has rapidly built up a stock pile of faulty BenQ phones. None of the major repair centres will take warranty repairs on them; Siemens also confir...Read More   European Mobile Devices 29/11/06 According to IDC’s latest European Mobile Devices Tracker, the Western European mobile phone market grew by 9% year on year in Q3. Shipments reaching 44.1m units compared to 40.5 million units in the corresponding period of 2005....Read More   Vodafone Purge Continues 29/11/06 Vodafone has continued its dramatic purge of the independent channel. Following on the heels of its termination of Carphone Warehouse’s retail contract in October, Vodafone last month cut Fone Logistics’ distribution contract. This announcement supersedes an earlier statement in which Fone Logistics confirmed it had ...Read More Networks blamed for phone faults 29/11/06 New research conducted by Tickbox on behalf of Sicap, a provider of mobile device management, reveals that one in four high-spend consumers in the age range 16-34 would change operators because their handset is faulty – despite saying handset manufacturers are equally to blame when services don’t work. The survey of...Read More Anti-spam option 29/11/06 Mobile messaging solution provider Airwide Solutions has unveiled what it calls “an antidote for the new and growing epidemic of mobile messaging threats”. AirGuard AntiSpam brings “comprehensive” capabilities to SMS messaging networks, allowing operators to protect against fraud, spam and other malware i...Read More Faster keying 29/11/06 AdapTex from KeyPoint Technologies claims to be a “revolutionary” new predictive language app for Windows Mobile devices – improving speed and accuracy for tasks such as email, messaging, mobile blogging and even authoring documents on handheld devices. AdapTex is ‘context aware’ and is constantly l...Read More Oracle apps for Nokia Eseries 29/11/06 Nokia has certified several Oracle mobile enterprise applications for the E61 and E62, including Oracle Mobile Field Service and Oracle’s Siebel Wireless. Certification enables mobile professionals to access these critical business applications via a single mobile device alongside their voice communications – no need...Read More Business IM to boom 29/11/06 The business use of mobile instant messaging will grow to a $2bn-plus market across Western Europe and North America by 2010, says Strategy Analytics, which concludes “Mobile IM will emerge as a valuable real-time data complement to voice, mobile email and SMS”. Overall, Western Europe and North America will have ove...Read More   Vodafone Targets BIG Business Users ... 29/11/06 Vodafone UK has made three announcements that mark a step up in its enterprise mobility capability and lay down a market about its intentions. The company is to acquire Aspective, an IT service provider with core skills in mobilising enterprise applications. It has also bought Isis Telecommunications Management, a provider of c...Read More   Orange search extended with local results 29/11/06 m-spatial and Orange have added new local search functionality on the Orange World mobile portal. Orange Local now includes results from listings of locally relevant businesses and amenities – for example, the search term “music” will return detailed listings of record shops and music venues near the current lo...Read More   More MIO 29/11/06 The latest from Mio Technology is a sub-£170 unit with no obvious compromises. The new C250 includes Tele Atlas maps, seven-digit postcode search, a “huge” points of interest database, and speed camera warnings out-of-the-box with free updates for a year. There’s a 3.5in touch screen, built-in MP3 player ...Read More   Remote Backup - Save Contacts Online 29/11/06 Phones get lost, they also get stolen, but it doesn't mean you have to lose all your mobile data. Two new offerings in remote back-up are now being pushed, O2's "My Bluebook" and Zyb's... erm... Zyb. Everyone's lost a mobile phone, left it in a taxi, at a bar, down the sofa. Many of us have had a phone stolen, not surp...Read More TDC pulls the plug on easyMobile 29/11/06 No-frills prepay service easyMobile handed 80,000 customers to Carphone Warehouse MVNO Fresh Mobile last month, following its sudden closure in the UK.easyGroup terminated its brand licence agreement with TDC, the operators of easyMobile in UK and Germany, last month. In a letter to customers, it said: “Due to a change of ...Read More   EU Slams Ofcom Termination Charges 29/11/06 In a letter to Ofcom, made public this week, the European Commission says that the regulator is keeping termination values higher than necessary due to historical 3G cost valuations. For a telecom operator to deliver an end-to-end call across networks to its retail customers, interconnect agreements have to be established betwee...Read More   Caudwell's Cash Handout 29/11/06 At John Caudwell's farewell party last week five hundred staff enjoyed a little something extra when they received their share of a £3.5million giveaway. After selling his mobile phone empire for £1.46 billion this year, Caudwell threw an end-of-year bash featuring a private performance by pop stars Will Young and Ja...Read More   Sony Ericsson Opens Dedicated Store 29/11/06 Sony Ericsson this week opened its first retail store, located in Kensington High Street, London. The store allows consumers to experience Sony Ericsson products first-hand and learn about new handsets and features from the experts.At street level, 3,500 square feet are dedicated to creating a best-in-class consumer experience, ...Read More   Four New Handsets from Nokia 29/11/06 Nokia have announced four new mobile phones including three mid-range models -- the Nokia 6300, Nokia 6290 and the Nokia 6086 -- as well as the Nokia 2626 targeted to consumers in entry markets.  All four models are expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007.Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President and General Man...Read More   Motofone Clearvision 29/11/06 Motorola have launched a new budget handset, the Motofone, with a revolutionary display using "e-Ink" making it low powered and their thinnest phone yet.  MOTOFONE borrows key elements from Motorola’s existing catalogue and gives them a new twist. Flat keypad, colors, innovative materials and finish processe...Read More   iMate JAQ3 and PDAL 22/11/06 iMate have released two new phones, the JAQ3 successor to the speak'n'spell released earlier this year, and the cunningly named PDAL a Lightweight PDA. The Dubai-based manufacturer of Windows Mobile devices i-mate announced their latest two PocketPC based on the Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3.2. The i-mate JAQ3 is a communicator ...Read More   Fantasy Football - Week 13 22/11/06 This week sees the Webmonkeys drop one spot to third place. They're not very happy about it either. In fact a few words were thrown around the office such as "dinglebats", "funkindigs", and "wonkygoit" [NB: Actual words have been replaced with less offensive made-up substitutes].Scoring the second l...Read More   Orange Data Not Secure 22/11/06 A former employee of Orange has exposed a severe security lapse concerning consumer's personal information and Orange's complete disregard for their customer's bank details. Orange is investigating the claims that a number of staff at one call centre shared the same login details and passwords which would make them complete...Read More   Nokia Leads World Mobile Growth 22/11/06 Sales of mobile phones rose nearly a quarter to 251 million units during Q3 this year with Nokia leading the way capturing 35.1 percent of the market, and just under a billion units expected by the end of 2006.Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 251 million units in the third quarter of 2006, a 21.5 per cent increase from the s...Read More   Profits Tumble for Mobile Telecom Operators 22/11/06 According to a new report mobile telecom operators in the UK have suffered a decline in their profit per customer, with the UK consumers giving the least amount of profit in the whole of Europe. The latest Group 1 Software report (the customer communications specialists) has revealed that Mobile Telecom operators in the UK have ...Read More   Voda: a "Total Comms Provider" 22/11/06 Vodafone UK today announces an exclusive partnership and the acquisition of two companies, as part of its longer-term plan to evolve from a mobile-focused company to a total communications provider.Vodafone UK has signed a conditional contract to acquire Aspective Limited, a respected consultancy and service provider with core s...Read More   Seimens Gets Raided 22/11/06 Police have raided more than 30 offices of the German electronics giant Siemens as well as the homes belonging to some of its top managers in a massive embezzlement investigation.  Two hundred tax inspectors, police officers and investigating magistrates searched sites in the company's headquarters in the southern city of M...Read More   A Mobile Mast in Every Home? 22/11/06 If current trials go well, O2 will look to put a GSM transmitter into the home to enable standard GSM handset users to make VoIP calls when in range of one of their Picocells.  Wi-Fi-based fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solutions require expensive handsets that have so far been plagued by low battery life, call handover iss...Read More   X-Series - Flat Rate Mobile Internet 22/11/06 3 have heralded a new way of doing business for mobile network operators. Their new X-Series allows users to use Skype, Sling, Orb Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger and Google all for one flat rate fee. Using one of two handsets, the SE W950i or the Nokia N73, users will be able to make unlimited calls from their mobile using Skype...Read More   Holy upgrades Batman! - The Sidekick III 22/11/06 This is one Sidekick that doesn't play second-fiddle to anyone. Following the huge success of the Sidekick with our cousins over the pond, the third incarnation of T-Mobile's ultimate communication gadget and exclusive lifestyle accessory will be hitting UK shores next month.Following the huge success, and popularity with high-p...Read More Subscription Complete 20/11/06 Your subscription is now being processed. Make sure you also register as a member of the website to be able to comment on articles and participate in our community forums. Enjoy The Mobile Business Team. ...Read More Mobile Business - Now the most successful FREE Jobs Board 15/11/06 Mobile Business is now the most succesful FREE online jobs board. With more jobs than any other industry site, there's only one place to look for the next step in your career. Click here to View the Latest Jobs  Posting jobs to the Mobile Business Magazine Jobs Board is FREE.Whether a recruitment agency or direct employer, ...Read More   Fantasy Football - Week 12 15/11/06 27, 36, 69 - Three numbers that made the Mobile Business monkey house roar with delight at the weekend. No, they're not winning lottery numbers, they are in fact when the fantastic Didier Drogba scored against Watford, putting the ecstatic WebMonkeys top of the group, or so they thought......if it wasn't for those pesky kids at ...Read More   The World in Your Hand - Asus P535 15/11/06 The new smartphone from Asus is a true office from office running Windows Mobile 5.0, it also boasts a built-in GPS receiver, so no good for ringing the other half from the pub saying you're lost. Everyone wants the true mobility freedom, and never want to get lost. Then they want to use the GPRS to connect to Google Maps and fi...Read More   LG Chocoholics - KE800 15/11/06 LG announced a major update to their famous Chocolate phone lineup featuring a serious face-lift and a heavy improvement of the available equipment.The new LG KE800 takes care of some the drawbacks the original LG Chocolate has in terms of functionality. This new baby would come armed with a spanking new 2 megapixel camera compl...Read More   VAT Reverse Charge Delayed 15/11/06 Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs have put a hold on the December 1st introduction of Reverse Charge accounting due to continued EU discussions about the necessary derogation. Two months ago HMRC gave 1 December 2006 as the planned implementation date for reverse charge accounting for businesses trading in mobile telephones, c...Read More   Transform Dramatically Phones Will 15/11/06 Samsung's research team have been gazing into their crystal balls and looking at what handsets will be like in years to come, seeing 3D holographic displays that wouldn't look out of place in Star Wars. Handsets will evolve dramatically over the next few years, a Samsung R&D exec has said, including faster and more powerful ...Read More   Mainline invests to increase service to dealers 15/11/06 Mainline Digital Communications has announced plans to invest heavily in a restructuring of its field-based operations and enhance the level of support it provides to its customers.After its most successful year on record, the company is looking to consolidate and develop its position as Orange’s leading distributor to the...Read More   The future of TV will be personal 15/11/06 Personalisation and interactivity will be the key drivers of mobile TV according to a new report commissioned by Nokia and the London School of Economics. The report, by Dr Shani Orgad from the London School of Economics and titled 'This Box Was Made For Walking', examines the future impact of mobile TV on the broadcasting and a...Read More   On track Voda lose £3.3bn 15/11/06 This week saw Vodafone report half-yearly losses of £3.3bn due to "competitive pressures", yet are on track to meet key targets for the full year. A spokesman said: 'The carrying value of goodwill of the Group's operations in Germany and Italy, with each representing a reportable segment, has been impaired follow...Read More   Mobiles Not So Easy 15/11/06 Stelios has discovered that the UK mobile industry is in fact quite difficult, and his mobile arm EasyMobile is closing down in the next few weeks. easyMobile.com in the UK was set up as a partnership between TDC (the telecom company from Denmark) and easyGroup (Stelios' investment vehicle). Due to a change of strategy at TDC, T...Read More   Vodafone Says Yahoo! to Mobile Ads 15/11/06 Vodafone has signed an exclusive advertising deal with Yahoo! where the internet portal will be the sole supplier of advertising on Voda's mobile content. Under the deal, Yahoo! will become Vodafone's exclusive display advertising partner in the United Kingdom, providing a variety of mobile advertising formats across Vodafone's ...Read More   SHIFTING THE VAT OBLIGATION 15/11/06 It looks as though the EU will ratify the UK’s proposed ‘reverse charge’ VAT regime on mobile phones and some other electronic goods. If so, the new rules could come apply from as soon as 1 December. Time for a refresher course …What’s the problem?Carousel fraud is costing the taxman a lot of money...Read More   Head to Head 15/11/06 QWERTY on WindowsPALM Treo 750v V HTC S620PALM Treo 750vSPECIFICATIONSizeLength 111mmWidth 58mmDepth 22mm Weight154gMain displayTFT touchscreen, 64K colours, 240x240 pixels, 50x37mm Camera1.3mp, 1280x1024 pixels, videoConnectivity3G, quadband GSM, Bluetooth 1.2, IR, USB Memory64MB user memory plus miniSD memory card slotBatteryS...Read More   T-MOBILE MDA VARIO II 09/11/06 The MDA Vario II is basically the Vario with go-faster goodies under the hood. So it’s a Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone with clever slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Inside there’s a beefy 400MHz Samsung CPU; the display is a 2.8in 240x320 LCD touchscreen that changes orientation with impressive speed and smoothness dep...Read More   NOKIA E50 09/11/06 Here’s another Series 60 Symbian 9.1 smartphone from Nokia, aimed squarely at the business market and probably destined to take over from the 6230i. It’s compact, ergonomically styled, and has most of the connectivity you want – quadband GSM for international use, EDGE, Bluetooth, USB – plus useful e...Read More   SONY ERICSSON W950i 09/11/06 The Sony Ericsson W950 is an exciting new addition to the Walkman line. It is a genuine 3G smartphone based on the Symbian 9.1 UIQ 3.0 with a stylish and yet classical design. The large touchscreen TFT display with QVGA resolution is yet another fascinating feature for the nerd market, but it’s pretty stunning for the aver...Read More   SAMSUNG D900 09/11/06 Samsung lowers the limbo-dance bar again – here’s the slimmest slider on the market, just 12.9mm thick when closed. The styling is good, though maybe not as slick and smooth as the D600; the keyboard is as comfortable as you’d expect from this maker, there’s a brilliant QVGA display, and the phone is...Read More   SAGEM MY501c 09/11/06 Sagem is working hard at making sound low-end prepay-oriented handsets, and the my501c is the best of the recent crop of releases. It looks pretty good in a Samsung/Sony Ericsson circa 2005 kind of way, a solid clamshell with smart grey and silver packaging, compact dimensions and a good feel in the hand. Inside the keypad is ba...Read More   T-MOBILE MDA III: 09/11/06 due Q1 2007HTC already has its Artemis design available under the name HTC P3300, but T-Mobile isn’t far behind with its branded version of the same Windows Mobile smartphone – in fact it’s already available in Germany, as you can see here. It features quad-band GSM plus EDGE and WiFi, 2mp camera, and an i...Read More   Nokia 5300: 09/11/06 due Q4 2006Nokia seems to have gone overboard in playing catch-up on sliders just now. The 5300, and a similar-looking but notably cut-down version called the 5200, are sliders that get the XpressMusic label and some clever dedicated multimedia keys. The spec is ok without being too thrilling – 1.3mp camera with 8x di...Read More   SAMSUNG X830: 09/11/06 due Q4 2006This little stunner is a real fashion phone – slim, stylish, two rows of keytops rather than three, some very funky colour options, weighs only 74g – plus a very capable MP3 player,... thanks in no small part to 1GB of memory and a ‘music library’ feature for organising tracks. Sounds a bi...Read More   NOKIA N75: 09/11/06 due Q4Nokia’s smallest Nseries smartphone packs a lot into a small, flat, flip phone package. Highlights include a great 320x240 QVGA display that does 16m colours,... a 2mp camera with video recording (at 15fps) and landscape mode playback for photos and videos, and a full complement of connectivity options – W...Read More   KG KU800: 09/11/06 due Q4The LG KU800 is basically an update of the well-liked and big-selling KG800 Chocolate phone with 3G support, a microSD memory card slot, an improved 2mp camera and a better battery (1050 mAh instead of 800 mAh). It comes with the same touch-sensitive navigation keypad but has slightly larger dimensions and a sliver ba...Read More   Sony Ericsson K320i : 09/11/06 due Nov 2006This one has Automatic Bluetooth pairing, PC synchronisation and support for push email; as something for the weekend it offers a camera with 4x digital zoom (though it’s only VGA resolution) and a fully-specified media player (though not the full Walkman spec) for music and video playback. Looks like a bi...Read More   Motorola H300 Bluetooth Headset 09/11/06 UD Price: from £18The Motorola H300 Bluetooth Headset promises lengthy talk times, excellent audio and a lightweight form. Powered by one AAA battery, this headset is designed for people always on-the-go who need to communicate wherever, whenever – providing a remarkable 30 hours of talk time from one single battery....Read More   Parrot CK3100 Handsfree Car Kit 09/11/06 UD Price: from £69 *SPECIAL PRICE* (Only available from Unique Accessories)If you’re looking for a comprehensive car kit which will stay up to date with its universal compatibility and not cost the earth then meet the CK3100. Start your engine and the kit immediately connects to your mobile phone via Bluetooth a...Read More   Nokia HS-69 09/11/06 Display HeadsetUD Price: from £25Take calls and listen to music without touching your phone using the Nokia Display Headset.This neat headset consists of stereo headphones and a single-line LCD display that gives you all the information you need to know about who’s calling or what song is playing—without taking...Read More   Nokia BH-801 09/11/06 Bluetooth HeadsetUD Price: from £55The classy look of the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-801 reflects its high quality and innovative design approach.Delicately simple, it connects to your phone via Bluetooth wireless technology and comes with an elegant neck strap and practical belt clip for keeping it handy when not in use. ...Read More   Nokia CR-71 09/11/06 Mobile HolderUD Price: from £25The CR-71 comes in the new stylish Nokia design that will complement the popular and recently launched Nokia 6151. It charges the phone’s battery when placed in the holder and features an integrated antenna coupler that allows connection to an external antenna for enhanced receptio...Read More   Nokia MD-4 09/11/06 Mini SpeakersUD Price: from £30This foldable mini speaker set brings you up to 30 hours of fantastic sound powered by four AAA batteries. Just connect your compatible phone and jam to your downloaded tracks or FM radio. Small enough to fit in your pocket this novel product produces great sound quality in a compact design....Read More   Nokia BH-207 Bluetooth Headset 09/11/06 UD Price: from £20There’s nothing standard about this headset – only the price. If you are looking for a stylish, unobtrusive classic look at a great low price then the Nokia BH-207 should make an illustrious choice. With an impressive battery life, easy to use call handling buttons and an adjustable earho...Read More   Nokia HS-81 09/11/06 Stereo HeadsetUD Price: from £21Finally, a handsfree headset that's every bit as hi-fidelity as your dedicated home system headphones. These stylish, neckband-style headphones have large earpads and boast high performance Sennheiser stereo sound. There's also a microphone and answer button for easy handsfree use. Powerful ...Read More   Nokia's Mobile TV - The N92 08/11/06 Following successful DVB-H trials in Sweden Nokia are now ready to release their mobile TV offering. Not one to follow the pack, Nokia release the world's first integrated DVB-H mobile device.The Nokia N92 has four different modes for simple and easy usage. The new view mode is especially designed for watching TV and video. To s...Read More   NTL: Telewest Becomes Virgin 08/11/06 Following their acquisition of Virgin Mobile, NTL: Telewest will be rebranding the business to Virgin Media sometime during the first quarter of 2007. As well as bringing their 'quadplay' of broadband, mobile and home phone and digital TV under one banner, there are big changes going on behind the scenes as well with the focus o...Read More   YES: we’re not a distributor 08/11/06 Keith Curran, MD & Co-founder of Yes Telecom talks exclusively with Mobile Business Magazine on how ‘Distribution’ is not in his vocabulary and the inside track on what it takes to add value in networks route to market, pinpointing the year when churn was born.Keith, one of the founding fathers of the independent...Read More   Don't Leave Home Without it - LG KE820 08/11/06 LG Mobile has launched their new LG KE820 and successor of the KG320. At 9.9 mm deep and only weighing 73 grams, the KE820 looks like a streamlined and technologically packed credit card.Aimed at young, fashion conscious professionals, the KE820 features everything you'd expect in a hi-spec handset, but with the now trademark bl...Read More   Tesco Value Mobile 08/11/06 From today Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket, will be selling the new Tovo, another offering in the VoIP/mobile market, from Mobiboo, hoping to save consumers an average of 30% on their mobile charges and up to 50% on fixed line charges.The new Mobiboo offerings are the tovo t450g PocketFone and the tovo t1000 HomeFone Plus. B...Read More   Mile High Mobiles 08/11/06 The Dubai-based Emirates will become the first to allow mobile calls to made in-flight. As early as January next year, the airline will have the technology to allow calls to made safely. Calls will be charged at rates "comparable to international tariffs", and Aeromobile, the company providing the necessary technology ...Read More What makes a business phone? 08/11/06 When selecting these handsets, we looked for a number of features:• Performance, reliability and usability. A business handset gets a lot of use; we gave extra points for build quality, good battery life, and a sound  user interface. • Connectivity, and especially speed of connection. Not everyone needs high-speed...Read More   Sony ricsson M600i 08/11/06 O2, T-Mobile, VodafonePLUS• Symbian UIQ smartphone user interface works well• Generous 240x320 TFT touchscreen• 80MB shared memory plus 64MB on M2 card included • Scrolling is brilliant – via scrolling wheel, touchscreen, back button • Good email and (especially) web performance. QWERTY keys doubl...Read More   RIM Blackberry 8700g 08/11/06 O2, Orange, T-Mobile, VodafonePLUS• Update of the familiar BlackBerry design retaining all the good bits (classic push email, large screen, good QWERTY keyboard, jog dial)• Lightweight, considering the 35-key keypad• Excellent call quality • Superfast email delivery MINUS • All software and email setup h...Read More   RIM Blackberry 8100 Pearl 08/11/06 O2, Orange, VodafonePLUS• Styling: nice weight, good feel, fits in a pocket, and still does all the BlackBerry things• Decent extras – built-in mapping for contacts (no GPS though), scrollwheel replaced by a trackball, lots of clever shortcuts• Excellent call and audio quality MINUS • 20-button keyboard...Read More   Palm Treo 750v 08/11/06 VodafonePLUS• Windows Mobile 5.0 including integrated Direct Push Email• Good ideas include mute switch on top of phone, on-screen VCR-like icons for voicemail, quick text message facility (eg “Can’t talk now”), SMS ‘chat’ threading• Excellent call performance and audio quality •...Read More   Orange SPV C600 08/11/06 OrangePLUS• Another compact Windows Mobile 5 smartphone from HTC• Quad-band GSM with EDGE support• USB charging, standard 2.5mm headphone jack • Memory card provided (though only 32MB) MINUS • No 3G or WiFi • Joystick a bit uncomfortable to use, sticks up too far and can inadvertently be pressed to ...Read More   O2 XDA IQ 08/11/06 O2PLUS• Windows Mobile 5 smartphone capability in a compact, lightweight package• WiFi and EDGE support• Good 240x320 display • Smooth synchronisation, fast phonebook, good email client and internet browser MINUS • No 3G • Sometimes slow to react •  Memory card sited awkwardly under the...Read More   Nokia 6233 08/11/06 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone (branded as 6234)PLUS• 3G and EDGE support • Impressively comfortable keypad and navigation• Solid metallic body, good build quality • MP3 player and stereo FM radio • 2mp camera, with video recording at VGA resolution MINUS • Camera would be better front-mounted f...Read More   Nokia N70 08/11/06 O2, Orange, T-Mobile, VodafonePLUS• Attractive design, high-quality construction • Good keypad • Solid Symbian OS and Nokia PC Suite • Good 2mp camera, second video-call camera, built-in radio • 3G support and video calls MINUS • Bulky, heavy • Shows fingerprints easily • Memory card co...Read More   Nokia E70 08/11/06 O2, VodafonePLUS• Nifty fold-out QWERTY keypad• 2mp camera (the only one on the Eseries)• 3G and HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth • Excellent 352x416 16m-colours display • Very good video recording, with smooth digital zoom • Blackberry connectivity MINUS • Heavy for its size(127g) • Screen orien...Read More   Nokia E61 08/11/06 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, VodafonePLUS• Superb 2.8in 320x240 display• Wedge shape looks odd but sits well in the hand• 3G and HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth • Packed with useful business apps, plus ActiveSync and Blackberry Connect for push email MINUS • Not good for touch-typing (but perfectly ok for thumbing) &...Read More   Nokia E50 08/11/06 VodafonePLUS• Looks and feels the business: compact, slim, light enough at 104g, comfortable to use• Good, fast user interface  (Symbian 9.1 Series 60)• Decent 1.3mp camera, though  only on E50-1 model • 70MB internal memory plus  microSD slot MINUS • Coarse joystick • Conservative (i...Read More   HTC TyTN 08/11/06 O2, Orange, T-Mobile (via own brands)PLUS• Connectivity: 3G and HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth• Windows Mobile 5 with usual apps and extras• Good build quality • Slide-out keyboardMINUS • It’s a bit of a brick (176g) • Difficult to use as a conventional phone WE SAY Aka Qtek 9600, i-Mate JasJam, O2 XD...Read More   FTI Traders Meeting 08/11/06 Next Monday, November 13th the Federation of Technological Industries will be holding a meeting to discuss problems in the industry, and how HMRC have subjected the majority of repayment trader’s claims to extended verification a policy, according to the FTi, invented to "destroy the industry". Monday Nov...Read More   QUESTIONS and Answers 08/11/06 The mobile business industry panel tackles topical issuesOne in three people say they have hung on to at least one redundant (often SIM-free) phone. What can we as industry do to encourage recycling? Parven, Fone Logistics: Initially, the issue of handset recycling must be made more visible and by virtue, more attractive a ...Read More   SCRATCHING THE SURFACE: 08/11/06 ARE WE Practising what we preach?Ben King of WIN argues that we should lead from the front whenit comes to using mobile for customer communications.Every day we talk with financial service providers, insurers, logistics companies, government agencies and utilities companies about the tremendous cost, operational and service bene...Read More   high-speed mobile data... 08/11/06 what’s it really for?In the alphabet-soup battle to establish a dominant wireless technology for data, HSDPA looks well placed to emerge as the leading standard. But despite what the networks are saying, Duncan Ellison believes that business and not consumers will drive uptake.The battle to control technologies designed to...Read More   Fantasy Football - Week 11 08/11/06 12 points. It's not a lot. It's less than winning a serve in tennis. It's a steak & kidney pie on Weight Watchers. It's racing through four speed cameras. It's also what separates first and second place. Read on to see how the league sits, and irrefutable proof that aliens exist. Nishil Patel's Ace999, the team everyone love...Read More   Offensive Messaging... 08/11/06 only a matter of timeThe Law Lords have been thinking about what “grossly offensive” means, and that will have repercussions for the mobile business – the police say they’re prepared to prosecute text message senders under the Communications Act 2003, says Anne Mizzi.The highest court in the land has, for...Read More   FAISAL says ... what dealers want 08/11/06 FAISAL says ... what dealers wantFaisal Sheik, Average Dealer and king of the Mobile Business Dealer forum, just wants a level playing field for the independents and the chance to make lots of money.  A big thank you to Orange! They’ve really inspired me of late, given me a renewed sense of determination. Let me expla...Read More   One for Chas (or Dave)... 08/11/06 but everyone else will want a Sony Ericsson W850i tooThe Don takes one step further in mobile music evolution, or rather he would have if he’s been reading the promotional blurb for the W850i. He’s more interested in whether Sony Ericsson has translated its candybar build quality into the slider format, where those i...Read More   Viral marketing 08/11/06 A message from someone you know is likely to be more credible than a similar message from a company. That is the basis of viral marketing; it is a way of encouraging your contacts to do your marketing for you. Viral marketing usually refers to Internet-based marketing campaigns designed to create word of mouth for a new product ...Read More   Vodafone Cuts Another Big Name 08/11/06 Vodafone have been at it again, this time vowing to cut off Sony Ericsson. The world's second largest network will not be supplying Sony Ericsson phones within the next five years. Earlier this week Vodafone announced it's agreement with Microsoft that Windows Mobile 5.0 is one of the three handset operating systems Voda will be...Read More   First GPS for Women launches 07/11/06 Mio Technology just announced the launch of the Mio H610, the first GPS device designed especially for women. With a 2.7 inch touch screen and interchangeable covers the H610 hopes to take GPS out of the car and into the handbag.It provides users with full GPS and multi-media player functionality including games to help users pa...Read More   John Harber -Sony Ericsson 02/11/06 Hard evidence that there’s life after the call centre: John Harber owes his single-company career to a vacation job at a Sony call centre in his student days. Fifteen years on, he’s UK MD at Sony Ericsson – a self-confessed gadget fan, hater of dummy phones, and enthusiast for independent retail ...Successful c...Read More   JAMES TELFORD - DATA SELECT 02/11/06 NominationJames has taken the time to find out exactly how our business works and has tailored a whole service to meet the needs of our clients. Every detail  is covered, even  down to organising product training for our handlers!  All in all, JT is like a colleague rather than a supplier ... Jason Morrison,...Read More   Competition 02/11/06 EASY-TO-WIN COMPETITIONProject your athletic side for a truly active mobile lifestyle with the Nokia 5500 Sport. Maximize your performance by keeping your  communication flowing and momentum going at the same time.It’s all designed for a sporty lifestyle.FEATURES• Instant Swap key for easy one-key switching betwe...Read More   What are the networks looking for and what does the future hold? 01/11/06 With Vodafone terminating Fone Logistics contract today and seemingly looking to further ‘stream line’ its distribution we spoke to Andrew Smith, CEO at Anglia Telecom, one of the four distributors Vodafone has left, about what the networks are really looking for and how distributors need to respond…Andrew Smi...Read More   Vodafone Severs Fone Logistics 01/11/06 Just a couple of weeks after Carphone got the chop Vodafone have got their distribution scissors out again and cut out another partner, this time Fone Logistics have fallen victim.Vodafone announced today that they have served notice on Fone Logistics, and they will sell their last phone in a month. This leaves only Anglia, Aven...Read More   FCIB - Deuss Held for Further 2 weeks 01/11/06 John Deuss, owner of First Curaçao International Bank, is to be held in custody for two weeks following his arrest for his alleged part in carousel fraud. Prosecutors froze FCIB’s assets last month on suspicion that hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal tax gains had been stashed in accounts there by fraudulent...Read More   Voda's Mates Rate - Free! 01/11/06 Today sees the launch of Vodafone's new mate's rate tariff, or as they like to call it the Vodafone Family Tariff (which brings sickening visions of matching wooly jumpers, walks in the park, and mugs of horlicks). From today for as little as £5 per month Vodafone customers will be able to nominate groups of 4 or 6 people ...Read More   57 years for Carousel Quartet 01/11/06 HM Revenue & Customs scored an important prosecution this week with the conviction of four men guilty of £10m worth of carousel VAT fraud. The fraudsters were sentenced to a total of 57 years in jail on Friday after being found guilty earlier this week of evading £10 million in VAT and the laundering of the proce...Read More   Samsung Says it with Flowers 01/11/06 Keen to jump on the girly phone bandwagon started by Nokia's L'amour series, Samsung have themselves released a set of handsets aimed at the fairer sex, Le Fleur (why always French?). First up is the E570, similar in design to the clamshell E530, except this comes in a silky pink and silver combination. The handset also has a fl...Read More   Nokia's Rockin’ Accessories 01/11/06 Nokia aims to sell 80 million music enabled devices in 2006, making them the world’s largest manufacturer of digital music players taking No1 spot from a certain fruity company. So it makes sense that they're now releasing a bunch of different headphones and speakers to enable consumers to annoy people on the bus. Nokia St...Read More   Motorola SLVR - NW N IMPRVD 01/11/06 Motorola have released the updated version of the L7 with the L7e. Although it would appear at first that most of their time and effort has gone into choosing the model number, things have changed with the handset too. It's now blue......and not just any blue... metallic blue.  Wait, there's more.The SLVR L7e has also had a...Read More   Motorola Wants Sagem as Handset Impregnates Woman 01/11/06 Following last week's news that mobiles make men sterile, a woman gives birth after 13 years thanks to a mobile phone, and now Motorola are interested in buying out the company that made the handset - Sagem. Karen Donelan has spent the past 13 years and over £20000 on IVF and alternative treatments such as acupuncture, Chi...Read More   Mobile GPS - the way forward 01/11/06 Manufacturers must believe that consumers spend much of their time getting lost, and are therefore introducing users to the world of SatNav. Both Orange and Nokia have released GPS solutions this week in separate bids to put nagging female voices in cars (as if they weren't there already). Nokia's answer, the 330, is a standalon...Read More   Fantasy Football - Week 10 01/11/06 "Oooh aah eeeeh ooohooh aah aah!" For those who don't speak primate, that's monkey talk for "We're back on form and going for number one!" and comes as our very WebMonkeys recover from an appalling week to jump back into second spot. That's right fantasy football fans, the soccer-loving simians pulled out all...Read More Sperms hate mobiles 01/11/06 Men who use mobile phones for more than four hours a day showed a 30% drop in sperm motility and viability, according to research by American scientists....Read More More mobile security 01/11/06 Mobile data security products will be incorporated in almost 250m handsets by 2011, says Juniper Research....Read More Vodafone centralises logistics 01/11/06 Vodafone UK and Unipart Technology Logistics have announced joint investment in a Nuneaton facility to handle logistics, returns and repairs for Vodafone’s 340-plus retail stores and customers. It brings all those functions under one roof as part of a new ten-year deal between the partners....Read More MacLeod leaves Orange 01/11/06 Orange VP of business services Alastair MacLeod has left the network for a job outside the industry. He will be replaced by Cynthia Gordon, VP of marketing for the Orange Group since 2003. ...Read More 3 stomps on cashback constraints 01/11/06 3 has banned the use of unreasonably prohibitive restrictions imposed by some dealers on customers who try to claim cashbacks. ...Read More 12m Windows phones in 2006 01/11/06 This year Microsoft aims to double the number of mobile phones running Windows from 6m at the end of 2005, said Peter Knook, head of Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Devices division....Read More O2 has cheap Spanish roaming 01/11/06 O2 has the cheapest roaming deal available in Europe – pay £5 per month to get a flat 25p per minute for roaming in Spain (other countries to follow later). The offer is restricted to contract users. ...Read More Avenir gets O2 Advance accreditation 01/11/06 Avenir Telecom is the first distributor to be accepted on to the prestigious O2 Advance programme, which was extended to distributors in July 2006. Acceptance gives Avenir the opportunity to extend its trading terms from 30 days to six months; it also includes funding for marketing activity, branded marketing materials, business...Read More   VODAFONE PLAYS HARDBALL ... 01/11/06 ...WITH CARPHONE WAREHOUSEVodafone’s decision to quit Carphone Warehouse’s contract sales, and put all its independent retail subscription business through rival chain Phones 4U,... is a bombshell for the indirect channel and marks a key stage in the ongoing power struggle between the big networks and the powerful hi...Read More Padley goes global 01/11/06 Sony Ericsson UK head of marketing Ben Padley has been promoted to a global role as director of global product marketing. He has been tasked with repeating the marketing success in the UK of the Walkman and Cyber-shot brands in the global market....Read More Vodafone wants 10% of sales... 01/11/06 Vodafone wants 10% of sales from non-mobile sources At a recent analyst briefing, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said the mobile phone operator is committed to gaining 10% of total revenue from fixed-line Internet, office and home communication services “within three to four years”. ...Read More ... LG gets Fraser 01/11/06 LG Mobile is strengthening its team with a couple of important hires – Steve Fraser joins as Head of Retail and Distribution for Mobile Comms, Gary Venn arrives to co-ordinate above the line marketing activity and channel marketing. Gary previously worked as Trading Manager Communications for the Dixons Stores Group, ...Read More Vodafone loses content head Ferguson ... 01/11/06 Vodafone’s global head of content development Graeme Ferguson has left the company. Ferguson was instrumental in the creation of the operator’s mobile TV and games services; his departure comes amid a mammoth restructuring of Vodafone’s UK-based global marketing division that will see around 200 of the departme...Read More n Caudwell sale completed 01/11/06 Caudwell Group has completed its £1.46bn sale to a pair of private equity firms. As previously indicated, Doughty Hanson will retain the 20:20 part (including Dextra, MPRC and 4u Airtime Distribution) while Providence Equity Partners gets the Phones4U retail arm....Read More   FIVE YEARS FOR SONY ERICSSON 01/11/06 Sony Ericsson has followed its fifth birthday and the announcement of bumper Q3 results with the opening of a retail outlet in central London and a flurry of marketing activity.Sony Ericsson posted pretax earnings of e433m for Q3, up 187% on the same period last year, and profits of e222m, a hike of e282m compared with the same ...Read More   JAG EXPANDS 01/11/06 The Jag Communications retail chain is set to expand with several new stores promised. A new outlet in Port Talbot supplements the seven existing Jag stores in South Wales. Said MD John George: “We have been consolidating our position in the market since purchasing the KJC outlets last year but after having a stunning...Read More GSM Association 01/11/06 The GSM Association’s Development Fund has developed a mobile app with Voxiva Inc that will make it much easier for health authorities and governments to track and manage the spread of HIV/AIDS, Avian Flu and other diseases. Health workers in the field can use their handsets to submit data directly to Voxiva’s Health...Read More   WAYFINDER MAKES TOP 01/11/06 The Wayfinder Navigator mobile software produced by Wayfinder Systems AB has come in first out of ten leading software companies in the ABI Research – European Aftermarket Navigation Vendor Matrix. TomTom and Alturion followed suit in second and third place.ABI Research assesses vendors on “innovation” and &ldq...Read More   Parrot 01/11/06 Parrot, which regards itself as the market leader in Bluetooth in-car communication technology, is to provide Renault with an exclusively developed handsfree communications kit.It will allow phonebook, call logs and contact details to be displayed on the built-in dashboard screen; there’s also an automatic safety call-hold...Read More   MDA Compact II 01/11/06 A colour-coded version of MDA Compact II bundled with ALK’s excellent CoPilot satellite navigation service offers a chic metallic pink for the ladies and a manly graphite for the rest of the populace. The Compact II is a quad-band touch-screen Windows Mobile 5 smartphone, and effectively the CoPilot (complete with separate...Read More   MULTIMAP EXTENDS WITH 2ERGO 01/11/06 Multimap has linked up with 2ergo “to further mobilise its range of business-to-business solutions”. Multimap is the European market leader for mapping and chairman Sean Phelan said...“We see the mobile channel as a key part of our integrated mapping services”. 2ergo will be helping to create a set of app...Read More CPW to auction phones 01/11/06 Carphone Warehouse has launched an online auction site specifically for mobile phones. Mymobileauction.com will take on the likes of eBay as the preferred way for people to sell their old handsets....Read More Vodafone gives it away 01/11/06 Vodafone’s main charitable operation, the Vodafone Foundation, has announced support for a couple of good causes – a new online resource for Special Education Needs teachers at the National Portrait Gallery, a mobile-phone based tele-mentoring project in a sixth form college,... and a five-year programme with the Uni...Read More Love lines 01/11/06 Apparently our mobile habits can give early pointers to the outcome of our intimate relationships. A survey of 1,000 single people by dating service PARSHIP.co.uk suggests 60% of casual daters use text to arrange their first meeting,...whereas voice calls were the choice of over 67% of people looking for a serious relationship. ...Read More Live Search for Nokia 01/11/06 Nokia is to integrate Microsoft’s Live Search capabilities into its Nseries handsets and other compatible Symbian 60 devices. Live Search will provide advanced web search results in 14 languages, as well as access to information such as stock quotes, movie times, and common facts (via Encarta Instant Answers, but only in c...Read More HTC and O2 split up 01/11/06 O2 and HTC appear to have parted company. HTC has been O2’s principal smartphone supplier, but it seems O2 will be looking elsewhere to source future branded Windows Mobile phones. HTC is also the major supplier of such phones to T-Mobile and Orange, among others....Read More ORANGE DISNEY 01/11/06 Disney may have canned its plans for an MVNO launch in the UK, but we won’t be denied the quality programming it might have brought – Orange has signed a deal with the Disney Channel that will see kids’ content available in 65-120 minute programming loops on Orange mobile phones in the UK and most other Europea...Read More   MOBILE BUSINESS Q3 roundup 01/11/06 • Nokia Sales E10.1bn, up 20%. Net earnings down 4% to E845m – “restructuring costs”. 88.5m devices shipped, 33% more than a year ago... Average handset fell to E93 compared to E102 last year. • Motorola Sales $10.6bn, up 17%. Earnings fell 45% year-on-year to $968m – “sales weaker th...Read More   BYE BYE BENQ 01/11/06 BenQ Mobile UK has filed for insolvency, 18 days after its Taiwanese owner withdrew support for BenQ Mobile GmbH. At the time the UK operation was expected to survive, and a spokesperson told us: “It’s business as usual for us, as the UK office is a separate legal entity … The closure in Germany means that Ben...Read More   BLUETOOTH ON YOUR WRIST 01/11/06 Avenir Telecom has become the mobile market’s sole distributor for the Abacus MobileWear Wristwatch – what it calls “the first mainstream Bluetooth fashion accessory”. Developed by Fossil, who also provided the technology for Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming entry in the Bluetooth watch market, the watch...Read More   BLACKBERRY-LIKE EMAIL FOR SMES 01/11/06 inHand is a BlackBerry-like application that works on any mobile phone and doesn’t require expensive and complex server hardware and software.It is available now online from www.myinhand.com, and inVue Ltd says it will “soon” be available from retailers. inHand claims to offer complete wireless access to busine...Read More   Dnt b wstfl 01/11/06 ‘Dnt b wstfl, text WASTE to 88058’ is the call to action on posters around the land. The campaign, developed by Envirowise in partnership with mobile marketing agency Incentivated, is aimed at businesses; it provides the user with a direct link on their mobile phone to a specially designed savings calculator, accessi...Read More   PICSEL FOR ALL 01/11/06 Picsel Technologies is best known for its very clever document reading applications for mobiles, notably on Samsungs. Now it is making its Proviewer app available direct to consumers: the software runs on Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices and supports native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, PDF, plain text and image ...Read More HIGH COST KILL 3G APPEAL 01/11/06 HIGH COST AND AWKWARD PRICE PLANS KILL 3G APPEALDespite mobile phone providers’ best efforts to recruit 3G customers, third generation technology remains a low priority for mobile users across the globe – and cost is the overriding factor. The annual Global Technology Insight (GTI) study by market information company...Read More Gaydar 01/11/06 Europe’s leading gay media site Gaydar is to launch a new gay mobile dating service. Mobestar will be developing the technology platform....Read More Russell Buckley 01/11/06 And AdMob has just appointed top mobile advertising expert and blogger Russell Buckley as MD for Europe, following his consultancy in setting up European operations....Read More AdMob, 01/11/06 the mobile advertising market firm whose clients include eBay and Nokia, has achieved 300m mobile pages views per month. It’s a major milestone for the mobile advertising market:...now with as little as $10 even the smallest of advertisers can take advantage of this network and generate results. With the further addition o...Read More Mobile TV Technology 01/11/06 Orange, Telefonica (O2), 3 and Vodafone have teamed up to trial a mobile TV technology called TDtv in Bristol. This will be the fourth different standard for broadcast mobile TV to get an outing; it runs on existing 3G spectrum without affecting the core voice and data traffic. Content and software are coming from MobiTV, which ...Read More Music Awards 2006 01/11/06 The big winners at the BT Digital Music Awards 2006 were Muse and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, both of whom walked away with two prizes. Other winners included Lily Allen for Best Pop Artist, McFly for Best Official Website, NME for Best Music Magazine, MySpace for Best Innovation and London Elektricity for Best Podcast....Read More Mobile Entertainment Forum 01/11/06 Former ICSTIS policy advisor Suhail Bhat has joined the Mobile Entertainment Forum in the new role of Policy and Initiatives Director. He will be responsible for driving policy on issues affecting the global mobile entertainment industry and managing all MEF global initiatives to advance member interests and the industry’s...Read More   All-Purpose Payments Platform 01/11/06 Valista, a leader in multi-channel payments and merchandising software, has announced the latest release of PaymentsPlus. This is claimed to be the first payments platform that supports any type of mobile, Internet and broadcast content service including direct-to-bill, premium SMS, credit/debit cards, Person-to-Person payments,...Read More   ITV 01/11/06 ITV has appointed Melissa Goodwin from Fremantle to head up the company’s mobile operations. Last month, ITV announced a deal with 3 to stream TV content to mobile handsets in the UK. The contract, exclusive for six months, claims to be the UK’s first live streamed terrestrial mobile channel, reaching more than 89% o...Read More Over-the-air firmware updating... 01/11/06 will be available for 50% of all handsets sold globally in 2008, says ARCchart. It should allow operators to install new revenue channels by updating their customers’ handsets with new features and mobile services, post sale....Read More Femtocell Access Points 01/11/06 In 2011, shipments of dual-mode (mobile-plus-VoIP) handsets will top 300m worldwide, says ABI Research, but there’s a wild card in the anticipated arrival of femtocell access points towards the end of the forecast period – WiFi enabled handsets may have to compete with the new, small base stations designed for reside...Read More Operator-Branded Handsets 01/11/06 Some 54m private operator-branded handsets will be shipped worldwide by the end of 2006, representing more than 5% of total handset shipments. Their sale to subscribers will generate $8.7bn for the operators. By 2011 the total will top 127m handsets, says ABI Research....Read More total number of mobile subscribers 01/11/06 Globally, the mobile industry continues to enjoy strong growth, says Portio Research. The total number of mobile subscribers worldwide at the end of 2005 was 2.13bn, an increase of 374m over the year. This figure is expected to increase to approximately 4bn by the end of 2011; worldwide mobile phone penetration should pass the 5...Read More Bundled pricing... 01/11/06 is a powerful technique for driving mobile voice usage and kick-starting much-needed new revenue from mobile data services, according to an Analysys report. ‘Bundles can encourage users to adopt and use more data services than they would if the services were purchased individually,’ says the report. And ‘a part...Read More Ringtone Sales 01/11/06 Research by MusicAlly has UK ringtone sales growing from £34.8m in 2000 to £177.3m in 2005, but predicts that this year will see a fall to £143.5m and £78.8m by 2007....Read More   END OF THE HANDSET BOOM... 01/11/06 SAYS INFORMA2006 will be the last year of massive overall worldwide growth in mobile handset sales according to Informa Telecoms & Media.Informa says that global handset sales will rise from 814.4m at the end of 2005 to 1.26bn by 2011, but growth will slow ‘dramatically’ from 2007 on. ‘Handset manufacturers...Read More   BATTERY LIFE MATTERS 01/11/06 Poor battery performance in mobile handsets may hinder the uptake of emerging media services by consumers, reports IMS Research. Operators and handset manufacturers are both counting on multimedia applications such as mobile TV, MP3 players and satnav to drive data services and ARPU. However, studies have consistently shown that...Read More SMS WORKS WITH ADS 01/11/06 SMS seems to work as a response medium for adverts. Across the five countries for which it measures mobile content consumption,... M:Metrics found that monthly use of text message shortcodes in response to ads was as high as 29.1% of mobile subscribers in its August tests. That percentage of respondents was counted in Spain...Read More   VODAFONE GOES FOR SME MARKET 01/11/06 Inspired by its own research showing that just under 33% of the UK population is considering setting up a business in the next five years, Vodafone is promoting a package of products and services aimed at the very small enterprise.The new Small Business Plan starts at just £22 per month and claims to let small businesses d...Read More   O2 Jet 01/11/06 It may not look too exciting, but the O2 Jet could be the 6230i-type workhorse of business users for the next few months – with over 540 hours on standby and 9.9 hours of talk-time,...the O2 Jet beats the nearest leading competitor device by over 67% (and it has more than double the talktime of the 6230i, currently the mos...Read More   OPPORTUNITIES IN M2M 01/11/06 PointShift has come up with what it says will be “a steady flow” of boxed white-label M2M solutions for independent mobile dealers, covering such applications as lone worker security and asset tracking.As well as complete products, PointShift’s new M2M hub will give dealers a “robust” technology pla...Read More ... But Disney kills another MVNO 01/11/06 Following the decision not to launch an MVNO in the UK, the Walt Disney Co. is to spend about $30m shutting down its Mobile ESPN sports-based MVNO in the States. Disney says it remains “excited” about its remained MVNO, the family-oriented Disney Mobile....Read More T-Mobile goes 3G in US... 01/11/06 T-Mobile is planning a $2.7bn launch of 3G services in the US market as it plays catch-up with Cingular and Verizon. T-Mobile US intends to emphasise the mobile internet, especially via deals with Google and the likes of MySpace. “What we don’t want to do is replicate the expense of what happened in Europe,” sa...Read More Phone-To-Car-Stereo 01/11/06 Ofcom considers phone-to-car-stereo kit Ofcom has just published draft regulations that could legalise the use of low-power FM transmitters, the kind of gadget that can connect MP3 players and other personal audio devices (including phones) wirelessly to radios and in-car entertainment systems. Devices like the iTrip, which do j...Read More New ID verification for O2 01/11/06 O2 has implemented a new identity verification system for contract customers, which it says has helped slash fraud levels by over 40%. The system, from GB Group, is being used in O2 stores as well as big retail partners including Phones 4u and Carphone Warehouse....Read More Vodafone and roaming (contd) 01/11/06 Vodafone and roaming (contd) Vodafone’s ongoing niggle about the EU cap on roaming charges continues with the announcement that 150,000 customers are joining Vodafone Passport every week. The total is now 10m, and Vodafone claims it is on its way to reducing the average retail cost of roaming to all Vodafone customers by 4...Read More A million go FlexT 01/11/06 A million go FlexT T-Mobile has signed the millionth FlexT customer, just seven months after launch....Read More   The N80 Internet Edition 01/11/06 The N80 Internet Edition is an upgraded version of the well-liked Nseries slider, adding quad-band GSM and 3G to the spec along with some significant software extras – simplified wizard-style WiFi connection, VoIP with support for third-party applications (but not Skype), and the SIP Session Initiation Protocol. There&rsqu...Read More   CHRISTMAS AT VODAFONE 01/11/06 Vodafone is aiming to have 24 new HSDPA-enabled 3G devices available for Christmas. They include a couple of LG handsets – a first for Vodafone – and this one, Vodafone’s first own-branded 3G handset.The Vodafone 710 is being built to the network’s specification by China’s Huawei. The two companies ...Read More   Orange 'Unique' VoIP 01/11/06 Orange says it is the first operator to offer customers “genuine convergence” in the form of Unique phone.This is a single handset with one number, one address book and one bill from Orange that functions as a cellphone when away from home and provides unlimited calls to landlines and Orange mobiles (in WiFi mode via...Read More   NOKIA GOES GPS 01/11/06 Nokia signalled its intentions to include location technology into its Nseries handsets with the acquisition of German route-planning software developer Gate5. Nokia says it intends to offer maps, routing, navigation and other location-based applications on its mobile devices. Gate5 has produced route-planning software sin...Read More   ELITE ADDS CARTREK 01/11/06 Elite Mobile has been appointed as UK and Ireland distributor for the new CarTrek 400s satellite navigation system. The 400s is an on-board, media-based ‘plug and go’ system that joins the off-board Navig8 launched here by Elite Mobile a year ago.The RRP is £249 including VAT, which buys a good spec including 3...Read More SATNAV SET TO DRIVE 3G SALES 01/11/06 In 2011, the total population of subscribers to GPS-enabled location-based services will reach 315m, up from 12m in 2006, according to ABI Research. That represents a rise from less than 0.5% of total wireless subscribers today to more than 9% worldwide. Regions of greatest growth will be North America and Western Europe, ...Read More Yahoo 01/11/06 Yahoo has begun showing keyword-based advertisements on mobile phones in the US and the UK. The ads will be run from Yahoo’s mobile internet search service; advertisers are charged each time someone clicks on one of their ads in the same way that cost-per-click works with internet advertising. Mobile advertising is at a ve...Read More Sky Mobile TV 01/11/06 Sky Mobile TV, the mobile television service Vodafone launched with BSkyB last October, has clocked up more than 100,000 subscribers....Read More Smashing Ideas 01/11/06 US-based Flash studio Smashing Ideas has acquired a controlling interest in BlueskyNorth, a UK producer of Flash Lite based mobile content. They will work together on Flash-based content and will jointly develop a content site for Europe. BlueskyNorth has been developing games and applications for the Flash Lite platform since 2...Read More direct-to-consumer service 01/11/06 Content giant Infospace will bring its Moviso direct-to-consumer service to Europe within the next year. In the US, Moviso was relaunched as a web destination a few months ago, selling ringtones, wallpapers and games from a variety of providers and charged via premium SMS....Read More user generated content 01/11/06 3 says user generated content is booming. There have been 100,000 uploads to SeeMe TV, earning its users £250,000 in total. And 3’s Kink Kommunity has 50,000 paying subscribers at a daily rate of 20p or a monthly fee of £1.49. They’re exchanging 350,000 messages each day....Read More   ROK UNLEASHES FREE MOBILE TV 01/11/06 ROK has launched a free mainstream mobile TV service, FreeBe TV.Currently it has ten channels of content including extreme sports, vintage comedy, classic cartoons,...classic movies, Monkey News (real live Reuters news read by computer-animated monkeys – what you’ve always wanted, right?) plus one for user-generated ...Read More UGC FUTURES 01/11/06 “Fixed-mobile convergence is key to mobile user generated content success,” says a visiongain report on ‘Monetising mobile social networking’.Community-based websites such as MySpace and YouTube, and especially their user-generated content (UGC), are starting to make the transition to mobile; Visiongain b...Read More   MOBILE MUSIC 01/11/06 MAJOR MAKERS MAKE FOR MOBILE MUSICM-Buzz is “yet another building block in Sony Ericsson’s extensive mobile music offering to music fans worldwide”.In practice it’s a music download service that extends the PlayNow ringtone and mobile game offering to include full-length tracks. It is being positioned as ...Read More   THE SYMBIAN SMARTSHOW 01/11/06 The Smartphone Show is usually a pleasure for the hard-pressed trade journalist. Most industry get-togethers are busy and brash; this show is much calmer, probably because it’s much smaller.With fewer than 5,000 people through the doors and around 150 stands, there’s usually ample time to talk to the people and check...Read More Philips phones go Chinese 01/11/06 Philips is to sell its mobile phone manufacturing operations to China Electronics Corp. When the deal goes through, CEC will take over Philips’ handset business and gets a license use the Philips brand for mobiles for the next five years. Philips reportedly makes about e400m a year from its mobile business, but the group h...Read More Mobile banking 01/11/06 HSBC has launched a mobile phone service that enables users to do basic banking on their handsets. Customers of HSBC first direct will be able to check bank balances (20p), view mini statements (25p) and top up mobile phone balances (free) using the service.The software is free to download....Read More Parrot disties 01/11/06 Parrot has named five authorised distributors for the UK. Strax-More, vStore, Pama, Dextra and MA Distributors “were chosen for their expertise in different markets and their ability to reach specific target audiences” says the Bluetooth specialist....Read More 10mp cameraphone 01/11/06 Samsung has announced a mobile for the Korean market that includes a 10mp camera. The phone also features DMB support for watching TV....Read More Virtual Vodafone 01/11/06 Vodafone is to open its own Vodafone Island in the virtual world of Second Life in the next few weeks....Read More A good time to sell 3? 01/11/06 An analyst’s assessment by Merrill Lynch has suggested that Hutchison 3G might be preparing to sell its European operations, perhaps in exchange for minority holdings in other operators. Merrill argues that this might be a good time for Hutchinson to realise some financial benefit now before the 3G market hots up and margi...Read More Dextra back at Nokia 01/11/06 The all-new management team at Dextra has apparently persuaded Nokia to reinstate the accessories distributor. The original contract was terminated in April after counterfeit accessories were discovered in Dextra’s warehouse....Read More Nokia Unveils Bluetooth Rival 01/11/06 Wibree is a new short-range wireless connection technology from Nokia, smaller and up to 10 times more energy-efficient than Bluetooth technology.The first commercial implementations should appear during Q3 of next year. Wibree uses the same spectrum band as Bluetooth and is also limited in range (10m) and speed (no faster than ...Read More   London exhibition 01/11/06 Nokia’s Perspectives of London exhibition gave an N93 to four artists to produce “films that epitomise the capital city from their different perspectives”.The four artists to take up the challenge are Jefferson Hack, founder of Dazed & Confused; Naomi Cleaver, designer and TV presenter; Tom Dixon, creative ...Read More   T-Mobile 01/11/06 T-Mobile UK has appointed Derek Williamson as Head of Business Marketing, responsible for driving business sales of mobile voice and data products and services. He joins from O2, where he held a number of positions including Corporate Industry Sector Marketing and Business Marketing....Read More   Bluetooth simplified 01/11/06 Jabra has teamed up with mobile consumer support specialists Talk Me Through It to launch a natty Bluetooth pairing simulator called PairX. It shows users visually how to set up and pair Bluetooth devices such as headsets and headphones, and you can check it now on www.Jabra.com – great for new staff as well as customers, ...Read More   SCREAMING PHONES FOR ALL 01/11/06 Remember the screaming phone, which shouts out if the handset has been stolen? It’s a facility of Synchronica’s Mobile Manager, and Synchronica has just signed a UK reseller agreement with Business Integrated Solutions Limited (BIS) to offer it to small and medium enterprises and end users under the name Remote ...Read More