The technical service firm has hired former PNC managing director Neil Jones as its new international development manager.

Jones will head up the European roll-out and is already in discussions with interested parties in eight countries from networks to private individuals.

Ive known [TMTI MD] Crispin Thomas for 15 years and having seen the success hes made of TMTI in the UK the opportunity to help expand the brand outside the UK was one I thought I ought to try he said.

Our object is to have 10 countries signed up by the end of next year. Im already in talks with Austria Germany Italy Slovenia Finland Denmark Norway and Sweden.

I am targeting any country that has sizeable population and a good mobile penetration and ideally territory where some of our existing clients already operate.

TMTI also plans to make its presence known in Canada and North America. PNC founder Geremy Thomas is moving to Canada next April to head up a TMTI operation there.

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Slater had been with Sunderland for six years.

Prior to that he had stints as international brand director at drinks company Diageo global food operation Kraft Foods and confectionery giant Mars.

In a statement posted on a club fan website Sunderland chairman Bob Murray said: Jim has played a full and active role during that time and we will be sorry to lose him. We wish him all the best for the future.

Slater was not available for comment but on his resignation had said it would be a wrench to leave.

UMI has operations in Malaysia Indonesia Vietnam Brunei and Thailand and will be launching in China before the end of 2004.

Monstermob will have the chance to increase its stake by 10 per cent on July 1 2005.

Monstermob head Martin Higginson said:

Our investment in UMI is another step in establishing Monstermob as the leading mobile entertainment company globally.

He added: UMI will complement our existing network and consumer services divisions and will significantly increase our presence in the rapidly growing South East Asian mobile content market.

Nine BT customers have so far been given 500 for making the switch.

TalkTalk sponsored the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother. The housemates are now being taken to their hometown CPW stores and asking locals to turn up with their BT bills. The person with the highest BT phone bill will get 500 to switch to TalkTalk.

Its a 500 consolation for having a huge BT bill said a Carphone Warehouse spokesperson. The idea is that its a great way to get the Big Brother contestants out to the stores to meet the public. The idea of bringing them home ties in nicely with the theme of the TalkTalk sponsorship slots that appeared during the show. Were bringing them home to their friends and family.

The next stop will be a Carphone Warehouse store in Woking the home of Big Brother winner Nadia at the end of the month.

Some contestants have chosen not to take part.

The deal will see more money made available to Phones4Less for its online advertising campaign but will otherwise mean business as usual for both companies an Abbey Telecom spokesman told Mobile News.

They will effectively still compete against each other he said. They will share engineers and stock but each will retain its assets including current staff and premises. It will be business as usual.

Negotiations started six weeks ago and finished last week. Originally Abbey Telecom MD Tony Raynor approached Phones4Less.

He has an entrepreneurial spirit and saw in Phones4Less a business that was going to grow said the spokesman. Both companies are successful at present. He saw an opportunity and took it.

Both Abbey Telecom and Phones4Less deal in fixed and mobile solutions to the SME market. Abbey Telecom has an annual turnover of 1.4 million and caters to north west-based businesses from its base in Blackburn.

Online dealership Phones4Less has an annual turnover of 500000 and just two staff.

Its costs are low because it out-sources engineering work to local dealerships such as Abbey Telecom and sells to large tech-savvy companies that already know what their businesses need. Engineering and sales costs are therefore minimal.

Raynor who also becomes managing director of Phones4Less as a result of the deal said:

We have been working with Phones4Less for a number of years and it has used our team of engineers to install new telecom systems throughout the UK.

Phones4Less has a very strong presence in the telecoms market. It targets prospects that know what they want and where they want it without talking them through the usual sales cycle. As an online dealer it is able to offer systems much more competitively as it does not rely on sales teams.

The acquisition makes a great deal of common sense Raynor continued.

We will be able to reduce our cost overheads by more effectively using the engineering teams and will have greater buying power with the telecoms system manufacturers enabling both companies to make further savings for their customers.

Sagem is to supply half-a-million myX5-2 cameraphones to its Chinese manufacturing partner Ningbo Bird. The phone will be configured to the Chinese market and manufactured by Sagem and Birds joint-venture company. It will be sold under the Bird brand. Ningbo Bird is a stock market-listed high-tech company that manufactures and markets mobile comms equipment.

Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS datacard branding is now dominating all available advertising space at the site.

The package includes banner sites in the main entry hall ads on ticket barriers across the station entrance panels on escalator walls and a strip across the entrance.

Matthew White planning director at media-buying agency OMD said Canary Wharf is a great choice because it targets three core groups who are normally advertising averse: the end users; the decision-makers who would buy the product and give it to their staff; and City workers.

A receiver on the Orange tent responds to an SMS message from the camper by glowing orange. The colour is first flashed from an antenna that rises 50cm from the top of the tent and then the whole tent glows orange to guide the camper home. The limited edition tent called the Text-Me-Home Dome will be made available to consumers through 10 festival competitions that will run in UK youth and music magazines.

Phones 4U has kicked off its June promotional package in time for Euro 2004 to encourage more use of content and information on mobile phones specifically via 3G services.

Phones 4U is heavily promoting 3 this month in the hope of a heightened response to its 3G services.

The retailer is offering a free LG u8110 when customers sign up to 3 and a monthly cross-network tariff of 25 for 500 minutes. Phones 4U is also discounting the NEC 313 videophone on ThreePay to 49.95.

Euro 2004 will capture the imagination of the public and is an opportunity for both the consumer and the technology said Phones 4U managing director Peter Green.

The event is very exciting and will receive a massive amount of interest from our target market.

Once people see what kind of information and content they can access through a mobile phone they will be amazed.

The whole value of 3G is the quality of the content Green went on. And on 3 and anywhere else you have video capabilities Euro 2004 offers a great opportunity.

Phones 4U is also offering the Motorola V500 for free on Orange with 50 cashback and double minutes for six months on Orange tariffs of over 25. The Orange 8 text bundle includes double the number of text messages for three months.

Phones 4U will offer a similar promotion to coincide with the Olympics in July.

Phones 4U will run a similar promotion at the Olympics which is another major international sporting event that stimulates public interest. It appeals to a wide range of people each with a specific interest in the event.

Orange has brought out its tiniest smart phone.

The SPV C500 is a third of the size of its predecessor the SPV E200 and is comparable with the size of conventional phones.

The handset weighs 100g measures 108mm x 46mm x 16mm and has a 65000-colour screen.

It launches in the UK and seven countries in Europe next month

The SPV C500 is a marvel of miniaturisation said Orange vice-president of global product management Martin Keogh.

It targets a specific as yet untapped segment of the smartphone market – the professional consumer who wants their world in their pocket not their briefcase.

Because its the size of a consumer phone it bridges the divide between the two and brings all the applications normally associated with a smartphone to a broader consumer market.

Customers told us that they loved the functionality of previous SPV handsets but they wanted a smaller form factor. We havent compromised on performance.

Apart from the smaller size the new smartphone is similar to its predecessor but boasts features such as improved camera resolution and soft buttons that access the camera and the Orange World portal.

The C500 also comes with a memory card loaded with trial Orange business and travel software such as phrase books interactive maps and city guides.

The SPV C500 will be the first of 20 new Orange-branded phones for launch during the second half of 2004.

The network has added Samsung and Siemens to the list of manufacturers of its Orange-branded phone portfolio. The others include Motorola Nokia LG Sony Ericsson Sagem Alcatel and SPV maker HTC.