At a VAT tribunal meeting on February 9 the operators and the Government agreed on how the case would proceed and what evidence and witnesses would be required.

The operators started their action in October last year.

The operators case surrounds the 3G licence auctions held four years ago.

Under the sixth EU VAT directive neither the Government nor any public body is allowed to charge VAT on any supplies it makes including radio frequency.

However the operators argue that the 3G licence auction in 2000 which raised 22.5 billion was handled in a different way because it was designed to bring as much money as possible.

The operators claim that the Government handled the sale of 3G spectrum in a commercial capacity rather than that of a public body.

If the courts agree it could mean that the operators combined payment of 22.5 billion to the Government was inclusive of VAT meaning they would collectively be entitled to a 4 billion VAT refund.

None of the operators would offer a statement on the matter.

A similar case is set to be heard before the European Courts shortly.

Wolontis has been with Nokia for 10 years. Most recently he was general manager for Nokia Mobile Phones Export Sales heading sales operations for over 70 countries.

Before this Wolontis was responsible for Nokia mobile phone sales in Finland Russia the Commonwealth of Independent States and other Baltic countries.

The multimedia CX65 handset features a 65000-colour screen integrated video camera and 11Mb of memory. The clamshell CF62 is equipped with Java GPRS WAP and polyphonic ringtones. It provides five hours talk time and 220 hours standby time.

East also accused Maxon of failing to honour its duties as a manufacturer to replace faulty goods and supply warranty information within the handset packaging.

East said there was a 50 per cent returns rate on a batch of MX7920 handsets he bought through Fone Logistics. East claimed the model was so bad it should never have been allowed on sale in the UK.

This handset was clearly not of merchantable quality. To say they were problematic is an understatement. Half were faulty. Maxon is refusing to exchange the handsets. It insists on repairing the stock.

East said Fone Logistics was prepared to replace or credit him for the faulty handsets. But it then withdrew this offer after receiving so many faulty handsets back.

How can a manufacturer get away with offering so little support. Should it not be mandatory that all companies selling product in the UK deal with any warranty complication direct with the customer?

All goods sold should have a warranty booklet containing helpline numbers and companies should arrange uplift and repair or swap out the goods concerned.

Maxon UK sales manager Robert Johnson admitted there had been a software glitch on the MX7920 but he said Maxon has done all it could to honour warranty claims through its UK distributors.

We suffered a 20 per cent return rate with the MX7920 due to a software glitch. We identified the fault and replaced the MX7920 with an improved MX7922 he said.

Any dealer who has suffered faults with MX7920 has been offered MX7922 exchange handsets through our UK distributors Phones International and Baillies.

We dont have an agreement with Fone Logistics. If the dealer contacts us we will be happy to deal with the problem.

Fone Logistics boss Ian Gillespie commented:

We bought the Maxon stock in the UK. We have a seven-day returns policy. Outside that we will only exchange a handset if the replacement will be honoured by the manufacturer.

Maxon has told us it would only repair the units. We are trying to resolve the problem.

Newings task is to develop marketing campaigns that will run across the region.

The global restructure of Siemens mobile operation allows the newly created regions to deliver more relevant local marketing campaigns which will increase awareness and demand for the Siemens mobile brand he said.

Newing has worked in the Siemens mobile marketing team for three years. He reports to Jonathan Bate vice-president of Siemens mobile Northern Europe.

The investigation and suspensions follow an internal audit.

Phones 4U managing director Peter Green said:

I can confirm that our internal auditors detected that in an isolated incident the correct procedures for processing new contracts were not being followed at the Inverness branch.

He went on: We treat this kind of incident extremely seriously and a thorough investigation is in progress to ensure it does not happen again.

This episode also demonstrates the effectiveness of our auditing system which immediately brought this situation to the attention of our security team.

One independent dealer who is familiar with the Phones 4U regime said:

Staff are under a lot of pressure to make connections. When a customer is persuaded to sign up they are asked what proofs they have on them. If the customer has only one proof they proceed with the connection but ask the customer to bring in a further proof.

This rarely happens however so I have heard that staff are tempted to create utility bills using computer software.

Meanwhile a male ex-Phones 4U employee is expected to appear in court on June 3 charged with various offences relating to contract fraud.

T-Mobile is the third UK operator to officially switch on its network behind 3 and Vodafone. Orange and O2 have not yet confirmed when their 3G services will go live.

T-Mobile says a group of corporate users will be trialling high-speed mobile data services using dual-mode 3G/GPRS PC cards.

These offer broadband data speeds of up to 384kbps within T-Mobiles 3G coverage area. Outside this area the PC cards switch over to lower-speed GPRS.

A shortage of handsets means the network doesnt expect to launch commercial services before the summer at the earliest.

A T-Mobile spokesman said: We will be launching commercial services in the next few months once handsets become available. At the moment we have no handsets.

T-Mobile UK managing director Brian McBride added: Making our 3G network live is a major milestone in the evolution of the UK industry.

Ashley Simon 25 of Playfield Crescent East Dulwich will be sentenced on March 12.

Rival suitor Cingular Wireless paid $15 cash per share valuing AT&T Wireless at $41 billion. Cingularwill have some 46 million subscribers after the deal.

Vodafone will now have to take a longer-term view in the US. Cingular could have afforded to pay every single AT&T wireless subscriber over $1000 to switch allegiance and sign with it (see Business Watch P10).

Scott left Vodafone last April and has been doing consultancy work for networks advising on warehousing and logistics.

During his 10 years with Vodafone he coordinated the purchase of some 25 million handsets across 29 countries and managed global supply contracts with many major manufacturers including Nokia Siemens Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

The 40 Selfones handsfree-kit uses a low-frequency radio band to link an earpiece with the phone which sits in a cradle on the car dashboard. Scott claimed the device was compatible with 95 per of mobile phones.

We were looking for something we could launch in the market that was car kit-related he said.

We looked at Bluetooth but we didnt think the old Bluetooth chipset was that good. Also Bluetooth phones are only 10 per cent of handset sales in the UK he added.

The product we have caters for most mobiles. You just plug the base station into the cigarette lighter plug the handset into a dashboard-mounted cradle and put on the light wireless handset. The radio band is similar to that of remote control cars. So its a well-tested and very safe standard.

Scott is talking to networks and retailers about the product. A direct marketing campaign is on the cards once motorists start to be prosecuted for breaking the ban on using a phone while driving.