The deal thought to be a share swap was announced on Tuesday. The current management team led by MD John Drinkwater and finance director Jim Mann will be kept on for the foreseeable future. It is unclear whether any ET directors will join the Emblaze board.

The acquisition is central to ETs expansion into Europe and it is not expected to affect Emblaze partnerships with Caudwell Group distributor 20:20 and Virgin Mobile. Drinkwater refused to confirm whether Emblaze products would be offered to ET partners 3 O2 Orange T-Mobile and Vodafone.

He said: This deal adds a huge capability to what we can offer. We have been investigating virtual manufacturing for a while and this gives us a huge leg-up. Weve been developing our systems for this.

ETs 100 strong workforce will not be affected by the deal although Drinkwater hopes that in the medium term the partnership will lead to growth in his staff base.

The deal has been in the public eye for sometime even though Emblaze CEO Laurence Alexander had categorically denied the two companies were in negotiations (Mobile News December 2).

A spokesperson for parent company United Utilities said: Consolidation is starting to take place across the telecommunications sector due to sustained excess capacity and intense pricing pressures. In response the group has decided to accelerate its disposal strategy.

IFRS accounting rules require that the business be classified as an asset held for sale. Consequently the company has taken a net impairment charge of 99 million in these results. This reduces the carrying value of Your Communications to around one per cent of the groups net operating assets.

United Utilities expects to have sold Your Communications by the end of 2006.

Turnover for the six months to the end of September 2005 fell by 11.5 per cent to 98.2 million with an operating loss of 11.8 million.

The survey names Caudwell Group-owned Phones 4U as top independent phone retailer with O2 as highest-ranked network-owned retail operation.

In the independent segment Carphone Warehouse the chain with the largest market share on the high street came in behind Phones 4U and The Link which even the chains own MD admitted was in need of a revamp.

A Carphone Warehouse spokeswoman said: This flies in the face of every other customer survey and piece of research that we have seen. In the past month What Mobile readers have independently voted The Carphone Warehouse as the best retailer and uSwitchs customer satisfaction survey also put us top. We have also been voted best larger retailer for 11 years running at the Mobile News awards.

In contrast The Caudwell Group was understandably pleased at the results. Phones 4U managing director Tim Whiting said: Given the manner in which all of our people have embraced our Customer Excellence programme The results from JD Power are no surprise.

The deal represents the business voice and data communications consultancys 15th acquisition since its formation in 2000.

Azzurri CEO Martin St Quinton commented: MiTech is our second acquisition in as many months. The company will be fully integrated into the Azzurri Group during the next 90 days. This acquisition puts Azzurri in a very strong position from which to consider our strategic options moving into 2006.

MiTech has an annual turnover of 20 million and employs 135 staff. Its management team will remain intact following the completion of the deal. Azzurri has an annual turnover of around 120 million.

But Vodafone added more than 587000 net new customers more than 2.5 times the 206000 achieved in the equivalent quarter of 1998 and over 10 times in the comparable period of 1997. Pay As You Talk grew by more than 654000 in the quarter taking the total PAYT base from over 1846000 to more than 2501000.

BTCellnet came in second as usual with 501000 new customers split by 360000 pre-pay connections and 141000 contract tariffs.

BTCellnet has now broken the five million customer barrier with a total base of more than 5.02 million users and claims to have the fastest-growing pre-pay customer base of 1.3 million U and Easylife users.

Orange put on 430000 net customers making 800000 new users this year. Oranges customer growth is more than three times faster than 1998 and it now has 2962000 customers more than double the level of one year ago.

Around 44 per cent of Q2 growth was on contract tariffs. The total Orange contract base stood at 1989000 at the end of June with a further 973000 pre-pay customers. Overall churn was 18 per cent for the twelve months to the end of June 1999 including churn on the contract base of 22.5 per cent. Churn on the Just Talk pre-pay base stood at 7.8 per cent

One 2 One put on 401000 net new customers giving it a total customer base of 2650000. Pre-pay customers accounted for 70 per cent on the net growth with a base of 1230000 new pre-pay users accounting for 46 per cent of the total base.

Manchester United and Vodafone announced the termination of their shirt sponsorship last week effective from May 2006.

LG Mobile did not rule out the possibility of a link.

LG Mobile marketing manager John Bernard said: We are talking to a number of Premiership football clubs at this time but cant say whether Manchester United is one.

LG Mobile has held shirt sponsorship talks with Fulham Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool as well as Manchester United. However it is understood that LG Mobile is unwilling to match the 9 million yearly fee paid by Vodafone and as reported last issue is most likely to strike a deal with Fulham.

Nokia meanwhile counted itself out of football sponsorship altogether preferring to focus on music. In May sponsorship hopeful Chelsea pulled out of a shirt deal with Nokia at the last minute instead signing with rival manufacturer Samsung.

Nokia UK marketing manager Simon Lloyd said: We are definitely not interested. I can say categorically that we are not in talks with Manchester United. We have made the decision post Chelsea that we are not going to look at football. Weve got a big year next year. Our main focus now is music.

O2 is thought unlikely to sponsor Manchester United because of its continuing commercial relationship with north London rival Arsenal as well as its new sponsorship of The O2 formerly the Millennium Dome in south-east London.

Despite losing its Arsenal shirt sponsorship to airline Emirates from next season O2 recently re-signed a content deal with Arsenal that runs until 2009. The O2 brand will also continue to appear inside the Arsenal stadium.

An O2 spokesman said: We are happy with our current sponsorship portfolio. We recently signed an agreement with Arsenal to extend our existing relationship as exclusive mobile content partner.

Vodafone becomes official partner and the official mobile network of the UEFA Champions League from July 1.

Rupert George James (34) is charged with murdering Dean Samuels (26) by stabbing him several times in the neck.

James appeared briefly last Thursday for a plea and directions hearing in the court.

Vodafone pre-pay customers will be issued with a swipe card.

Customers will then be able to have the top-up automatically credited to their phone using e-pays electronic system.

Sony Cellular Services is a acilities-managed airtime provider with all its billing handled under contract by Martin Dawes elecommunications which is now known as the BTCellnet-owned service provider Lumina.

It is likely the sale has been prompted by the termination of the contract by BTCellnet to manage Sonys customers.

Most of the staff that actually run the facilities-managed service will probably be returning to Lumina and BTCellnet.

Parkway will begin trading in September connecting small businesses through Vodafone Connect.

Theres a great lack of service within the Small Medium Enterprise community in the North West. This accounts for an awful lot of churn.

We believe we can provide that service within the five to 100 handset bracket and our inclusion in the Vodafone Ahead for Business programme. I cant say much more as I dont want to tell you competitors what were doing before we do it said Maddocks.

Maddocks joined Vanguard more than six years ago as financial director. He was appointed managing director in June 1998.