The charges date from September 2006 to April 1 this year when Ofcoms new termination charge controls took effect. BT said the outcome of Ofcoms investigation into its complaint was disappointing and suggested landline customers were funding 3G networks.

BT director of voice services Matthew Dearden said: BT brought this dispute to Ofcom to prevent millions of consumers having to bear the cost of paying over the odds for dialling a mobile from their landlines. By agreeing yet again with the mobile operators fixed line customers continue to fund the 3G networks.

BT initially rejected the proposed call termination rates from the networks higher blended rates the networks claimed to have formulated by combining 2G and 3G charges. BT proposed lower rates to the networks which in turn rejected them. Ofcom ruled the blended rates charged to BT were not too high.

BT will need to pay all withheld charges to the networks but it and the networks must first agree the amount.

Azzurri says an audit of 1200 corporates identified possible savings of £60 million. Azzurri One evaluates existing communications solutions and offers cost-saving alternatives on a single bill. Around a dozen household names have already signed up to Azzurri One it claimed.

CEO Martin St Quinton said: We appreciate what a challenge it is for organisations to effectively manage their communications. With many suppliers and bills to manage budget control becomes almost impossible.

Dangaard chief Michaél Køehn said the merged company would decide on its strategy for entering the UK market at the deals conclusion. He said:

There are many good players in the UK and a very good distributor could be one of our relevant targets.

The Glasgow High Court heard last month that Athif Sarwar 28 had handled thousands of pounds of criminal property. Sarwar was found guilty of money laundering between February and April 2003 while working at Glasgow-based United Wholesale.

Sarwar was found guilty on two charges one of laundering £565000 as part of a VAT fraud scam and the second of moving £280500 from the firms bank account to another held by a shell company.

Assistant manager of the cash and carry firm Mansoor Khan 43 of Glasgow was found not guilty of any involvement in the money laundering scam.

Sarwar was bailed to appear for sentencing on June 28. His father a millionaire businessman and Labour MP for Govan said he would appeal against the verdict.

The group is to comprise manufacturers networks academics and law enforcement agencies.

Home Office crime reduction minister Vernon Coaker said: Rapidly changing technologies have given a boost to opportunistic criminals. Mobile phone crime can best be tackled when the handset is still on the drawing board. Manufacturers and networks have made considerable progress in tackling mobile crime but more can be done.

According to the British Crime Survey two per cent of mobile phone owners suffered a theft in the past year. Last month 500 handsets were seized and 15 people arrested for mobile phone crime in London.

Kenny McDonald of the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit said the rate of mobile crime in London had been cut by 5.7 per cent from last year. He said: The networks understand the impact of this crime where they used to have a sterile and detached approach. Theyve all hit their blocking targets of 90 per cent.

The committee said measures tackling missing trader fraud were unsustainable and the reverse charge ruling would cause fraud to spread to other industries. It called on the UK Government to work with other EU member states to implement a more efficient system for taxing intra-community transactions.

It said: While the amount of money being lost in the UK may have fallen in 2006/7 mutation into other industry sectors will bring a subsequent rise in fraud levels.

A wide-ranging change to the VAT system is required and the Government should start discussions with the European Commission and other member states on the form this should take.

It said extended verification will have limited effect as fraudsters will target goods free of such stringent checks. It will also harm legitimate traders attempting to claim back VAT said the committee which wants a flat VAT rate of 15 per cent to be applied to all EU cross-border transactions.

Dass Solicitors Robert Holland said: The report paints a pretty bleak picture but theres no alternative than to paint it.

Meanwhile the emergence of contra trading has also caused alarm. It is regarded as the latest development in VAT carousel fraud where carousels are linked across borders to offset losses in one country against another making it more difficult to track where tax has been unpaid.

Holland said contra trading had not reached the extent of carousel fraud but it could involve different types of goods which would be difficult to track between each chain.

The combined fixed and mobile phone service which uses Wi-Fi technology promised to reduce customers bills by offering cheaper landline prices with the features of a mobile.

However in addition to the disappointing number of new customers BTs total mobile connections has fallen from 370000 in June 2005 to 314000 in March 2007 with consumer mobile connections now standing at just 87000 following a peak of 187000 in March 2005.

BT head of mobility Steve Andrews admitted a lack of Wi-Fi devices at its launch proved to be a setback and added the advertising for the product could also have been clearer but remained confident the upsurge in Wi-Fi devices would boost uptake.

GSMA chief commercial officer Bill Gajda said: To realise the potential of mobile advertising the advertising content and mobile industries need to come together to better define what phone advertising should look like and how to measure its effectiveness.

The GSMA intends to establish standards for adverts and content as well as measuring effectiveness. The programme will also promote codes of conduct for networks and advertisers. Personal privacy safeguards will also be addressed.

Orange director of market development for group customer marketing Ben Hirsch said: By working together to define a common approach we can ensure it serves advertisers and customers in the most effective way.

3 UK marketing director John Penberthy-Smith added: We support this initiative as it will help ensure mobile networks offer a consistent inventory.

For the full story see the latest edition of Mobile News.

The GSMA said the report was unbalanced would cause undue concern among parents and delay the roll out of wireless networks.

The programme said the signal strength of a Wi-Fi network in a school classroom was three times higher than a mobile phone mast. Panorama said the findings were of concern to parents as childrens skulls absorb more radiation than adults.

The findings prompted Health Protection Agency (HPA) chairman Sir William Stewart to call for an inspection of Wi-Fis health effects.

But GSMA director of research Jack Rowley told Mobile News Stewarts recommendations would create unnecessary worry and contradicted the HPAs own website.

At the time of going to press the HPA website said there was no consistent evidence of health effects from radio frequency exposures below guideline levels and therefore no reason why schools and others should not use Wi-Fi equipment.

Rowley said: The Panorama programme showed very unbalanced reporting that didnt reflect the consensus of the scientific community and will contribute to peoples anxiety. It will also contribute to delays in the provision of services.

Rowley said reviews from over 100 international organisations listed on the GSMA website as well as a study conducted by the EUs Scientific Committee for Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks released in May concluded current international Wi-Fi standards posed no health risk.

He explained: The exposures of wireless networks are very low even for heavy users. The actual transmission time is very short about 15 minutes in 24 hours which is hundreds of times below the acceptable standard.

But Rowley said there was a need for ongoing research and clearer communication to the public.

A Vodafone spokeswoman also referred to the HPA websites statement and outlined a review published by the Irish Government in March which concluded no adverse short or long term health effects have been shown to occur.

Orange said it saw no reason to treat the effects of Wi-Fi equipment as a special case. A spokesperson said: Oranges wireless broadband transmits at 2.4 GHz which is a frequency already used by a number of household items like baby monitors and garage door controls.

The World Health Organisation website claims: There have been no adverse health consequences established from exposure to RF fields at levels below the international guidelines on exposure limits published by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The ICNIRP guidelines were developed to limit human exposure to electromagnetic fields and the limits incorporate large safety factors.