O2 UK and Movistar in Spain are the first networks to launch a service to remove incoming call charges for people travelling abroad in 35 European countries.

The high roamer service is aimed at frequent travellers. UK customers pay a monthly subscription of 5 to make calls at a reduced rate of 25p per minute. This is a big leap from the current roaming agreement which allows customers to receive free calls only when in Spain.

O2 selected Spain as more of its customers travel there than anywhere else. O2 will expand the service to more than 35 European destinations early next year.

Peter Erskine chairman and chief executive officer of O2 said: The high roamer proposition was rated as the most popular concept when tested on customers with many indicating that they currently left their phones switched off when travelling in order to avoid the cost of receiving a call. By starting to scrap the charge levied by all operators in the past for receiving calls abroad we hope to be removing that barrier.

LG Mobile has appointed former Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution Steve Fraser to head up its open market programme and boost sales through the retailer and distributor channels.

LG Mobile sales director John Barton recruited Fraser with whom he has worked at One2One and 3 to the role following the departure of Ian Hicks who left the business earlier this month for personal reasons. Hicks had been in the role for only two months.

Barton said that in the end Fraser exited Carphone on good terms and that there are no misgivings within the industry about his appointment.

Said Barton: I have spoken with people who were connected with Steve Fraser just prior to his departure from Carphone and there is no issue. There were errors made at Carphone but in the end it was something of nothing and he left in a way that was quite normalised.

I have worked with Steve twice before and I trust my own judgement. He knows the industry and that part of the market extremely well. He has a lot of experience of the independent channels and will help in the open market.

Barton added: Ian Hicks was in the role but left under his own steam. It was his own decision and we wish him well.

Fraser worked with Barton as head of dealer sales at One2One just prior to its takeover by T-Mobile and again as director of dealer and distribution at 3.

LG Mobile has also appointed Gary Venn as head of marketing. Venn joins from The Link where he was head of marketing for communications products and worked across the Dixons Stores Group portfolio on its approach to mobile.

He stayed longer than he should have perhaps but he stayed as part of [managing director] Nick Woods team. He had a role to play said Barton. We wanted to beef up our marketing expertise. Its a good time to add to the team.

Samsung has launched a HSDPA enabled slider handset. The SGH-i520 runs on the Symbian OS v9 and the Nokia Series 60 interface. The handset which has a 45MB on-board memory plus a Micro SD port for up to 2GB is a chunky 1.8cm thick.
According to reports the handset is pitched for the European market although no UK release date has been set.
Samsungs newest addition is part of a growing number of devices that can receive data at broadband speeds of 1Mbps plus. Other handset manufacturers committed to bringing out so-called super 3G handsets include HTC and Motorola.

Consumers have not been persuaded by the network operators that 3G services are worth the money.

The annual Global Technology Insight study by marketing company TNS claims that mobile users across the globe have not been turned onto 3G despite the networks investing heavily in services and marketing. The reason it gives for the public?s disinterest is largely cost.

Almost a quarter of users across the globe cite cost as the main obstacle to take-up. A further 22 per cent claim that high cost puts them off Wi-Fi technology and 23 per cent refuse to surf the web on their phones and 21 per cent refuse to download music to their phones because of cost.

Worse fewer people even aspire to use advanced mobile services than a year ago ? just four per cent of those surveyed this year compared with seven per cent last year.

Flat rate all-you-can-eat pricing is required if users are to ever be switched on to 3G services said TNS.

TNS Technology global director Hanis Harun said: ?Given that cost is such a key obstacle to the adoption of more advanced mobile services mobile operators must provide pricing regimes that are fixed for unlimited use transparent and affordable. It is getting ever more critical for service or content providers to peg their services competitively.?

Orange may follow Vodafone and drop its Carphone Warehouse (CPW) retail contract next year because of high distribution costs.

Orange is considering its options in independent retail. It is in the process of reviewing its independent retail strategy for 2007 because of customer acquisition costs.

Orange said in a statement: Our relationship with both Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U remains unchanged. However since our indirect distribution costs have gone up significantly over the last few years we are in the process of reviewing our independent strategy for 2007.

The statement comes hot on the heels of Vodafones announcement that it has dropped CPW in favour of a better deal with high street rival Phones 4U. The move reduces Vodafones commission costs.

The timing of Oranges announcement puts increased pressure on CPW just days after it completed the 370 million acquisition of AOL Time Warners UK Broadband base.

Orange has confirmed the departure of Business Services vice president Alastair MacLeod at the end of the month.

MacLeod has been with Orange for five years. Orange said that he had accepted a role as chief operating officer in company outside the telecoms industry.

MacLeod will be replaced by Cynthia Gordon who has been vice president of marketing for the Orange Group since 2003.

An Orange spokesperson said: Cynthia is well known to Orange UK having been part of the senior management team in the early days of the directorate as director of business marketing and for the last three years has worked across Europe where Orange has been growing its business market revenues rapidly.

Gordon has 15 years of commercial telecoms experience in mobile fixed and broadband with BT Demon and T Mobile.

Carphone Warehouse has responded to the deal struck between Vodafone and Phones 4U for the retail chain to become the networks exclusive third party retailer for contract customers.

Carphones share price plunged by over 40p on the news.

In a statement Carphone said:

Carphone Warehouses business is based on the fundamental principle of impartial advice. This cannot and will not ever be compromised: it is the foundation on which customer trust and loyalty is built. We sell phones on the basis of what is the right and best for our customers not on the basis of guaranteeing volumes of sales for networks.

Vodafone approached Carphone Warehouse to enter into the same arrangement as they have today announced with Phone 4 U. It would have meant guaranteeing to sell a high percentage of Vodafone subscriptions no matter how competitive the offer was for customers.

Less than 10% of our subscription customers today choose Vodafone as their contract of choice. This is simply because 90% of customers feel they are getting a better deal from another network. It is a sad day for Phones 4 U customers to know that they are not being offered the best deal for them but instead the best deal for Phones 4 U and Vodafone.

Our customers will always receive impartial advice on the best deal for their individual needs and rest assured they will always have the best deal on offer.

Vodafone has struck a deal with Phones 4U to be its exclusive third party retailer for contracts. Other channels will retain the chance to sell pre-pay propositions.
Vodafone UK CEO Nick Read said: The combination of Phones 4Us experience and Vodafones flexible product offering creates an exiting proposition. This strategic deal will complement our direct distribution capability and ensure we can target all key customer segments through their channel of choice.

Carphone Warehouse has acquired Time Warners AOL UK internet business for 370 million.

Under the deal Carphone will acquire AOLs UK customer base plus supporting management and infrastructure. AOL will provide a co-branded portal and manage online advertising sales.

Carphone CEO Charles Dunstone said: The acquisition is transformational for our broadband business. It gives us significant scale to complement the rapid organic growth of our free broadband proposition.

Carphone today (October 11 2006) released trading figures for the second quarter. The company has incurred approximately 20 million in costs for setting up the free broadband proposition as it struggles to cope with the unexpected demand.

As of September 30 there have been 625000 applications for the service with 421000 made live.

South West-based independent mobile retailer Jag Communications is planning an expansion bid into new UK territories.

Managing director John George said We have been consolidating our position in the market since buying KJC outlets last year but now we feel its time to start expanding again.

The first new store is in Port Talbot in south Wales which is set to open before Christmas. It supplements the seven existing outlets in the region.

George added: We would be happy to acquire another company if that would speed up this process in South Wales but the price would have to be right. Buying companies has worked well for us in the past as we get a pool of trained staff.

More store openings will be announced soon.