BT has spent millions of pounds advertising the new WiFi version of its BT Fusion product following slow take-up of the original.

BT has signed up around 50000 customers to its Fusion since launch according to analyst Ovum.

BT general manager of mobility and convergence David Grossman said: That is a fair estimate but the number of customers will increase substantially because of the multi-million pound advertising campaign we are backing it with.

BT has teamed up with Phones 4U for the retail launch of BT Fusion Plus which is available now direct from BT and from Phones 4U in the spring.

The new service extends the availability of the old Fusion package into the wider WiFi OpenZone network across the UK and Ireland and backs it with a wider range of handsets.

BT Fusion Plus differs from the original BT Fusion proposition with lower pricing that includes voice minutes texts and free Internet access for the life of the contract. BT claims it will be five times faster than standard GPRS when in WiFi coverage.

Customers will effectively be charged for one minute in four under the new pricing plan for anytime calls to both mobiles and landlines.

BT has plans to establish 12 major WiFi hotspot networks in cities across the UK by March. BT also claimed its expanded handset portfolio which includes the Nokia 6136 Motorola A910 and Samsung P200 would boost numbers.

Grossman said: This is a whole new customer offer and although we are in the early stages of these products we expect our customer numbers to increase substantially.

The service is available to BT Broadband customers starting at GBP19 on an 18-month contract.

Ovum analyst Carrie Pawsey said: To date BT Fusion has not been successful but this announcement is a step in the right direction.

Not only does it allow Fusion to extend into the wider OpenZone network but it is also an opportunity for the operator to change its tariffs marketing and positioning of Fusion which were previously inhibiting its appeal.

France has scuppered the UK Governments fight against missing trader carousel fraud by refusing to endorse a plan to adopt a reverse-charge VAT regime.

This would change the way VAT is applied on cross-border transactions and help eliminate carousel fraud but the French are worried the tax change would move the VAT scamming problem to other EU nations.

The French decision has taken Chancellor Gordon Brown by surprise. Last month Brown said France had agreed to reverse charging after apparently receiving assurances from French finance minister Thierry Breton.

A Treasury spokesman told Accountancy Age magazine the French had raised technical issues that were not on the table when Brown told Parliament the French had agreed to the plan.

But one trader who has been following events closely said:

Brown announced to a parliamentary select committee he had secured the backing of the French finance minister. The French Government knew nothing of this. Today Brown has had to come clean and admit he doesn t have its backing.

All 27 EU member states must agree to reverse charging before the tax change can take effect.

Benefon have announced two new additions to its executive team. Robin Halliday has joined as chief financial officer and Christopher Pay as vice president of global sales.

The appointments come as the Finnish wireless and GPS technology company launches its new TWIG Discovery GPS-enabled mobile devices into markets globally.

Benefon CEO Tomi Raita said: These new appointments will enhance our strategies and help us develop stronger relationships with key-customers and partners. Critical to the success of TWIG in the consumer personal navigation market.

Halliday who brings a wealth of experience in high growth technology businesses will be responsible for consolidating growing and managing Benefons finances in his new role.

Pay will be responsible for establishing the companys presence in new markets as well as creating an extensive partnership base from which to distribute the new TWIG range of handsets by developing their global consumer offering.

Benefon sales manager for North America Geoff Iwamoto another new addition to the team and one that bolsters Benefons presence in the US and its overall sales will support Pay in his new role.

LG Mobiles latest flag-ship handset called Shine will be in UK shops on February 7.

The Shine follows LG Mobiles Chocolate handset as the second in its premium Black Label series intended to establish it as a leading consumer brand among handset manufacturers.

The Shone includes a wide 2.2 inch magic mirror screen multi functional scroll key and brushed metal casing.

Jae Bae executive vice rresident of LG Mobiles overseas sales and marketing division said: Were expecting Shine to be even more successful than Chocolate which continues to sell exceptionally well worldwide 12 months after its launch.

LG said it had sold 180000 Shine handsets in Korea alrteady since its launch in November with more than 3500 units a day still being sold.

The UK launch of the Shine is the first in a global roll out with all major markets covered by Q2 2007.

The Carphone Warehouse signed 3.26 million customers during the golden quarter up by 19.2 per cent on the same period in 2005.

Carphones overall contract connections were up 20.3 per cent to 1.18 million with UK subscription connections growth of 18.5 per cent and pre-pay connections including SIM-free sales up 18.6 per cent to 2.08 million for the period.

Carphone posted a three per cent jump in retail profits during the Christmas quarter compared with the same quarter last year. It recorded growth of overall retail revenue of 19.8 per cent to GBP571.3 million a 7.3 per cent increase on the same period in 2005.

Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone said: We have had another very good Christmas period. Delivering profitable like-for-like growth after last years very strong performance is a great achievement reflecting all our people s efforts and driving market share gains through the strength of our customer proposition.

The completion of the AOL deal makes us the clear number three player in the UK broadband market with 2.2 million residential broadband customers giving us the scale we need to deliver significant profitable growth in the medium term. Our immediate focus continues to be on improving our processes and customer service where we have made good progress in recent months.

Carphone opened 149 net new stores in the quarter across all its markets taking its total store portfolio to 2070. It opened its US retail chain under the name Best Buy Mobile and claimed the initial customer response has been promising.

Carphone s fixed line revenues were up 104.0 per cent to GBP286.5 million. Its TalkTalk broadband base grew to 632000.

There has been a rash of staff changes at dealer account level across all UK distributors with most swapping staff between themselves as they look to focus on the B2B sector and deliver better quality business to the networks.

Kent distributor MoCo has taken on two new B2B dealer managers Ryan Neal and Duncan Austen who were previously dealer managers at Mainline.

MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander said: Part of our 2007 strategy to develop a loyal and committed B2B dealer base. Ryan and Duncan shown enthusiasm and commitment to MoCo and I am confident they will do well at MoCo.

Lester Dougall has also joined MoCo as business sales manger. He joined MoCo from Cheshire telco Chess were he was business development manager.

Anglia has appointed ex-Mainline dealer account manager Steve Cross who will deal with existing customers and create new good quality business for the company.

Mainline said it had filled five out of seven vacancies and that the remaining two appointments would be made by mid-February. It refused to give names.

Mainline managing director Andrew Boden said: Were restructuring so that we can have more contact with more customers more often. All of those that left were offered alternative positions but have decided to take redundancy instead. They have gone on to pastures new.

Helen Carville has joined Avenir as a new business development manager and will help drive Avenirs focus on B2B connections. Carville joins from Fone Logistics. She has also worked for Vodafone and Orange.

Avenir has also appointed Rosie Mateo as its new marketing manager reporting into head of marketing Valerie Haines. Mateo has worked for both T-Mobile and Orange in B2B marketing roles.

Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: Success in the B2B sector is based on being able to provide dealers with real business and commercial expertise combined with a complete knowledge of the industry. The appointments of Helen and Rosie and the experience and qualities that they bring are vital to making this happen and demonstrate Avenirs commitment to both its dealers and the networks.

Carlos Capitan has joined Fone Logistics as trade sales manager. He joins from 20:20 Logistics where he was on its international trade desk. Fone logistics has also created two new positions. Ex-Carphone Warehouse corporate sales executive Ian Morris has been appointed as channel manager for Fone Logistics O2 business partner programme and Tony Beard has joined from Dextra. Beard has been appointed as credit risk manager.

Fone Logistics head of marketing Julien Parven said: He sits between the business development team and internal credit control to work with preferred dealers to extend credit to maximise trade.

Fone Logistics has lost dealer manager Darren Yorston to Yes Telecom which is looking to exploit new market opportunities in the northern England Scotland and Northern Ireland. Yorston joins Yes as new business development manager.

Yes Telecom head of sales Rob Mukherjee said: There is a massive untapped opportunity in Scotland Northern Ireland and the North East of England. Having achieved fantastic growth across other regions of the UK in the past year we are keen to replicate this by having dedicated resources to focus on this area.

Vodafone and O2 service provider Timico has appointed Teresa Warwick as channel manager. Warwick joins Timico from Avenir.

3 is to scrap roaming charges and allow subscribers to make calls when roaming on other 3 networks at standard rates.

Its new pricing policy called 3 Like Home permits UK customers to make calls on 3 networks in Australia Austria Denmark Hong Kong Italy the Republic of Ireland and Sweden for a similar price as calls in the UK.

The same principle will apply to SMS MMS video calling and data services.

3 Group managing director of European Telecommunications Christian Salbaing said: The launch of the 3 Like Home scheme will significantly benefit our customers as they travel between the 3 Groups networks. It underlines our commitment to fair treatment and reasonable pricing for all our customers.

Customers will now only face higher roaming charges if they roam onto a non-3 network because of the high wholesale charges of many of its roaming partners said Salbaing.

3 said the reductions were in line with the European Commissions campaign to reduce the cost of mobile calls when roaming in Europe.

O2 UK head of retail marketing Becky Hughes has moved to a new role within parent company Telef³nicas trade marketing division.

Hughes will be replaced by Mark Garrad until a permanent replacement is found.

Hughes who joined O2 from Carphone Warehouse in May 2003 will work on broadband and digital TV sales in third party channels. Her transfer to Telef³nica is a secondment for an initial period of six months.

O2 has also appointed Jason Duffy as head of sales for retail. Both Garrad and Duffy will report to O2 general manager of retail Paula Cave. Mark Stansfeld O2 UK Sales Director leads the division.

Duffy said that integration of the 96 stores taken from The Link will be completed in mid-February taking O2 s retail estate to 400 shops. Old O2 stores will be refurbished starting in six weeks time.
Duffy said: We are going to build on the customer experience both internally and externally because if the staff are happy that will be passed down and will make our customers happy as they will get the best customer service. My goal is essentially to make O2 the most trusted and talked about retailer on the high street.
Duffy has been with O2 for 12 years. He started out as a trainee sales adviser in a Cellnet store and rose through the ranks. His history with the company counts in his favour he said.
I hope that shop floor staff will trust me more because of my past history he said.
Seperately O2 has appointed Mark Garrad as head of retail marketing. Garrad has worked for O2 since September 2005 across its franchise activity and channel strategy for retail.
He replaces Becky Hughes for an interim period of six months. Hughes has transferred to parent company Telefonica where she will work on broadband and digital TV sales in third-party channels.
Hughes joined O2 from Carphone Warehouse in May 2003.
Both Garrad and Duffy will report to new O2 general manager of retail Paula Cave.

As many as 40 per cent of new customers to a network give up on sending an MMS because they cannot configure their handsets properly.
In response Dublin-based software company Arantech will launch Touchpoint next month at 3GSM in Barcelona. It is software that monitors all aspects of customer usage and provides networks with data on failed calls and services.
Arantech marketing and communications officer Loughlin O Nolan claimed that four of the world s six major networks are already trialling the service. The two others are expected on board by the end of 2007 according to O Nolan.
The old days of expecting a dealer to configure a handset for MMS and other facilities are fading which means that customers often have to configure the mobile themselves he said. It s simply beyond many customers so they just give up and the network loses the potential extra revenue that those services could bring them.
O Nolan explained that the software allows networks to identify which customers are experiencing problems and why it happens so customer support staff can proactively call them and help out.
He claimed that one of the triallists has discovered missed MMS revenues to the tune of 100000 ( 67000) in one week alone.
What our software does is to monitor all aspects of the network in real time all of the time he said.
It can identify any aspect of customer problems presenting that information in different forms to the sales accounting and customer service sections of a carrier.