The 100 winners were nominated by their co-workers rather than executives for the five-day all-expenses-paid trip.
Gaining Legends status for the second year running are P1 North Division regional manager Paul Burns and Haymarket store manager Marny Hussain.

Dextra Solutions saw a 15 per cent rise in the sale of mobile phone handsfree car kits in December 2006 compared with the previous year.
The increase is being attributed to a growing awareness of tougher penalties that will become law on the 27 February. The fixed penalty fine will be doubled to 60 for drivers handling a phone with three points added to their licence.
A recent survey for The Carphone Warehouse by YouGov found that 43 per cent of men and 25 per cent of woman hold a phone while driving.
Dextra Solutions managing director James Browning said: People finally seem to be getting the message that the only way to use a mobile when driving a car is to use a hands-free car kit.

3 announced in October that it had acquired a portfolio of 95 retail sites most of them former Link outlets.
One concession staffer said: It is a very bad idea opening a standalone over the way from a concession. The bosses don t care how it affects us.
Another commented: We are going to lose our customers. Our target based bonuses will suffer.
But a 3 spokesman claimed only a handful of stores were affected.

The new W200i available in Q2 in black or white replaces the W300i and includes storage for up to 37 full-length tracks and a dedicated Walkman key. It also enables users to pre-set up to 20 radio stations.
Sony Ericsson head of product marketing Steve Walker said: The W200i is an affordable music phone that complements your existing MP3 player.
The W200i includes a 4x digital zoom and a VGA camera as well as push email and PC synchronisation.
Sony Ericsson also released some teaser images of its new W880i Walkman phone though remained tight-lipped about its features.

20:20 Logistics has appointed Peter Hubbard as its new managing director.

Hubbard former vice president and general manager of Dell Corporation replaces Rod Millar who left in November.

20:20 Mobile Group CEO Mark Ryan said: Peter brings with him a wealth of experience of working for the worlds largest supplier of computers. He has considerable experience of delivering results within a dynamic constantly changing market.

Hubbard said: 20:20 Logistics is a great business that operates in a dynamic and constantly changing market. Im looking forward to the challenge of taking the business forward.

Hubbard spent 11 years at Dell running various sales and marketing functions across the business.

Both dealers and distribution are backing 3 s new quality-based incentive. The new 40 direct debit bonus available only if customers sign up to contracts on direct debit replaces its old guerrilla bonus that was based on volume. The bonus is paid to distributors and 3 direct dealers in the fifth month of a customer s contract instead of the first as previously. It will not be paid if customers cancel their contract within the first four months or move to another form of payment.
All distributors will pass the money down to dealers in the fifth month instead of paying commission upfront.
Fone Logistics head of marketing Julien Parven said: It s good news for the dealer channel. It will clean up some of the business and stop two-box tricks and under-the-table offerings.
MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander said: It is a step forward to deliver quality in the industry. Rewarding quality forces the industry to clean up.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We will support 3 s drive for quality. All distributors will welcome initiatives like this as they drive good quality connections.
But Sprint communications managing director Paul Leonard pointed out that dealers were not always to blame. It s not a bad way of remunerating he said. But sometimes it isn t the dealer s fault it is the network that vets customers.

Time is running out to submit entries to the Mobile News Awards. The January 26 deadline is less than two weeks away.

You dont have to be an outright winner to benefit from entering the Mobile News Awards. All finalists and commended entrants are name-checked on the night and get a write-up in the Book of the Night which is sent to 6500 Mobile News readers said event co-ordinator Sarah Clacey.

The 13th Mobile News Awards will be presented at a sold-out gala dinner dance at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 22.

See www.mobilenewsawards.co.uk for category descriptions and details.

The distribution sector is gripped by fear and paranoia as airtime distributors re-evaluate their business strategies in the light of Vodafone s recent cull of lower-quality connectors.
Rival networks are expected to ape Vodafone which finally cut its ties with Hugh Symons before Christmas and to start to rationalise their distribution partnerships by the end of March if not before.
T-Mobile and Avenir which has rated highly in both Vodafone s and O2 s recent appraisals of the distribution channel came close to parting ways before Christmas according to sources. A high-quality high-volume December appears to have extended their relationship for the time being.
One distributor said: Everyone is paranoid. We are looking at the end of the first quarter and then we will see more distributors cut.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We ve got a great relationship with the guys at T-Mobile. We had a great December and we are on track to achieve the targets that have been set.
Tellingly distributors themselves are now considering sacking networks in order to better focus on fewer airtime providers. Margins in distribution are minuscule around 15 per box perhaps before overheads are taken into account.
One distributor said: We would consider [stopping work with a network] because obviously some are more profitable than others. Some we make very little money from. We have to review our position as well month-to-month.

Tough choices
Distributors are suddenly faced with a tough decision: whether to back their network partners as their commercials predicate month-to-month or to throw their weight behind certain network relationships and risk others.
Distributors are now faced with a dilemma said a distributor. Business strategy has become very awkward. By putting all their eggs in one basket and backing certain networks they risk leaving themselves exposed and coming completely unstuck.
Vodafone put together a league table of distributors last year to assess which channel partners were delivering best ARPU churn and customer lifetime value. Avenir and Anglia came out on top alongside service provider Yes Telecom which it formally backed in July when it took a majority stake in the business.
Dextra s airtime division which is unique among Vodafone distributors insofar as it makes consumer connections appears set to be the only airtime distributor with contracts with all five networks.
Vodafone axed Fone Logistics in October MoCo in November and finally Hugh Symons which had originally been bought time by the intervention of Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution Stuart Henry last month.

Pre-emptive strike
Like Fone Logistics Hugh Symons decided to pull Vodafone connections from its portfolio early after Vodafone dropped the package available to its dealers by around 50 per cent.
Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove whose original plan was to play the five-network distribution card has had to re-evaluate his strategy. However he claims Vodafone s decision will not disrupt Hugh Symons to any major degree in terms of accounts or dealer service.
The remaining networks will absorb any shortfall and we still have a very strong product and service proposition for all quality independent consumer and business dealers he says.
Kent distributor MoCo retains its status as a direct Vodafone dealer and contrary to reports as a 3 distributor too. Having run down its consumer distribution business with the network it is expected to ramp up 3 connections again when 3 launches its business offering in April.
Sources reckon that Vodafone s actions have been brought about because a part of the dealer channel has failed to move with the times. Vodafone has little use for old-school box-shifters in a market that has reached saturation point and offers declining voice revenues.
One dealer said: It is much harder to survive now. Where are you going to find the same levels of business as back in the glory days?
According to internal customer research carried out by one unnamed airtime connector the market is over-serviced. Customers get four-to-five calls per day from dealers pushing mobile solutions. There isn t a day that goes by when they re not contacted by a mobile phone dealer said a source within the company.
On the one hand pundits argue that dealers have undermined reputable businesses. The reason they got axed is because of their dealers said a distributor. They re victims of too many dealers on their books that haven t put through the right quality. Anglia and Avenir have been quite careful about which dealers they work with.
One dealer said: The emphasis for dealers today in the current climate is to provide a more consultative approach rather than to just offer the cheapest deal. We have to run customer account reviews and provide more advanced solutions better tailored to clients needs. We can t battle it out on price alone because the networks aren t interested.
On the other hand a source close to Vodafone suggested that it is the fault of distributors that Vodafone has consolidated its channel presence.
The dealer has to be provided with the tools to support the customer better and to deliver a better service. In some cases it is the distributor encouraging churn and going to dealers and pointing out to them where they can make money from new connections.
Others argue that some distributors have brought the right customers but for the wrong reasons.
These guys even if they target SOHO and SME customers which Vodafone wants them to target are still competing on price and dropping the ass out of the package to get customers to sign up. Those customers aren t earning the network the kind of revenue they would if other distributors had signed them.

New business
Avenir and Yes Telecom have both as expected picked up new business from dealers following Vodafone s distributor cull. Anglia was unavailable for comment. Both Avenir and Yes Telecom are being more circumspect in their recruitment of dealers with only around 50 per cent of new account applications accepted in both cases.
Yes Telecom managing director Keith Curran said: We have seen more account applications but in fact we are only taking on around 50 per cent of those because the jury is still out [on the quality] of the other 50 per cent. We won t just sign a form and do business with these guys.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We have had 70 new account applications since October 1 [when Fone Logistics was axed by Vodafone]. We would normally receive around 25 to 30 in that time although we have increased our advertising too. But we haven t relaxed our dealer recruitment criteria. If anything we re probably erring on the side of caution.
What is clear is that the first cut is likely be the deepest as rival networks follow Vodafone s lead.
One Orange distributor said: I wouldn t be surprised if Orange doesn t cut everyone except Midland and Mainline. It has seen that Vodafone is working with just two distributors now and that it hasn t lost any business as a result. Midland and Mainline and EBS which is its very high-volume connector could be all that are left.

Orange has appointed Duncan Hay formerly of Britvic as its new UK sales director.

Hay replaces Stuart Henry Carphone Warehouses director of indirect distribution who left 16 months ago.

Hay reports in to Orange UK vice president of sales Mike Newnham who has had replacements for Henry in position on three separate occasions since Henrys departure only for deals to fall through at the eleventh hour on each occasion.

Hay will be responsible for managing existing partnerships and creating new relationships within the indirect channel across mobile broadband and beyond.

Newnham said: Duncan has shown a drive and enthusiasm that will sit well within the Orange team. His tenacious approach has ensured the Britvic brand portfolio has been expertly represented across the UK while operating in one of the country s most competitive industries.

His wealth of experience will help Orange drive forward as we deliver both our existing and future services while continuing to deliver better value for us and our existing and future partners.

Most recently Hay held the role of business unit director at Britvic working across key UK sales channels. Before joining Britvic Duncan spent his career in the Mars Corporation. His roles ranged from sales and marketing to finance and project management.

Hay begins his new role at Orange on March 5.

The Carphone Warehouse Group has suspended its sponsorship of Channel 4s Celebrity Big Brother programme estrimated to be worth GBP3 million.

Having maintained yesterday (January 17) that the content of the show had nothing to do with it and that it would continue to back the show Carphone boss Charles Dunstone today confirmed that it had indeed terminated its sponsorship deal.

Dunstone said: Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house. We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse. As a result we feel that as long as this continues we are unable to associate our brand with the programme.

We had already made it clear to Channel 4 that were this to continue we would have to consider our position. Nothing we saw last night gave us any comfort. Accordingly we have instructed Channel 4 to remove our sponsorship name and branding with immediate effect.

Television watchdog Ofcom has received over 20000 complaints from viewers that Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has been subjected to racist remarks from fellow housemates Jade Goody Danielle Lloyd and Jo OMeara.

Carphone is expected to consider reinstating its sponsorship for future series of Big Brother.