Carphone Warehouse has released strong half-year results as it announced a possible pan-European deal with Vodafone. However one-time costs dragged the bottom line down into negative figures.

The fixed line to mobile phones business recorded a 40 per cent growth in its financial half-year sales. It made 1.8 billion in revenue in the 26 weeks ended September 30 up from 1.2 billion in the same period the year before.

Pre-tax profits were massively down on last year however to a 4.7 million deficit due to start-up losses of over 45.1 million attributed to the companys free broadband offer.

On the retail side total connections grew 34.4 per cent to 4.34 million. Subscription connections were up 17.1 per cent to 1.82 million and pre-pay connections rose by59 per cent to 2.28 million. SIM-free sales fell by 2.7 per cent to 241000. Retail like-for-like growth was 12.1 per cent.

Carphone CEO Charles Dunstone said: This has been a busy six months. Our distribution business has maintained its momentum opening 143 new store and benefiting from the dynamism of the mobile market and customer demand.

Dunstone was quick to downplay the decision by Vodafone to give Phones 4U an exclusivity deal on consumer contracts. He used the results as a platform to announce that he was in talks with the network over a pan-European framework agreement.

He said: Subsequent to our announcement on October 12 we have been actively engaged with Vodafone regarding the development of a Pan-European framework agreement. It is intended that this agreement will encompass subscription and prepay connections where appropriate.

3UK has struck a deal with BSkyB to deliver mobile TV services over its network.

The neteworks customers will be offered up to 27 Sky Mobile TV channels including news sport music entertainment and documentaries. The service is a mix of made-for-mobile and as-live programming.

Three specific service packs are available each focused around news and sport entertainment and music. Each one is priced at 5 per month for unlimited access subject to 3s fair usage policy.

However the network plans to offer the service free for the first month of launch.

The service will be launched by the end of the year a 3UK spokeswoman confirmed.

The Bentall Centre location was treated to the full works within the networks T-Mobile Goes to Town programme which included staff giving out complementary parking vouchers rides around town in pink T-Mobile tuk-tuks (diminutive three-wheeled taxis) and free coffee dispensed to shoppers in the area.

For T-Mobile head of retail Russell Taylor the exercise is more than just a chance to show that the network can be fun – its also a marketing tool to lever the network into difficult locations.

Taylor joined T-Mobile five years ago and has been leading the retail business since July. At the time the network was clearly under-represented compared to the competition. Taylor decided on a store expansion to 250 stores by the end of this year and 302 stores by next year.

The first challenge was to consolidate the look and feel of the existing estate.

It wasnt just a lick-of-paint refit he said. They all look and feel like the store in Kingston.

By March this year 120 were refurbished and as the new stores are added theyll complement that refit. This is part of 1000 stores across Europe for the network all with the same look and feel.

This refit has helped T-Mobile get into destination shopping venues according to Taylor who thinks the superior look and feel has impressed landlords.

Weve spent an awful lot of time talking with the centre landlords letting them know what were about so that we can get sites that before just werent available he said. Were now at places like Lakeside which we werent able to get into previously. They see the relationship that weve built with the consumers. Flext has been a great success Ufix is a great success.

And this is where events like T-Mobile Goes to Town come in as it creates retail theatre from which the whole high street or centre can benefit. Even T-Mobiles local indirect retail partners are forewarned so that they can make the most of it.

We were with the landlord at Bluewater the other week and when we showed him the opportunity that we could bring he was excited about it because no-one else is doing it that way. We become more a part of the local community. And that links to the brand behaviour. It tells people who T-Mobile is.

This sort of spectacle is only one gambit for Taylor though. Alongside this is a solid commitment to in-store experience and to staff.

An example of how in-store experience has been addressed is the use of flat screens at the back of the store linked by server so that key messages can be changed centrally. Messages can be tailored according to region and changed throughout the day.

Taylor has also made a commitment to training through the use of e-learning packages. T-Mobile is taking on 290 people between now and December 31 to staff the newly-opened stores.

Taylor acknowledges the challenge of getting everyone on-message but his response is to make sure that area managers only have an average of 10 stores to deal with well below the retail average of 15 to 18.

He said: With 10 stores they can do a full day and half-day in every store a month and still have days for their own team meetings recruitment and so on.

Allied to this is a cadre of training managers each with the same number of stores to deal with. All will have a day and a half in each site.

Weve got our staff attrition rate to a low 20 per cent. In my understanding that is well below average. Our challenge is to continue to manage this when we grow to 1500 to 1600 people – we are trying to do this by making sure staff feel like theyve got a career with T-Mobile and a clear promotion path.

JAG has already signed the lease on a new store in Port Talbot South Wales taking its retail footprint in the region to seven. Its total retail estate now comprises 81 stores. JAG is also in the process of doubling its number of outlets on the Isle of Wight to four making it the largest phone retailer on the island.

JAG managing director John George said that the company was at present looking at 12 different sites in total none of which currently trade as dealerships.

He said: We have one store in Whitney near Oxford and we want to fill the corridor between the West Country and there. There are around 12 sites that weve identified and going on previous experience we usually convert about half.

He added: We have been consolidating our position in the market since purchasing the KJC outlets last year but after having a stunningly successful summer we now feel its time to start expanding again. We would be happy to acquire another company.

JAG acquired 14 sites from KJC in total. It has nine ex-KJC branches that it trades from.

Separately JAG has appointed five area recruitment managers. George said: In this business we succeed or fail on the quality of our staff and in recent months we have been finding it increasingly difficult to source the right people.

George said JAG sales staff earn up to 45000 per annum and store managers up to 75000 on bonus and commission packages.

Deuss a multi-millionaire oil tycoon was arrested by police and detained in custody on October 13 on suspicion of money laundering handling stolen goods and being in charge of a criminal organisation. He was expected to appear in court last week to be bailed or released.

The FCIB was placed into administration by the Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles on October 11 which will assume control of the FCIBs assets to re-pay funds to traders and to close the bank down. The FCIBs assets are intact save for ?40million ( 26.79million) which it has paid to release 78million tied up in correspondent banks.

Mobile News understands that there are sufficient funds within the FCIB to reimburse traders. A process of verification will be undertaken before funds are returned and account holders outside of the phone trade will be dealt with first. Proceedings against the FCIB continue.

PNC refused to explain the cancellation of the meeting. PNC claims that a shortfall of 940000 appeared in its accounts after former directors Geremy Thomas Nigel Etherington and Jeff Pack resigned in 2004.

One director repaid the money he took this month. PNC has filed against the other two.

The LG Chocolate Pink has the same specifications as the original handset including a music player.

Brian Na president of LG UK said that with the new colour LG is offering existing Chocolate fans an opportunity to add to their collection while also reaching out to a new group of mobile users.

There are 18 stores in Mainlines m-viron retail chain as it stands which is concentrated in the Midlands but stretches as far south as Baldock Hertfordshire and as far north as Crosby Liverpool. Six m-viron stores are wholly-owned Mainline outlets. The remainder are franchise stores. The two new sites also franchises are located in Cambridgeshire and Worcestershire.

Mainline managing director Andrew Boden refused to pinpoint the locations of the new m-viron outlets because leases have not yet been signed with the landlords.

Boden said: We plan to open two new m-viron stores before Christmas. The stores are existing dealerships. He added that Mainline are working to align with Orange to see if m-viron could fill any existing gaps in Oranges own retail coverage.

We dont want to roll the chain out to such an extent that we cant continue to provide the right level of support. According to Boden m-viron currently receives a lot of support to help it compete with the likes of CPW and Orange Retail.

The new store has been designed with a bank of nine plasma screen TVs to highlight products and show a constantly changing marketing message.

DPC managing director Phil Rider said: Its right in the centre of the main shopping street in Norwich so weve looked to differentiate ourselves with the store layout.

Rider said that DPC was looking to increase its business connections. At present around 35 per cent of its business is B2B. Rider wants its consumer/business ratio to run closer to 50:50.

He said: Were running parallel with last year in terms of business. We initially forecast a dip this year so were very pleased.

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

MacLeod will be replaced by Cynthia Gordon vice president of marketing for the Orange Group since 2003. Gordon has 15 years of commercial telecoms experience.

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 and for the last three years has worked across Europe.