The mid-range Nokia 6300 is a slimline bar 13.1mm thick with a stainless steel frame. It is expected to retail for 250 ( 169) on pre-pay. The 3G 6290 Series 60 smartphone includes multiple alarms and external short-cut keys. Its estimated retail price is 325 ( 220) before VAT. The quad-band Nokia 6086 camera phone includes a large keypad and will retail for around 200 ( 135) before subsidies or taxes.
Nokia executive vice president and general manager for mobile phones Kai Oistamo said: These new products give consumers a choice in the right balance of technology and design to meet their lifestyle and budget.
Nokia also said last week that its N80 Internet Edition handset will support cheap mobile VoIP calls with Gizmo VoIP by SIPphone.
Nokia predicated that the Internet would become the key driving force in mobile. Nokia CEO and president Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said:
The next wave of the Internet will be to make it truly mobile creating new ways for people to connect to others and find info from wherever they are. Nokia intends to be at the forefront of this new era and truly merges the Internet and mobility.

Laura Evans who purchased a contract with O2 won free line-rental for her contract s lifetime.
The team from Market Street in Manchester will also be rewarded with a grand night out where they will have 1000 spending money for a team social.
Retail director John Welsh said: It is the first time our stores have ever hit 1million new contracts in a year. 2006 will be a record year it s just a matter of by how much.
Jim Slater marketing director asserted that the new contracts only represent a segment of Phones 4U s revenues across a range of sales arenas.

Peter Rand who was head of CARE has been promoted to a European role while John Chancellor formerly head of Nokia enhancements has left to join Anovo.
Both men had been strong supporters of the Nokia car-kit accreditation scheme. A pilot version of the scheme on which around 120 engineers have enrolled on is set to end later this month.
With Nokia due to make a decision following an assessment of the scheme some engineers are now concerned that the departure of two of its most vocal supporters could see it end.
Vernon Craig an engineer with Freedom Installations said: It would be a real shame that without Peter Rand and John Chancellor this doesn t happen. The accreditation would mean more business because we would be able to prove that we can fit Nokia car kits to a higher standard than unaccredited engineers.
Michael Walmsley an engineer with Communications Network said: If you want a boiler fitted you use a Corgi registered engineer. This scheme would be the best thing to set apart the skilled engineers .

Alexander is replaced as head of MoCo Business by Mark Elliot previously at John Caudwell s old fixed-line business Homecall.
Elliot and Bill Wilson head of MoCo Distribution will report in to Alexander.
MoCo has also drafted in Jonathan Ricketts from Midland as new dealer account managers. The appointments are part of a wide-ranging expansion. It s interviewing three to four people per day and will look to recruit top-quality B2B dealers in the New Year.
MoCo managing director Ian Robinson said: Harvey is MoCo s main point of contact for the networks manufacturers and other suppliers.

Vodafone searches for new way
Business in new territories was doing well for Vodafone but revenue in the UK was at 2.54 billion for the period marginally down on the same period last year. Profit metrics for the UK were also flat.
At a briefing last Tuesday group CEO Arun Sarin highlighted the ways in which costs were being cut including an IT outsourcing deal to IBM and EDS expected to deliver 25-30 per cent of unit cost savings in three to five years. He was also proud to announce an advertising revenue deal with Yahoo! to introduce advertising on Vodafone customers mobiles if they wish.
Sarin said: Over the last few months all the trials we ve been conducting suggest to us that our customers were willing to accept mobile advertising with a couple of conditions: that it would be on an opt-in basis and that we share the economic benefits that we get from advertisers. You ll see the first adverts going out in the April May June timeframe.
In line with other mobile players such as Orange and The Carphone Warehouse Vodafone has launched a fixed broadband proposition across Europe. The network hopes to launch a DSL service in the UK by early January 2007. Given the highly publicised teething problems some rivals have had rolling out their DSL propositions Sarin is understandably cautious about how Vodafone extends this service.
He said: The DSL proposition in each country will be different because the economics of each country is different and we are watching these economics. We will stay with wholesale relationships. We are a new entrant into this market.
Another technology that the Vodafone s board directors are pushing for next year is mobile broadband. The network is currently rolling the capability out across all territories.
Andy Halford group chief financial officer: We are on track to getting 60 per cent coverage by the end of March for 3G networks and by March around 60 per cent of our 3G cell sites will also be running HSDPA.
O2: Christmas and beyond
O2 also filed performance figures for its third quarter last week. O2 is no longer a listed company in the UK so it only gave a snapshot of its performance. However in that period net service revenues grow by 15 per cent in the UK. O2 CEO Peter Erskine was cheerful about the network s performance but was much more circumspect about the introduction of sophisticated non-voice services.
he said: 3G will take off when the handsets get as good as 2G and that s happening around about now. I don t think it s going to be an enormous 3G Christmas but its starting to take off.
As far as a fixed DSL service is concerned Erskine was also much more hands-off than Sarin. O2 purchased DSL operator be in June this year but has not yet rolled out a broadband service. Nor will it for the foreseeable future. Erskine said: We ll launch when the customer experience is good and the one bill proposition works. At the moment too many people are being frustrated by the experience of signing up broadband and mobile bundles.
The prospect of advertising did not seem to pique Erskine s interest either.
As I speak we are conducting trials on mobile advertising he said: We are interested in that space but it s absolutely critical we get the customer experience right. I think if you do nothing but just pump adverts at people unless we can get revenue streams on the ads it s just an excuse to give away free minutes.
In contrast O2 is looking at smaller scale perhaps less ambitious non-voice services to complement established voice and SMS revenues. One of these is My Blue Book which is a hosted service allowing customers to centrally store pictures and addresses so that they can be synched with files on their PCs or blog sites on the Internet.

Mainstays remain
Clearly both networks haven t lost sight of the fact that voice revenues are still the mainstay of financial performance although Sarin admitted that prices across the group are decreasing by 15 per cent year on year.
Erskine on the other hand took the positive tip. Voice minutes are growing he said: The only reason people take on a fixed line these days is to get DSL so it s no surprise O2 is still interested in voice.
Core business aside the two biggest networks with over 30 million customers between them will definitely both be pushing non-voice services in 2007.

Varty and co-founders Sacha Visram Sally Chatrejee have set up the Com Mobi Group to target distinct mobile segment groups defined by ethnicity or sexual orientation.
The Com Mobi Group is currently in discussions with potential host networks with a view to a mid-2007 launch of Desi Mobi the first spin-off. A full branding billing and support service will be offered to subscribers.
Desi is a term used within the Asian community to refer to people of South Asian origin. Visram said: It s designed by UK Asians for UK Asians sold by UK Asians and to UK Asians .

Vodafone also announced an exclusive three-year deal with remote access provider Fiberlink last week to give enterprise customers in the field secure access to office applications.
Vodafone s Kyle Whitehill director of its enterprise business unit said the two service providers would be run as autonomous business units in the same way that wholly-owned Manchester service provider Yes Telecom operates.
Vodafone has taken on all of Isis s 90 staff based in Ealing and all Aspective s 120 staff based in Staines.
Said Whitehill: We like what both Isis and Aspective are doing and want them to continue to do it. But at the same time both would have struggled with resources to expand their businesses. We have acquired both but we want them to remain as they are because we want a nimble and flexible service to our customers. Just like we acquired Yes Telecom but kept the operation as it was because we have enormous respect for [Yes Telecom managing director] Keith Curran so we ve taken on these businesses.
Isis gives Vodafone better service capability in fleet management and billing according to Whitehill. Isis is considered to be strong in the financial services sector with most of its business concentrated in the City of London.
Isis managing director Peter Johnston said: The services offered by Isis are unique and complement Vodafone s offerings. We look forwards to making our services available to a wider range of Vodafone customers.
Aspective is the market leader in mobilising office applications according to Whitehill.
He said: Aspective does all the work. Vodafone has always been able to go in and talk about it and to take a chunk of revenue but we weren t able to offer a real consultancy service and integrate services fully. We ve acquired those CRM applications with the acquisition of Aspective and brought that skill-set in-house.
The Fibrelink deal will enable Vodafone dealers to provide corporate customers with mobile access to office IT programmes.
Fibrelink provides an access screen which can be Vodafone-branded or issued as a white-label interface that automatically selects for the best connectivity method whether that s via 3G Wi-FI or broadband.

He joined MPRC formerly part of the Caudwell Group in 1990 from Granada and intends to retire from full-time work.
I intended retiring at the end of 2007. Caudwell s departure meant the changes have allowed me to exit earlier he said.

Blackman joined Mobile News as reporter in February 2004 after a two-year stint in Mexico running a regional listings magazine.

The Emblaze Touch 7 has a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash Bluetooth MP3 and MPEG-4 video playback and an expandable memory. It is available in pink or black and has a slider with a depth of 16mm.
Laurence Alexander CEO and president of Emblaze says: We re delighted to launch the Emblaze Touch 7 through Currys. The handset is part of our strategy to make Emblaze Mobile become a brand name in its own right in the consumer handset market.
Jon Lyngra head of trading
and communications at Currys and DSG international added: Working with Emblaze Mobile has enabled us to add depth and choice to the range of consumer handsets we can offer our customers.
DSGi is currently in a transitional period assisting O2 in managing the sale of The Link stores anticipated to continue until March 2007. The process is being led by Nick Wood as managing director of the Group Communications Division.