Staff Reporter

Staff Reporter

  • Joined: 1 September 2025
  • Articles: 22780

Vodafone strengthens board

Vodafone has appointed two non-executive directors Nick Land and Alan Jebson to its board from December. The move is seen by pundits as an effort to create a mood of consensus and put earlier in-fighting firmly in the past for the network. Jebson retired this summer as group chief operating officer of HSBC and is a former colleague of Vodafone chairman Sir John Bond. Land recently retaired as chairman of Ernst and Young.
Bond said: Nicks financial expertise and experience of dealing with major corporations in many parts of the world will be invaluable to us and Alans knowledge of international information technology systems including his experience of CRM [Customer Relationship Management] and data mining as well as his financial background will be a great asset for Vodafone.

Safran responds to Motorola

Sagem parent Safran has issued a response to reports that Motorola is interested in acquiring the French handset maker.

The company said it was pleased to see that a major player in the market has publicly recognised the quality of its mobile phones division.

The company said: A potential link-up with another mobile phone maker is only one possibility to ensure the sustained success of the business. In the current context Motorola remains a competitor to Sagem.

Two weeks ago Motorola head of mobile phones Ron Garriques said the company was looking at Sagem shares with interest sending Safran sky high. Subsequently Motorola sent out a statement saying that Garriques comments were a general comment and not a plan of action.

3 extends its IM service

3 has announced that over 100 million instant messages have been sent since the network started up the service on August 1.

This means that over one million messages a day are sent over the service called Windows Live Messenger. The announcement comes as the network extended the service to pre-pay customers – previously it was available solely to those signed up on contract.

According to 3UK marketing director Graeme Oxby three-quarters of under-24s in the UK are regular instant messengers – and over half of them want to be able to access an instant messaging service over the phone. 3 has over 10 million registered users in the UK.

Oxby said: We have been watching with interest how quickly the super-connected generation has adopted instant messaging on their mobiles. Our decision to offer this service free will allow all of our customers to benefit from our mobile Internet service.

Windows Live Messenger is available free for life for 3 contract customers and free for pre-pay customers until December 2007.

BT Movio adds news

BT has added ITN News to its roster of TV channels on its wholesale mobile TV service BT Movio.

BT Movio is available to all UK network operators although only Virgin Mobile has opted in so far. The addition of ITN News a made-for-mobile news channel completes the BT Movio content line-up at launch. Other channels include BBC One ITV1 Channel 4 and E4.

BT Movio managing director Emma Lloyd said: During the BT Movio pilot consumers consistently ranked news as the number one preference.

BT Movio launched last month on Virgin Mobile is available on contracts of 25 and above. The service costs 5 monthly after an initial free 90 days.

Qstik channel recruitment

Consumer electronics specialist Qstik is searching for channel partners to distribute its first Bluetooth headset offering.

Founded in autumn 2005 the venture specialises in making use of technologies developed by the military to produce products for the consumer sector. The companys first product is the EVOQ Bluetooth headset. The product uses technology developed for the military market. It enhances speech for the caller and listener while vastly improving the quality of sound according to Qstik business development manager Iain Graham encouraging longer and more frequent conversations.

A Vodafone veteran Graham said: This is a rare opportunity for distributors to get involved at the ground level with a device that is utterly unique. We anticipate that EVOQ will ultimately boost operator revenues because its so easy to integrate .

Texting topples records

The number of text messages sent in September has smashed all records yet again according to figures released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

The number of text messages sent in September was over 3.7 billion an increase of 100 million on the previous highest total recorded in August.

On average there were 123 million messages being sent per day last month – that is an increase of 30 per cent from September last year.

HMRC shies from terror label

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said that reports last week overstated links between VAT fraud and terrorism but added that money generated from organised crime such as VAT fraud was bound to fund wider criminality.

Home Secretary John Reid said at a G6 meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon last week that proceeds from VAT fraud were funding terrorist groups according to reports in other press.

An HMRC spokesperson said: Any large-scale money flows arising from organised crime such as those generated by MTIC fraud are bound to be used to fund a range of other illegal activities.

Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo briefed ministers at the G6 conference on HMRCs clampdown on VAT fraud and urged closer relationships between tax enforcement agencies across Europe.

We have a shared agenda to tackle the organised crime groups behind carousel fraud and to reduce the economic and social costs of their crimes. We need to improve our ability to share intelligence and work together on criminal interventions the spokesperson said.

And where appropriate we need to share the evidence gathered through criminal investigations to support civil actions that will prevent the fraudsters having access to the proceeds of their crimes. HMRC is committed to working with our European partners to tackle this.

Poppy Appeal goes mobile

The Royal British Legion organiser of the Poppy Appeal is offering mobile downloads in exchange for a donation this year.

Punters can pay 1.50 to download one of three Poppy images to their phone. Each one features the poppy icon with the word Remember plus the time and date of the two minutes silence on Nov 11: 11.11.11. This year the Appeal hopes to raise 26 million.

A spokesman for the Pocket Group the company providing technical support said: This is the perfect alternative for people who want to support the appeal but dont want to wear a poppy.

T-Mobile promotes retail boss

T-Mobile head of retail Russell Taylor instrumental inT-Mobiles plan to double its own store portfolio by the end of the year has been promoted to the role of director of retail.

T-Mobile director of sales Gordon Ballantyne said: Under Russells leadership we are on target to open over 190 new shops by June 2007 bringing our total number to over 300. His dedication and energy has been the driving force behind our retail expansion and this announcement recognises the importance we attach to our retail business.

Taylor joined T-Mobile in 2001 as channel development manager. He then became head of business sales before taking on the head of retail position in July last year.

Vodafone connects the family

Vodafone launched a tariff this month allowing family members unlimited calls to each other for as little as 5 a month.

The Vodafone Family tariff enables groups of four or six people free calls between one another at any time providing they are all Vodafone customers.

Vodafones Tim Yates said: We all juggle family friends and work and this tariff will ensure we can always stay in touch.