Staff Reporter

Alexander replaces former operations director John Walsh who left the company in August to fill the same post at Phones 4U.

Alexander started at the start of September and will be responsible for the operational running of The Links distribution network.

Alexander moves internally having been with the Dixons Group for 16 years.

Previously he was Dixons Group distribution and operations director a role he held for three-and-a-half years.

More than 1.68 billion text messages were sent in July compared with 1.3 billion in July last year and 992 million in July 2001.

The MDA says Julys figure takes the cumulative total for 2003 to 11.6 billion against a 12-month forecast for the year of 20 billion.

The day A-Level results were announced (August 14) saw a rise in the daily average to 67 million compared with 55 million sent last year.

Text messaging is continuing to rise in popularity and diversity commented MDA chairman Mike Short.

As well as person-to-person text messaging we are seeing an increase in interactive text – with programmes such as Fame Academy and Pop Idol providing people with the opportunity to vote via a short code across all networks.

But under a new policy from the start of this month dealers are allowed to offer incentives to customers who are looking at upgrading their current handsets.

According to sales director Stuart Henry the change is designed to allow dealers to build long-term relationships with customers.

One of the aims of the Orange Business Specialist programme is to enable independent retailers that are part of the scheme to build long-term relationships with their customers he said.

Upgrades are an important tool in developing customer relationships he went on and from September 1 Orange Business Specialists will have the ability to offer additional incentives to existing customers who wish to upgrade their handsets.

The move comes as Orange makes a major effort to stop the slide in connections that it suffered last quarter. While O2 and Virgin added around a quarter of a million customers each Orange lost 55000.

(see Orange hikes connection bonus P12)

Woods spent the past two years as marketing director for Childrens and Learning at the BBC.

The new clamshell model will take us into a part of market that we havent been in before said Sony Ericsson UK marketing director Peter Marsden.

Clamshell is a very popular style and there are certain customers who walk into a store and want a clamshell no matter what is put in front of them.

A new lighter and thinner version of the P800 is also to be shipped. It will come with a fixed flick-down keypad as well as a metal stylus. Marsden admitted the T300 hadnt sold as well as had hoped but the P800 had fared better than anyone had imagined. (full story P30)

Sales of PDAs without mobile capability are expected to fall this year by 8.4 per cent to 11.35 million units worldwide.

IDC reckons sales of converged devices such as smartphones and wireless PDAs will overtake unconnected devices to grow beyond 13 million units this year. Better design usability and lower prices are said to be behind the upsurge in smartphone/wireless PDA sales.

IDC research showed Nokia to be the leading converged device maker with 61 per cent global market share and sales of 1200000 smartphones/communicators globally in Q2. Sony Ericsson was number two (10.2 per cent market share) followed by Motorola (5.8 per cent) and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (4.6 per cent).

Vodafones previous assistance numbers (192 and 197) were withdrawn on Sunday in accordance with Oftel requirements.

The number 195 for disabled customers will remain in operation.

The service is being outsourced to information service provider Conduit and will be available to contract and pre-pay customers.

Conduit currently operates call centres in Dublin Cardiff Swansea Biel and Vienna and provides services to clients in the UK Ireland Switzerland Spain and Austria.

Last year it handled more than 100 million directory enquiry calls and expects that figure to double this year as a result of deregulation in the UK and Spain.

The network is not changing the price of the service. Calls cost 60p per connection 60p per subsequent minute and a further 60p per minute for any connected call.

Conduit is investing more than 40 million to support 11-88-88 over the next 18 months as part of its ongoing expansion. l Vodafone has also opened its first concept store in the north of England following those in Watford Cardiff and Londons Oxford Street.

The new Experience store located in Manchester follows the tried-and-tested formula of big demonstration areas touch screens a business lounge in-store repair area free phone recharging facility and also free phone home to roamers customer service numbers.

Hutchison Whampoa operates a port in Burma through one of its divisions. A 3 spokesman said: 3 UK is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa and we have no direct or indirect links with Burma.

The Abingdon-based distributor joins Hugh Symons Avenir and Fone Logistics in offering the 3G network to dealers.

Daniel Everard 19 of Beckenham Kent was fined 150 with 55 costs when he appeared for sentencing at Horseferry Road court on August 11. He worked at the car park as an air conditioning engineer.

Everard admitted the theft from the BMW after being shown CCTV footage of him stealing the 140 Nokia handset from the vehicle. I dont know why I did it it was a five-minute stupid thing he told the court.

In another case a 13-year-old schoolboy has appeared in court accused of robbing train passengers of mobile phones.

The boy from Mitcham in Surrey cannot be named for legal reasons.

He is charged with robbing Nikhil Sumaria of a phone and ring at Norbury and Zade Wilson of cash wallet and travelcard on a train between Thornton Heath and Norbury.