Staff Reporter

Mark Mitchinsondirector of Samsung Mobile UK said:

This is a very exciting sponsorship for Samsung Mobile and we are pleased to be able to continue our close links with the team in 2005. With the new riders and an incredible set-up 2005 looks set to be a highly successful year for the team and I wish them the best of luck for the season ahead.

Mitchinson added that Samsung will run a number of marketing initiatives for the fans at race meetings throughout the motor racing season.

Spectators will have the opportunity to participate in competitions demo the latest phones and share their racing knowledge during the season he said.

The roll-out follows a successful trial in selected stores since Christmas which saw the introduction of dedicated in-store areas with experts trained to take customer through the whole cameraphone imaging process.

Customers are advised on everything from choosing the best quality cameraphones through to getting the most from digital photography by home printing uploading images online and creating personalised gifts.

Carphone Warehouse UK chief executive Andrew Harrison said the cameraphone photography proposition heralded the companys commitment to become the number one retailer for all kinds of digital photography in the UK.

We have seen an increasing shift towards cameraphones particularly since Christmas and it seems that the convergence of mobile communication and mobile digital photography is proving to be what the customer really wants he said.

People just dont want or need two devices and as no one leaves home without their mobile phone this is how people will take photos in the future he predicted.

The Carphone Warehouse says that of the handsets it sells 75 per cent now have a built-in digital camera. Of these at least 27 per cent have a megapixel camera.

The company has also had more than 300000 images uploaded to its photography website run in conjunction with Photobox since its launch in 2004.

Compare it with game-playing on the N-Gage and there is no contest said a spokesperson for 3. The N-Gage uses Bluetooth for multi-player so everyone has to sit in the same room. With this I could play three other people anywhere in the country and it is live.

The first games to launch will be tank war game No Refuge by Mobile Interaction followed by shoot em up Lock n Load from Synergenix. Real-time games will cost 50p per play.

3 will also launch Macrospaces Battleships-style Cannons Tournament in which players take turns to shoot canons at opponents.

3 also claimed this week that games of near console quality would be available by May at 3- 7.50 to buy and 50p to rent.

3 marketing director Graeme Oxby said: We are picking the right games for 3G and delivering services that are fun and accessible at affordable prices.

Dingle predicted a revolution in mobile phone technology driven by the manufacture of chipsets.

There was a time when handset manufacturers were technology providers as well as a product providers he said. Now theyre simply about branding marketing and logistics. The value chain has changed and chipset manufacturers and software providers are more important. This end of the market is going to grow fast. Icera has a breakthrough technology and a clear strategy to deliver platform solutions with a low cost of ownership and implementation.

Mobile phones now require complex hardware to support more radio standards than ever before. Dingle says it opens the door for technology companies like Icera to develop more flexible phone hardware which enables over-the-air software updates.

Around 1500 of the jobs created over the next two years will be call centre staff and 500 will be in retail. It is understood that a new call centre will be announced in the next fortnight in either the north of England or Scotland.

O2 will cut non-essential management and administrative staff to counterbalance costs incurred by the appointments.

An O2 spokesman said: We are going to employ 2000 people in customer-facing roles which means retail staff as well as call centre employees. We are opening a fourth call centre in the UK. We cant confirm exactly where that will be until we have closed the deal and finalised the operation.

We are rebalancing the extra resource that will be invested in customer service staff so that it will be at a broadly neutral cost. We want to focus on the crucial elements of service and strip out unnecessary costs and activity. Customer experience and loyalty are key.

Johnson 42 was with Orange for 10 years where he was involved in the development of Orange Retail taking the business from scratch to 165 stores in just three years and expanding into 14 countries including territories in Europe Africa and the Far East.

Johnson said: Im helping prepare ORA for ongoing strategic initiatives that will place the company at the forefront of the mobile market as both a world-class supplier of communication products and accessories and the first choice of major network operators and mobile handset manufacturers.

He added: Im excited about joining ORA at a time when its becoming an innovative market-leading provider of first – to-market products and services.

ORA CEO Peter Oliver commented: Bob brings a wealth of mobile industry experience to ORA. His appointment together with the recent strategic changes weve put in place will significantly enhance ORAs profile in the coming months.

TCL went into receivership in November 1999 with debts of around 3 million and rumours that it had been affected by dealer fraud and tight margins on pre-pay.

It was run by Tony Lane John McLuskie Terry Cork and Rob Musk.

In 1998 TCL had a turnover of 21 million and employed 130 staff across 39 retail outlets. It also had a dealer base of around 300 connecting through Phones 4U.

A fifth joint-liquidators annual report published last Friday into the business dealings of TCL prior to its bankruptcy also suggested that money was transferred between TCL and accounts operated by two new companies.

TCL directors were on the board of the new companies too.

Carl Jackson joint-liquidator at Tenon Recovery said in the report:

A further investigation into the directors conduct was carried out in light of new information regarding significant funds received into an unrecorded bank account.

The funds are believed to be commissions due to the company and appear to have been transferred to accounts operated by the two new companies.

The directors of these new companies are common to those of the liquidating company and it may be that the monies have been used for the directors own purposes.

I have received a portion of the diverted funds at 132863 but the agent engaged to effect recovery has failed to transfer the balance of his realisations to me. A bankruptcy petition was granted against the agent on September 30 2004 on my petition. I have lodged the companys claim with the trustee in bankruptcy. At the time of writing and to the best of my knowledge no realisations have been made by the trustee.

He added: It is possible that some of the diverted funds were used to purchase land. My investigations are ongoing in this regard.

Sean Scully an administrator at Tenon said:

I cant say any more than is set out in the report. As you go on things unfold and it can take many years to get to the end of an investigation. It is something we cant put a timescale on.

The site www.fishblog.co.uk will be officially launched at this years Go Fishing Show at the NEC on April 1.

They capture the moment using their camera phone and then send the image along with a message to the website where it will be published said Nokia multimedia UK marketing manager Rachel Wright..

The Vodafone live! brand will be part of the new-look Megasoccer.com with promotions and offers displayed on every page of the site.

Talk and Text 400 which combines 300 anytime any network text messages with 100 anytime any network voice minutes for 30 a month became available on Thursday last week.

It will sit alongside 3s most popular tariff Talk and Text 600 which offers customers 500 any network anytime voice minutes and 100 any network anytime texts for 30 a month.

3 has also introduced two new text add-ons. Text 500 offers 500 any network anytime text messages for 20 a month while Text 1000 gives 1000 texts for 40 a month. Both offers equate to 4p per text message.

And in an effort to promote video calling the network has slashed the cost for its customers to make a video call to another 3 customer from 50p per minute to 20p.

Video calls from 3 customers to other networks have also been chopped going down from 80p to 50p. Both of the price cuts will run until September 30.

3 UK chief executive Gareth Jones said: 3 has set the benchmark for mobile pricing in the UK consistently offering better value to our customers than the old networks. 3 offers great value to customers who spend more than 15 a month on their mobile. As with any new technology 3G offers customers more for less. l 3 has come second and third in a survey of the worlds top 10 wireless services according to Analysys.

The report The Worlds Top Ten Wireless Services picks out those exhibiting high market potential effective implementation and suitability for reproduction in other markets.

3 was second in the list for its ThreePay tariff and third for its mobile video calling service.