Staff Reporter

Details of the new 2005 entertainment and imaging-led strategy will be unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes this week.

Having established a profitable base and a reputation for quality innovation and design in 2004 this year will see us expand our product portfolio and challenge the market once again with new thinking and stunning designs said Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint.

3G will also become increasingly important as the year progresses. Although 3G sales amounted to less than five per cent of the overall market in 2004 we expect this segment to come close to 10 per cent of overall volumes during the year with further rapid expansion in 2006.

Flint and other executives will outline the companys strategy for 2005 how the company will expand its product range and how consumers will be offered a new experience with their handsets.

Sony Ericsson handsets on display in Cannes in a 630 square metre pavilion will be the V800 for Vodafonenominated for an award as Best 3G Handset by the GSM Association as well as the K700 S700 and P910.

In 2004 the T610 won the award for Best handset terminal or device during the GSM Associations Awards evening at the 3GSM World Congress.

The virtual network already sponsors the Kiss FM Breakfast Show MacKenzie Group Barfly venues and the V Festival.

The TRL deal which was put together by Viacom Brand Solutions starts from next week and will run for a year.

It will enable Virgin to tap into TRLs association with celebrities music and entertainment as well as engage with the shows youth audience.

TRL viewers will see Virgin Mobile start and end credits bookending the show and at ad breaks. Online activity will comprise a Virgin Mobile-branded area on the main TRL website.

The area will include biographies of the TRL presenters and weekly listings of guests and artists on the show as well as bespoke Virgin Mobile games and competitions. Users will have the opportunity to download desktop wallpapers and screensavers and sign up for a weekly TRL newsletter.

Users of Bites Virgins interactive mobile content service will be able to receive exclusive interviews from the stars appearing on TRL plus images and the opportunity to win tickets to the TRL show.

Commenting on the deal

Alison Corfield head of consumer communications at Virgin Mobile said: Part of Virgin Mobiles success is its strong youth appeal. The partnership with MTVs TRL sees a collaboration of two youth brands with shared values united in their use of music celebrity and irreverent humour.

Symphony acquired Anglia Telecom in April for 10 million.

An Anglia spokesman said: The purchase of Anglia rounded out the Symphony portfolio. Prior to it Symphony would have struggled to get onto AIM because its portfolio wasnt wide enough. It means that money will be available to Anglia if it needs it for any projects in the future though those probably wont be until next year.

Anglia is understood to be in discussions with Dutch operator KPN about setting up an operation in Holland.

Symphony is proposing to carry out a placing of 10997561 ordinary shares to raise 4.51 million before expenses. Symphony parent company Eckoh is expected to retain a controlling stake in Symphony with a 64.64 per cent share of it following a flotation.

Anglia Telecoms turnover for the year ended 31 March 2005 was 30.5 million generating pre-tax profits of 1.3 million. Symphony Telecoms turnover for the same period was 21 million with pre-tax profits of 1.3 million.

Introducing the packages Yes Telecom managing director Keith Curran said:

An existing customer should be worth as much as a new one. Finally a provider is paying every bit as much for you to upgrade a customer as to introduce one.

Yes has also confirmed the upgrades to its MVNO Business Enterprise range of tariffs.

Yes is offering three types of Enterprise tariff: Enterprise is eight single user bundles ranging from 200 to 600 minutes; Enterprise Plus is nine shared bundles of two to 24 handsets ranging from 500 to 5000 minutes while Enterprise Power is six shared bundles of more than 25 handset accounts with talktime of 8000 to 35000 minutes.

Yes business partners will be able to offer Enterprise tariffs 10 per cent cheaper than comparable network bundles by tying SME customers into 18- and 24-month contracts.

We have a range of tariffs that will sell themselves to the business partners and their customers said Curran.

The network will supply the firms 2500 partners and staff with a range of mobile devices including 3G Mobile Office cards SPV C500 smartphones and BlackBerrys direct. In addition the contract requires Orange to supply additional security training support and device upgrades.

We reviewed and piloted all the major UK operators said BDO Stoy Hayward head of technology Graham Knight. Orange was the only operator that understood our business and was flexible enough to accommodate it.

Knight pointed out that the accountancy firm considered using a third-party distributor but he decided the channel was not capable of providing the level of service it required.

With the level of technical assistance we needed it was easier going direct he said. We were looking at a new BlackBerry and a new version of 3G. The networks were able to provide us with these more easily and quickly than a third-party distributor.

Avenir sales and marketing director Tanny Price said Avenir was aware of long waiting times coming into its call centre and was trying to remedy this as soon as possible. She explained Avenir had done the most O2 connections in the channel in August by a long way.

The connections increase we experienced last month really took me by surprise she said. However I am confident that the changes and improvements that we have put in place will have a significant impact and that our levels of service will be back to what our customers have always enjoyed with Avenir.

Things were obviously never going to improve overnight once the move [to new offices] had taken place. New systems always take a while to bed in and tweak she said.

Price added that Avenir had put in new telephone systems and recruited four new members of staff to bolster resources.

We have a proposed restructure in place for October which will mean a different kind of service will be given to Avenir dealers. We will be introducing dedicated relationship managers whose responsibilities will be to liaise continually with the networks for exceptional queries and for any incidents that may arise.

I am monitoring the stats on a daily basis and can see a definite improvement. We have introduced a generic e-mail address where any dealer issues or requests can be forwarded. This also acts as an online help desk and normally responses are turned round within an hour.

See Sharp End page 14

Russell Merchant 26 whos now unemployed of Larkspur Court Hawthorn Road Wallington Surrey is charged with stealing the vouchers while employed at the Orange store at 261 Oxford Street between December 13 and 16 last year.

Merchant was granted unconditional bail.

Gibbons was responsible for MSN sales and marketing which includes MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger in the US and 39 other markets worldwide. At O2 her focus will be the companys move to take advantage of converging technologies where an O2 spokesman said her expertise at Microsoft and previously at Apple and Hewlett Packard will be key.

O2 chairman David Arculus said: [Gibbons] brings with her a wealth of global experience in marketing development and customer service particularly in internet based services which are becoming increasingly important in O2s business.

Gibbons appointment comes after a period of wastage in O2s non-executive directorships since last August when Paul Myners and Neelie Kroes announced their departure.

Total ARPU fell to around 17 from 17.36 in Q1 2004. Data ARPU grew from 3.29 in Q1 2004 to 3.49 in the period ending March 31.

In its quarterly market update Ofcom revealed that voice usage was down from an average of 34 minutes per month in Q1 2004 to just 30 minutes. UK users sent on average 47 text messages per month five more than during the same quarter in 2004.

O2 said that it would focus on growing its operations

An O2 spokesman said: Its just the talk of city analysts in a couple of brokers notes. Weve lived with takeover speculation for four years. The City said that we would be gobbled up within a few months.

Last month O2 was linked with a joint-bid from Germanys T-Mobile and Dutch operator KPN. Citigroup was reported this week as claiming that KPNs German subsidiary E-Plus was ripe for a takeover bid from O2 and that it might also consider a merger with 3 to take advantage of its 3G network.

O2 defended its cautious approach to 3G so far as being in line with demand.

3G wont be mass market until the end of the year at the earliest and The Carphone Warehouse has admitted that as well said an O2 spokesman. Our investment is in line with demand.

He added: We are concentrating on growing the Tesco Mobile business in the UK which is doing very well and the Tchibo venture in Germany. We are around about number two in the UK and gaining when others are losing customers.

The German operation is the fastest growing in Germany. It has turned from being an absolute laggard into being on a par with Vodafone. T-Mobile and E-Plus have struggled there. We want to continue to realise the value of those operations.

O2 paid shareholders 2.25p per share at the end of August which O2 pointed out was two years ahead of City analysts expectations.

3 also dismissed the reports.