Staff Reporter

The free software can be downloaded by a company or by individuals. It adds a Text Centre option to the handsets e-mail in-box menu. Customers pay for the messages they send on their monthly phone bill.

Kyle Whitehill enterprise business unit director for Vodafone UK said:

Vodafone Text Centre will provide our business customers with a simple fast and secure way to communicate short information.

We see it as a good way to increase ARPU.

City analyst Nathan Budd a consultant in Frost & Sullivans ICT practice broadly welcomed the move. He said: PC-based SMS capabilities will add growth to the overall SMS market.

With prices starting from 55 a month Orange Premier subscribers can have a dedicated customer services team – phone consultants who will visit them at home work or in an Orange shop to help get the most from their phone.

They will also get a choice of 400 700 or 1000 cross-network minutes 24-hour phone replacement upgrades at the nine-month mark rather than each year as well as free access to 300 e-mails (without attachments) from their handsets each month.

Orange Care phone insurance which normally costs 5 per month for 12 months cover is included in the package as well as Memory Mate a service to back-up contacts and data stored on a SIM card. This normally costs a one-off 2.99.

Orange Premier marketing manager Simeon Bird commented:

High-value customers see relevant extra services as crucial when making the decision to purchase.

A superior level of service is something that they value immensely he added.

Dedicated customer services teams will answer calls immediately and deal with most queries in one call.

The launch will be closely supported with a print-based advertising campaign.

Having spent the past two years as CEO of MobileWay Shaw starts the new job in January. Current marketing director Cath Keers will continue as marketing director until January. She will then become customer director in which post she will represent the customer at a board level.

An O2 spokesman said: We aspire to put ourselves in the league of leading brands such as First Direct Starbucks and Amazon. To do that the whole area of our customer experience has to be championed at board level.

Cath agreed with [O2 UK CEO] David McGlade to take on the role of customer director. She has been unable to do that job fully until we found a new marketing director.

At the moment Cath is doing both jobs. But the right calibre candidate is now in place and Cath will be able to concentrate full time on her role as customer director from January.

McGlade said: These new appointments bring extensive experience and will underpin the continued development of O2 as a great brand underpinned by great marketing.

Harvard business graduate Shaw also held senior marketing and commercial roles with American Express Charles Schwab and NTL.

Shaw said: I am pleased to be taking over as O2s marketing director during this exciting time for the business. I hope to maintain O2s marketing momentum through fresh thinking innovation and value to the customer.

Participants will receive 16 TV channels covering music sport news comedy soaps documentary drama cartoons and special interests.

O2 chief technology officer Dave Williams said: This trial allows us to evaluate a delivery mechanism to complement our planned 3G mobile music and video services.

(See Business Watch P12)

Glen Manoff head of communications at O2 UK said:

The paging business is a legacy from the BTCellnet days. And frankly it is very small – there are just over 100000 users. It is not making any money and there are alternatives whether it is simple SMS or an e-mail device such as the BlackBerry. Over the past six to eight months we have been persuading our pager customers to move over to mobile.

The popularity of SMS has forced the pager business into decline and O2 reckons that it more than any other network has championed the technology.

We are big believers in messaging said Manoff.

We have something like a third of the text market and just under a quarter of network market share as a whole so we are very successful.

Nearly three-quarters of a billion messages are sent across our network each month. It is because we have put so much focus on the youth market and others and made it easier to tailor texts to usage with our Bolt-Ons.

Orange has partnered with production company Somethin Else and Woolworths music chart Hit40uk to provide access to chart ringtones truetones full-track downloads and video through its Orange World WAP portal.

Orange users can also interact with the studio by texting questions to bands that are interviewed during the show or by viewing a studio webcam on their phones.

Orange UK director of multimedia Mark Hird said:

Its an interactive hook-up between the live radio broadcast and Orange World. Tracks will appear on Orange World as the Top 40 is announced and can be clicked on for a number of options including ringtones and track downloads. It is an interactive model that will be more fully fleshed out with 3G.

Orange users can follow the chart countdown on their mobile phone taking advantage of various downloadable and interactive services while listening to it on their radios.

Listening to the radio is the preferred situation for using WAP mobile services according to Hird.

This will become a powerful mechanism. We are aiming at the audience that tunes in to the Top 40 on Sunday afternoon and then uses their mobile handset. The Top 40 is the biggest music chart show in the UK.

Research shows that most customers use WAP services in that downtime.

He concluded: Were looking at a very broad market in the run-up to Christmas who are already familiar with these types of handsets and services on 2.5G. Hopefully well be introducing them to some new services.

Realtonemix R has been developed by Hampshire-based ringtone provider Symbios Group.

It will allow record companies independent labels and individual artists to showcase and sell Realtones direct to the consumer.

Symbios said the product also shows that there can be distribution of any music industry-approved track from any artist or record catalogue across any genre to any Realtone playing handset anywhere in the world.

Vodafone has confirmed that it will not follow T-Mobiles example of building its own network of WiFi hotspots.

Vodafone has done a deal with BT to allow Vodafone users access to more than half of BT Openzones 2400 UK public wireless access points at BT payphone kiosks motorway service areas cafes pubs airports and hotels.

Paul Stonadge Vodafones data solutions and international executive said Vodafone was happy to work with existing providers.

The billing is the same even the customer services is the same number they would normally call he said.

Vodafone Mobile Connect card owners are likely to be the main users. But any Vodafone subscriber can download free software that allows them to use the hotspots without a Connect card.

The Vodafone WLAN service is not subject to a monthly fee. Customers pay for a time-based session.

Vodafones approach differs from that of T-Mobile which is building its own network of hotspots. There are currently 600 T-Mobile hotspots in locations such as Starbucks Coffee houses Borders bookshops and airports.

Brian McBride managing director of T-Mobile UK said:

Our hotspot offering is a key building block of T-Mobiles delivery of simple seamless communications. We are building a multi-speed network for a multi-media world which will integrate 2G 3G and WiFi.

Stonadge claimed that wasnt the direction Vodafone wanted to go in. The prime difference between our offering and that of T-Mobile is that we dont want to build our own network he said.

The WiFi market place is fragmented. We prefer to aggregate over a number of systems. Our first link-up is with BT but thats just the first of many. Our hotspots will be in locations where a number of other networks will already be located. Our approach is the better option.

City analyst Bena Roberts of Current Analysis also believes Vodafone has made the correct decision to align itself with existing WiFi providers.

The market for mobile data provision is really heating up with service providers positioning themselves to capitalise on the revenue opportunities involved said Roberts.

By bundling WLAN services with 3G mobile services Vodafone will provide the sort of connectivity expected from a market leader. Vodafones roaming deal with BT OpenZone has given Vodafone a head start.

The 7280 has a novel display which resembles a mirror when the phone is off. But when the phone is switched on it transforms back into a conventional phone display.

Navigating the functions is done through a thumb-wheel on the front. The user spins the wheel and presses it to access the feature they want. The side of the phone has a cloth Nokia tag similar to a pair of Levis jeans.

The 7260 is a candy-bar style handset while the 7270 is a clam-shell with a snap-on textile wrap. Both models have curved edges and are either black or white in exterior colour.

The new 6670 Symbian smartphone is similar to the 7610 but with more traditional key layout.

It is equipped with a megapixel camera a 4x digital zoom and extra image-editing features.

The three art deco-style devices will be available by November.

Nokia also unveiled a new 9300 Communicator which ships next month. It differs from the recently-launched Nokia 9500 Communicator in that it is smaller and has slightly fewer features.

Nokia UK business development manager Damian Pisani commented: Although it has many features in common with the 9500 it is closer to the size of the 6310i. It sits at the top end of the smartphone market.

The Nokia 9500 will ship at the end of November and the new 9300 will be available in Q1 2005.

However the company denied that it is trying to create a name for itself in the fashion industry.

We are not trying to be a fashion house said Nokia UK & Ireland corporate communications manager Claire Backhurst.

Its a celebration of style design and innovation. It is something we have always done.

We had the banana phone which everyone remembers and the 7610 similar to the style of phone used in the Matrix movies. These new mobile phones are inspired by 1920s fashion and celebrity and are a fusion of art and technology.

The recommendation from Investec analyst Christian Maher follows an update statement from Virgin Mobile prior to its closed period for its interim results to September 30 which will be announced on November 18.

Maher reckons Virgin Mobile revenues will be around 528 million but that these will be hit by higher mobile termination rates and the addition of more SIM-only customers with lower ARPU particularly strong through Carphone Warehouse stores.

Virgin agreed the planned termination cuts would hit its revenues but said that it still expects revenue growth in the high teens and rapid customer growth for the full year.

The combination of strong customer growth and our efficient operating model will result in margins for the first half being well ahead of the same period a year ago said Virgin Mobile chief executive Tom Alexander.

Virgin Mobile claims it has more than 4.2 million customers and the network is distributed through more than 5000 outlets.