Staff Reporter

The independent dealership beat off stiff competition including companies such as John Lewis and David Lloyd Leisure.

The BlackBerry 7100v which has been designed in conjunction with Research in Motion will hit channels on October 1. Pricing will be similar to a voice-only phone with only one monthly access charge. Without voice it will cost 82.50 and have a monthly e-mail charge of 15.74 subject to a fair use policy of 6MB. On BlackBerry Anytime 100 it costs 82.50 with a monthly e-mail charge of 12.77 and a monthly voice charge of 18.72 (with 100 inclusive minutes).

The accusation was made by Tony Lloyd-Weston managing director of service provider OpenAir which has demanded 3.8 million compensation from O2.

An O2 spokesman said it appeared OpenAir was deliberately drumming up publicity to put pressure on the network to settle.

He said O2 wanted to sort the problem out through mediation but that OpenAir refused to co-operate.

The spokesman said:

This is a long-running dispute being prepared for trial so it would be inappropriate for us to comment on the details.

But O2 is seeking 1.5 million for wholesale airtime bought by OpenAir who do not deny this money is owed. We are still waiting for OpenAir to validate its claims.

OpenAirs dispute with O2 has been going on for two years.

It escalated when O2 cancelled its contract with OpenAir in February and billing problems came to light. These involved unused minutes not rolling over to the next month and other call anomalies. OpenAir started legal action against O2 in March.

OpenAir claims it has an e-mail from O2 account managers admitting to the billing problem

We employed two auditors to analyse O2s core detail records said Lloyd-Weston.

The results showed attempts by O2 to manually intervene with the records at network level. O2 said it had rectified the problem and it seemed as if it had. But analysis showed manual intervention into the way the information was managed.

We have met with O2 but it now refuses to discuss the matter. This is why we are taking it to court.

O2 has threatened a high court injunction to stop us presenting this information. It is David and Goliath and we know who won that fight.

Lloyd-Weston said that some OpenAir customers refused to pay their bills because of the alleged inaccuracy.

He also claimed the discrepencies meant that the value of the OpenAir customer base was under-estimated when it was sold to Carphone Warehouses Opal Telecom division in February.

But O2 rejected the claims. UK sales director Mark Stansfeld said:

The allegation that 25 per cent of our bills were overcharged is inaccurate. We are regulated and audited and we operate within proscribed standards.

O2 head of independent channels Ian Driver explained:

To show how good our billing is we recently transferred some customers to a new system. Some of them were billed twice.

We discovered this and stopped the bills going out. We sent accurate bills and gave customers an extra month to pay. In other words when we do make mistakes we rectify them.

But OpenAir claims O2s over-billing continues. The company says it will seek 3.8 million in compensation for damage to its business if it cannot resolve the billing crisis soon.

OpenAir was due last week to take its findings about O2s customer phone call records to telecom regulator Ofcom.

For 10 a month customers can download as many video clips as they want from any of 3s sports comedy showbusiness movies news weather and horoscopes services as well as renting games.

Customers who sign up to the networks new Talk and Text plans will be offered the Video Value add-on at a promotional price of 5 a month.

O2 will host the text online and WAP messaging vote and will be providing content including True Tones music downloads ringtones and wallpapers of the icons giving readers the opportunity to purchase them via O2 Active – O2s colour multi-media entertainment and information service. l O2 has just supplied top glam-metal act The Darkness with BlackBerry 7230 handhelds for use when they are on tour.

The SF65 also comes with picture editing software.

Other features include numerous gaming options and 64-chord polyphonic ringtones as well as 18MB of internal memory.

TTG Group financial director Julian Synett said:

The numbers are not indicative of the businesss real value. What is important is what has happened since April and the successful placing and the formal launch of the mobile distribution business in The Netherlands.

Its subsidiary distribution arm TTG Netherlands which is modelled on its Anglia business in the UK has announced a distribution deal with Dutch operator Telfort. The Telfort deal follows agreements with KPN Mobile and Vodafone.

The company unveiled Rapid Message Service (RMS) last week a service that lets subscribers send audio messages instead of texts.

A sender speaks a persons name or keys in their mobile phone number and records the message on their handset. The recipient gets a text notification of the senders name and presses a designated key to hear the message. They can then reply at the touch of a button.

People can receive and reply to an RMS message regardless of operator network or handset technology. It works on any mobile handset and any network.

RMS complements text messaging said Hey Anita vice-president of marketing Mark Willingham. Its ideal when people are driving and cant use text or when people need to communicate but dont want to engage in a live conversation.

The company is in talks with all the major networks to see how RMS can be made available to consumers. They will also set the prices. It will probably work much like a text a small charge to send it but no charge to receive.

Details of the lottery games and billing processes have not yet been finalised.

Camelot said that mobile is the final step in making its lottery games which include Lotto Thunderball and the pan-European prize draw EuroMillions fully interactive. Camelot has already made its games available via the Internet and through interactive television.

The service will utilise O2s cross network technology platform. This will carry text messages from the mobile phone operators to Camelots interactive service.

O2 will provide punters with a short-code number to dial charged at a standard rate and ticket fees will be charged to the customers phone bill.

O2 has a history in the lottery arena. It has carried interactive SMS messaging for TV shows Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Pop Idol.

Mark Nixon head of strategic partners at O2 said: This partnership highlights O2s leading position in the UK text messaging arena.

Not only is it an innovative use of text messaging but it enables customers to use their mobiles to access services in a way that would have been unthinkable two years ago.

Richard Hurd-Wood director of interactive at Camelot said:

The launch of games on mobiles later this year is part of Camelots wider strategy to broaden access to National Lottery products and attract new players.

He went on: We are delighted to be working with the O2 Interactive Products team to help us bring this service to mobile telephone users across the UK and as a result generate even more money for good causes.

Pavel Kocanda was found with the phone after being arrested for shoplifting at a Boots store in Victoria station.

He admitted dishonestly receiving the phone but was unable to use it as the SIM card had been blocked.