Westminster has embarked on a campaign to get networks to bar phone numbers that appear on prostitutes calling cards posted in phone boxes.

The council has picketed phone stores and distributed mock tart cards to charities and the general public bearing the names and numbers of network bosses.

In its stunt Westminster printed 20000 calling cards with the business phone numbers of network heads Arun Sarin (Vodafone) Brian McBride (T-Mobile) Sanjiv Ahuja (Orange) David McGlade (O2) and Bob Fuller (3). Chief executives of NTL and Telewest have also been targeted. Westminster hopes that complaints to the networks management will spur them into action.

Quipped Brian McBride: Ive had no phone calls at all. My friends and family have stopped calling now they think I am mixed up with prostitutes and Westminster MPs.

He went on in a more serious vein: It was a very clumsy and ill-informed piece of electioneering.

The Council said it had produced the cards because the network chiefs should be held publicly accountable.

In an unfortunate turn of phrase a spokesman for Westminster City Council said:

We will keep this up until they pull their fingers out and calls to these numbers are barred. They talk about social responsibility on their websites and it is about time they put this into practice. Because it hasnt been legislated the networks have been slow to cooperate.

He went on: Prostitution relies on anonymity. These companies must bar the numbers and help break up the sex industry.

But the operators have accused Westminster of drumming up a media frenzy and making demands they say are unreasonable and which they claim could be counter-productive.

It is a media frenzy and smacks of political expediency because it is to do with sex and is something everyone dislikes said a spokesman for Vodafone.

It is not true that we have refused to talk to Westminster. We have not received a single enquiry as a result of the councils action.

Vodafone does not normally get involved with interpreting the legality of issues that are the territory of law enforcement authorities.

Other considerations are the safety of prostitutes and the danger of inadvertently barring numbers that have no association with either carding or prostitution.

Westminster has claimed that both 3 and NTL have agreed to bar phone numbers. 3 denied this however and was angry that Westminster suggested that it had acted in response to the campaign.

We have already been trying to talk with the council so trying to claim that as a victory is not right said a 3 spokesperson.

Our door has always been open to dialogue. We are still waiting for them to get in touch. We arranged to meet them as long ago as March but no one from the council turned up because of a mix-up with the dates on their part. We have followed up that initial meeting with legal queries.

We cant just cut off phone lines and accuse people of being prostitutes. We are happy to work with the council but there are legal and data protection issues. We are perplexed by the method and approach that Westminster has taken given that we are awaiting guidance from the council on how to tackle certain issues.

We would be in breach of contract by disconnecting customers without proof that the numbers are being used for criminal activity.

3 is happy to iron out these issues and to engage in dialogue with Westminster but we have been trying to contact it since April and it hasnt responded or attended meetings. We are dismayed that it has chosen this course of action when 3 has been willing to work with the council on the issue.

In a statement O2 said:

We strongly reject the suggestion that we do not take our responsibilities seriously with regard to crime prevention. O2 continues to be at the forefront of measures to tackle areas such as handset theft as well as child protection.

Cutting off lines would set an uncomfortable precedent for those in other unpopular but legal activities. Anyone who puts a card up in a phonebox whether for malicious reasons or as the result of a practical joke would be cut off.

T-Mobile said it would only bar numbers in legitimate cases.

Orange said disconnecting prostitutes mobile numbers would simply mean they would buy new SIM cards for 10 and a rise in the number of phonebox cards in circulation because all new numbers would have to be advertised.

North London dealership Tancroft Communications has 230 Orange phones which it rents mostly to US business customers travelling on the continent and elsewhere who want to phone back to the US.

The Orange phones are couriered to business travellers at home in the US and returned to Tancroft in the same way when the user gets back from their trip.

Tancroft corporate manager Nick Reid said he would churn the contract to another network because Oranges increased tariffs for these clients will cost him an extra 4000 per month.

Most of the networks put their rates up. But Oranges prices went up horrendously as much as 60 per cent for calling the US from abroad – and Orange didnt tell anyone. We only found out when we were billed.

According to Reid Tancroft was putting 15000 per month through Orange but now the dealership has approached O2 T-Mobile and Vodafone and asked each of them for bespoke international tariffs.

We have been getting quoted much better prices than Orange said Reid. In the next month we will move all our phones away from Orange unless it reduces its tariffs.

He went on: Were not looking for Orange to beat the others prices just to match them.

Tancroft sales and rentals manager Dean Collins reckons that Orange has put up the cost of calling abroad while travelling abroad three times in two-and-a-half years.

The four key areas for our business all involve calls back to the USA. These are calls from Europe the new zone of Eastern Europe the Asia Pacific region and the Rest of the World zone. Because these four areas represent 80 per cent of our business it is fundamental to the growth of our business that call rates to these areas are maintained.

Without this our costs increase by around 4000 per month. This will result in the loss 140000 a year in billing and lead to the closure of this area of our business with the disconnection of some 230 lines within several weeks.

Collins added: We appreciate that ours is a unique case and that international call prices generally are very good. But the vast majority of clients were hiring to are from the US travelling abroad.

Under Oranges new tariffs calls from Western Europe to the US have increased from 60p to 85p per minute; calls from Eastern Europe from 1.10 to 1.45; calls from Asia Pacific from 1.10 to 1.45; and calls from the Rest of the World from 1.10 to 1.65.

Reid said that in July Orange agreed to offer Tancroft credits on its monthly bills to cancel out the new tariffs. But the network has since withdrawn the offer because Tancroft asked to be notified of any future changes to international calling rates. Reid has now taken the decision to switch all its business to one of Oranges rivals.

A spokesperson for Orange said:

We refreshed international calling tariffs for business customers in July and the vast majority of those tariffs have gone down. There has been an increase in certain calls. Any changes are communicated directly to the customer beforehand and with very large corporate customers there could be some flexibility in pricing agreed on a commercial basis with each customer.

Meanwhile Microsoft has denied rumours that it is considering cancelling a large hire contract with Orange because of the increases.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said: There has been no change to the longstanding successful and happy business relationship between Microsoft and Orange.

New York-based mobile phone hire centre International Cellular Services declined to comment on suggestions it had terminated an Orange contract of 1000 phones because calls from the UK back to the US had increased dramatically.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.