Virgin Mobiles new Hassle-Free Mobile Phone Package bundles a handset with eight months minutes and texts so that a single purchase nets the customer pre-pay services for more than 240 consecutive days.

At the launch a Virgin Mobile spokesperson dismissed the threat of budget pre-pay rival 3 which has undercut all its pre-pay competitors since it entered the market with ThreePay.

3 has obviously slashed prices. But the question is whether or not it can sustain that. It depends on how economic its business model is. At the moment it is paying a lot of money to maintain it.

We wont do that. The Christmas market is especially competitive and this hassle-free offer has been brought in at the beginning of December to capture shoppers looking at a new phone for Christmas.

It is an attractive offer because it is a complete package – a one-stop shop for customers. Its about simplicity and convenience.

There are three Hassle-Free Packages available each of which includes a colour-screen camera phone SIM pack and 20 minutes of inclusive airtime plus between 30 and 60 texts per month for eight months.

Packages start from 99.99 including a Philips 355 rising to 109.99 for a Motorola C651 and 139.99 for a Sony Ericsson T610.

Virgin Mobile chief executive Tom Alexander said:

Virgin Mobile is the first pre-pay mobile phone company to launch a one-box deal that offers longer-lasting value and a hassle-free mobile phone experience.

The launch of Virgin Mobiles Hassle-Free Package takes away the worry of monthly payments for your airtime minutes by automatically adding airtime allowance to your phone each month.

There are no hidden charges. You pay upfront and thats it. Its ideal for people who are buying the phone as the perfect Christmas gift or really want to control their spending.

In a separate development the Virgin virtual network was in mischievous mood this week after it announced the death of the church confession box and the rise of text confessions.

Virgin Mobile Bites features a service called Sin to Win in which customers are invited to confess their sins and win prizes.

Confessions are rated by customers and the most popular are awarded 50 in alcohol or CDs.

Virgin Mobile claims that 10000 have confessed everything from white lies to sexual deviancy to the service since its launch in August.

John Conlon product manager for Virgin Mobile Bites said:

Sin to Win has been hugely popular proving that there is a demand for a high-tech solution to the confession box.

The company has partnered with digital music advertising specialist Digital Mix to launch the service over all three of the countrys major operators – TMN Vodafone and Optimus – further establishing Shazams European presence.

The service branded Quale? (a Portuguese abbreviation of what is) will cost only e0.9 (62p) per tag and will allow users to identify a track from Shazams database including more than 15000 local Portuguese tracks simply by dialling the short code 12266 from their handsets.

The service then searches through Shazams catalogue of music and returns an SMS tag within seconds to the handset giving details of the title and artist. In the UK consumers have already tagged more than five million tracks.

The National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) has launched a police register that links four databases enabling officers to check information on all four at once.

The databases are the Crime Reporting Information System (CRIS) used by the police to record details of all crimes; the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) which features the blacklisted IMEI numbers of stolen handsets and was launched as part of the Immobilise campaign; the Mobile Equipment National Database (MEND) which was set up to allow members of the public to record details of their mobile devices so that if they were recovered they could get them back; and the Stolen Equipment National Database (SEND) which records details of stolen equipment.

It also has implications for dealers who sell on stolen phones.

Previously if the police suspected a store they would have to get a search warrant take the handsets away from the premises and check them out said Jack Wraith chair of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

It would be a lengthy process. Now it will be much easier for the police to check to see whether stores are selling stolen handsets.

Now if police arrest someone in possession of a mobile phone that an officer believes might be stolen they can put the IMEI number of the handset into the register and see if they get hits on any of the four databases.

During a pilot of the system more than 2000 mobile phones were linked back to their original owners with a large number of individuals being charged with offences connected with the original theft of the mobile phones.

It will work much the same way as the current virtually instantaneous vehicle checks that the police can carry out with the DVLA.

Communic8 pulled its MYMO handset from the market this week after Sir William Stewart who headed up the original Stewart Report into mobile phone safety in 2000 said that he would not let his grandchildren use a mobile phone.

The update of the Stewart Report by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRBP) found that there is still no hard evidence that mobile phones pose risks to public health. However it advised that continued uncertainty about the safety of mobile technology means that parents should see children use them only sparingly.

The MYMO is a three-button cat-shaped mobile phone aimed at five- to 10-year-olds that can dial five pre-programmed phone numbers. It was billed as a security mobile and available in the UK from Communic8s MYMO-branded website for 69.99. The implications of the report by the NRBP this week forced Communic8 to close down its website and the HSBC payment link and cease trading of the MYMO.

Communic8 marketing director Adam Stephenson said:

It had only been a moderate success but we had potentially 20000 sales in the UK so it has hurt us. And in the light of what Stewart said this week reiterating and reinforcing the point that he would not let his grandchildren use a mobile phone we closed the operation down on Tuesday [January 11].

We came to the conclusion that we are not experts on radiation and they tend to under-publish rather than over-publish these findings which speaks volumes about the importance of what Stewart has said. MYMO was a niche product intended to protect children.

If there is any evidence from Stewart and his medical team that the skull and membrane of under-16s are not fully developed then we have to take note.

Stephenson said that Communic8 had completely overhauled its website and marketing material after Mobile News carried a report last year in which NCH adviser John Carr advised the company to watch its step in its promotion of the MYMO.

Carr agreed with Stephenson that new advice from Stewart should be taken seriously. see page 16

Opal claims its software offers 100 features. The company says the four most popular are Call Screening Network Call Recording Network Call Queuing and Opal Call Care which enables services to be monitored or altered online

Opal Telecom was acquired by The Carphone Warehouse in November 2002.

As it is a business-to-business provider Opals capacity drops during evenings and weekends. The Carphone Warehouse is making use of this spare capacity with its recent offer of free calls between TalkTalk residential users.

Opal Telecom has 30000 business customers including Manchester United Football Club Ventura and the BBC.

Opal turnover to March 2005 is projected to be over 245 million.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said:

We were attracted to Opalbecause it is a fantastic business run by the best people in its field. Todays award recognises this and the fact that it offers unbeatable services to its customers.

The Queens Awards for Enterprise are made each year by Queen Elizabeth on the advice of the prime minister who is assisted by an advisory committee that includes representatives of Government industry and commerce as well as the trade unions.

The annual league table ranks the UKs one hundred fastest-growing private companies.

Founded by its managing director Gary Corbett in 2000 Opera Telecoms sales have grown 432 per cent every year from 294000 in 2000 to 44.2 million in 2003.

Opera runs premium-rate phone lines and mobile phone promotions for organisations such as GMTV and Express Newspapers. It recently launched Britains first commercial MMS soap opera FanTESStic about a female DJ working in Ibiza.

Opera Telecom also runs a service texting the storylines of soaps such as Emmerdale and Eastenders and supplies mobile content to Vodafone live! and Virgin Mobile among others.

London-based Isis Telecommunications came 50th in the Fast Track 100 table.

See page 10

The tycoon said the abiding memory was of torture and torment with more crashes and punctures and the worst weather he had experienced on a ride.

There were some genuinely scary moments of near misses with artics on a dual carriageway during a very nasty storm in particular said Caudwell.

The riders from the Stoke business fraternity were also hit by a virus that forced them to rest for half a day.

According to some dealers its keypad dents and loses its sheen.

The V3 has been the subject of much hype in the industry for its sleek design. Motorola has spent 4.5 million on its Q4 advertising campaign with 1 million of that sum devoted to a cinema campaign around its new headline act: the V3 RAZR.

However some dealers with stock of the V3 are experiencing problems and say customers are already returning the handset.

Matt Chambers of The Phone Shop in Welling said:

Weve had quite a few problems with them. The shiny metal keypad seems to react adversely to sweaty fingers.

The metal dulls and looks like aluminium does when it rusts. Also if you press the keys too hard especially with fingernails it dents the metal. After a few weeks they look rubbish. Weve had lots of customers come back to return them.

Mehran Mehmood of Fonevision in Wimbledon was more forgiving however. He said: The camera used to freeze with the first batch we had in and the screen display turned into gibberish. They have sorted that out now. You just have to be gentle with it. Its a novelty phone. It isnt made to be hard-wearing. Its delicate. Drop it and it will break in half.

Motorola marketing manager James King responded: It hasnt been reported back here. These are rumours at this stage so I cant comment. We are selling the product faster than we can get it in. There are a lot of back-orders.

A salesman at the Mobile Phone Centre in Docklands said: It is far too early to say if it has problems. Weve only sold three. Problems with the phones probably stem from the software version and source. We only source UK-specified V3 phones made in Korea or Germany and havent had any problems yet.

Responding to speculation that demand for the V3 would persuade Motorola to reduce the price of the handset to capitalise on the Christmas market King said:

We always said that the V3 would be in limited supply so there should be no surprise that it is scarce. It wont come down in price for Christmas.

We planned it as a premium product. We will review the volume and pricing of the V3 before Christmas in time for next year but we certainly wont see any dramatic change.

20:20 Logistics is currently the only distributor holding the V3 but King says that agreements with Elite Telecom and other distributors will be in place soon.

TTG Europe sales and commercial director Graham Pollard and marketing director Ross Sampson resigned last week ahead of yesterdays AGM.

TTG group finance director Julian Synett said:

Ross has been talking to us for some time about the fact that he would like to return to a marketing consultancy position rather than remain on the board full-time.

He came to us as a consultant originally and agreed to go on the board after the reverse takeover 12 months ago. Graham has been with us for more than two years and has helped us to transform the business. He also wanted to pursue his other interests.

We wont be replacing either of them at board level. We do not see the marketing role as a board position. If we do recruit it wont be to a board position.

Grahams responsibility was as general manager of the Dutch business. Again we will probably look to recruit a country manager but it will not be at board level said Synett

Synett added that TTG is unlikely to recruit for the new positions until the new year.

The Japanese authorities want prepay phone sales stopped on the basis that they aid criminal activity. Pre-pay comprises 10 per cent of Vodafones 15 million customer base in Japan.

Paolo Pescatore senior analyst at International Data Corporation said:

It would certainly put a spanner in the works because Vodafone is trying to increase its market share in Japan.

Historically Vodafone has found that market pretty tough. Pre-pay has greatly contributed to the growth of the mobile market as a whole so any ruling like this would be an inhibitor to adoption.

If pre-pay makes up just 10 per cent of its market share over there then it would not be the be-all and end-all but it would mean that Vodafone has to be more competitive in other areas to draw customers.

Japanese MPs could vote to ban pre-pay phones during the current parliamentary session. It is thought more likely that MPs will turn in a more lenient ruling instead however.

Pescatore added: There is a lot of concern about pre-pay in Europe as well. Carriers are encouraging customers with 10 and 20 extra airtime to register their details when they sign for pre-pay.

In Italy pre-pay customers have to register their name and address with identification.

Vodafone senior group communications director Jon Earl commented:

Its not clear that legislation in Japan will be enacted on this basis. We are only at the proposal stage. It is too early to say which way the market will go. We just have to follow the proposal.

Vodafones rival in Japan NTT DoCoMo said earlier this month that it is obliged to take a socially responsible action over the matter.