Were growing and we simply need more people said a spokesman for the network.

Most of the new jobs will be front-line advisers. You would expect us to make sure that we are as efficient as possible but we wont compromise on customer service.

Of the new jobs 500 are in its Bury call centre which handles pre-pay enquiries and 200 will be in its Leeds office which oversees business enquiries and non account-related questions. The recruitment drive will increase numbers at the Leeds office to 3200 and at the Bury office to 1500.

O2 is also shifting its Leeds customer service centres into a single office at the Arlington Business Centre to improve inter-departmental communications and working.

The survey was based on exit interviews with 1095 consumers split between both browsers and buyers at mobile phone stores across the UK.

T-Mobile came top of the heap in the survey followed by O2 Phones 4U and The Link. T-Mobile ranked highest mainly because of above average scores in the areas of staff and low waiting times.

A Carphone Warehouse spokesperson countered the claims however saying:

We are very surprised at these results. They contradict all other surveys that we have seen including our own independent mystery shops independently commissioned research and of course our own customer feedback.

We have won three industry awards for customer service in the past nine months and recently achieved the highest ever Mobile News Mystery Shop score with a perfect 30 points out of 30.

The JD Power study found that store location is the main reason customers choose to visit a particular outlet.

A good previous experience with the store is cited by 22 per cent of customers. Special offers are indicated by 18 per cent.

Staff can have a significant impact on a customers experience said Gunda Lapski director of telecommunications and utilities services at JD Power and Associates.

On average customers wait 2.4 minutes before being served and spend just under nine minutes speaking to a staff member.

The study also found that the average customer spends 36 per month on mobile phone services In the past year 51 per cent of customers upgraded their handset or switched their mobile phone service provider.

Among those who upgraded their handset 46 per cent selected the same make.

In addition to the handsets from LG and Sony Ericsson that were announced in July Orange has now revealed that phones from Samsung Sanyo Nokia and Motorola will also be available.

Orange said it had been working closely with the selected handset manufacturers to develop world-class devices all of which have been part of extensive customer trials in the UK and France.

The first results of this cooperation are the LG U8150 the Sony Ericsson Z1010 the Samsung Z107 the Sanyo S750 and the Nokia 6630.

The S750 is Sanyos first foray into the European mobile market. It is exclusive to Orange and features a megapixel camera and a QVGA screen.

But even though Orange has been forthcoming on the subject of what handsets it will offer when it launches 3G the network has still failed to give a specific launch date.

Instead it reiterated its previous assurances that the commercial launch will take place before the end of the year.

Commenting on the handsets Florian Seiche director of devices at Orange SA said:

Orange is moving into the 3G market by extending its successful Signature Phone strategy.

He added: We remain focused on delivering to our customers the best possible user experience and so have carefully selected device vendors who also share this objective.

Through the Freemove Alliance Orange customers will be able to roam with their 3G devices across major towns and cities in Spain Italy and Germany in addition to the established Orange 3G networks in the UK and France he said.

Orange also announced the signing of two further contracts as part of the framework agreement it signed last year with Nokia Networks. It has now also hooked up with Nortel Networks and Alcatel to provide 3G radio access network technology infrastructure across the Orange footprint.

The network has agreed to purchase UMTS radio accessnetwork equipment and a full range of professional services and operational support systems from Nokia Networks for Orange Switzerland and from Nortel Networks for Mobistar (Belgium).

This follows the ongoing rollouts in the UK with Nokia Networks and in France with Alcatel Nokia Networks and Nortel Networks.

Orange SA chief technology officer Vivek Badrinath said:

Nokia Networks Nortel Networks and Alcatel are demonstrating extensive technical capabilities commitment experience and industry leadership with the work that they are completing on our 3G infrastructure development in the UK and France.

He concluded: The delivery of an outstanding 3G network will allow us to leverage the capabilities of 3G technology to launch world-class services to our customer base across the Orange Group.

Dominic Gates 19 targeted victim Shani Souter after spotting her sending a text message outside Angel tube station in Islington north London.

Drunken Gates grabbed her mobile from her hand and put on an American gangster accent to threaten her Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Souter 25 flagged down a passing police car and pointed the phone thug out to officers who arrested Gates at 1.40am on May 1 this year.

Gates already free on licence for burglary at the time denied mugging Souter when quizzed by detectives and her phone was never found.

He later admitted one charge of robbery.

The judge Mr Recorder William Boyce QC told him:

Robberies are serious offences and mobile phone robberies are prevalent. People are entitled to feel safe on the streets. You have a very bad criminal record including two previous offences for robbery. If you commit a further serious offence there will be a real price to pay. People have given you chances but you have thrown them back in their faces. Its time for you to act sensibly.

Ironically Gates is heir to a large fortune.

The average price for one hours access is now at 4 which is down 11 per cent since January. But there has been hardly any price drop in the other two most popular time bands 24-hour and one-month access.

Deeper cuts have occurred in more experimental timed access categories such as two hours three hours and one year where the average price for a minute offered has fallen by half.

Prices are still imbalanced when judged against the number of hotspots each provider has available and the roaming opportunity offered commented Philip Low of BroadGroup.

If the current trend continues smaller players who lack funding to continue deployment or who do not have roaming agreements or special location-based offerings will be increasingly exposed as high tariffs become unsustainable.

The report said the deployment of hotspots in Europe has increased significantly to reach 27000 sites across the 28 countries included.

More than 68 per cent of all hotspots are located in France Germany and the UK. At least 58 per cent of all hotspots are controlled by 30 fixed-line or mobile telecoms operators with 92 specialist companies competing to manage the rest.

But this growth rate will gradually slow down over the next five years as the market saturates the company predicts with expected growth figures of 10 per cent next year slipping to 7.7 per cent in 2006 6.4 per cent in 2007 4.8 per cent in 2008 and just 2.6 per cent in 2009.

But despite this decline in growth annual handset sales are forecast to reach 767 million by 2009.

Growth will come from users replacing handsets with more feature-rich models it said.

ARC Group also predicted that global handset sales will be buoyed by demand from Brazil China India Mexico and Russia – markets which have not as yet become saturated.

ARC also noted that 3G handset sales are very weak everywhere except in Japan and South Korea.

He is Mark Hollister who was director of indirect channels at BT Retail with the brief of managing the UK channel network of 100 partners and more than 1000 resellers.

Commenting on the appointment Carphone Warehouse group chief operating officer for telecoms David Goldie said:

We are delighted to have appointed Mark as Opals new managing director. His broad industry experience will be invaluable as we continue to grow Opal Telecom and develop the range of services we offer.

Hollister started his career at Hewlett-Packard in 1987 where he worked until 1994 establishing the high-tech companys UK network product business.

He has a first-class honours degree in engineering and an MSc in telecommunications from Aston University.

The newly-listed virtual network operator has succeeded in rolling out to independent dealers faster than expected however.

There was a phased roll-out to the independent channel. We said originally that it would be up and running by Christmas but actually its been much sooner said Alexander.

Our partners such as Phones 4U the Carphone Warehouse and The Link have always done very well for us. Some dealers have done really well and have shifted huge volumes but others havent got their heads around it.

Two similar dealers in the same area will do vastly differing amounts of business he claimed.

One will do 400 connections per week. Another will do hardly any at all. The lack of success has come from where the dealer hasnt embraced the Virgin concept and is presenting it the wrong way in store. Its all about presentation and Virgin Mobile is an easy sell. Our success in supermarkets shows that.

Last week Virgin Mobile announced a 40 per cent rise in its half yearly earnings thanks to a 29 per cent increase in subscriber numbers.

The company now has more than 4.6 million customers with 647500 joining up in the six months to September 30.

Alexander said:

There were a few doubters out there especially among the analysts. But weve had really good feedback.

They are good solid results across the board. Obviously the strong Virgin brand is at the heart of everything we do.

Our operations are now working really well too and the billing system we implemented a couple of years ago is now working extremely well. We have also rolled out 85 of our concession stores.

Virgin Mobiles operating profits were 35.6 million down from 44.7 million for the same period last year due largely to its stock flotation in July.

ARPU was down claimed Alexander because the virtual network had acquired low-value customers from competitors which had diluted its ARPU from six months ago.

Weve had the highest ARPU in the industry and as weve taken on our competitors customers it has brought our ARPU down. But we will launch new bundles soon which will attract customers with high usage patterns. So there are forces pulling in two different directions.

The technical service firm has hired former PNC managing director Neil Jones as its new international development manager.

Jones will head up the European roll-out and is already in discussions with interested parties in eight countries from networks to private individuals.

Ive known [TMTI MD] Crispin Thomas for 15 years and having seen the success hes made of TMTI in the UK the opportunity to help expand the brand outside the UK was one I thought I ought to try he said.

Our object is to have 10 countries signed up by the end of next year. Im already in talks with Austria Germany Italy Slovenia Finland Denmark Norway and Sweden.

I am targeting any country that has sizeable population and a good mobile penetration and ideally territory where some of our existing clients already operate.

TMTI also plans to make its presence known in Canada and North America. PNC founder Geremy Thomas is moving to Canada next April to head up a TMTI operation there.

See feature page 30

Slater had been with Sunderland for six years.

Prior to that he had stints as international brand director at drinks company Diageo global food operation Kraft Foods and confectionery giant Mars.

In a statement posted on a club fan website Sunderland chairman Bob Murray said: Jim has played a full and active role during that time and we will be sorry to lose him. We wish him all the best for the future.

Slater was not available for comment but on his resignation had said it would be a wrench to leave.