Officially at least no call discounts are available on the new Company Caller tariff while the old Company Caller tariff (which allowed the dealer to offer discounts on call charges) has been removed for new business.

Dealers are concerned that they can no longer offer a competitive package to some of their customers with more than 50 handsets who demand a flat-rate deal.

The previously competitive (after discounts) Company Caller tariff has been removed from both our customer acquisition and retention armouries at a time when Vodafones stated aim is to make further inroads into the SME market said Mark Finlayson MD of Southampton-based Next Communications.

Vodafone business propositions manager Ben Sefton defended the new tariff.

You need to look at the overall communications picture and the communications culture within a company to realise the full benefit of Company Caller and the value the proposition offers he said.

Calls that were previously made from fixed lines to mobile can now be made mobile to mobile for free.

Some dealers believe Vodafone will be forced to offer call discounts on flat-rate deals for larger customers if it is to remain competitive in this sector. They expect the tariffs to be tweaked over the coming months.

The majority of Vodafones Perfect Fit for Business tariffs which include the Sharetime option (free Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls) have been welcomed by dealers (Mobile News July 26) as has the initiative that sees the network running business-facing ads on mainstream television.

(Full story P16).

The retailer has teamed up with PhotoBox a company that sells digital photographic services.

The Carphone Warehouse photo service will let customers send their images via MMS to free online album space share photos order prints and order images to be printed on to items such as bags cushions and mouse mats.

Prints cost 19p each and gifts with customised photographs range from 10 for a mouse mat to 35 for a travel pouch.

The Carphone Warehouse says the initiative is a reaction to record sales of camera phones helped by free camera phones on all contracts.

Carphone Warehouse European head of purchasing Rupert Elvins said: PhotoBox is the ideal partner for us as it has great technological know-how and experience in the digital imaging world. Our customers constantly demand more from their phones and we want to help them realise the potential that camera phones offer.

Elvin said that camera phone sales are rocketing as the technology improves. New technology can be confusing for some people so the site will also include tips on downloading and sharing images he added.

Athief who walked into Carphone Warehouses Oxford Street store and grabbed a phone has been discharged for a year and ordered to pay 55 costs.

The Federation of Technological Industries (FTI) has dismissed Customs and Excise predictions it will win the joint and several liability case to be heard by the European Court of Justice.

Customs and Excise lost an appeal to prevent the matter being referred to Europe and had to pay the Federations appeal costs.

FTI solicitor Robert Holland was surprised by Customs upbeat reaction to the proceedings after its High Court defeat.

Customs appealed against the decision of the High Court to refer questions to the European Court as to whether there was authority under Community law to enact the joint and several liability provisions. The Court of Appeal dismissed Customs appeal and awarded the FTI its costs. The FTI is pleased that the Court of Appeal recognised that it had to refer the questions.

Immediately after it lost the appeal Customs and Excise stated it was pleased the Court of Appeal had supported Customs efforts to tackle VAT fraud.

The statement said:

We welcome the Court of Appeals support of our actions to tackle this most serious and organised VAT fraud which costs the UK taxpayer and robs our public services of more than 1 billion a year.

The court has stated that we should continue to apply these laws and we will do so proportionately and appropriately to stamp down on this systematic attack on the VAT system.

The High Court has already ruled that our anti-fraud measures are proportionate and compatible with human rights. Todays ruling strengthens our case before the European Court of Justice said Customs.

Lord Justice Wards final summation noted:

It is with real misgiving that I conclude we must refer to the Court of Justice … Dishonest trade in these goods must be stamped out … I encourage the Commissioners to apply the impugned law in expectation of eventual victory in Luxembourg.

Holland countered that it was irrelevant what Lord Justice Ward believes about Customs chance of winning in Luxembourg.

Holland pointed out another quote from the summation which said: With regret I conclude that the direct application of Community law in this case is not so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt. I am compelled therefore to refer the questions to the Court of Justice.

Holland added: When this case was heard in February Lord Justice Lightman said he thought we would be victorious in Luxembourg.

Now Lord Justice Ward has said he believes Customs will be. Out of four high court judges one supports us another supports Customs and Excise and the two remaining judges are undecided. What cannot be ignored is that this is a matter to be decided by Europe.

Lord Justice Jacob said Customs can try to apply provisions to apply notice. However this just gives people scope to appeal.

They can argue that Customs has no authority under community law to serve joint and several notices until the matter has been decided by the European Court.

Regardless of what Lord Justice Ward said about who he thinks will be successful he admits it must be decided by the European Court.

This is what we sought and won permission for before the High Court in February.

At those proceedings Lord Justice Lightman said he thought we would be likely be victorious. He even cautioned Customs and Excise to exercise great care before applying its joint and several liability provisions until the issue is decided one way or another.

The company was created in 1987 by Joe Case using his initials for its name.

Darren Ridge was made a partner in 1996. We ran KJC as a trading concern until Darren and I sold it to PNC Telecom said Case.

The sale took place in June 2000. The board of PNC appointed Darren as MD of the new KJC division of PNC with me as a director.

Users take a picture and add text. The picture is then transformed into a normal postcard and sent to the recipient. Both networks charge 1.50 per card plus the cost of the MMS. Images and text are checked for decency before being processed.

The Vodafone live! postcard service become available to its customers this week. Just like the service available to O2 customers it enables users to create and send a postcard without having to go to the local gift shop buy a stamp or even find a post box.

O2 said it was flattered by Vodafones response to its own postcard service:

It confirms there is a demand to turn photo messages into mementos. Over the summer we have seen a big increase in usage of our service as customers share their holiday moments in a more permanent way said an O2 spokesperson.

Vodafone promises delivery within two to three days. O2 aims to send the postcard out by first-class post the same day it is sent by the user.

A Vodafone spokesman said:

We produce services for our customers needs in the same way that O2 provided a pay-as-you-go service to its customers following Vodafones lead.

Intek intends to have a retail presence of 40 stores in the southwest of England within the next two years.

Intek will appoint two new corporate sales executives this week. It is also looking to add two more staff to the web sales team and expand its training team. It is in the process of expanding Intek House its headquarters in Paignton Devon to accommodate new personnel and future appointments.

Intek MD Manny Hussain commented: I have interviewed heavily over the past several weeks to fill 10 positions.

We want to expand our retail base and establish ourselves as a substantial regional retailer. We need to have a presence in certain towns in the south-west of England in which we dont exist at present.

Intek which was in the running to buy fellow south-west dealership WestTalk before JAG took it over will consider buying out other retail chains to expand its presence according to Hussain.

If a company like WestTalk came along in the future we would consider a bid provided the money and the timing was right he said.

They will also be able to download full-length tracks to their phone without the need for a separate music-playing device.

The new services follow deals with multimedia developer Bounce Technology and music download supplier Chaoticom.

The Bounce system is called Fireplayer and uses the phone keys as a virtual mixing desk. Chaoticoms Music Player software lets full-length tracks be downloaded to a phone.

Downloaded tracks for Fireplayer will cost 3.50. Each downloaded song on Music Player will cost from 1.50 and the service offers more than 200 artists to choose from.

New artists and tracks will be added constantly.

Hanson will distribute accessories for mobile phones PDAs and digital cameras to UK companies from RPS Europes new headquarters in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire.

Dealers are looking for other areas to make money on and theres so much crossover between phones PDAs and cameras he said. I want to play as much as I can on the Hanson name because it has such a good reputation within the market. Ora Telecom was the original accessories company.

Initially RPS Europe will distribute a basic range of third-party accessories made in Hong Kong by RPS Industries. Hanson said that the emphasis would be on quality.

Were not doing any original products said Hanson. All the accessories are branded in Hong Kong and made by RPS. There is a lot of cheap rubbish out there. We want to try and position ourselves on the quality side of things.

There are so many instances of dealers buying accessories from Hong Kong which look OK in the catalogue but when they turn up theyre actually pink and work on the wrong voltage.

Were trying to instil a bit of confidence in the quality. Thats very important. Everything has passed quality standards. Were trying not to position the product at the cheap end of the market but launch it as a quality range.

Hanson said that RPS Europe has a stock of universal chargers for digital cameras and video cameras and styluses and screen protectors for a full-range of smartphones and PDAs.

A lot of the networks have warranty problems with phones getting scratched and damaged said Hanson. Dealers can sell screen protectors with smartphones for 3 and make a nice margin on it.

These chargers work on 99 per cent of digital and video cameras. It means dealers only have one product to put on display.

Were looking at different products that are slightly outside the phone market because there is so much crossover now. Phones are getting so small that people like to have them around their necks in a pouch. So were looking at slightly different types of retail outlet as well such as Top Shop.

RPS Europe will distribute to the networks and larger retailers to begin with. Much of its stock will be sourced direct from Hong Kong because the cost is lower and it is more convenient.

A leather phone case in the UK costs about 2. To buy it direct from Hong Kong costs a few pence. It is very attractive to trade direct with Hong Kong. The big advantage that we have is that RPS Industries has been around since 1996 and is a trustworthy company.

Malcolm Hanson retired from the business sedveral years ago after selling Ora to a management buyout consortium. He is now semi-retired and serves as a magistrate.

Orange said that it had no wish to do football shirt sponsorship.

The content will include MMS club alerts live match commentary live chats with club representatives match highlights competitions text voting post match reviews and travel and ticket details.

As a result of the partnership the Orange brand will also appear on hoardings and match-day brochures at Chelseas Stamford Bridge stadium.

Chelseas shop will also sell

Orange phones and airtime as well as Chelsea-themed value-added services.

Mark Hird vice-president of

Orange multimedia operations said:

Oranges strategy is less about brand awareness and more about exploiting content and marketing rights to create new experiences for customers. We are already doing similar things with film and music and now were looking at football because its far and away top of our customers list of interests.

We provide services for all different supporters anyway but were now looking to team up with English Premiership sides to provide fans with access to exclusive content. It brings in this instance Chelsea fans closer to the club.

Plans are afoot to strike similar content deals with other Premiership clubs in the next few weeks though Hird refused to disclose which clubs are involved.

Weve been speaking to a lot of Premiership teams and putting across our vision about services and the way that mobile is going said Hird.

Chelsea is the first to bear fruit. We are looking for clubs with a similar ambition. We have no target number in mind. Whether they share our vision will determine the final number of clubs.