Under the terms of the deal between the mobile network and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) the Dome has now been renamed The O2 but at a conference to announce the project last week O2 marketing director Russ Shaw insisted that the network will be much more than just the name on the front of building.

Turning great sponsorships into interactive partnerships has been a big part of O2s success over our first three years he said. Whether its Big Brother Arsenal the England Rugby Union team the O2 FHM Cup the O2 Music Wireless Festival or the wide range of other music events were involved with weve used mobile interactivity to enhance these experiences for people.

Shaw claimed the network would put its customers at the heart of The O2. I dont believe there is another partnership like this anywhere in the world he said.

The project builds on O2s previous and existing investments in music entertainment and sport from Capital Radios Party in the Park events and English National Opera to ongoing sponsorship of the England national rugby union team Arsenal FC and the O2 FHM Cup.

The centrepiece of the multi-billion-pound development set to open in early 2007 will be an indoor arena for up to 23000 fans that will host up to 150 world-class music entertainment and sport events in its first year of opening.

Within the facility there will be the O2 Music Club with a capacity of more than 2000 an ice rink called the O2 Ice Pad and a bubble-shaped world-class exhibition space and a vibrant entertainment district featuring a variety of bars restaurants retail and leisure facilities.

Shaw said he believed that being the headline sponsor for such an incredible complex would go a long way in persuading customers to join O2 and would give its 14 million customers a reason not to churn to other networks particularly as the network plans to gives its customers plenty of VIP privileges.

All O2 customers will be able to enjoy special VIP status at The O2 he said. While it will be a national venue with broad appeal O2 customers will be able to enjoy unique benefits that significantly enhance the experience. On opening there will be a unique event available only to O2 customers.

O2 and AEG will integrate state of the art entertainment and mobile technology to create a range of interactive services. This will include easy-to-use mobile ticketing Refresh Bubbles where O2 customers can relax recharge their phones try new mobile entertainment services and have a drink or a massage and a unique O2 Experience store.

There will also be event guides and downloads and exclusive music and entertainment information. These will be accessible via the O2 Active and i-mode mobile Internet portals on O2 handsets.

Other benefits will include priority access to tickets for all events a members-only bar and VIP hospitality lounge with entry only for O2 customers.

With the opening of the complex still two years away however O2 is planning to take full advantage of its links with AEG to create mobile entertainment content available exclusively on O2 phones and devices such as the XDA.

In the past year AEG has presented events for acts including U2 Elton John Usher Paul McCartney and Coldplay plus the Grammy Awards the Academy Awards and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

O2 will capitalise on this by working with AEG to create a range of mobile entertainment content available exclusively on O2 phones and devices such as the XDA.

Unlike other arenas The O2 will be designed for music offering great acoustics for the performers and modern facilities for the fans said David Campbell newly appointed president and CEO of AEG Europe. We are currently finalising our first raft of events for The O2 which we look forward to announcing in the coming weeks and months.

Kondor joins Nokias existing Nokia Enhancement distributors which are Dextra Data Select Clockwork Logistics and Unique Distribution.

Having suffered in Europe at the hands of the AG Customs are now looking to take their revenge against businesses who are not applying what Customs would consider to be adequate due diligence checks said Don Mavin of tax advisers Chiltern Mavin.

Customs is paving the way to withhold or block future (and possibly some of the currently withheld) VAT repayments by gathering information to apply their beefed up security provisions and joint and several liability notices against businesses which they consider do not have sufficiently robust due diligence procedures in place

It seems another nationwide Customs exercise is under way to visit selected dealers and gather information about the business to assist Customs in withholding any post Bond House VAT repayments by demanding security or by issuing a joint and several liability notice

Mavin says officers arrive at such visits armed with a questionnaire containing over 200 questions covering a wide range of topics. These include asking what due diligence checks are carried out details of the assets of the company and the names of the investors

No prior warning is given that the owner(s) will be expected to answer these detailed and searching questions. At the meeting the owner is provided with copies of Customs Notice on joint & several liability the recently-updated Notice detailing with Customs powers to demand security and the Statement of Practice concerning the deduction of VAT without a valid VAT invoice. The owner is asked to confirm whether he had previously been provided with a copy of these and asked to confirm that he had read them.

It seems to us that Customs are paving the way to withhold or block future VAT repayments by gathering information to apply their beefed up security provisions and joint and several liability notices against businesses which they consider do not have sufficiently robust due diligence procedures in place.

Vodafone customers can now send and receive up to 100 MB of data when using the Vodafone Mobile Connect service in a total of 15 countries.

Fone Logistics managing director Ian Gillespie said:

It is very much rumours. No formal agreement is in place with anybody to sell our business.

Carphone Warehouse indirect distribution director Steve Fraser said: There is no deal with anyone there is no price and we have done no due diligence

Ian Gillespie has confirmed already that we have had conversations but no deal has been done. There is more than one name in the frame.

Rival distributors counted themselves out. Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove said I dont know. None of us are aware of any talks.

European Telecom director of network services Frank Masson remarked: I would not have joined European Telecom if I thought it was to be bought out by The Carphone Warehouse

Essex Police were relaxed about details of the incident being released to the media. But they are furious Thomsons did not just call the phone a suspicious object.

If people are made aware that leaving or hiding a mobile phone on a plane can spark such a huge security alert then there could be lots of copycat or hoax incidences where this happens again said an Essex police spokesperson.

We advised Thomson that they should refer to the item as a suspicious object but they told the media that it was a mobile phone and now that has been widely reported.

We will definitely be having words with them.

The abandoned mobile phone is currently in police possession and the owner is currently being traced.

This operation has been costly for all the parties involved but owner wont face any criminal charges because they havent actually committed a crime said the spokesperson.

He also refused to reveal the brand model or even network for security matters.

A Thomson Holidays spokeswoman responded:

These kind of things escalate very fast and we were getting press calls about the incident long before theyd given us any advice about what we could and could not say.

The incident happened last Tuesday. A passenger found a mobile phone in an overhead locker aboard a flight on its way back from Portugal due to land at Coventry airport.

When it emerged that the phone didnt belong to anyone on board Air Traffic Control ordered the plane to divert to Stansted Airport.

Two fighter jets from RAF Coningsby escorted the diverted flight which landed at 7.54pm where crew and 103 passengers were disembarked and questioned.

The orphan mobile phone was then investigated by the bomb squad who finally decreed it safe.

Masson who moved to Data Select after quitting T-Mobile as head of channel sales leaves his role as head of business development at Data Select after just one year.

Phones International marketing director Eric White said:

Frank Masson has resigned from Data Select in order to take up a more senior role elsewhere in the industry. He has a period of gardening leave to complete first and he is then free to conduct business in his own inimitable way. We wish him well.

Said Masson:

I think I can make a difference. It is simply a bigger job. It covers more ground than the role at Data Select. That is the bottom line. My role encompasses the total UK market including networks and dealers as well as the sales force and marketing. It will allow John [Drinkwater] to spend more time on other business in other countries.

European Telecoms growth record impressed me. It has done a lot beneath the radar. It is a good contract connector of quality business and its dealers are as loyal as they come.

I enjoy the network side of the business very much. I had nearly seven years at T-Mobile. I understand the psyche of networks and the relationship between them and the manufacturers and figuring out in that the role of the distributor. A good distributor has to understand what the networks are doing and how to help the dealer channel.

Masson and European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater worked together previously at One2One.

Masson is on gardening leave with Data Select until the end of June.

The device also comes pre-loaded with 3D versions of Worms Forts: Under Siege Extreme Air Snowboarding and a new multiplayer version of Midways Gauntlet.

Sony Ericsson UK manager Peter Marsden thinks the phone will appeal to young adults with busy social lives a segment the manufacturer has traditionally shied away from in the past.

The Z520 is particularly aimed at young women who want a mobile that is small looks good but still has great functionality. The phone has Bluetooth and VGA camera and can be customised in a number of different colours to suit the owner.

The other new additions include the new 3G K608 which has 1.3 megapixel camera and features a direct video telephony button (full interview page 12)

Sony Ericsson UK general manager Peter Marsden told Mobile News that the S600 is aimed at the youth sector and the Z520 fashion phone at ladies two sectors the manufacturer has not normally gone after.

See full report page (12)

Called ExtremeMob the network will be a pre-pay service aimed at under 24s.

It will be available online from late July or early August and roll out through Extremes 18 high street stores which sell surf clothing during the autumn. Wider retail distribution through independent dealers is planned for 2006.

Extreme Group CEO and founder Al Gosling said:

We will tailor our tariffs content and customer services to a 16 to 24 age group. Virgin Mobile and other big airtime providers cant do that because they have to cater to an audience across all ages.

We spoke to all the UK operators and wanted the best we could find. Vodafone has the right size scale people professionalism and forward thinking.

We launch in mid summer with five or six handsets. We are in talks with Samsung Sony Ericsson VK and Siemens. We wont announce anything until much closer to launch. The industry moves so quickly and we can decide only a few weeks beforehand especially as its online retail only to begin with.

ExtremeMob will range high-end and entry-level handsets. Detail of wider distribution deals is not available yet.

Vodafone UK CCO Nick Read said:

Extreme is an attractive partner. It has a unique combination of brand content and its own distribution channel. Over the past year we have been approached by several parties for an MVNO deal. Extreme is the only one that convinced us that it has a genuinely different proposition that will add value to the market.

Carrie Pawsey an analyst at Ovum noted:

Extreme has been looking for an airtime partner for some time. Its a surprise that Vodafone emerged as its host network. Vodafone has previously been very anti-MVNO. Its deal with BT was an exception to its corporate wholesale strategy. This new MVNO deal with Extreme could signify a change of heart for Vodafone. There were rumours that Extreme was going to partner with Orange another anti-MVNO operator.

Of the four new slide phones the Nokia 6280 is a 3G model with a two megapixel and a VGA camera. The camera function operates in landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4 and carry a SIM-free price of 375 before subsidies or taxes.

The Nokia 6270 quadband slide phone also features a two-megapixel camera with flash and landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4.

The Nokia 6111 GSM slide phone has a one-mega-pixel camera and flash and a 6x digital zoom. It has an estimated retail price of 270 will also ship in Q4.

The dualband GSM Nokia 6060 is a clamshell device for basic voice communications. It is priced at 140 and is due to ship in Q3.

The Nokia 6265 slide phone is billed as Nokias most feature-rich CDMA phone to date. It has a two megapixel camera with LED flash digital 2 music player Bluetooth and mini SD card. It has a built-in FM radio and supports MP3 AAC and eAAC+ files. It is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The Nokia 2255 is a fold-style CDMA phone which will be available at an entry-level price point and is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The entry-level Nokia 2125 only 21.5mm thick and 85 grams features a 64K colour screen speakerphone and an integrated flashlight It is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2005.