Its not fair on the dealer said Essex dealer Paul Leonard. If we can match the deals its not a problem. But when T-Mobile is telling us to sign up high-revenue users and then offers them better terms it makes it an uphill struggle.

If we do sign up that sort of user and he later finds out that he could have got a better deal on the networks website he is going to feel hoodwinked.

A friend who does a lot of T-Mobile connections says that he is scared that his customers will discover the T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile should have contacted dealers and warned them of what they were doing. At least that would have been fairer.

Orange has advertised 500 free text messages a month and half price line rental for six months for purchases direct from the Orange website.

Link Telecom dealer Mike Bower said: The networks are testing the boundaries. It is hard out there. They are trying to see how much they can get away with in terms of alternative routes to market. Its a sign that they dont really view the channel as they should.

At the time of going to press both Orange and T-Mobile were unavailable for comment.

Traders had been getting line check advice from a Customs and Excise helpline in Redhill Surrey set up for VAT number queries.

The service was meant to give traders advice on potential deals by checking the supply chain and identifying possible missing traders. Customs would then advise the traders as to whether they should do the deal or not.

Now however Customs has reverted to dealing only with VAT number queries.

Federation of Technological Industries chairman Mark Cook a trader who is leading a fight against the Governments proposed new joint and several liability VAT clause condemned Customs move.

Customs wants everything its own way he said. The Redhill helpline was a lifeline for people who wanted advice on the deals they were doing. Customs has stopped giving line check advice because it could potentially backfire if it later discovers a fraud on a deal it approved.

Elite Mobile managing director Ajay Gokani (see story below) says the move has hit some traders sales.

We have not been directly affected because we never used the facility he said. However some of our trading partners who did use it have become more cautious in the market.

Another trader who declined to be named said fewer and few people were using the helpline because Customs were taking too long to verify the deals.

It could take up to 48 hours to give you the okay on a deal. In this volatile market that is too long. In the time it took Customs to verify a deal we could have sold two or three consignments. The market is so volatile. You cant afford to hold on to stock for so long.

Another problem was that Customs might approve a deal only for your customer to tell you that he had been advised by his local VAT office not to buy your stock.

There was also inconsistency in the trading advice we received from different Customs offices. It looks like the service has been withdrawn because it was taking up too much of the officers time.

Former customs investigator Don Mavin who works for tax specialist firm Chiltern Taylor said:

The danger for Customs was that some dealers were using Redhill approval as a defence against an assessment.

It meant traders could blame Customs for their tax liability. I can see the reason why it has withdrawn the facility.

Elite managing director Ajay Gokani said the company had seen a decline in sales since new VAT laws regarding joint and several liability were proposed earlier this year.

He told Mobile News:

We made nine people redundant last month. The handset market is cautious at the moment and sales have dropped.

Even distributors with direct relationships with manufacturers are seeing a slowdown. There is confusion over the new VAT directives which has brought caution into the trade. We have spoken to local customs officers and even they dont know where we stand.

He added: Trading has slowed down as a result and we could not afford to have people sitting around doing nothing. The industry has also been hit by pressure on commissions and reductions in margins which have started to bite.

A 3 spokesman insisted it would not cause problems for dealers as the network uses several subcontractors in the area and point of sale material would be brought in from other suppliers to cover.

The network was confident that it would recover all of the material that had been seized.

The MDA announced that nearly 700 million WAP pages were viewed in May a figure that has doubled over the past eight months.

More than three billion pages have been viewed since the beginning of the year with the MDA estimating that eight billion pages will have been viewed by the end of 2003.

The figures mean that UK mobile phone subscribers view an average of 22.5 million pages per day.

The MDA reports that ring tone and screensaver WAP sites are among the most popular among users. However the figures also show a growing interest in sports and news sites.

According to the MDA the growth in WAP usage has been stimulated by improvements to mobile devices which are now available with larger colour screens faster WAP access and a better choice of WAP content.

Perfect Fit offers customers three easy steps to find a price plan that suits the way they use their mobile phone.

There are three types of plan – Anytime Daytime and Evening & Weekend – with a choice of bundled minutes.

Calls to other networks are now included in Anytime- and Daytime-bundled minutes and the cost of calling other mobile networks has been reduced (the highest rate is now 35p). Vodafone claims it offers greater flexibility allowing customers to change plans as and when their needs change.

This is all about giving Vodafone customers what they want. In addition to its simplicity and flexibility Perfect Fit reflects the evolving and diverse way we use our phones said Vodafone UK CEO Gavin Darby.

We have designed the plans around the findings of extensive research in our continuing drive to provide maximum value for our customers.

Hugh Symons Information Technology and Hugh Symons Mobile Data combine to become Hugh Symons Mobile Computing.

At present the Information Technology arm looks after Toshibas portfolio of notebook PCs and audio-visual equipment while Mobile Data looks after PDAs. The two departments will create a 50 million division.

Hugh Symons Group managing director Hugh Roper said:

We have been strategically positioning the business for the mobile computing revolution for some time and customers and suppliers have been instrumental in us taking this new approach to our business.

Vendors are looking for greater access to new markets and our customers are looking for greater access to new products. This initiative fulfils these ambitions and has the added benefit that we are able to provide packaged solutions for the channel.

A Legends Penalty Shootout will give visitors a chance to take penalty shots against celebrity goalkeepers including former Everton star Neville Southall MBE former Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar England keeper David James and ex-Wimbledon keeper Hans Segers.

Pictures of the winning shots taken with camera phones are e-mailed to the kickers PC.

The push on camera phones continues with a celebrity photo-booth where punters can have their photo taken with pin-up models or one of the football stars attending the show. Other attractions include an F1 simulator using a Grand Prix circuit.

Mobile News readers can qualify for two tickets for the price of one by visiting www.mobilelifeevent.co.uk

This follows Virgin Mobile calling off its advertising boycott of The Times after settling its dispute with News International

The new television advertisement sees a boy called Damien running the Virgin Mobile Red Academy. The academy teaches people that phones can be used to call friends. The adverts satirise the Orange Learn campaign in which another young boy this time called Dylan teaches sales staff how to best help customers.

Virgin Mobile had clashed with The Times two weeks ago following the papers refusal to run a Virgin Mobile advertisement highlighting the small print in Oranges 1p text offer (Mobile News August 11).

Virgin had wanted to run its advertisement the day after Orange had taken every advertising page in The Times to herald the launch of its Fair initiative – a move that was estimated to have cost 250000.

There have been high-level meetings between Virgin Mobile and The Times and it has assured us that The Times did not refuse the advertisement for commercial reasons said a Virgin Mobile spokesperson.

The Times said it had refused to run the Virgin ad because Virgin had delivered it too late. Virgin rejected this justification claiming that the paper had refused to run it because it didnt want to upset Orange.

O2 says it has sold 23000 BlackBerrys to corporate users in the UK Germany Ireland and the Netherlands. But individual users were precluded as in-house e-mail servers were required.

The new BlackBerry allows personal and small business customers to use the device without a special e-mail server. Instead the customer configures the BlackBerry to retrieve e-mail from their ISP via O2s servers.

Around 250 customers will trial the new BlackBerry for two months before it is offered commercially. No prices have been determined for the new product. The existing BlackBerry costs just 50.

In addition O2 has also repriced its GPRS PC modem card in response to Vodafones Connect card. The new O2 card will cost 99. It can be inserted into laptop computers for Internet access and mobile e-mail over O2s GPRS network.

Customers will be offered a GPRS starter pack which will include 50Mb of data free. After that they will be offered O2s Data 5 package which offers 5Mb of data for 2. Additional megabytes are charged at 1.20 each.