The deal applies to all contract customers signing up before September 30 and allows them free access to video action football news audio bulletins and score alerts from the Barclaycard Premiership.

While the move should help 3 continue its impressive connection rate and nudge it closer to its goal of one million connections before Christmas it means that 3 will only have six months to make any return on the reported 35 million it paid to the Premier League.

The network signed a three-year deal with the Premier League in July 2001 but its late launch meant it missed out on the first season and a half. The forthcoming season is the only full one that 3 will be offering.

3 is unable to say whether it has made a bid for the forthcoming rights deal because of a confidentiality agreement insisted on by the Premier League.

A 3 spokesman said: Football and sport have always been a part of what we are doing. This offering is about telling people we are the home of mobile football and video content. The offering gives something to new and existing customers and allows people to experience the video services. The recent tariffs concentrated very much on voice and this is a way to show people that sport video services are also available.

Philip Woolnough 21 also faces two allegations of assault at Waterloo station on a different date.

The court heard that on a train between Brockley and London Bridge on July 24 he used threatening abusive and obscene language towards passenger Mark Bettinson saying Im going to have that f****** phone off you or Ill punch your face in.

He is also charged with assaultiing and threatening to kill another passenger Paul Hayes on the same train and robbing him of cash two cigarette lighters and a travel pass. Woolnough appears in court on August 26.

The scheme will run throughout August and is aimed at raising Siemens profile with the youth market.

As well as free entry owners of an SL55 will receive preferential treatment within participating nightclubs.

The SL55 Club Pass initiative will be supported in each region by week-long promotions with local radio stations.

Siemens Style Selectors will also pick the best-dressed clubbers from nightclub queues for free entry. The most style-conscious clubber selected each Saturday night will also be asked to act as a Siemens stylista to spot early style trends in their region on behalf of Siemens Mobile.

Participating nightclubs include Vision at Ascension in Manchester The Zap in Brighton Majestyks in Leeds Libertys in Birmingham and Media in Nottingham

Siemens Mobile PR and advertising manager Simon Robinson said: The advertising campaign is about offering added value for the customers as well as developing Siemens as a young trendy brand.

From November 1 the network will condense its regional operations to two – a Northern Region managed from Warrington and a Southern Region managed from Hayes.

The workload of the current Midlands Region will be split between the North and South and the Midlands Region will close.

A company statement said:

Vodafone will do as much as possible for the individuals affected including offering re-deployment and relocation to other operational sites including Banbury and a redundancy package. We will be meeting with the relevant employees over the next week to discuss their options.

The deal adds more than 1000 acts to the Shazam service. Among the artists now available are Bon Jovi Ms Dynamite taTu and Daniel Bedingfield.

The Shazam service allows users to identify songs they hear by playing them into their mobiles.

They can then buy ring tones for the songs they identify and send music clips to friends.

The events will be hosted by Aleks Krotoski the female star of Channel 4s Bits and Thumb Bandits TV shows and will give consumers a chance to play some of the worlds best mobile games.

The tour started in Glasgow on July 24 and will take in Manchester Leeds Nottingham Birmingham Newcastle and Cardiff before ending in London in late October.

Radford and other key shareholders have 60.2 per cent of Projects equity valued by Vodafone at 155 million.

Radford will remain under contract to Vodafone to oversee the transition and integration of Project Telecom into Vodafone.

Mindful of Vodafone closing Cellular Operations its last acquisition Radford said he had been concerned about the future of Projects staff. But Vodafone said the network had not guaranteed jobs at its Newark base.

A Vodafone spokesperson said:

One wouldnt want to say there wont be any job losses. There may be some. We intend to grow Newark as a centre of excellence. It gives us direct access to our customers which is part of our strategy.

Radford told Mobile News the companys trading statement in April had been the trigger for the sale to Vodafone.

Delighted

A number of companies made offers. I didnt want to see the business die. I am delighted to have secured the future of the company.

He added: Service provision was becoming increasingly difficult. The City wants continued growth. Once you falter they treat you abominably. This affects the share price company morale and the way you are regarded by suppliers and customers.

Service provision has had its day. There were very difficult market conditions in first quarter of this year. It became obvious that the networks wanted direct routes to customers. We were becoming unable to compete for new business and we were finding it harder to retain customers.

You can either sit and die a slow death or take the business forward. I am thrilled we could do a deal with Vodafone. It has recognised our skills and intends to expand on them.

We have seen consolidation in service provision. Service providers are becoming increasingly marginalised making it difficult to compete unless they have enormous size and ability to negotiate.

Service provision will disappear. Vodafone will only support channels that add value to its proposition in mobile data and specific customer niches.

Keith Curran who heads independent service provider Yes Telecom commented:

I am shocked by the news. Project was the benchmark for service providers. I didnt think Project needed to sell up. If it had kept its fundamental strategy it could have turned things around. Maybe the recent profit warnings and subsequent sale indicated all was not well.

The fact that Vodafone is buying another service provider is an important message we all need to take on board. However I am confident our business model still works well.

Control

Avenir Telecom MD Ishai Novick said he was not surprised at the news however and agreed service providers days are numbered:

The networks want to control their customers. It is becoming more difficult for service providers to finance customer acquisition because they are losing support from the networks.

Service providers have provided an alternative route for connections but that route is fast diminishing. We used to connect through Cellular Operations but connections have slowed down. Service providers started out to perform a regulatory function. Since Oftel removed the obligation for networks to use service providers it doesnt make economic sense for networks to continue supporting them.

The Q2 figures were disappointing for Orange and Vodafone in comparison with Virgin and O2 which managed net gains of 231000 and 258000 customers in the quarter respectively (Mobile News July 28)

Despite this both Orange and Vodafone claimed that their networks had performed strongly with increases in both revenue and global customer bases.

Vodafones small Q2 increase in customers means the network drops to the number three slot in the UK with 12.1 million active customers. O2 has moved into second place with 12.3 million active customers while Orange holds the number one spot with 13.25 million customers in total.

Vodafones net gains may have been the smallest it has experienced in the UK to date but the network still has over 800000 valuable contract customers more than either Orange or O2.

However Orange claimed its contract customers were spending an average of 568 per year ( 47.33 per month) as opposed to Vodafones contract average of 533 ( 44.42 per month).

Vodafone now claims to have 420000 customers using its live! service in the UK. Data revenues in the UK increased from 14.4 to 14.7 per cent of all service revenue.

Results from T-Mobile and 3 are due later this month.

Activ will have six regional representatives across the north of England from Derbyshire to Newcastle and operations centres in Sheffield York and Newcastle.

Activ will be run by Sebastian Brown who has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 12 years. He founded service provider Arian Communications which was sold to Dolphin Telecom earlier this year.

Although Activ Telecom is a subsidiary of Fone Logistics it will have its own brand and its own identity said Brown. The geographical separation from Fone Logistics headquarters in Cramlington will help to broaden our presence and our regional spread will allow us to be accessible to customers across the country.

Fone Logistics was established in 1996 by Ian Gillespie as a mobile phone distributor repair centre and airtime supplier to business customers. It currently employs around 200 people and has an annual turnover of some 40 million.