The cost of cross network calls on T-Mobiles Everyone 100 & 200 price plans have increased from 20p per minute to 25p per minute.

However T-Mobile claims customers will be better off because it is reducing the monthly line rental on those tariffs. Everyone 100 has been reduced from 25 per month to 21 while the monthly charge for Everyone 200 has been reduced from 40 per month to 29.

T-Mobile has also withdrawn most of its anytime tariffs except for Anytime Share which will continue to be offered to businesses. Pay as You go customers will see a 10p per minute price rise in cross network calls to 40p per minute.

International call rates have been simplified into five world zones. Each zone has a flat rate charge for making and receiving calls regardless of the network used. Different rates apply for pre-pay and contract customers.

The overwhelming majority of customers will be better off following the changes. Despite the small change the (pay monthly) 25p per minute cross-network call rate is highly competitive said a spokesperson.

Until now users of O2 Orange and T-Mobile could send messages between themselves but were unable to send pictures to the 12 million Vodafone users. Vodafone users could only send messages within the network.

MMS has long been championed as one of the next big revenue-drivers for the networks. The service was first introduced by T-Mobile in the UK when it launched MMS last June. The other networks soon followed but until the end of 2002 it was impossible to send them cross-network.

This changed when O2 signed an agreement with T-Mobile. Interconnect agreements with Orange were then signed earlier this year.

Vodafone UK marketing director Lance Batchelor said:

Expanding our service to send picture messages to people who are not with Vodafone is excellent news for our customers and we anticipate picture messaging will become as popular as texting.

Strong sales of live! handsets have shown that there is increasing demand for multi-media services. Many customers regularly prove that pictures speak louder words.

Batchelor added that the network planned to introduce more multimedia services including music sport and video clips in the near future.

T-Mobile has started a major ad campaign to promote usage of its mobile multi-media services using the strapline What will you start?.

There are five new commercials of dubious taste featuring according to the companys ad agency a broken sex toy the first live orgasm on a TV advert and a man biting a body part that would cause most people to break a vertebra.

The first ad in the series starts this week on both terrestrial and satellite TV. It shows a boy in an amusement arcade on a dance machine. Two girls are watching and notice his obsolete mobile phone. He times a kick as part of the dance and sends the offending handset flying out of the girls sight.

Our campaigns have been extremely successful in terms of brand recall and these are no different. The ads that will break later in the year are controversial: theyll shock and theyre guaranteed to make you smile said Phones 4U marketing director Julian Neal.

Abi Swainbank at ad agency CheethamBell JWT added:

These new ads will do everything you could imagine to persuade potential Phones 4U customers that there is nothing more embarrassing than an out-of-date mobile.

The ad will be featured on Phones 4Us new website where visitors can play on an online dance machine and download the ad theme tune as a ringtone for free.

Although the joint-venture denied it was responsible for the act the presence of a T68i in the poster which read 5000 Do You Know these People? led Westminster Council to take action against it.

Sony Ericsson was called to Londons Horseferry Road Magistrates Court earlier this month over two alleged breaches regarding advertising posters outside shops in Noel Street and Greek Street.

The agency admitted responsibility and agreed to pay a fine.

Called Mobile Life the event will offer visitors the chance to play with all the latest mobile devices.

The shows title sponsor is Honda with further sponsorship from Vodafone Orange O2 3 Motorola Nokia Siemens and Microsoft.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said:

Mobile Life will unlock the potential of new and existing communications technology and represents the first interactive experience of its kind in the UK. Were working to create a fantastic day out in a friendly open environment that inspires and informs.

Visitors to Mobile Life will also get a chance to race in an F1 simulator on a real Grand Prix circuit and compete for free talk time and prizes.

This means the Government will grab back all the luxury goods he bought with the proceeds of the 3.5 million he laundered through an offshore company as his share of the proceeds of a vast VAT carousel fraud.

These include a Bentley a Jaguar a Toyota Land Cruiser a yacht and a seven-bedroom mansion in Wales. Evans imprisonment came as the climax of a Customs and Excise investigation called Operation Dunaway that started in October 2000.

The probe started when Customs investigators were alerted to a used car dealer called Robert Garner who was selling mobile phones. Suspicions were aroused when Garners turnover soared to more than 20 million in one month compared with his normal annual turnover of 2 million a year.

Garner was arrested and charged with VAT evasion after Customs linked him to three missing traders who disappeared owing 35 million in VAT between June and November 2000.

Further investigations showed the missing VAT monies had been channelled to two companies in Ireland and Spain set up by an ex-pipe fitter and cafe owner called Raymond Woolley who fled to Spain before he could be arrested.

In January 2001 Customs investigators discovered that 8 million had been transferred from Woolleys two offshore companies to a client account at a Staffordshire solicitor. Senior partner Paul Morris handled the account.

Another client account was for an offshore company set up by Evans in the British Virgin Islands. Around 3.5 million was siphoned into this account and was eventually used to buy several expensive cars a yacht and the North Wales mansion.

Morris and Evans were both arrested and charged with money laundering. Woolley was eventually arrested in Schipol Airport en route from Hong Kong to Marbella.

In December Garner was sentenced to seven years three months. Woolley pleaded guilty to money laundering offences and got nine years the longest sentence ever handed out for VAT offences.

Last month Morris and Evans were sentenced. Morris got five years for each of three counts to run concurrently. Evans got three years on each of two counts to run concurrently.(See White Lines)

TCL went into receivership in November 1999 with debts of around 3 million and rumours that it had been affected by dealer fraud and tight margins on pre-pay.

In 1998 it had a turnover of 21 million and employed 130 staff in 39 retail outlets. It also had a base of around 300 dealers connecting through Phones 4U.

A recently-published administrators third annual report noted that a dividend may become payable to preferential creditors after monies that were diverted from the companys funds were recovered by the administrator.

Although the liquidator would not give precise details of how much money was recovered he did indicate that a certain amount had already been recovered and that an investigation had been launched to recover a substantial amount more.

Liquidators must submit a report to the Department of Trade and Industry Disqualification Unit. One has been completed on TCL directors Tony Lane John McLuskie Terry Cork and Rob Musk. It is unknown if this report includes details of the funds that have been uncovered.

The ruling imposes reductions on the call termination charges levied by all UK mobile networks. Income from these accounts for a quarter of mobile network operators revenue and a much higher proportion of profit.

PricewaterhouseCoopers said the reduction in handset subsidies and raising of tariffs could mean existing mobile users may cease being mobile subscribers altogether if they have to upgrade to more expensive handsets and monthly charges.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers regulatory intervention could harm the development of markets for new services which need to develop before the need for regulation is assessed.

The outcome of the Competition Commissions ruling represents a significant downside for UK mobile network operators and consequently for consumers said PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Graeme Clark.

Siemens created the Xelibri as a fashion accessory to be sold over new channels such as department stores and fashion retailers

He joins NextGem managing director and founder Kevin Gooding.

Gooding commented:

NextGem is aimed at helping software developers to market their products into 2.5G and 3G mobile markets and where necessary join complementing technologies together. Grahams wide experience in the cellular industry will prove invaluable to NextGem.

Cornhill added:

The content industry will be the main driver of income to both 2.5G and 3G markets in the coming years. NextGem understands the content market and how content apart from being saleable must interact comfortably with network operational systems if it has any chance of success. There are still huge earning opportunities from 2.5G for the next couple of years. NextGem will be delivering applications that will create valuable revenue streams now.