The service will be branded Yours with the strap line Yours to do business with.

Currently Yours will only be offered through Your Communications fixed-line resellers though it may well be opened up to select independent dealers.

The customer proposition includes a mid-level business phone for under 50 connected to a rebranded T-Mobile. Yours boasts a simple unbundled tariff and a range of useful services included from day one.

Your Assistant is a virtual PA there is also conference calling and every number is also an e-mail address. Billing is by e-mail and there is online account management.

Resellers will earn modestly up front but ongoing revenues are promised to be significant. The virtual network will be made available to a limited number of partners who demonstrate the necessary expertise credentials and commitment.

Your Communications director of marketing and mobile service Paul Lawton told Mobile News:

Yours is more than a punt but it is peripheral to Your Communications business plan. Id hate for people to think this is a last-ditch attempt for us to win more market share. Even if Yours fails entirely none of the wheels are going to come off Your Communications.

We are not going to go out and bill ourselves as being the UKs sixth seventh or eighth network. Were not hung up about calling ourselves a network – that wont make people connect with us. They are going to connect with us because we have gone to more trouble to make sure we are delivering an innovative service no matter what it is called.

(see full story P24)

Walker joined Sagem earlier this month after Ora decided not to renew his contract a year ago.

Walker joined Ora from Banner in August 2001 after being made redundant when European Telecom purchased Banner.

He remained at Ora through its administration in November 2001 and subsequent purchase by Acson in February 2002.

The software is aimed at local authorities planning organisations. telecoms companies and other organisations that need to access the environmental impact of radio communication antennas.

It can also assess emissions from pagers and two-way radio transmitters.

The company currently employs around 600 call-centre staff at its Acton headquarters in west London and has already taken on around 120 staff at the new facility in Cheshire.

The Carphone Warehouse purchased the 60000 square foot facility with the aim of boosting the numbers of its call centre staff by 200 by the summer.

The two-storey building is also designed to house around 120 Opal Telecom and talktalk staff who are being moved across from their existing premises in Irlam Manchester as the site had no more room for expansion.

A Carphone Warehouse spokesperson said the facility was needed to handle the huge growth in customers the chain had experienced over the past couple of years.

We have gone from managing 300000 customers to one million customers in a short period of time. It was necessary to expand our call centre staff to service this larger customer base he said.

The location chosen due to its close proximity to the M62/M6 and Opal premises in Manchester has been fitted out with a gym and subsidised cafe.

The centre was opened by Ofcoms new CEO Stephen Carter.

Chris Page of Kidderminster dealership Premier Communications claims Orange has approached many of his customers directly offering unbeatable deals as long as they buy direct. Page says he is sick and tired of it and claims that Orange has become more active in doing this over the past few months.

Is Orange trying to cut out the dealer by offering customers deals that we cant match? In one instance it called a customer directly offering them a free Nokia 7250i handset upgrade and 50 cashback.

The best deal we could offer was 149.95. Not even our nearest Carphone Warehouse branch could match Oranges deal. My customers tell me they will only do business with me if I can match Oranges deal. Im losing business as a result.

There doesnt appear to be a way of contacting Orange to see if it will allow me to price match the deal. Nearly all of my customers are business customers who will always look for the best savings.

I know Orange has been doing this for years. But Im worried because the problem has grown over the last couple of months. The distributors dont appear to be able to do anything because the problem is affecting so many other dealers. But they sent out a newsletter warning us to be aware of the networks actions.

It is not the first time that Orange has faced this charge. In 2002 a number of dealers complained about the networks upgrade policy though Orange has maintained it does not actively poach dealers customers.

At the time of going to press no one at Orange was available for comment.

The company claims to be the first UK network operator to do so and plans to extend the trials to smaller business customers.

Vodafone currently has 3G capacity in London Manchester and Birmingham as well as along the M4 corridor. The network predicts a 30 per cent population coverage for its initial commercial introduction of 3G services in spring 2004.

Advance will see the network sharing customer relationship management data with qualifying dealers and providing them with dedicated backroom support staff and helpline numbers.

Fifteen direct independents (DIs) have been invited to join O2 Advance based on their having reached or exceeded performance criteria set by the network in five different areas.

At the launch in Surrey O2 UK sales director Mark Stansfeld said: O2 Advance is not an exclusive club. Those DIs here today have earned their place on the programme because of their performance but the programme is open to all our DI dealers. We have been very open about the criteria they need to satisfy if they are to join.

(Full report page 16)

The event is organised by The Carphone Warehouse and sponsored by Vodafone T-Mobile O2 Nokia Siemens Unisys and Smart Trust.

The Retail Manager Share Option Plan follows an announcement by Phones 4U boss John Caudwell last year that he planned to incentivise Phones 4U managers with bonus windfalls worth up to 1 million each.

All 510 CPW store managers have been awarded 10000 share options. Around 32 area sales managers get 20000 options. Four divisional managers get 30000 options.

The options are priced at 144p per share. They can be realised from January 2007. The plan is open until the end of the year so employees promoted to these positions within this time will also qualify.

Extra share options can be earned through an incentive programme.

But poor performers are penalised. Next January the bottom 25 per cent of managers will lose half their share options to the top 25 per cent of performers.

Thus top managers could get a windfall of 37000 each if the share price rises over the next three years to 2 in 2005 2.50 in 2006 and 3 in 2007. The top area managers would get 72500 each and the top divisional managers would collect 109000.

The poorest-performing store managers would still get 3900 each while the bottom area sales managers would land 7800 and divisional managers would collect 11700.

This share option plan has been introduced for three reasons said Carphone Warehouse retail managing director Jonathan Hook.

It rewards our existing retail managers and it incentivises our retail managers based on individual performance and loyalty.

He went on: We will be opening more than 100 stores in the next year and new management opportunities will arise.

This plan is a fantastic career progression inventive for everyone working towards becoming retail managers in the next 12 months said Hook.

The Carphone Warehouses share price has risen from 95p to 146p since last March.

He will still be based in Newbury and will report to international boss Julian Horn-Smith. Darbys role includes managing Vodafones relationship with Verizon and exploring opportunities in Latin America.

Darby is being replaced by Bill Morrow who has been in charge of Japan Telecoms fixed-line business.

Morrow an American has spent 23 years in the telecoms industry. He worked in both fixed and mobile for Airtouch and has most recently been responsible for Vodafones shareholdings in Japan.

Darby joined Vodafone three years ago from Coca-Cola. He said his biggest challenge at Vodafone had been to get the company to move away from being technology-based to being customer-based.

Ultimately customers are not interested in technologies like MMS. GPRS or WAP. They are interested in what a proposition will do for them. An example is Vodafone live! which was a genuine customer proposition behind which was WAP GPRS and m-Pay said Darby.

He added that it was vital for the dealer channel to now accept they had to concentrate on pursuing higher-spending customers who could be retained.

Independent dealers are important to Vodafone. I keep telling the ones I meet that they need to align to where Vodafones focus is.

The winners will have to move on from selling off-the-shelf solutions that seem to be just voice. We will all have to get better and better at selling more bespoke solutions and invest more in customer support and training.