T-Mobile took on 1.2 million new users including 161000 on contract. But a cull of inactive pre-pay customers means T-Mobile ended 2003 with fewer customers despite a good second half of the year.

Virgin Mobile added 506000 new customers in Q4 taking Virgins quarterly tally above O2 for the first time in six months.

O2 added 430000 new subscribers just eclipsing Vodafones 422000.

Orange only recorded a figure of 278000 net new connections. 3 announced in mid-December that it has 210000 subscribers a net gain of just 55000 since the summer attributed to stock shortages.

T-Mobile managing director Brian McBride said:

We had a strong second half to the year. Our Q4 promotions were strong and were out early in the market.

We have the highest pre-pay revenue and the second largest contract revenue per customer. The change in our commission structure has been reflected in high-quality customers joining the network. We are happy but not complacent.

The networks all recorded strong growth in data services. O2s data revenue increased to over a fifth of all network revenues. The number of text messages sent by O2 customers in Q4 exceeded two billion.

Q4 total connections

1. T-Mobile 707000

2. Virgin Mobile 506000

3. O2 430000

4. Vodafone 422000

5. Orange 278000

6. 3 55000

Q4 contract connections

1. Vodafone 181000

2. T-Mobile 161000

3. O2 145000

4. Orange 116000

5. 3 55000

Total active Subscribers

Dec 31 2002

1. Orange 13649000

2. O2 13053000

3. Vodafone 12691000

4. T-Mobile 9955000

5. Virgin Mobile 3644000

6. 3 210000

Total 53202000

The GSM Association expects to see 3G services launched by another 40 operators by the end of this year. Conway predicted there would be more than a billion GSM mobile phones in use by the end of March.

Solid foundations are in place for successful migration to 3G. Twenty-five operators are already delivering 3G services to customers in 17 countries he said.

He went on: Improvements in the supply of dual-mode handsets capable of delivering seamless inter-operability between GSM and 3GSM will provide the catalyst for the launch of at least another 40 3GSM services in the year ahead.

At the end of 2003 there were 970 million customers using GSM technology a number that is growing at the rate of 15 million per month. Almost half of GSM mobile phone users reside in Europe and Scandinavia (425 million). The Asia-Pacific region added 70 million new users during 2003. China added 42.8 million users.

The phone also has integrated camera and push-to-talk facility.

Recruitment ads in the Sunday Times are offering salaries of 150000 to 250000 for the jobs as well as 100 per cent bonuses and 500000 to 1 million from the Groups wealth-creation scheme.

The 20:20 ad calls for a sales-led managing director with the enormous competence gravitas and unquenchable ambition to orchestrate our expanding global operations.

But the ads could be just a punt to lure high-fliers currently looking to move.

A Caudwell Group spokesperson told Mobile News:

The ads in the Sunday Times were nothing new or out of the ordinary. Caudwell Group is in a continuous trawl for the best possible senior management talent to run or develop new businesses or extensions of existing businesses.

The Caudwell Group in fact runs tempting management recruitment ads continuously. The company hopes the people who respond to the ads could become candidates for all parts of the business.

3 has finally expanded its 3G handset range with new additions from NEC and Motorola.

The operator which has just celebrated its first birthday will offer its customers the NEC e616 and e313 and the Motorola A925 doubling the range of handsets available on its VideoTalk price plan.

The NEC e313 will also be available to customers of 3s new pre-pay offering ThreePay for 99.99.

The announcement follows an aggressive marketing campaign to kick off the launch of ThreePay as the network tries to establish itself firmly in the mobile broadband market before the other networks roll out their 3G services towards the end of the year.

While others may not have video mobiles that are ready 3 now has a portfolio of five handsets available said 3 sales director Marc Allera.

All handsets have built-in cameras can capture still images and video clips and are able to support a range of messaging formats.

The NEC handsets are both dual-band and the Motorola A925 is tri-band. The A925 a PDA that runs on the Symbian platform and the NEC e616 both support Bluetooth.

At the same time 3 has launched Today on 3 which it claims is the UKs first live video mobile news and entertainment channel.

The new channel will be updated throughout the day and will feature the latest footage available on the network from breaking news and football goals just after they are scored to music videos and film clips.

Today on 3 will give 3 customers access to an average of 72 minutes of daily footage on their video mobile including clips from Sky Sports MTV DJ Pete Tong ITN and the Barclaycard Premiership.

3 customers just hit the triangle key on their phone to access the service. It will be free to view with access to clips available to download or stream from 25p.

3 chief operating officer Gareth Jones said:

Today on 3 represents the culmination of a years experience of how our customers interact with our services.

Every day we learn more about what our customers enjoy and how and when they want to use our video content.

Today on 3 puts this into practice – combining our leading sports news and entertainment content with the mobility power and immediacy of video mobile to create the UKs first live video mobile news and entertainment channel.

This is just the start for Today on 3: it will continue to evolve and develop in order to meet the changing demands of customers.

(See Analysis P8)

When Virgin Mobiles lawyers faced their T-Mobile counterparts across the negotiating table to hammer out the dissolution of the blighted joint-venture there was little doubt they felt they were playing with a stacked deck in their favour.

While no one at Virgin or T-Mobile is allowed to divulge details of the settlement its widelyaccepted that Virgin paid T-Mobile a nominal 1 for T-Mobiles 50 per cent share.

T-Mobile must have realised that losing a further court case against Bransons empire could have cost it its entire 50 per cent stake in Virgin Mobile. The termination provision of the joint-venture would have enabled Virgin to walk away with all the shares and move the entire business to another network.

With its new contract Virgin Mobile is still free to shift its entire base to another network. But at least under the new scenario T-Mobile has received a 10-year commitment from Virgin Mobile albeit a non-exclusive one.

Thus T-Mobile gets the certainty of a solid revenue stream at least until 2014 and a share of the cake – something it would have missed out on entirely should it have lost out in any further litigation.

Virgin Mobile now has the freedom to enter into discrete alliances with other networks for different technology offerings. It could for example approach 3 and launch a 3G service using 3s infrastructure.

This would give Virgin Mobile a mix of customers. Some would be on 3. Others would remain on T-Mobiles GSM system. All Virgin subscribers would deal with the same call centre product literature and personnel but a different network would serve them.

This freedom could come at some cost to Virgin. The virtual network has denied reports it could lose up to 30 million now that T-Mobile doesnt have to pay Virgin 4.50 a month for customers who stayed inactive for up to a year.

But at least one analyst reckons that the end of the 4.50 payments under the old joint-ventures Telecoms Supply Agreement could mean 20 million less revenue for Virgin Mobile.

Apart from that it is business as usual for Virgin Mobiles 1700 employees and 3.6 million customers. The fact that the Virgin Group now owns Virgin Mobile outright clears the pipe that was clogged by legal shenanigans. It also frees Virgin Mobile to get on with new strategies and launch new technologies such as premium messaging and MMS.

Litigation

A lot of the litigation was making people walk though mud said Virgin Mobile corporate affairs chief Steven Day. There is a whole series of things that were delayed such as MMS. All of that is unblocked and we are free to manoeuvre. Youll find other services quickly coming on-stream.

The virtual network will now also expand into the independent dealer channel. When Virgin Mobile first started in November 1999 it did not have the experience resources or expertise to sell through any other outlets other than its own V.Shops and Megastores.

Over the years however this distribution channel has expanded to include supermarkets Dixons The Carphone Warehouse and more recently specialists such as KJC. Sales from these non-Virgin retail outlets now account for half of all Virgin Mobile connections.

The virtual network has also started to explore other relationships with firms such as the Gadget Shop chain. Hitherto however it has left the mainstream independent dealer channel untapped. But now that it has nearly four million customers chief executive Tom Alexander has decided the time has come to explore the independents with more adventure and intent.

Were more able to cope with more things going on said Day. In the early days we didnt have the personnel and experience to deal with a huge number of stores so we kept the operation small. Weve grown organically.

He added: Now we have a very strong sales team led by Graham Hutchinson. Weve lots of people who worked at other mobile companies who have experience of dealing with the independent channel. We now find ourselves with the capability to expand.

See Comment P14

Communications which uses modulated magnetic rather than electromagnetic radiation to communicate with the headset.

An earpiece with a small processing unit connects to the phone via an adaptor and enables handsfree voice ommunication within two metres. The modulation frequency is between 10kHz and 15kHz which is well away from potential sources of interference. Security is assured by a 16-digit pairing code and the units limited range.

The same chipset can be used for data transfer at speeds of up to 204 kb/s.

European Telecom says the M100 offers advantages over Bluetooth devices both in terms of battery life and security.

The Mobicell unit has a three-month stand-by and 25-hour talk-time from one AA battery and the company claims it offers greater clarity. It does not need to be electronically paired and is impervious to Bluejacking whereby people flash unwanted messages to other Bluetooth phones in their vicinity (see feature P28).

European Telecom MD John Drinkwater claimed most people do not want a device that works more than two metres away.

As multimedia terminals become the norm users will demand true hi-fi sound which isnt a realistic proposition using Bluetooth he said. Well be bringing a stereo headset to market using Auras technology.

European Telecom will sell the 60 M100 to other distributors as well as selling direct to networks and retailers. It will be on the market by the end of February.

Small-scale retail trials have been carried out and have apparently gone well.

We kept it low-key until we were completely satisfied with both the quality and the potential of the product said Drinkwater.

Founded in 1995 Aura Communications has raised over $21 million in venture capital including a significant investment from

Motorola Ventures.

At a VAT tribunal meeting on February 9 the operators and the Government agreed on how the case would proceed and what evidence and witnesses would be required.

The operators started their action in October last year.

The operators case surrounds the 3G licence auctions held four years ago.

Under the sixth EU VAT directive neither the Government nor any public body is allowed to charge VAT on any supplies it makes including radio frequency.

However the operators argue that the 3G licence auction in 2000 which raised 22.5 billion was handled in a different way because it was designed to bring as much money as possible.

The operators claim that the Government handled the sale of 3G spectrum in a commercial capacity rather than that of a public body.

If the courts agree it could mean that the operators combined payment of 22.5 billion to the Government was inclusive of VAT meaning they would collectively be entitled to a 4 billion VAT refund.

None of the operators would offer a statement on the matter.

A similar case is set to be heard before the European Courts shortly.

Wolontis has been with Nokia for 10 years. Most recently he was general manager for Nokia Mobile Phones Export Sales heading sales operations for over 70 countries.

Before this Wolontis was responsible for Nokia mobile phone sales in Finland Russia the Commonwealth of Independent States and other Baltic countries.

The multimedia CX65 handset features a 65000-colour screen integrated video camera and 11Mb of memory. The clamshell CF62 is equipped with Java GPRS WAP and polyphonic ringtones. It provides five hours talk time and 220 hours standby time.