The cumulative number of page impressions for 2003 stands at 8.2 billion surpassing the associations prediction of eight billion impressions for the whole of the year.

Virgin Mobile is to start recruiting independent dealers for the first time and will be looking to expand the brand into Europe.

These are the initial consequences of Virgin Mobiles out-of-court settlement with T-Mobile the other partner in the joint-venture. The Virgin Group now obtains 100 per cent control of Virgin Mobile while T-Mobile has settled for a non-exclusive 10-year supplier agreement

It really has liberated the opportunities of the business said Virgin Mobile chief executive Tom Alexander.

Were going to be expanding distribution and the proposition we can offer. Weve got clear access to 2.5G access going forward. Weve a good relationship with T-Mobile and a long-term contract.

He would not be drawn as to whether Virgin would look to sever the relationship with T-Mobile entirely saying: There might be no need to go elsewhere but having the complete flexibility is a benefit.

According to Alexander the end of the acrimonious court case has been cause for celebration and will allow the company to better address present market conditions.

We definitely opened a few bottles of champagne. I cant talk about the details as were bound by loads of confidentiality clauses. It has taken lots of discussion. We wanted to get it absolutely right. We dont want to end up fighting again he said.

We had both been living with an unsatisfactory contract that we had to battle out in court. We wanted to put a contact together that was black and white with no areas of disagreement.

Alexander claims it has taken a Virgin Mobile team a full year to work out a new contract to take into account mobile developments.

The original contact was written in 1998 so the details of technologies like 3G were still vague and hazy he said. Now a lot more is known. Both sides could put down a lot of hard details.

According to Alexander the arrival of new T-Mobile MD Brian McBride was a big help.

It helped the process that he came in and had a totally different approach and was able to sit down and talk constructively. A lot of progress was made with a good spirit of co-operation.

McBride said: It is a good deal for both companies. This deal was not just between myself and Virgin. It had to be approved at very high level within T-Mobile. In its previous state there was no way of unlocking the value in Virgin Mobile. A week ago Virgin Mobile was not worth anything. Now the company is free to float and the commercial terms are better for both companies.

If Virgin Mobile floats for more than 550 million we get a share of that. We have a significantly better relationship with Virgin now. I dont accept that Virgin will be worse off under the new agreement.

He conceded that there was no way for either party to exit the joint-venture except by going to court.

The old contract was a probably a good one at the time it was signed five years ago. However the market has changed. This is a reflection of that. The old arrangement was primarily a voice-only deal. It didnt lay out the way that Virgin would be able to access new data services. MMS GPRS and 3G werent even around then.

McBride said the new supply contract clearly spelled out how services would be provided to Virgin and he claimed he was not not worried if Virgin decided to use a new supplier.

Virgins most complex relationship is with its network supplier. It would be a huge risk and challenge to try and work with multiple suppliers or even change suppliers said McBride. I cant see why Virgin would want to change network suppliers and its not our intention to want to cause Virgin to find another supplier. The commercial terms are good for both companies. Virgin is happy with network performance. We want to have Virgin Mobile customers using our network. However it wont ruin T-Mobile if Virgin decides to change network supplier.

If Virgin is successful we share the upside of that growth. There was always going to be a conflict of interests being a supplier and a joint-venture partner. In any joint-venture peoples businesses and their interests change over time.

I intended to resolve the situation when I joined in June last year. It was clear from the outset that the best way forward was a sale of our share of the joint-venture. However it didnt come together until late last year. (See analysis P10)

The first games available will be Rally (a four-player game) and RC Battle (for eight contestants). Once downloaded the games can be played on a wide variety of Sony Ericsson handsets.

The games are currently being evaluated by a small number of invited participants but following positive feedback from them the indications are that the manufacturer will open up the trial to all-comers in early February.

The Sony Ericsson camera phone phone went missing from the scene of the crash near Napier on the North Island of New Zealand.

Sherlock (33) was killed when the camper-van he was driving was struck side-on by a truck and trailer unit at an intersection with a motorway.

The phone was a silver and black Sony Ericsson camera phone which contained photographs of the family on their New Zealand holiday A reward has been offered for its return.

His wife Vicky and their nine-year-old daughter and three-year-old son escaped with minor injuries.

According to reports Martin Treacey a close friend of the Sherlock family said the phone had gone missing following the accident and may have been thrown out the window of the camper-van in the crash.

The phone was switched on after the accident as someone rang it but the call was not answered.

Subsequent calls by the family to the phone have been unable to make contact.

Police believe the camper-van may have followed a truck into an intersection before another truck slammed into it.

Vodafone is believed to have paid between 3 million to 4 million for Generation Telecom although neither company is officially revealing the amount.

Generation Telecom founded in 2001 was an O2 and Vodafone service provider with offices in High Wycombe Surbiton and York.

It had a customer base of 27000 subscribers of whom 85 per cent are on Vodafone.

Phones International boss Peter Jones is understood to have done the deal amid concerns it was becoming increasingly hard to compete with the networks and other service providers to retain its few large accounts which are mainly railway companies.

Vodafone would not elaborate on whether Generation Telecom would be integrated into Vodafones new business services division. A spokesperson simply said:

Its business as usual while we assess the business and the best way forward.

Former Generation Telecom managing director Keith Westcott is leaving the business to rejoin

Ericsson at the beginning of February as vice-president of wireless key accounts for Ericssons infrastructure business.

He will manage Ericssons relationships with UK operators. Vodafone director Ian Watson has taken over the reins at Generation Telecom in the interim.

Yes Telecom MD Keith Curran commented:

Generation Telecom was the last company I expected to sell out to Vodafone. Its difficult to tell whether Vodafone decided it wanted the business and made Phones International an offer it couldnt refuse. On the other hand it could have been that the business had not been performing to expectations.

He went on: I am surprised at the subscriber figures being quoted. We estimated that Generation Telecom had nearer 40000 to 50000 subscribers after acquiring customers from Global Crossing and Anglo Communications. Maybe they tell a story.

Your Communications director of mobile services Paul Lawton was more philosophical:

Six months ago I would have thought Generation Telecom was in it for the long run. The company probably found it much harder to grow the business to meet the ambitious nature of the group.

He was undismayed however: Its good to see a consolidated market. But I dont relish the thought of being one of the last SPs standing. Then again there could well be new entrants into the market. This could well be a changing of the guard rather than the end of service provision.

The 7600 will go on sale in February on the 3 network. Dealers and distributors are frustrated about the lack of handsets in the 3 range – currently limited to the Motorola A920 and A835.

The range was due to have included the NEC e616 but technical delays means it hasnt arrived (see story this page). 3 will not take the Nokia 7600 or earlier Nokia 6650 3G handsets into its own product range because they do not support video calls. But dealers and distributors are frustrated about the exclusive Carphone Warehouse deal.

MoCo Cell Link managing director Ian Robinson said:

3s Motorola handsets are not attractive. We are trying to sell handsets people dont want despite all the incentives that 3 offers us.

We have been crying out for a better handsetespecially a Nokia. Why doesnt 3 allow all the channels to sell the product?

Sprint Communications boss Paul Leonard added:

It is a logical decision for Carphone Warehouse but a sad one for the other channels which are suffering a shortage of 3 handsets.

However 3 said it had no say in the matter.

The deal was brokered between Nokia and The Carphone Warehouse. It has not involved 3 said a spokesperson.

3 UK does not sell the Nokia 7600 as it does not have video calling. We would be very pleased to have Nokia handsets but only when they meet our requirement of supporting a full range of video content services. 3 will provide customer billing and customer services for all connections. However technical problems and handset faults will be referred to The Carphone Warehouse.

To suggest that there are significant software problems is a massive overstatement said a 3 spokesperson. I have a working model on my desk. We are still tweaking the phone but thats to be expected. Theres a world of difference between a UMTS device and established GSM terminal technology.

Chairman of 3 parent company Hutchison Whampoa Li Ka-shing is reported to have recently announced that NEC would ship 2.5 million phones by the end of April. These will be shared among countries where 3s 3G networks are up and running. The UK could receive a pro-rata allocation of around 750000 units.

The network acquired Project Telecom last September. The Newark facility will become Vodafone UKs centre of excellence for providing services to its business customers.

The Newark-based centre will be run by ex-Project Telecom managing director Chris Tombs.

The new jobs range from customer service advisers and credit management managers to installation engineers.

Karan Bhatia (18) of Beeches Road Tooting Bec elected trial by jury on the charge of stealing two phones worth 579 at the shop on November 30 last year.

The villagers of Rogate surrounded the mast to prevent it being connected to the network. They are concerned about adverse health effects.

O2 Airwaves application to erect the mast at Forge Farm was rejected by Rogate Parish Council and Chichester District Council. But the operator called on emergency powers to erect the mast at 2am on January 17. An O2 Airwave spokesperson told Mobile News:

We build masts within the bounds of a planning regime at our own risk. If we fail at appeal we have to remove the mast. We have emergency powers to build masts. We win almost every appeal made on the grounds of health because science suggests TETRA is safe.

We need 3300 masts and we have planning permission for around 3000. When we come across such local opposition we remove the mast and try to find a more appropriate site.

Lisa Oldham of protest group Mast Sanity said:

O2 Airwave continues to put up TETRA masts without permission. They cite emergency powers. But what they are doing is unlawful.

Wed like all TETRA masts taken down because there are other safer alternatives.

As soon as TETRA masts are turned on people report interrupted sleep body rashes and migraines As soon as a 3G or TETRA mast goes live we receive reports of adverse effects. (see featureP22)