Spokesman Simon Robinson said the SX1 would not do particularly well over the festive period anyway.

The Christmas market is about relatively cheap handsets that people buy as gifts. We are concentrating on the MC60 which has been selling exceptionally well already. Its one of the few sub- 100 camera phones.

With the SX1 we wanted to be sure that everything was working perfectly. We have seen other manufacturers rush to keep to deadlines and deliver products full of bugs. We didnt want that to happen with the SX1.

The v200 comes with an Arsenal welcome message10 Arsenal wallpapers and four Arsenal ringtones. Users also get MMS pictures from Arsenal home games.

The Samsung C100 comes with the Arsenal Pocket Soccer Java game. It also has eight polyphonic ringtones an animated Arsenal welcome and a choice of eight Arsenal wallpapers.

Both handsets are available from O2 outlets and the Arsenal club shop. The V200 costs 279.99 on pre-pay while the C100 is 99.99.

The figures related to complaints received by Oftel between April and September this year.

The regulator received 552 complaints about 3s service but was unable to compare the network with other operators because it was unable to obtain information about 3s customer base.

But considering 3 is believed to have around 200000 customers it would have received around 2.7 complaints per 1000 customers.

T-Mobile Orange and O2 each received 0.2 complaints per 1000 while Vodafone received 0.1 complaints per customer.

Vodafones achievement is even more impressive considering the former Cellular Operations division received 1.4 complaints per 1000 customers while another recent Vodafone acquisition former Caudwell reseller 4U also fared poorly.

A spokesperson for 3 said:

Oftels figures are misleading. 3 is the first 3G offering in the country working with cutting-edge technology and offering a unique service. It is misleading to directly compare us against companies that are working on technology that has been around for 10 years.

Mobile-related complaints to Oftel were up 10 per cent over the previous period with 19950 for the past six months as compared to 18000 for the previous six months.

The top three complaints received by Oftel included companies ignoring customers complaints issues regarding operators tariffs and options packages and problems with handsets.

Meanwhile 3s anticipated pre-pay package might not now launch until the second quarter of next year because of the shortage of 3 kit said the network.

3 was planning a pre-pay launch in time for Christmas 2003 as it sought to use the festive period to help it meet its target of a million customers in its first year.

While Motorola has produced two new products in as many months 3 is still waiting for NECs clamshell 616 handset.

This is the smaller lighter replacement for the 606 so far 3s best selling handset. The 616 will be the closest 3 has come to offering a phone similar in size to a 2.5G phone.

But the 616 is still undergoing interoperability testing and is unlikely to appear before Christmas.

Vodafones existing business and indirect sales teams are also being merged into Vodafone Business Services which will target small businesses.

Customer service operations in Newark and Banbury could absorb some of the redundant sales staff Vodafone director of corporate and business sales Ken McGeorge told Mobile News.

From the minute we acquired Project Telecom and Corporate 4U we warned that there would be a combining of the sales force and a reduction in staff numbers he said.

Having merged these sales teams together there are a significant number of people surplus to requirements in the new organisation. Eighty jobs are at risk.

McGeorge added:

We are selecting people to stay based on their performance. The market has evolved away from acquisition. We need a greater ratio of account managers to sales staff.

McGeorge said a new sales director will be appointed to look after Vodafone Business Services during November/December.

Project Telecom was acquired in August and Vodafone then made no bones about the fact that jobs would have to go.

Singlepoint was snapped up a few months later in a record-breaking 4065 million acquisition from Caudwell Group.

On the eve of the launch of the Sendo X smartphone (see features) Sendo boss Hugh Brogan announced that Sendo had doubled its sales to 800000 units for the year despite the end of its relationship with Microsoft and the cancellation of its Z100 smartphone.

Brogan admitted the decision to end the Microsoft relationship was a set-back. But he was bullish over Sendos prospects for the future and seemed pleased that the company has produced the new handset in a very short time.

The new handset the Sendo X will first appear in Italy on the Telecom Italia network and is expected to be available in the UK late this month or in early 2004.

Brogan claims Sendo aimed for the handset to be best in its class for video capture picture and sound quality.

Ditching Microsoft was a huge blow for us and a terrible situation to be in. It hurt the company and it took a few months to reorganise he says. But sales have increased 200 per cent over last year. Our strength is in providing customised products for operators. We were a little early in the market but now we are seeing the operators place a greater emphasis on customisation demonstrated by Vodafone live!. The market for customised products is moving in our direction.

Last year Sendo was selling products solely on Virgin Mobile in the UK. It now also provides kit to O2 and Vodafone and is in talks with other UK operators. Sendo product is sold throughout Dixons Group The Carphone Warehouse Woolworths Asda and Tesco Mobile. Brogan says Sendo is third in Portugal behind Nokia and Siemens.

The market for smartphones next year is estimated to be around 30 million units with 60 per cent of those sales in Europe. Nokia is expected to fulfil half of that market.

Sendo X: specifications

GraphiX co-processor

Smooth video playback and still capture

Up to 45 minutes of video using 64Mb flash memory (longer video possible with optional card).

Around 1000 images can be stored on the handset.

Built-in flash with red-eye reduction and a 4x digital zoom.

Picture size of 640×480 pixels.

Dual port speaker

64-voice polyphonic ringtones

Opera internet browser which reformats web pages for viewing on 176×200 pixel 65000-colour display

Bluetooth USB and infrared connectivity. Internet over GPRS and circuit-switched data.

MP3 and Real Audio player

Speaker-independent voice recognition without the need to pre-record a voice tag.

The mast was illegally pulled down on Bonfire Night after bolts were removed from its base. It was sold to a scrap yard by T-Mobile and then bought by residents who smashed it up and sold the pieces as souvenirs.

This is is a legal structure that was illegally pulled down said a T-Mobile spokesperson.

The mast received planning permission and meets all safety requirements.

It is an integral part of the network in that area and since its destruction capacity has been down in the area. We cannot allow a precedent to be set where the illegal destruction of a mast leads to the relocation of a mast.

Local residents say they have found a safer location. But T-Mobile says the location is not as simple as finding a field that we are able to erect a mast in.

We carried out a survey of the region. This was identified as the best spot. We continue to hold dialogue with local residents but the mast will be replaced.

There are currently around a million Bluetooth-capable mobile phones in circulation in the UK some 20 per cent of handsets. By 2008 this is expected to increase to 75 per cent. Handset geeks have discovered that Bluetooth can be used to send messages to unsuspecting owners at a range of up to 10m. Rainier calls the sending of marketing messages in this way Bluespam.

The marketing industry is never slow to jump on a new communication channel but failure to understand the subtleties of Bluejacking could blow up in the faces of marketing teams said Rainier MD Stephen Waddington.

The world does not need Bluespam. It could be the easiest way yet to alienate swathes of customers at the push of a button.

Rainier says there are three possible areas in which Bluejacking could be used in commercial marketing programmes namely viral marketing community activities and location-based services.

The company has identified companies that are already exploiting Bluejacking for viral marketing and community activities but says that it is location-based services that are the most controversial application of Bluejacking.

Opt-in schemes will be essential if Bluejacking is to avoid getting instantly tarnished with the free-for-all stigma of e-mail spam said Waddington.

Given the intimate relationship between a consumer and their mobile phone the potential for a company to alienate a consumer with a misdirected Bluetooth message is likely to be even greater.

(See Sharp End P48).

This is the highest monthly total reported since the MDA began collating data on behalf of the UK network operators in 1998.The UK daily average figure for October stands at 58.5 million compared with 50 million in October 2002 and 38 million in October 2001.

The cumulative figure for 2003 has already overtaken the 2002 total which was 16 billion. Octobers figures takes the cumulative total for 2003 to 16.8 billion against a 12-month MDA forecast for the year of 20 billion allowing for seasonal trends.

The region is now said to be the fastest growing wireless market in the world up more than 22.5 million subscribers (a growth rate of 29 per cent) since the start of this year driven mainly by growth in Russia.

Russia is the largest and by far the fastest growing market in Central and Eastern Europe with over 32 million subscribers at the end of October 2003 said Kester Mann senior research analyst at data publishing house EMC.

Russia only overtook Poland as the largest market in Central and Eastern Europe in Q2 2002 and it now has over 14 million more subscribers than Poland.