This follows its decision to sell its products exclusively in The Link until the end of the year.

One.Tel head of mobile Asif Aziz told Mobile News last week that One. Tel aims to emulate Virgin Mobile by having a strong high-street presence.

We are looking at independent dealers and other distributors said Aziz. We chose Dixons group to get things rolling. They were keen to work with us and The Link (Cont P2) matches well with the One.Tel brand. Virgin Mobile has been very successful because it is now available in some 6000 outlets in the UK. Thats the business model we wish to follow he continued.

One.Tel is a subsidiary of Centrica group.

It launched in July this year saying it would look to off-the-page advertising and sales to existing Centrica customers.

The company offers a single tariff with a line rental of 4.99 per month with no bundled minutes and call charges to landlines of 15p per minute peak and 5p off peak. Off-net calls are charged at 40p peak and 30p off-peak.

One.Tel offers a choice of eight handsets starting at 39.99 for a Nokia 3410 or Siemens A50 at the low-end rising to 249.99 for the Samsung T100.

The networks stand to lose 1.5- 2 billion as a result of the regulations reports Paul Tweeddale.

Vodafone UK chief executive Gavin Darby told Mobile News:

It is a bleak day for the industry. The decision will have wide-reaching affects across the industry. Both Oftel and the Competition Commission have miscalculated the cost of running a network and as a consequence the judgement into the termination charges is wrong.

There is no question that this will result in the removal of whatever subsides are left in pre-pay handsets a reduction in subsidies for contract and a slowdown in the reduction of tariffs.

Orange executive vice-president John Allwood said Orange is also likely to mount a legal challenge.

We are considering requesting a judicial review to ensure that the Commissions report does not unfairly penalise mobile customers he said.

O2 said it would have to reduce handset subsidies and delay the planned launch of commercial 3G services until the second half of 2004. (see full story P12)

And its overall connections for the first three weeks of this year are up 21.8 per cent over the same period in 2002 helped by initiatives such as Vodafone live!.

These latest figures were announced in a third quarter trading statement.

This also showed that connections for the whole quarter increased 16.3 per cent to 1.32 million.

Carphone Warehouse (cont P2) shares which had slumped after Dixons announced a poor Christmas trading period recovered some ground to 65p.

Carphone Warehouses own customers on its Fresh virtual network (hosted by T-Mobile) were up 10 per cent to 176000. Its insurance base increased by 14.8 per cent to 976000 customers.

These are stronger figures than most people were expecting and stronger figures than some of our competitors have reported. We had a good Christmas and a good third quarter. This positions the group to deliver pre-tax profit in line with market forecasts said chief executive Charles Dunstone.

Importantly this growth did not come at the expense of margin. Our gross profit on subscription and pre-pay connections remained in line with the previous year.

The new product pipeline is healthier than it has been for some time. The increasing popularity of camera phones and picture messaging will help drive demand for new handsets. The launch of a commercial 3G service may further stimulate the market.

Dunstone confirmed The Carphone Warehouse will launch its fixed-line telecoms service in its UK stores next month.

As a trusted mobile telecoms adviser connecting more than two million customers in the UK each year we are uniquely placed to offer compelling rates and deliver significant savings on customers home phone bills he said.

Netcollex is the internet arm of David Sullivans publishing empire that includes The Sport Newspapers Private shops as well as various internet and other adult enterprises.

Chief executive Rob Johnson said the company is currently developing its content database for a range of mobile services. As well as providing services direct to the consumer Netcollex will provide adult material to a number of content providers.

Netcollex is now able to stream video to the Nokia 7650 and will be capable of going live with content in a matter of weeks.

Adult content will be a huge market in the next couple of months. Video will be the thing that really pushes the services. It is just about to happen and we will have the content he told Mobile News.

Netcollex has approached all the networks but has yet to sign any agreement.

Johnson is confident it will just be a matter of time. (cont P2)

Vodafone live! has said it is not going to have adult content. At the moment all the networks are trying to control content on their servers and ring-fence the content so that it doesnt explode like on the internet. But it will just be a matter of time before it does.

We have seen an explosion with our adult chat product using reverse-billed SMS.

When pictures and video are ready the same will happen.

Both 3 and Virgin Mobile have admitted that they will be offering adult services to their customers in the future. While 3 has said that it plans to make gambling the centre of such services with other adult services taking a back seat Virgin maintains that it will be offering fun and racy content that can currently be seen in mens magazines such as FHM and Loaded (see full story P22).

She alleges a number of incidents and said Siemens and Bate were served the papers at the beginning of this month.

They were due to have responded to the claim this week. Once the response is received by the Employment Tribunal Service Fowler Siemens and Bate will have to wait for a hearing date to be set before a final decision is made. Fowler confirmed proceedings had commenced but declined to comment further.

Siemens and Bate also declined to comment.

M-fusion was launched in February last year by Euro Cellular founder Win Donaldson to offer SIM-free handsets and handset applications.

Donaldsons other global handset business Euro Cellular shared its Sutton offices with m-fusion and continues to trade in grey market stock.

M-fusions demise follows the liquidation last month of Euro Cellulars content-creation business Mad Box Media with debts of around 1 million (Mobile News January 27). (Cont P2)

London Insolvency specialist Hacker Young is handling the liquidation of both companies.

Mad Box had just signed a big deal with MTV to create ring tones and other mobile content which would have been distributed by m-fusion.

Rumours suggesting that Euro Cellular or one of its subsidiaries were in financial trouble had been circulating the industry for months. But Donaldson and Euro Cellular group managing director John Redgate had always strongly denied this.

At the time of going to press neither Donaldson nor Redgate were available for comment.

Our message to the dealers is if they dont continue to invest in the future they will suffer the consequences said Vodafone UK director of sales and distribution Stephen Brewer.

The move is certain to put Vodafones relationship with the dealer market under renewed strain. The network had finally started to win dealers over having caused a outcry in Autumn last year when it forced limits on the amount of upgrades dealers could make as well as the commission they received.

Brewer explained the Competition Commissions ruling means 700 million to 800 million will be taken out of the industry in the next year.

We have to look to our bottom line. This means we could see a real step-change in handset subsidies – around 40 plus VAT could go on to the handsets. That could really slow the business considerably. Hopefully people will be convinced to make more calls because of all (Cont P2) the publicity this report has caused. But at the end of the day it means less on our bottom line.

Handset prices will go up and the market could slow down. Most of the market is now upgrades and switching.

When I came into this business some of the subsidies were between 400 and 500 a pop. We have to say goodbye to that. Maybe the manufacturers will start looking at pricing. They might have to start pricing more carefully.

We reckon there are at least 100 new models of handsets coming in the next few months. But who is going to pay for them? We have no choice but to look at not reducing tariffs as much as wed like to and reducing subsidies by about 40 (see full story P16).

The network also gave the clearest indication yet of a March launch. 3 will accept on-line orders from February 22. 3 stores will open in early March for a mid-March launch.

Two fixed line rental tariffs cost 59.99 and 99.99 a month and will be known as Kit On 3 and Caboodle on 3. The pay-as-you-use is called 3ToGo.

The first 20000 subscribers to sign up for the fixed line rental options will get handsets at half-price saving almost 200. All 3 subscribers will be able to send e-mails and use services such as news reports sports news and fixture listings share prices free until June 30.

Pay-as-you-use subscribers pay 5p a minute for voice calls to other 3 users. Calls to other networks will cost from 10p a minute. Video calls are 50p a minute. Video downloads such as FA Premier League action will cost 50p each. Text messages will be 10p each and picture messages 25p. Up to 10 worth of video downloads will be offered free each month for the first three months.

Kit On 3 is a fixed monthly cost of 59.99 for a 12-month contract. Inclusive every month of 1000 minutes of voice calls 100 (Cont P2) video call minutes 250 text messages 50 downloads 60 picture messages and 40 video messages.

Voice calls beyond the allocated minutes are 5p a minute. Video calls above the allocated amount are 50p a minute.

Caboodle On 3 offers double the bundle allowances of Kit On 3 for 99.99 a month. Voice calls above the allocated 2000 minutes are 15p a minute. Video calls above the allocated 200 minutes a month are 50p a minute.

Across all the tariffs there are no peak and off-peak charges. Voice and video calls are the same price regardless of the time of day or day of the week.

3 UK managing director Colin Tucker said: We are looking forward to bringing 3s products and services to the UK market. 3 will bring about a fundamental shift in the mobile communications landscape. We are offering consumers the kind of services that were in the realm of science fiction just a few years ago – but at pricing which is highly competitive with existing mobile voice and text services. This is an incredibly exciting time for all of us at 3 as our vision finally begins to become reality.

Rocom had been defending the 1 million clawback claim by Orange on the grounds that Orange employees had authorised irregular connections made (Cont P2) through two of its former dealers.

Rocom chairman Bob Old alleged that Orange employees were to blame. But that claim was dismissed by the judge at a hearing on October 22.

Old then said he would battle on to challenge Oranges right to claw back commission. But that challenge ended following the settlement between both parties.

It appears unlikely that Rocom will stay as an Orange distributor. Old said that Rocom had refocused due to changes in the market.

We are still a service provider for other networks and a provider of handsets to dealers and small businesses he said.

But there has been a demise in the call-centre activity that we used to service. Commissions on anything other than business connections have decreased.

But Sendo says it is fully prepared for the US software giants delaying tactics

Sendo and Microsoft went into partnership in February 2001 to produce the first (Cont P2)

Windows-based smartphone the Z100. The unit was set for launch in August 2001 but after several forced delays the unit was scrapped. Subsequently Microsoft jointly launched the SPV with Orange manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC which also makes the iPaq and O2 xda.

Microsoft alleged the failure of the Z100 project was due to breaches of contract by Sendo and its fraudulent course of conduct in repeatedly misleading Microsoft as to Sendos financial situation.

These are the sort of delaying tactics that we were expecting said Sendo corporate communication director Marikje van Hooren. It makes no difference to us. We are moving ahead as planned. They denied all the charges against them and have taken out counter charges of their own. But its up to the judge and the jury to come to their own conclusions.

Microsofts submitted it received an report from a Sendo employee describing Sendos efforts to make the Z100 phone as a runaway train with management determined to release an unstable and unreliable product. Microsoft has neither named the person nor given out details of when the information was sent.

Without such detail it is impossible to comment on the accusations said Van Hooren.