Vodafone Business Email is the networks own-brand mobile e-mail solution delivering mobile e-mail contacts and calendar. For smaller companies and individuals there is a personal solution that provides web-based e-mail to a wide range of mobile phones in real time.

For larger companies there is an enterprise server-hosted version giving them the freedom to have push e-mail and PIM functionality on a wide selection of Symbian and Windows Mobile-based devices.

To encourage adoption Vodafone is offering a free server until May 31.

Vodafone is also taking advantage of a deal brokered by Nokia and BlackBerry maker RIM to bring BlackBerry software to a range of Nokia smartphones.

This extends the benefits of BlackBerry for the end user on non-RIM devices so they can have the service on a device they are already familiar with said Vodafone UK head of enterprise data services John Lillistone.

We are starting with the Nokia 6810 6820 and 6822. Coming soon will be the Nokia 9300 9500 VPx and Vodafone v1620.

And from early 2006 Vodafone will be launching the Microsoft Windows Mobile service using scheduled ActiveSync which is designed for companies using Microsoft Exchange 2003.

To support all of the new e-mail solutions Vodafone is planning to offer all its smart device customers access to enhanced customer service support via Vodafone Device Management which will allow Vodafone to remotely configure and maintain smart devices connected to the network.

8el will supply e-reporting group with a private wide area network connecting its two UK sites as well as direct voice services as part of a complete communications solution.

8el sales and marketing director Chris Sayer said the deal would enable e-reporting group to benefit from network resilience increased network visibility and cost savings.

This is a bread-and-butter contract he said. Because e-reporting group has signed up for a three-year contract we will be able to pass the maximum advantages and savings back.

The coup comes just two months after the company was named one of Britains fastest growing technology companies by The Sunday Times after posting an average annual sales growth of 105 per cent over the past three years.

E-reporting is the product of the recent merger between medico legal firm ewitness and research firm Medical Report Services. The group needed to implement a private voice and data network between its existing Leeds office and the Medical Report Services site in Redditch.

A third of all mobile consumers in the UK switched operators in 2004 according to telecoms watchdog Ofcom. According to the study every respondent indicated that call drop-offs was among the top three reasons they would consider changing their mobile service.

Poor service was cited by 44 per cent of respondents as top reason for changing mobile operators.

Each new mobile customer costs around 400 to recruit in the UK money mainly spent on marketing. At this rate the total cost to the mobile industry of replacing every churning customer is 8.16 billion per year.

This number is astounding – everyone knows about mobile phone drop outs but few realise the extent of the problem and the mounting cost to the industry said David OConnor managing director of Horsebridge Network Systems.

Call drop-off rates could be largely reduced if mobile operators reallocated some of their marketing budgets to fill quality cracks on their networks. The technology is available now and its not rocket science.

McBride told Mobile News that T-Mobile dealers stood to do well from the networks acquisition drive in 2006.

T-Mobile will have much more focus on acquisition in 2006 and those that will do well from a networks acquisition push are the dealers said McBride. Our competitors over-egged it in 2005 and it has affected their EBITDA. Their shareholders wont let them do it again and they will back off as we become more aggressive. 3 is going to have a tough year in the marketplace and T-Mobile is ready to be aggressive.

He added: If I were one of the guys in T-Mobiles indirect business today Id be very happy about its intentions going into 2006.

McBride joins Amazon UK as managing director in the new year. He will be replaced by T-Mobile USA vice-president of sales Jim Hyde.

McBride said that his departure was announced to colleagues in the spring when the network mapped out its plans for the next three years. McBride said that it was important that T-Mobile install a managing director to oversee its full programme of growth starting with 1.5 billion investment in stores channel and brand.

The whole plan [for growth] will take two-to-three years to complete said McBride. Now is the time to start to execute the plan and whoever is in charge needs to take the job on for the duration of that project.

McBride admitted that T-Mobiles brand had suffered and its market share failed to spark on his watch.

The brand lost its way particularly on the international campaigns he said. Also I didnt gain as much market share as I would have liked. But the new investment should allow my successor to put that right.

He added: All told my score-card is pretty good. I have left the company in better shape than I found it.

Full interview and feature see page 22

Olamide Kavode Sunmola (23) was found guilty of dishonestly handling a stolen Royal Bank of Scotland credit card and using it to obtain the phone by deception last December.

Tesco telecoms CEO Andy Dewhurst said: We are challenging the normal telecoms buying experience which is complicated pressured and time-consuming. Staff will not work on commission. They are there to help our customers make the right decisions.

A Tesco Mobile spokesperson added: Customers dont like that kind of pressured retail environment. They want independent advice and they dont want to be pushed into a deal by a salesperson making commission from it.

A decision will be made in the new year on roll-out to Tesco stores nationwide.

The Slough outlet offers handsets on Tesco Mobile and all networks except Orange and 3. It also sells broadband and landline services.

A staggering 2.9 billion messages were sent during October with an average 93.5 million text messages sent per day according to figures released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

Person-to-person texts sent across the UKs GSM network operators last month show an increase of 25.7 per cent on the total sent during the same period in 2004.

Should O2 be acquired by Telefonica researchers at the company believe that the mobile giant will be the only player that is not allied to a fixed-network operator. They predict that Vodafone will be forced to make a fixed-network acquisition in order to stay in the game as rivals take advantage of WiFi and web telephony (VoIP) technology.

Informa telecoms and media chief research officer Mark Newman told a packed hall of industry executives last week that ARPU growth has been decreasing for the past two years and this is set to continue as voice revenues drop next year in the face of increased competition from VoIP.

Mobile networks are being forced by VoIP to reduce their voice dependence he said.

Informa principal analyst for telecoms networks and technology Mike Roberts told delegates his prediction that WiFi and Wimax wireless networks would eat into mobile voice revenues as businesses begin to adopt them.

Global voice revenues are expected to reach $700 billion ( 407 billion) in 2006. A third of this is expected to come from traffic within the same corporate location that could easily be sent via WiFi using VoIP.

If youre an enterprise that can see mobile in-building costs disappear youre going to trial it said Roberts.

Roberts added that this strategic threat to voice revenues would certainly drive further mergers and acquisitions next year.

There are lot of operators that see opportunities in a combination of fixed and mobile services he said.

Who believes Vodafone will be a mobile only company by the end of next year?

Informa researchers believe that the real winners in 2006 could be the MVNO model. Late last month Virgin Mobile produced a healthy guidance for next year prompting optimism from the City.

This is in contrast to its reaction to O2 and Vodafones results a week earlier both of them giving little hope for sustaining their current pace of growth.

As a result Informa predicts mobile networks will be tempted to act as connectivity wholesalers finding it more profitable to do this than to rely on a retail model.

The researchers produced a report based on a survey of 1043 senior mobile industry executives across Europe that predicted a decline in subsidies for handsets and services.

A sizeable majority (84 per cent) forecast voice services to drop by a quarter in 2006 while 60 per cent believe subsidies will decrease or remain the same as network operators battle to keep costs down. Meanwhile 49 per cent expect churn rates to increase.

Mobile operators need to keep their feet on the ground said Newman. The arrival of VoIP and services based on unlicensed wireless networks will fundamentally change the mobile landscape over the next five years.

Until now he suggested spectrum ownership has allowed mobile operators to control the marketplace. Over the next five years however he predicted that operators would lose this control.

With the breaking down of the barriers to entry price competition will inevitably follow he said.

If operators are to preserve profitability they will have to either cut costs develop new revenue streams or both.

If Roberts is proved correct 2006 will be what he describes as a watershed year for change.

Operators will increasingly look to cut costs through the use of VoIP outsourcing parts of the network and by reining in handset subsidies.

New mobile entertainment services may be part of the mix but more coherent wholesale strategies and innovative pricing schemes designed to take more traffic away from the fixed network could ultimately provide greater rewards.

See Business Watch p.18

Nor will they be responsible for the VAT debts of others unless it is proven that they knew they were taking part in a VAT scam.

These are the two important decisions made on December 7 by Poiares Maduro the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice on the case between the commissioners of HM Revenue & Customs and the Federation of Technological Industries.

The Advocate Generals opinion has to be ratified by the European Court to become binding. But the European Court rarely goes against the Advocate Generals view.

Currently HM Revenue and Customs can demand traders hand over huge sums as a security deposit against possible future VAT loss.

The Advocate General has now said the UK tax authorities were wrong to impose these strict security requirements on traders.

There are currently people facing criminal prosecution for failing to have paid security for someone elses VAT liability.

This is an absolute win for the trader. No longer can he be required to deposit money for someone elses tax said barrister Andrew Young who represented the federation in its legal challenge.

The joint and several ruling is more complicated he added however. The Advocate General is saying you cannot have strict joint and several liability. The UK [tax authorities] now have to show some cause [for suspicion] Young explained.

The cause the Revenue can show is if a trader had bought mobile phones significantly below market price and there was tax loss in the supply chain attributable to some kind of fraud.

If those two facts are shown a trader could be liable for joint and several liability he conceded.

The decision is good news for the legitimate trader. It is making the point there has to be some kind of fault. As long as a trader acts carefully and wisely and exercises due diligence he should be protected from a joint and several assessment.

On joint and several liability the Advocate General said: A person may be held jointly and severally liable for payment of VAT when at the time he effected the transaction he knew or ought to have known that VAT would go unpaid in the supply chain.

In this respect the national tax authorities may reply on presumptions provided provided that these presumptions are rebuttable and that they arise from circumstances indicative of the occurrence of VAT fraud which traders may be expected to know or reasonably be required to inform themselves of.

One trader said the Advocate Generals opinion had come as no surprise:

Joint and several liability was never going to be thrown out in its entirety. Most important is that Customs has no right to demand security payments and can no longer issue criminal proceedings for some failing to make a security payment.

Forcing people to carry out proper checks is no bad thing. Its about time the trading sector woke up and became responsible for its activities.

A Vodafone statement reads: Vodafone has recently become aware of an increase in the activity of box breaking Pay As You Talk products. Vodafone UK does not support this activity and has taken the initiative to issue a letter to help our customers become aware of this. These letters have been sent along with recommendations which we suggest our customers then take to minimise this activity.

Vodafone UK has sent letters to all indirect partners as part of our ongoing commitment and support to them in establishing genuine consumer customers for Vodafone.

Vodafone routinely reviews its trading practices and it was felt that a communication was required to help our customers manage their Vodafone business.

The letter is thought to warn distributors of Vodafone Pay As You Talk products that any of their customers that engage in box-breaking are exposing them to the loss of any of the commission arising from the sale of the handsets concerned.

The letter is understood to make a number of recommendations:

* To require dealers to limit the sale of handsets to a maximum of two per customer;

* To be suspicious of any sudden change in demand for certain handset models;

* To report any unusual buying patterns to their account manager.

* To recommend that dealers demonstrate the handset before the customer buys it;

* To recommend that dealers get customers to make an initial call in the shop to ensure that the handset is properly set up for them.

Elite Mobile director of sales and marketing Barry Nash confirmed that he had received such a letter and lent Vodafone his support for its strategy.

He said: Vodafone has sent letters out in terms of being sensible and making sure that its interests are being protected. We support what it is trying to do.

He added: Everything we sell we expect to be purchased and connected. Its not representative of the market. Like anything its not widespread but in some areas there are some companies that will try to take advantage of the situation.