A statement issued by the company said:

We are actively pursuing acquisition opportunities.

An acquisition coinciding with the listing of the company would have required the withdrawal of the application.

We will review the opportunity to join the Ofex or AIM markets in the future.

Baker Tilly the advisors who handled the aborted flotation said it was theoretically possible that a company applying for a flotation and making an acquisition could have its flotation attempt delayed.

Investors will be looking at the management track record growth prospects and whether the company is adequately financed.

The market for telecom stocks is not ideal now. The flotation would have raised the profile of TAP and given it some status. However it is not the ideal time to do it given the state of the market said Baker Tilly partner Chiltern Taylor.

Acquisition plans notwithstanding The Accessory People was considering going to the market at a very difficult time.

Investor sentiment in the accessories market is at rock-bottom following the collapse of Ora and the slowdown in mobile phone sales.

Potential investors in TAP would also have noted that the company lacks blue-chip contracts with the networks and top retailers such as The Carphone Warehouse and relies on sales to independent retailers a sector of the market that has been hit particularly hard.

The company was also a supplier to The Phone People which went into liquidation on January 8.

Around 125 independent retailers and all the members of Mainlines m-viron network will participate in the promotion.

Customers who buy a promotional Nokia handset will be entered into a draw to win a Volkswagen Beetle. Participating stores will giving away prizes such as mountain bikes CD players and electronic personal organisers.

Dealers will have weekly connection targets based on their 2002 volumes plus a percentage increase. Points are allocated based on achieving and exceeding the target. Weekly league tables will show dealers how close they are to winning one of the top prizes.

The leading dealer from each of the three league tables (m-viron B2B and retail) will win a luxury week for two to Hong Kong.

There will also be runners-up prizes of either a home cinema package personal computer or holiday vouchers each valued at up to 1000.

Martin Pennell (18) and a 17-year-old who cannot be named were freed on strict bail conditions which include an order for them to stay indoors between 10pm and 7am daily reporting to police and a prohibition on them travelling on any Tube or mainland train.

Both are charged with violent disorder on a train between London Bridge and New Cross on November 22 in which they robbed two passengers of their mobile phones.

Fourth-quarter growth was due to expansion through The Carphone Warehouse The Link Dixons Phone People and Argos.

It brings the total number of new customers acquired by Virgin Mobile last year to 770549 and its total customer base to 1445492. Virgin more than tripled market share in Q4 compared to the same period in 2000.

The call was made last week between John de Wit chief executive of Vodafone Spain using a single-mode 3G handset and Darryl Green president of J-Phone using a Japanese single-mode 3G mobile.

The call was carried from and to Vodafones Spanish and Japanese 3G networks using the signalling links and Cable & Wireless Vodafones preferred international carrier.

Vodafone (Spain) was awarded its 3G licence in March 2000. A progressive roll-out of its 3G network with its principal infrastructure supplier Nortel Networks has been underway since August last year.

Vodafone Spain currently has a network of 120 masts with UMTS coverage in 20 Spanish towns and cities.

Vodafone Spain says that it is on target to launch its 3G network in the second half of 2002 subject to the availability of dual-mode GPRS/3G handsets.

J-Phone was awarded one of three licences to operate 3G mobile services in Japan in May 2000.

J-Phone says it is currently well advanced in its development of a 3G W-CDMA mobile platform and expects to commence offering 3G services in Japan this June.

This will initially span the Metropolitan Tokyo area using an Ericsson W-CDMA network then all major Japanese cities from October.

Todays roaming calls have brought the benefits of 3G mobile technology a step closer to reality. We have demonstrated the new possibilities 3Gs global standards bring said Vodafone head of global products Thomas Geitner.

We are aiming for 100 stores and we should get there in the next few months said Cityphone managing director Barry Donaghey.

Donaghey reckons The WAP Stores downfall was down to a few bad decisions.

I still believe [WAP Store MD] Graham Cornhill is one of the best retail heads in the country. He overstretched himself at the wrong time. They bought the wrong shops at the wrong money. The stores we didnt buy were loss-makers. He made a few mistakes but the WAP Store culture was good. It is one of the saddest collapses in this industry.

The WAP deal gives Cityphone 75 stores. The 30 WAP Stores will be rebranded in Cityphones retail trading name – Talk4All – within a few months.

Retail is tough right now. We are not having a heyday with it. Our long-term strategy was to have a major retail force. The reason we have been successful is because we try to do things differently. Our core business is distribution said Donaghey.

Ninety per cent of the industry has no direction right now. There is good business out there. People need to start selling rather than giving product away.

Buying The WAP Stores is more a branding exercise. It rounds the company off. Combined together the retail outlets and direct sales force give us over 10000 connections per month. It means we are our own biggest customer to the distribution business.

They reveal a loss of 5.1 million down from a profit of 369000 for the same period a year before. Group turnover was 102 million compared to 146.8 million in 2000.

Accessories division TAG reported a turnover of 2.2 million down from 4.3 million with a gross margin of 22.4 per cent. Lower turnover was attributed to TAG pulling out of unprofitable contracts.

European Telecom shares which had been suspended dropped a penny to 7p on the news even though the companys borrowings were reduced by 8.2 million from 21.1 million to 12.9 million.

It is clear that these financial results are disappointing for all shareholders said executive chairman Warren Hardy.

The UK distribution market continues to prove very competitive. Although we have significantly reduced our UK operating cost base trading remains extremely difficult.

Hardy noted that the distribution business in general had been hit by falling margins and shorter product life cycles which hold up initial margins in the period immediately following launch.

This effect has been exacerbated by an increase in the number of products available in an already competitive market and by the level of sales of grey market handsets.

In addition there has been a degradation of credit ratings in the dealer base resulting in a reduction in the number of deals that can be achieved without an increase in credit risk assumed added Hardy.

It will also enable applications such as share price graphs birthday cards picture postcards animated cartoons and multimedia presentations to be used as simply as current SMS.

Vodafone will roll out MMS in Germany Greece Ireland Italy The Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden and the UK with services in a number of other Vodafone operating companies to follow.

Said Thomas Geitner Vodafone chief executive global products and services: Our customers will soon be able to compose and send media-rich messages to one another as well as being able to choose to have value-added messaging content.

The greater functionality of MMS will be the starting point of a broader customer experience for 3G usage.

The long-running battle between Oftel and the mobile industry looks a long way from over after Vodafone announced it would seek a judicial review over Oftels termination charge-cutting proposals.

The networks claim they stand to lose between 1.5 billion and 2 billion as a result of the regulations.

Vodafone UK chief executive Gavin Darby told Mobile News: It is a bleak day for the industry. There is no question that this will result in the removal of whatever subsidies are left in pre-pay handsets a reduction in subsidies for contract and a slow-down in the reduction of tariffs.

By taking the matter to judicial review Vodafone could only argue that the procedures and methods used by both Oftel and the Commission were wrong.

Oftel director-general David Edmonds said: It is like a football team losing a match and then complaining about the referee and complaining that the rule book is wrong.

He added: The Commission is an independent body and it has found in our favour almost 100 per cent. Consumers are being overcharged for calls to mobile phones and the mobile operators must reduce their charges to a fair level.

Overcharged

Last Wednesday Oftel announced that independent review body the Competition Commission had agreed with its view that consumers are being overcharged by as much as 40 per cent for calls to mobile phones and that the mobile operators must cut their termination charges for these calls.

But the Commission went beyond Oftels original proposition of a 12 per cent reduction in termination charges for each of the four years from 2001-2. It ordered a 15 per cent cut in call termination charges for all mobile operators by July 25 and further reductions of 14 per cent for Orange and T-Mobile and 15 per cent for O2 and Vodafone for the three years to 2005-6.

It also found that callers to mobile phones from landlines unfairly subsidise mobile phone users and the charges lead to higher call costs which suppress demand for calls to mobile phones.

The proposed regulations would see termination charges coming down by 50 per cent. This would have the affect of cutting the cost of calls from fixed-line-to-mobile by 40 per cent by the end of three years.

The Commission said this would bring about a consumer saving of around 190 million this year rising to 570 million in 2006. Despite such a loss of revenue the Commission believes operators will still get a fair return from termination charges and there will be no threat posed to their financial viability.

The Commission added that each operator has a monopoly for terminating calls on its network so callers have no choice but to use the network chosen by the receiver of the call and accept the networks termination charge.

The Commission also found that customers dont take into account termination charges when choosing a network. It also believes that the competitive pressures that exist in the marketplace are insufficient to constrain the termination charges.

In terms of practical savings the Commission found that the networks have been overcharging customers around 400-500 million a year and that the immediate result of the first 15 per cent reduction would mean that the price of a two-minute peak-rate call from a BT landline to a Vodafone customer would come down from 40p to 35p.

That the networks are prepared to take their challenge a step further shows the level of their displeasure. The networks have already had to stump up over 2 million for Oftels legal and consultancy fees as well as substantially more than that for their own counsel to contest the matter.

According to Edmonds the enforced price cuts would not have an adverse effect on the operators business plans and they would be able to make a fair return on terminating calls to their networks.

Oftel chief economist Peter Culham added that call costs should not rise as a result of the ruling.

O2 stated that it would implement a range of actions to recover lost revenue and protect operating margins. These would include deferring planned reductions in outgoing charges reductions in handset subsidies and a delay in the planned launch of commercial 3G services until the second half of 2004.

According to Darby it isnt just the networks that are going to suffer. Networks will call into question their distribution policies.

More marginal users will become even less profitable and networks will have to decide whether they want these customers. It is something all operators will have to look at he said.

Darby also suggests that the proposal will affect handset manufacturers. If networks remove the subsidies they give out on handsets then how attractive will new handsets be? All of a sudden a lot of people who would have upgraded will be thinking twice about getting that new handset.

He added: I cant talk for the other networks but Vodafone will recover the costs elsewhere.

What we are seeing is fixed-line users benefiting at the expense of the mobile users. What Oftel didnt mention in any of its announcements is that the Competition Commission openly stated that revenues lost as a result of the regulations would be offset by mobile users. Mobile users will pay more. It is as simple as that.

Darby is also annoyed that termination charges had been falling before the recent action and points out that over the past four years the charges have come down by 44 per cent.

What Oftel is suggesting isnt in the interests of anyone in the mobile industry. What is more frustrating is that the conclusion has been come to through flawed analysis. This is why we have no option but to seek a judicial review.

Orange executive vice-president John Allwood described the report as odd noting that the Competition Commission recognised that the mobile industry is highly competitive has produced substantial benefit and is not yet adequately profitable; yet it recommends interference.

The interference it directs would produce no net consumer benefit since the Commission envisages mobile operators putting up prices to offset lost revenues. At the same time the Commission has failed to ensure the fall in fixed-to-mobile call costs would in fact flow through to the benefit of the fixed-line customer. It has also failed to specify how its directives will work given the changes in regulatory structures in both the UK and Europe he said.

The consequence is that Orange will have to implement the Commissions directives minimising the adverse impact on our customers and trading partners and ensuring that the charges are financially neutral for Orange. At the same time we are considering requesting a judicial review to ensure that the Commissions report does not unfairly penalise mobile customers.

Oftels Culham questioned Allwoods conclusion however saying that while he expected a certain amount of rebalancing this should not mean an increase in call costs. But even with a rebalancing of costs Culham believes the impact of the reductions would be a saving of between 325 million and 700 million on behalf of the customer over the next four years. Furthermore the reduction in termination charge should stimulate call volumes.

Networks have argued that the ruling would force an increase in other call costs a reduction in the level of handset subsidies and most importantly a delay in the roll-out of 3G services.

Monopoly

Edmonds countered: Both Oftel and the Competition Commission looked very closely at the operators arguments about future technological change and the nature of mobile calls. They did not convince either of us that this monopoly position would erode quickly.

A few years ago the operators spent 22 billion on 3G licences and subsequently further billions on building their network infrastructure. It seems the antithesis of business to suggest they would hold off trying to recoup the investment because of the Commission especially with the existence of a new competitor in 3.

Interestingly Oftel said the proposed termination reductions would not apply to calls made on 3G networks. We are not regulating 3G because regulation in a new marketplace would be wrong. Lets wait and see over the next four or five years. With four or five players I expect it will be a competitive market.

Edmonds also said there was no justification for the networks to tax callers to 2G phones to fund 3G roll-out.

As to the fact that all telecoms regulations lapse in 2003 Edmonds said that the European Commission has been impressed by the method of the investigation and agreed that Britain had one of the highest termination charges in Europe.

As part of the judicial review Vodafone will ask a High Court judge to sit and review some elements of the approach the Competition Commission took.

National Consumer Council acting chief executive Gill Bull has called for the savings to be passed on to the customer.

Consumers have no alternative but to pay these so-called call termination charges. They are excessive and especially unfair on those who use fixed lines to call mobiles – often the elderly or those on low incomes.

Now we want to ensure that these cheaper wholesale charges feed through as soon as possible into customer bills. Call termination charges account for two-thirds of the final charges to consumers so the impact on bills ought to be dramatic. We will be looking for an assurance from the operators that they will play fair on this.

(See Comment P14)

The availability of Handsprings communicators will complement our growing mobile data product portfolio which already includes the BlackBerry and from the Spring of this year the O2 XDA said Kent Thexton chief data and marketing officer at BTCellnet parent company mmO2.

Data now represents over 10 per cent of our service revenues and with the recent launch of new devices and services and other future developments we expect that to increase to 25 per cent within three years.

Treo will initially be available in two versions: the Treo 180 including a built-in keyboard for text input; and the Treo 180g for hand recognition input. Handsprings Treo 270 colour model will follow later. All models can be upgraded to support GPRS high-speed data.