Plimsoll predicts between 25 and 35 companies in the industry could fail in the next year regardless of any deteriorating conditions in the economy.

Most of these companies will be sold or bought out. If a recession does hit Plimsoll expects this figure to double. Several of these companies could be major players.

Its analysis found that 347 out of 544 companies in the mobile phones industry are at a high risk of failure and 157 companies were even given a danger rating.

This does not mean the industry is in complete demise. For almost as many companies Plimsoll rated as caution or danger they have also rated in similar numbers as strong or good.

Ninety eight strong companies in the Mobile Phones industry know how to sustain a successful business. This figure is up from last year by 18 companies.

This is nearly double the 580 million text messages sent between the networks this time last year.

MDA figures show that the growth in UK texting which culminated in the landmark billion breakthrough for August continues.

Britons now send 36 million texts each day more than double those sent last year with an annual total so far of 8.5 billion.

European Telecoms new joint venture in France with Cyber Telecom is believed to have picked up a logistics and fulfilment contract with Philips France.

European Telecom chief executive David McKinney said: I can confirm that European Telecom is currently in discussions with Philips France.

However these discussions are yet to be concluded. When I can let you have further details I will.

European Telecom last month sold a majority 81 per cent stake in ET France to Cyber Telecom for 1.15 million. Both companies then contributed 193000 each to establish a new French logistics venture.

Under the agreement T-Mobile is able to offer three separate sky packages on its mobile TV service. Each package costs £5 per month and customers have the option of choosing the news and sport entertainment or music packs.

The deal offers T-Mobile customers a large choice of Sky channels including Sky One Sky Sports News CNN MTV Sky Sports 123 The Box and Paramount Comedy.

The service also offers 92 live Premiership games which heralds the first time that live football as been streamed to mobiles in the UK.

T-Mobile head of entertainment Damien Byrne said: The web has transformed the way we watch video and this is fuelling an increasing interest in Mobile TV.

The timing of the Sky deal couldnt be better as it combines with our mobile TV offering to create an awesome package with more choice than ever before.

Jo Groves managing director of Kent B2B dealer Active Digital has been shortlisted for the Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award part of the Fast Growth Business Awards sponsored by T-Mobile.

Groves 28 said Active Digital was O2s second best performing dealer in the South of England last year behind Azzurri after recording the best quarter across of its channel partners. Its turnover jumped 80 per cent last year compared with 2004/5 and it doubled its number of staff to 30.

The company expects turnover to double again this year and Groves is recruiting more than 10 new staff across its sales support and development teams. Active Digital has just moved to a new 5000 square-foot HQ near Tunbrige Wells.

Groves said: The achievement is great. It puts the business on the map and its good for staff morale. Last year was our best ever. We took on a couple of very big corporate clients. This year we expect to grow the business further.

Active Digital is on the O2 Advance Dealer programme and is a Vodafone direct dealer. Groves co-founded Active Digital in 1996 with her brother business sales director Richard Groves.

The Fast Growth Business Awards are run by magazine Growing Business.

We have not cut supply lines from any distributorsaid a Tesco Mobile spokesperson.

We have increased business with one distributor but our business with the others remains constant. Business has not been switched between suppliers.

Sources claimed last month that Data Select had picked up certain product lines from rival manufacturers 20:20 and Unique. Tesco Mobile was initially unavailable for comment. However it said last week: None of our suppliers has lost business.

It refused to confirm what percentage of Tesco Mobile supply lines Data Select is now responsible for but sources claimed it was as high as 50 per cent.

Meanwhile former Unique boss John McFarnon who joined Advantage Cellular Group last month stated he was not using his ties with Tesco Mobile to win new business for Advantage.

Bernard has taken a position in Sony Ericssons global marketing team and will deal with its network partners.

Bernard will report to Sony Ericsson global marketing director Ben Padley.

Live Telecoms is moving to a new office and warehouse base on the same trading estate in Great Shelford this month. The new warehouse has twice the storage capacity of its present site but Live Telecoms purchasing manager Simon Warren said the companys headcount had reduced.

Warren said 90 per cent of Live Telecoms staff were on annual leave this
month.

He said: We are moving this month because August is always quiet. There is never a good time to move in terms of business but trade is quiet at the moment and 90 per cent of staff have taken holiday this month. We are running our stock holding down ahead of the move and then we will build it
up again.

Sources claimed last week that Live Telecom was restructuring its finances. Warren responded: Business is good and we are moving in order to be able to do more business.

The central London outlet shut earlier this year. Nokia UK managing director Simon Ainslie said last week the new store opening will be attended by a series of smaller regional outlets. Nokia has 18 stores in the UK at present.

Ainslie said: The point of our flagship stores is to treat customers as guests and to give them a complete multimedia experience.

These are all branding exercises rather than sales exercises; so customers understand the design and functionality of Nokia products. The concept stores will perform the same function on a smaller scale in regional areas.

Ainslie said the Nokia outlets were not sales environments and devices would carry higher price tags than in traditional retailers.

Staff will be target driven on a customer experience; there will be no sales targets whatsoever. As soon as you start connecting salaries to sales you drive a behaviour thats different and that¹s not what we¹re after explained Ainslie.

The short-term loans are available to staff while they wait for insurance payouts.

Vodafone evacuated 2500 staff on 20 July after its Newbury headquarters flooded. As a result the group has offered to reimburse staff for out of pocket expenses incurred while trying to get home on that date.

Vodafone head of policy and reward Alan Thomas said: We take the welfare of our employees very seriously and recognise that some employees may have been unable to get home or indeed may have made it home to a distressing scene.

We hope that this support will go some way to helping employees who may need to bridge the gap while insurance assessments are done.

O₂ will be provided with over 300 pieces of content including video clips wallpapers and ringtones from popular BBC programmes such as The Office Doctor Who and Little Britain.

BBC Worldwide already has similar deals in place with Orange and 3 but it is the first one complied by Phil Mercier the newly appointed head of mobile at BBC Worldwide.

O₂ UK head of strategic content partners Grahame Riddell said: The programme brands that BBC Worldwide can bring on board are exactly what our customers are looking for well recognised and compelling.

Were constantly looking for quality new content that will appeal to our customers and this deal paves the way for access to the wealth of material available from the BBC in a range of different and innovative formats.