OBrien oversaw Vodafones successful development of mobile content firstly as head of music at Vodafone UK and more recently as head of content at Vodafone Australia.

In his new role OBrien will be responsible for maintain relationships with operators and attracting new business to FoneStarzs On-Portal business line which produces interactive mobile content.

OBrien said: For the last five years in my position at Vodafone I have been a customer of FoneStarz and I have seen the companys profile and recognition as a market leader prosper.

Im delighted to join the company at a very exciting time and I look forward to building on its past successes and extending its customer network in both new and exiting international markets.

Henry joins 20:20 as group business development director the role initially offered to Motorola UK boss Jim Michel before he reneged last month.

Henry said: I have seen every distributor up close and 20:20 is way way ahead of the competition. It could take ownership of the end-to-end supply chain of every retailer network and manufacturer in the country. There are massive opportunities in the UK from supply chain consolidation.

Henrys first ports of call for broader-ranging distribution contracts will be Carphone and Orange where he worked as sales director from 2002-05.

20:20 has also appointed Trevor Price former chief executive of online retailer E-Directory as UK managing director. Price replaces Peter Hubbard who left in June after just six months in the job.

Former Carphone directors George Steur and Richard Parry have also joined as group commercial director and business development manager respectively.

Steur headed up Carphones European operation and more recently was responsible for its Best Buy joint venture in the US. Parry worked as trading director with Henry at Carphones SIM-free distribution arm Mobile Phone Express before it was canned last month. He replaces Richard Baxendale.

20:20 also confirmed last week the appointment of Chris Stephenson from Total Home Entertainment as UK finance director.

20:20 chief executive Mark Ryan said: We have never ever bought and sold as many units in the UK as we are doing now. We have never been further ahead of the competition in the UK. The gap is getting wider. I have a better quality and depth of staff than before. The team from top to bottom is the strongest weve ever had.

Murray will be responsible for T-Mobiles policies around environmental and health issues. She said: We need to be open honest and transparent about our business impacts.

She joins from DHL Express where she held a similar role. She has also worked in UN and NGO positions.

Pure Communications managing director Matt Sandford said nine companies are trialing 250 BlackBerry devices between them on the back of the first business breakfast attended by 25 local businesses.

Sandfords conversion rate to date from BlackBerry trials has been 100 per cent he said last week.

Pure Communications ran the business breakfast in conjunction with O2. Sandford said: Due to the breakfast and the offer from O2 which means we can enable 30-day trials of BlackBerry devices and software to prospective clients we have around 250 devices on trial. Around 50 per cent of our connections are with BlackBerrys at present.

The interview with Sandford in last issue of Mobile News said he canned his former business Ternhill Communications. In fact Sandford sold it for a six-figure sum to Project Telecom in 2002. Ternhill which under Sandfords stewardship won Dealer of the Year at the Mobile News Awards two years in a row had no retail outlets at the time of the sale.

Sandford also made clear the reasons for his exit from Yes Telecom. He said: I left Yes Telecom because we had done a deal with Vodafone to acquire the company. My job was done. I did not throw in the towel.

He added: I have had a fantastic time in the industry and not had a struggle in making things work.

Noodle is offering cheap local and international calls via an integrated GSM and VoIP service. Its Noodle SIM carries calls over the T-Mobile network for the GSM leg of the call before routing them over IP. Its Noodle Oodles deal enables other network customers to use the service and redeem credit for calls received on the service.

Noodle customers can now top-up at 17000 PayPoint outlets across the UK with e-vouchers of £5 £10 and £20.

Noodle Mobile chief executive Sean Murray said: PayPoint is the easiest way for customers to top-up their account without having to use the internet.

Noodle plans to sign up half a million customers to its new network by the end of the year.

The new P1i builds on Sony Ericssons P990i and M600i business handsets its first-generation UIQ 3.0 devices both heavily criticised for their lack of operating memory (RAM).

Sony Ericsson said in June new bug fixes and support for the P990i M600i and W950i (which uses the same UIQ interface but is pitched to consumers) would cease.

Last month however it backtracked in the face of protests from developers and consumers deciding to press ahead with new firmware releases including RAM improvements for its existing UIQ 3.0 handsets. Further updates to the P990i M600i and W950i are expected this month.

Critics suggested Sony Ericsson has alienated business users as a result of the previous lack of RAM and been forced to promote the P1i as a premium email device for the consumer market as a result.

The problem with the P990i was its lack of RAM which meant it couldnt run multiple applications. It would shut down existing applications when new ones opened so users had to keep restarting applications potentially losing data. This has lost Sony Ericsson a lot of trust within the business
sector said a source.

The P1i has 128MB of RAM compared with just 64MB on earlier models leaving 80MB free instead of 16MB. Sony Ericsson marketing manager for UK and Ireland Ian Finn told Mobile News: There were some issues with the P990i and we have listened to and responded to consumers.

The P990i was not massive [in terms of sales]. This will sell better because it will appeal to users upgrading from a high-end bar phone. It crosses the consumer/business boundary.

The P1i 25 per cent smaller than the P990i will be ranged by all networks in time said Finn. It has an integrated QWERTY keypad 3G Wi-Fi and VoIP connectivity and supports a range of push email solutions. Its also has a 3.2-megapixel camera and Sony Ericsson music applications.

EQO is the latest VoIP company to set up in the UK buoyed by the publicity around high international mobile call costs and roaming rates. EQO chief executive Bill Tam said last week the market for international calls is worth close to $300 billion (£148bn) per annum.

It is targeting one million users globally by this time next year and claims to save the user 95 per cent on international calls.

EQO founded in Vancouver three years ago runs on around 300 Java-enabled handsets at present. It requires the user to download a 200KB client from EQOs WAP site. The phone book is imported into a new interface so the user can scroll for a name click and call.

EQO carries the call via a mobile phone network at source. The call is then routed over IP using a circuit switching network and out the other side onto a mobile network in the destination country.

Both legs of the call over GSM networks are charged at local rates. Where both parties on the call are EQO users the cost of the two legs is subtracted from their respective network call bundles. Where the recipient is not an EQO customer the termination cost is subtracted from the callers EQO account.

The propensity to call internationally is higher in London because of the number of migrants and foreign nationals and its dispersed community said Tam.

The primary market in the UK is the migrant market many have left their home countries for economic reasons and want to stay in regular contact with friends and family at home.

At the moment they are either using calling cards or else making VoIP calls from PCs in internet cafes he added.

Replacing Alistair Johnson Barrat joined Orange last month. She was previously head of consumer pay monthly and convergence for Mobistar.

Barrat will be responsible for driving the companys uptake of multimedia and data services as well as encouraging existing mobile customers to adopt convergence services such as data broadband and Oranges fixed-mobile devices.

She reports directly to Orange UK vice president of marketing Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke.

David Hinc has been promoted from head of managed services to commercial director while former head of operations Nick Thomas rejoins the group as operations director. Thomas will be in charge of managing the companys logistics and distribution as well as the groups new warehouse in Hayes.

Thomas said: Returning to Unique will be a huge challenge but with renewed vision clear direction and a hunger to succeed driven by our new Chief Executive Andy Tow the sky really is the limit.

Unique has also appointed Andrew Evison as account manager David Birkett as Unique Airtime operations manager and Ron Wood rejoins as national sales manager. Wood returns having spent several years running sales operations at UniqueAir Vodafone and Vanguard.

Unique Distribution CEO Andy Tow said: The wealth of experience and business knowledge these five key appointments bring to Unique will be invaluable as our business plan for the future is implemented.

With financial security and a clear strategy Unique is in a position to attract talented individuals who can hit the ground running and produce rapid commercial results.

The team talk with John Doctor Shop Ryan about the future of the independent dealer. There is also a review of the Nokia 7900 Prism and a rant from Mobile News Ian White about pointless PR.

To cap it all off Iain Graham and the team take a light hearted look at all the latest headlines affecting the mobile industry. So dont miss out listen to the latest edition of the Mobile News podcast by clicking here.