As it stands only networks and retailers are involved in the organisation. MICAF chairman Jack Wraith
said MICAF the Home Office and the police had all approached manufacturers to join the group but to no avail. Wraith said: It sends the wrong message to the industry. The issue of mobile phone crime starts with manufacturers.

Nokia Motorola and Sony Ericsson have all been MICAF members in the past but have all abandoned the cause.

They claim their focus is global not national said Wraith.

They claim if they supported a UK initiative they would be obliged to support other national initiatives in other markets. But they sell an awful lot of handsets in the UK and we were disappointed at their decisions to quit the organisation.

Mobile phone crime is an industry-wide problem and manufacturers have a role to play.

Wraith accepted manufacturers have made handsets more secure but said mobile phone theft was driven by handsets. Manufacturers need to get a better understanding of this problem in the UK he said.

Go Mobile has opened new stores in Matlock Derbyshire and Rugby Warwickshire. The Rugby store was formerly an EBS outlet.

It also opened its second and third franchise stores in Coalville Leicestershire and in Atherston Warwickshire. Another is set to open shortly.

Go Mobile chief Iain Humphrey said: Weve got a proposition where we can invite both existing dealers and new entrants to open franchises under the Go Mobile brand.

Go Mobile is the UKs fourth largest independent mobile retailer.

Dealers said the improved customer offer should boost sales but would likely reduce the value they deliver to Vodafone. One southern dealer said: Hopefully this will draw a bit of interest. But customers who needed a 5000- minute plan will now only need a 2000-minute one because of the free calls so we lose out there.

Intek MD Manny Hussain said: Anything that attracts more business is a good thing. But networks are always encouraging us to increase customer revenue and with all these free calls where is it supposed to come from? If the Vodafone proposition proves successful other networks will follow suit and that will hit the revenue dealers can deliver.

Average revenue per Orange business user is less than that per consumer due to the free calls on business tariffs added Hussain.

Sprint Communications managing director Paul Leonard urged the industry last week to donate old handsets for recycling to Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex to raise £1 million for cancer research.

Leonard who had a tumour removed at the centre last month has teamed up with Re:cycle Your Mobile in Norwich which will give all profits from the campaign to the centre. Yes Telecom has already agreed to distribute postage bags for handset recycling to its business partners to pass to their customers. Leonard said he would call on colleagues and acquaintances within the industry to help raise the money.

He said: The motivation is simple. I believed it wouldnt happen to me just like everyone believes that. But that is not the case. And cancer research charities do not have lots of money. They need support so they can help people with cancer.

Leonard said he was also saddened to hear that West Coast founder Derek Davey had died from cancer earlier this year and that the industry should band together to support the campaign.

To get involved contact Re:cycle Your Mobile on 0800 970 5097 or post handsets to Mount Vernon Cancer Centre Appeal Freepost ANG 20589 PO Box 137 Wymondham NR9 5BR.

Andy Davies left from Business Connect and Richard Hunt from Phones Direct (pictured with Avenir MD Tanny Price above) won diamonds worth more than £10000 at Avenirs diamond dinner incentive at the end of last month.

The dinner in association with Vodafone was attended by Avenirs 10 top-performing dealers and saw two genuine diamonds mixed with eight fakes and placed in 10 envelopes. Each guest then randomly selected an envelope giving them a 5:1 chance of winning a £10000 diamond.

US accessories distributor Strax has appointed Dan Usher as its new UK sales director.

Usher joins from Hutchison UK where he spent four years latterly as deputy general manager in its accessories business i.Tech.

Usher said: By the middle of the year we want Strax to be represented in a number of the major high street names both specialist and non-specialist.

We are building up our team here in support of that task and there is a great deal of excitement in the market place already around our product innovation.

Strax has secured a European distribution deal with BlackBerry manufacturer RIM.

Nokia Service Centres have voiced frustration at the severe delays in the supply of spare parts by CRC Group owned by recycling business Fonebak.

CRC has the contract to keep Nokia service centres stocked with parts. Since September there has been a huge drop in the amount of stock sent to the service centres and increasing delays it is claimed.
There are definitely fundamental problems said a source.

Were struggling to get spares from them on time and its damaging to us as well as Nokia.

Stock now takes 14-21 days to arrive compared to the three to five previously say long-time customers.

One service centre claimed that ordering parts through CRC had become increasingly difficult in recent months. We used to use a program called Webmaster to order the parts we wanted but ever since that was taken down weve had to order via fax or email and its extremely time consuming.

The service centres cant cope at the moment. The workload to income ratio is a big problem and almost makes you want to give the whole thing up.

Financial difficulties were blamed for the delays. There seems to be a specific problem with CRC and it seems to have run into big difficulties as a business. It also wouldnt surprise me if Fonebak is in financial trouble as well said another source.

CRC was unavailable for comment but last week Fonebak which acquired CRC at the end of January issued a profits warning to the City.

Fonebak said it expects profits for 2007 to fall short of expectations. Reduced margins due to a lower average sales price and a less favourable product mix were blamed.

However in a statement it said CRC is trading well and added that the business will perform better than expected. It said CRCs restructuring and integration programme is on course.

Burch is leaving his post and also stepping down from the Virgin Media board with immediate effect and will now return to the US to be with his family.

Since joining the group in 2006 Burch has overseen he acquisition of Virgin Mobile and mergers with NTL and Telewest.

Virgin Media chairman Jim Mooney paid tribute to Burch he said: Steve has contributed significantly to the transformation of Virgin Media. Since he joined us the company has emerged as the UKs only quad play provider and a genuinely distinctive presence in the world of communications and entertainment.

On behalf of Virgin Medias Board of Directors I thank him for his contribution to our development and wish him every success for the future.

A search for Burchs successor will begin shortly but in the meantime Virgin Media COO Neil Berkett has been appointed as acting CEO.

But dealers said the warning from Nokia had prompted customer enquiries.

Ashley Communications owner Geoff Ashley said: Weve had a few customers that have said theyve been affected and even had one who phoned me to ask if I could send him 38 replacement batteries. All
we can do is direct them to Nokia.

A spokesman for Nokia service centre Chatterbox said: Weve only had a couple of queries come in. It only affects the older handsets which are not as popular in the UK as there are more fashionable handsets being released all the time. I doubt many people will have a problem.

Nokia said not a single incident of overheating had happened in the UK despite reports of over 100 incidents of overheating globally.

No serious injuries or damaged handsets have been reported.

Mark Squires Nokia UK director of communications also dismissed suggestions Matsushita had known
of the fault in the BL-5C batteries last December.

He said: Matsushita actually fixed the problem before they knew there might be one. Simply by improving the design of the batteries they eradicated the problem.

The overheating problem only arises after the BL-5C lithium ion batteries have been charged more than 200 times causing them in certain incidents to swell and pop out the back of the phone.

Squires added: It only took Matsushita a few days to inform us. We have ensured our customers have
been made aware of the potential problem as soon as possible so that nobody else risks being hurt.

BL-5C batteries are used in the Nokia 6230 6630 N70 N91 and E60 among others.

Both Nokia and Matsushita have offered to replace any problematic battery free of charge.

More than 300 million BL-5Cbatteries have been produced for Nokia in total.

The new model is the first Curve to come with built-in Vodafone satellite navigation. Customers will receive a 12-month free subscription to the service if they connect to the Blackberry Internet Service.

In addition to the satellite navigation the new Curve provides users with fast web browsing comprehensive email facilities 2 mega-pixel camera media player and a desktop software suite for managing multimedia content.

RIM vice president and managing director Charmaine Eggberry said: Vodafones customers in the UK will benefit greatly from the many features of this new smartphone including email multimedia GPS and more.

The BlackBerry Curve 8310 is an ideal tool for users who want to stay connected while juggling their busy work and personal lives.

The Blackberry Curve 8310 will be available from 3 September and is exclusive to Vodafone until 31 October.