Oxby has more than 15 years experience in the industry having previously worked as vice president of global mobile for Cable and Wireless and more recently as UK marketing director at 3.

Virgin Media chief operating officer Neil Berkett said: Graeme has been working in the mobile industry since its infancy and has helped pioneer the bringing together of mobile communications and entertainment.

His commercial acumen and pedigree marketing credentials will ensure Virgin Mobile retains a dynamic and compelling presence both in the mobile market and as part of Virgin Medias unique quad-play proposition.

Commenting on his new role Graeme said: Virgin Mobile has a well deserved reputation for doing things differently. Ever since its creation in 1999 it has consistently challenged convention and established itself as a genuinely distinctive choice for consumers.

I look forward to the challenge of building on this legacy and the opportunities that come with being part of the UKs only fully integrated entertainment and communications provider.

ET went into administration in June after failed attempts to find a buyer.

TAP head of corporate development Harb Sangha said TAP had bought ETs intellectual property including its company name trademarks brand names and web domains.

Sangha said: We will be adding to our large stable of companies and this will fit in very nicely. Although the company went into administration European Telecom had a good name. Our executives are brainstorming for ideas on how this could widen the field for us. This will see us leapfrog a lot of other companies.

Sangha would not confirm rumours that TAP paid more than £500000 for ETs naming rights

It follows proposals by state and territory police in Australia to introduce a 100-point identity check with customers required to present documents such as a passport or birth certificate to purchase SIM cards. Australian authorities claim the move will help them track down criminals.

However the House of Lords said last week that such a scheme would not deliver any significant new benefits to the investigatory process.

Meanwhile Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) and Telecommunications United Kingdom Fraud Forum (TUFF) spokesman Jack Wraith said the initiative would spur a black market for SIM cards.

The debate has been prompted by the increasing use of SIM cards as detonating devices in terrorist attacks and organised crime where suspects are found in possession of multiple SIM cards.

After the June 29 terrorist attacks when two cars carrying gas cylinders and nails were found in central London and a burning car crashed into Glasgow airport British police tracked a SIM card found on one of the men accused and alerted Australian authorities.

Australian police charged the man Muhammed Haneef 27 with supporting the bomb plot by giving his SIM card to the other two accused.

Haneefs defence was that he passed on the SIM card so the others could take advantage of his mobile tariff. It has not been established whether the SIM card was used in the foiled attacks.

In the House of Lords on July 16 Viscount Waverly presented the question of whether the Government would make it compulsory for proof of identity to be produced when purchasing SIM cards.

The House of Lords said: The compulsory registration of pre-pay ownership would not deliver any significant new benefits to the investigatory process and would dilute the effectiveness of current self-registration schemes.

Wraith said the UKs position was to encourage voluntary registration of mobile phone users via the Immobilise website which currently has 21 million registrations.

A network spokeswoman told Mobile News: This is something we are considering in selected cases. Since May we have not implemented any cases but we do not rule it out in the future.

3 UK sales director Marc Allera said in Mobile News in May that 3 was within its rights to consider clawing back customer airtime and usage costs from the dealer
channel.

The network also admitted last week that as a result of its strategy to acquire the majority of business through its direct channels its distribution partners have suffered. 3 is currently putting in excess of 70 per cent of its business through its direct sales channels.

We havent cut off any distributors but we are doing less business through a number of them. This reflects our increased focus on our direct channels. Its a competitive market and while we compete for quality customers our partners must abide by our terms and conditions said the spokeswoman.

She added: We are moving towards direct because we want quality connections. This is what we will be looking for over the coming months.

He said: We have a handset line-up for Christmas that will incorporate music email and web browsing facilities. We are feeling good about the alternatives. If we get the iPhone fine. If we dont that is also fine because we have our own line-up of devices.

Sarin said the fact the iPhone was not a 3G device made Vodafone less keen to range it anyway. Its a software-driven product and a good device but it doesnt have 3G connectivity. Economics are something one has to look at when they think of carrying a device. If a 3G iPhone was made available we would love to carry it he said.

If you are going to have an internet device it needs to have 3G connectivity and thats the key point. The good thing about the iPhone is that it raises the bar for the industry [in terms of design].

The Tesco Mobile distribution contract considered to be one of the prize supply deals within handset distribution is split between the three. Data Select is now taking charge of around 50 per cent of the product lines that Tesco Mobile invites its distribution partners to tender for.

Data Select managing director George McPherson said: We are making significant gains in the marketplace. We have won a greater share of the Tesco Mobile account.

McPherson would not comment upon the detail of its agreement with Tesco Mobile.

One source close to Tesco Mobile said: Unique and 20:20 have reduced business on certain lines to Tesco Mobile. Data Select is covering about 50 per cent of the supply chain at the moment.

Both 20:20 and Unique maintained that business with Tesco Mobile was good. A 20:20 spokesman said: Tesco Mobile is a key customer and has a high profile within the business.

20:20 is recruiting a Tesco Mobile account manager to replace Heloise Bessy who joined Vodafone earlier this year to take charge of its Asda Mobile business. Bessys replacement will report into Matt Child 20:20s Tesco Mobile account director.

Matt has extensive experience within the grocery sector. We will appoint a new Tesco Mobile account manager shortly which will enhance our resources said a 20:20 spokesman.

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Commissioner Billy Hawkes said: We are examining large volumes of information with a view to prosecuting those companies that have sent or allowed to be sent unsolicited communications.

Firms found to be breaking regulations will be barred in the future.

3 has dropped off the radar among independent dealers after introducing stringent sales terms in recent months.

Dealers said that 3 had dropped to fifth place during January. 3 has recently introduced new clawback downgrade and commercial terms which have angered dealers.

JAG managing director John George said: 3 has slumped massively in our sales ranking. Some days we dont connect any 3 at all.

George said 3 ranked behind Orange T-Mobile O2 and Vodafone throughout its 91 stores.

Its now charging £25 to downgrade and its forcing a lot of people to consider switching networks he said. Its baffling because 3 is losing all its customers.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: Business on 3 was down 40 per cent in volume from the same period last year.

Another said: Eighty per cent of our December and January business was done on Vodafone and O2. I dont remember selling a single handset on 3.

It was a drastic month for 3. As far as I know we didnt have a single enquiry about 3 in January said another.

European Telecom chairman Nico Dervisaj has revealed the company is on the point of acquiring one distributor in the US and one in Kenya.

The combined 2007 turnover for the two distributors is expected to be $310-$360 million (£161m £187m).

Dervisaj said: We made an acquisition last week in Kenya for a company to manage all of Eastern Africa. There is lots of room for growth in the African market. That company will do $60 million in 2007.

We are also finalising a deal for a distributor in the US which replicates the European Telecom model and will do around $250-$300 million this year.

Cardiff-based call centre dealer Landmark Telecommunications has agreed out-of-court the settlement with O2 for £0.5 million over mis-selling airtime contracts to O2 customers on rival networks Orange and 3.

O2 is considering taking legal action against three more distance sellers for such mis-selling.

O2 UK marketing director Sally Cowdry said: We are committed to delivering the best possible experience for our customers. We will take whatever action we consider necessary where there is evidence of third parties misleading our customers. At the least these calls are a nuisance at worst they are illegal.

O2 said last week it had received an increasing number of customer complaints about cold-calling companies that claimed to call on O2s behalf. The action known as slamming has seen O2 customers due for upgrade called by companies such as Landmark and unwittingly churned to rival networks.

The slammed customer only realises what has happened when the receive their handset and first bill.

O2 said that affected customers have complained because of inferior network coverage and customer service from Orange and 3 as well as being mis-sold a product.

A spokesperson for Landmark said: We value the companys reputation and would not set out to gain business by deceit. However after a thorough investigation we discovered that some of our employees were misleading our customers they have been dismissed.

3 director of indirect sales Bernie OBeirne said that Landmark had handled the situation well.

Landmark has traditionally supplied us with good quality connections he said. Landmark has been taken to task and done the right thing by settling with O2 and changing the way it operates. But he acknowledged the matter had taken a long time to resolve. It could have been done a lot quicker he said.

3 is understood to have put a lot of business through Landmark over the past 18 months but OBeirne said that 3s distance-selling activity had slowed markedly since the end of 2006 in line with other networks.

Every distance seller is seeing lower volumes from the networks as they move away from it he said.

Orange refused to comment on the Landmark case. But Orange head of indirect sales Steve Heald said it had tightened up its call centre activity over the past four months.

Our outbound call centre activity since September is vastly different and significantly reduced – not just by 10 per cent say but by a lot he said. And that is reflected in the fact that the number of customer complaints [about mis-selling] has also reduced.

Orange has cut distance selling commission which has helped cut out malpractice. Only those that can run their businesses effectively are still operating in that market he claimed. We have also altered our returns policy so dealers do not send out handsets to customers without prior and proper agreement.

Neither Vodafone and O2 provide the financial incentive to third-party retailers to encourage mis-selling and T-Mobile stepped back from the practice completely in May last year.

Following the arrival of managing director Jim Hyde T-Mobile banned dealers from making outbound upgrade calls altogether citing disruptive customer service issues as the reason for the ban.

But Heald defended Oranges approach to distance sales as pragmatic rather than knee-jerk. He said: We are trying to take a proactive and pragmatic approach to this. But there are clearly customer issues around distance sales and there is noise about the subject.

O2 has encouraged customers to report this type of activity to its new internal complaints desk called the Nuisance Call Bureau so that it can better tackle the problem.

Even without the name of the distance seller in question O2 said it could glean enough information to track the culprit from caller ID information.

O2 is also encouraging its customers to complain to the Trading Standards office Ofcom the Office of Fair Trading and the Information Commissioner.

The Landmark settlement comes on the heels of a High Court action brought by Sky Broadcasting against satellite equipment resellers which resolved in December in favour of Sky. The Sky case was the first to be put before the UK courts to consider the mis-selling of goods or services by call centres and looks to set a precedent for the mobile world.