ET in administration

Around 90 staff are expected to lose their jobs as a result.

ETs biggest creditors 20:20 Brightstar and smartphone manufacturer i-mate sought a winding up order earlier this month after the distributor failed to find the necessary investment to improve cash-flow.

Earlier this month Emblaze who own a 51% stake in ET announced that they were no longer willing to continually fund ET and were seeking investors to reduce their stake to 10%. But negotiations between potential investors have since broken down and liquidation firm Bergbies Traynor have now been appointed as administrators.

Full story in Mobile News June 4.

Velofone cuts roaming costs

The new VeloMobil HTC S620 handset allows users who are in a range of a WI-FI hotspot to connect to a Velofone IP which charges at a reduced rate.

Velofone will also be releasing the service on the Nokia E series handsets.

Velofone business development manager Colette Bean said: The VeloMobile proposition offers business travellers the opportunity to benefit from significantly reduced international roaming charges without the need to constantly amend their mobile settings.

Ericsson pens Vodafone deal

As a result Ericsson will take on 97 members of Vodafone Netherlands staff who will be relocated to Ericssons offices at Stein in the South Limburg region.

Vodafone Netherlands Chief Technology Officer said: By transferring responsibility and existing resources for the core and transport part of the network we are convinced that we will be able to capture synergies with Ericsson and that the quality of our core and transport network will be further enhanced.

Nokias top glass Luna

The Quad-band Luna uses opaque smoked glass with soft-touch stainless steel. The keypad illumination pulsates from beneath the glass case if a call comes in.

The Luna is the first Nokia also to use a single micro-USB port for charging audio and data connectivity. The Luna comes with a two- megapixel camera.

The Nokia 8600 Luna is expected to be available during the 2nd quarter of 2007 for around £500 before subsidy.

Broadband out of the box

Other networks are AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless) China Mobile DTAC Maxis MTN Orange SingTel Smart Communications TeliaSonera Turkcell Vodafone and Wind. The programme was put together by the GSM Association.

The research includes field trials to quantify mass market PC buyer interest in mobile broadband. The idea is for affordable notebook PCs with embedded mobile broadband that work right out of the box .

This is expected to appeal to millions of PC buyers in developed and emerging markets as mobile broadband coverage expands worldwide.

Following the success of our initial program to infuse the notebook market with mobile connectivity we are delighted to be working with Microsoft to initially understand the scale of the opportunity for mobile broadband enabled PCs in the mass market said Rob Conway CEO of the GSMA.

Understanding the market size and customers requirements is the first step towards developing devices to meet those requirements.

JAG takes store tally to 81

Managing director John George said talks are at an advanced stage to buy properties in Dorchester and Cowes on the Isle of White.

The Warminster outlet takes the retailers tally to 81.

Meanwhile George said sales for May represented JAG¹s second best month ever for contract connections connecting over 4000 Orange contracts alone.

He said: After a miserable six months for connections this has come as a bit of a shock. The only thing I can say is we altered our staff commissions structure an increase of 30 per cent. It might be a case of our staff responding to that.

Rival Inteks managing director Manny Hussain also reported a slight increase in connections. Things were a little better in May. We were down 35-40 per cent compared to last year but we¹ve pulled back 20 per cent of that and hopefully June will be even better.

Xerox man downsizes

Herve Gallaire will help Realeyes3D develop more applications for camera phones. Realeyes says it went after Gallaire who was Chief Technology Officer at Xerox because of his experience with imaging and document technologies.

Nokia switch for Durrant

Durrant was director of communications and public affairs at Motorola for nine years and will now be in charge of Nokias Symbian series and technology marketing.

Durrant said: Its a fantastic opportunity to be involved with Nokia who I see as the manufacturer taking mobile internet to the next level.

He denied his Motorola departure was due to recent job cuts. He said: The job at Nokia I simply can¹t turn down. Motorola has had its problems but it will bounce back.

Download the podcast now!

Graham who left Vodafone nearly two years ago after 20 years in the UK mobile industry has teamed up with ex-Vodafone technology man James Roswell and copywriter Mark Bridge and together they will discuss the latest industry headlines during the entertaining 30 minute show.

Visitors have a choice of listening to the podcast through their web browser or they can download the latest edition straight to their computer or to an iPod. A new edition of the podcast will be made available every Wednesday.

Graham is very excited about the new feature he said:

Mobile News remains the industrys bible and were delighted to be associated with the publication in this way. Its going to be fun getting our teeth into all the stories that matter and unearthing some of the truth behind the PR spin. Well be talking about everything from commission payments to handset software.

To access the latest edition of the Mobile News podcast simply click the banner at the top of the page or select the podcast icon on the menu bar.