The Carphone Warehouse signed 3.26 million customers during the golden quarter up by 19.2 per cent on the same period in 2005.

Carphones overall contract connections were up 20.3 per cent to 1.18 million with UK subscription connections growth of 18.5 per cent and pre-pay connections including SIM-free sales up 18.6 per cent to 2.08 million for the period.

Carphone posted a three per cent jump in retail profits during the Christmas quarter compared with the same quarter last year. It recorded growth of overall retail revenue of 19.8 per cent to GBP571.3 million a 7.3 per cent increase on the same period in 2005.

Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone said: We have had another very good Christmas period. Delivering profitable like-for-like growth after last years very strong performance is a great achievement reflecting all our people s efforts and driving market share gains through the strength of our customer proposition.

The completion of the AOL deal makes us the clear number three player in the UK broadband market with 2.2 million residential broadband customers giving us the scale we need to deliver significant profitable growth in the medium term. Our immediate focus continues to be on improving our processes and customer service where we have made good progress in recent months.

Carphone opened 149 net new stores in the quarter across all its markets taking its total store portfolio to 2070. It opened its US retail chain under the name Best Buy Mobile and claimed the initial customer response has been promising.

Carphone s fixed line revenues were up 104.0 per cent to GBP286.5 million. Its TalkTalk broadband base grew to 632000.

There has been a rash of staff changes at dealer account level across all UK distributors with most swapping staff between themselves as they look to focus on the B2B sector and deliver better quality business to the networks.

Kent distributor MoCo has taken on two new B2B dealer managers Ryan Neal and Duncan Austen who were previously dealer managers at Mainline.

MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander said: Part of our 2007 strategy to develop a loyal and committed B2B dealer base. Ryan and Duncan shown enthusiasm and commitment to MoCo and I am confident they will do well at MoCo.

Lester Dougall has also joined MoCo as business sales manger. He joined MoCo from Cheshire telco Chess were he was business development manager.

Anglia has appointed ex-Mainline dealer account manager Steve Cross who will deal with existing customers and create new good quality business for the company.

Mainline said it had filled five out of seven vacancies and that the remaining two appointments would be made by mid-February. It refused to give names.

Mainline managing director Andrew Boden said: Were restructuring so that we can have more contact with more customers more often. All of those that left were offered alternative positions but have decided to take redundancy instead. They have gone on to pastures new.

Helen Carville has joined Avenir as a new business development manager and will help drive Avenirs focus on B2B connections. Carville joins from Fone Logistics. She has also worked for Vodafone and Orange.

Avenir has also appointed Rosie Mateo as its new marketing manager reporting into head of marketing Valerie Haines. Mateo has worked for both T-Mobile and Orange in B2B marketing roles.

Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: Success in the B2B sector is based on being able to provide dealers with real business and commercial expertise combined with a complete knowledge of the industry. The appointments of Helen and Rosie and the experience and qualities that they bring are vital to making this happen and demonstrate Avenirs commitment to both its dealers and the networks.

Carlos Capitan has joined Fone Logistics as trade sales manager. He joins from 20:20 Logistics where he was on its international trade desk. Fone logistics has also created two new positions. Ex-Carphone Warehouse corporate sales executive Ian Morris has been appointed as channel manager for Fone Logistics O2 business partner programme and Tony Beard has joined from Dextra. Beard has been appointed as credit risk manager.

Fone Logistics head of marketing Julien Parven said: He sits between the business development team and internal credit control to work with preferred dealers to extend credit to maximise trade.

Fone Logistics has lost dealer manager Darren Yorston to Yes Telecom which is looking to exploit new market opportunities in the northern England Scotland and Northern Ireland. Yorston joins Yes as new business development manager.

Yes Telecom head of sales Rob Mukherjee said: There is a massive untapped opportunity in Scotland Northern Ireland and the North East of England. Having achieved fantastic growth across other regions of the UK in the past year we are keen to replicate this by having dedicated resources to focus on this area.

Vodafone and O2 service provider Timico has appointed Teresa Warwick as channel manager. Warwick joins Timico from Avenir.

3 is to scrap roaming charges and allow subscribers to make calls when roaming on other 3 networks at standard rates.

Its new pricing policy called 3 Like Home permits UK customers to make calls on 3 networks in Australia Austria Denmark Hong Kong Italy the Republic of Ireland and Sweden for a similar price as calls in the UK.

The same principle will apply to SMS MMS video calling and data services.

3 Group managing director of European Telecommunications Christian Salbaing said: The launch of the 3 Like Home scheme will significantly benefit our customers as they travel between the 3 Groups networks. It underlines our commitment to fair treatment and reasonable pricing for all our customers.

Customers will now only face higher roaming charges if they roam onto a non-3 network because of the high wholesale charges of many of its roaming partners said Salbaing.

3 said the reductions were in line with the European Commissions campaign to reduce the cost of mobile calls when roaming in Europe.

O2 UK head of retail marketing Becky Hughes has moved to a new role within parent company Telef³nicas trade marketing division.

Hughes will be replaced by Mark Garrad until a permanent replacement is found.

Hughes who joined O2 from Carphone Warehouse in May 2003 will work on broadband and digital TV sales in third party channels. Her transfer to Telef³nica is a secondment for an initial period of six months.

O2 has also appointed Jason Duffy as head of sales for retail. Both Garrad and Duffy will report to O2 general manager of retail Paula Cave. Mark Stansfeld O2 UK Sales Director leads the division.

Duffy said that integration of the 96 stores taken from The Link will be completed in mid-February taking O2 s retail estate to 400 shops. Old O2 stores will be refurbished starting in six weeks time.
Duffy said: We are going to build on the customer experience both internally and externally because if the staff are happy that will be passed down and will make our customers happy as they will get the best customer service. My goal is essentially to make O2 the most trusted and talked about retailer on the high street.
Duffy has been with O2 for 12 years. He started out as a trainee sales adviser in a Cellnet store and rose through the ranks. His history with the company counts in his favour he said.
I hope that shop floor staff will trust me more because of my past history he said.
Seperately O2 has appointed Mark Garrad as head of retail marketing. Garrad has worked for O2 since September 2005 across its franchise activity and channel strategy for retail.
He replaces Becky Hughes for an interim period of six months. Hughes has transferred to parent company Telefonica where she will work on broadband and digital TV sales in third-party channels.
Hughes joined O2 from Carphone Warehouse in May 2003.
Both Garrad and Duffy will report to new O2 general manager of retail Paula Cave.

As many as 40 per cent of new customers to a network give up on sending an MMS because they cannot configure their handsets properly.
In response Dublin-based software company Arantech will launch Touchpoint next month at 3GSM in Barcelona. It is software that monitors all aspects of customer usage and provides networks with data on failed calls and services.
Arantech marketing and communications officer Loughlin O Nolan claimed that four of the world s six major networks are already trialling the service. The two others are expected on board by the end of 2007 according to O Nolan.
The old days of expecting a dealer to configure a handset for MMS and other facilities are fading which means that customers often have to configure the mobile themselves he said. It s simply beyond many customers so they just give up and the network loses the potential extra revenue that those services could bring them.
O Nolan explained that the software allows networks to identify which customers are experiencing problems and why it happens so customer support staff can proactively call them and help out.
He claimed that one of the triallists has discovered missed MMS revenues to the tune of 100000 ( 67000) in one week alone.
What our software does is to monitor all aspects of the network in real time all of the time he said.
It can identify any aspect of customer problems presenting that information in different forms to the sales accounting and customer service sections of a carrier.

The 100 winners were nominated by their co-workers rather than executives for the five-day all-expenses-paid trip.
Gaining Legends status for the second year running are P1 North Division regional manager Paul Burns and Haymarket store manager Marny Hussain.

Dextra Solutions saw a 15 per cent rise in the sale of mobile phone handsfree car kits in December 2006 compared with the previous year.
The increase is being attributed to a growing awareness of tougher penalties that will become law on the 27 February. The fixed penalty fine will be doubled to 60 for drivers handling a phone with three points added to their licence.
A recent survey for The Carphone Warehouse by YouGov found that 43 per cent of men and 25 per cent of woman hold a phone while driving.
Dextra Solutions managing director James Browning said: People finally seem to be getting the message that the only way to use a mobile when driving a car is to use a hands-free car kit.

3 announced in October that it had acquired a portfolio of 95 retail sites most of them former Link outlets.
One concession staffer said: It is a very bad idea opening a standalone over the way from a concession. The bosses don t care how it affects us.
Another commented: We are going to lose our customers. Our target based bonuses will suffer.
But a 3 spokesman claimed only a handful of stores were affected.

The new W200i available in Q2 in black or white replaces the W300i and includes storage for up to 37 full-length tracks and a dedicated Walkman key. It also enables users to pre-set up to 20 radio stations.
Sony Ericsson head of product marketing Steve Walker said: The W200i is an affordable music phone that complements your existing MP3 player.
The W200i includes a 4x digital zoom and a VGA camera as well as push email and PC synchronisation.
Sony Ericsson also released some teaser images of its new W880i Walkman phone though remained tight-lipped about its features.