Chief commercial officer Nick Read will run the Consumer Business unit and business segment director Ken McGeorge will lead the Enterprise unit until he takes early retirement at the end of the year.

Vodafone Ireland marketing director Tim Yates comes back to the UK as chief marketing officer in September. Yates will handle consumer segment marketing and keep a strategic eye on the Enterprise units marketing team.

Vodafones current marketing director Lance Batchelor will move to a new director-level position though it has yet to be announced.

Lord joins the network from a similar position at ITV. He has also been a legal adviser to Cable & Wireless.

3 has a fantastic opportunity to challenge the established practices in the UK mobile market said Lord.

But Orange claimed that the technology was not available to it when the 3G data card went into production.

Dilithium sales and marketing VP Lee Ellison commented:

3G data cards are an excellent service to business executives but Orange is missing a trick by not offering video-calling. Our VT Phone technology would enable these customers to trial video services on their laptop and would add no more than two per cent of the cost of the data card. This could boost revenues and increase the number of video-enabled terminals.

Orange responded by saying:

It is not a critical issue. We are looking at video options but we cant confirm whether VT Phone is one of the technologies. There will be a market for video services on 3G. We already looking to adapt a version of the 3G data card to address this market.

O2 has 51000 active pagers on its network although most of these are contained within automatic devices used for remote control switching operations for water and power services. Now the network has given users six months notice to switch to paging service PageOne or swap to O2 BlackBerry or BusinessText services.

(see Comment P14)

3 is adding 550 Argos stores nationwide to its retail base. Argos will sell ThreePay through its stores web page and telesales teams.

Argos claims that its catalogues are in two-thirds of UK homes and that 98 per cent of the population live within 10 miles of an Argos store.

This agreement with Argos shows our commitment to challenge the mobile networks at every level said a 3 spokesperson.

Its a good way to reach even more consumers in the country. Argos has a large reach in the UK and it will just increase our ways to market. We added 60000 ThreePay outlets in just two months after launch in February and were adding 550 more here.

Called Clever Cakes the new advertisement will run until the third week in August and targets small businesses. It highlights the availability of free calls between all company mobiles up to 100 handsets.

The campaign will also run for seven weeks in national and regional newspapers business and management magazines and online.

This month the dealer went direct with 3 and will also now be offering O2 Vodafone and T-Mobile through distributor Fone Logistics.

Director Andy Hattersley said he was looking forward to seeing business boom thanks to direct sales of 3 because 3s lucrative offers hold considerable attraction for both the user and the dealer.

He went on: We are realigning and restructuring the business. We will be going for all networks now primarily be specialising in pre-pay contracts and mobile accessories.

According to Hattersley 3 is dealer-focused with very good deals and commissions.

The way the market is changing we just couldnt afford to put all our eggs in one basket he said.

Oranges Double Take promotion is very strong at the moment and the handsets are coming into stock but we had to look at expanding our horizons.

Hattersley set up the business with his partner Jonathan Miller four years ago when they opened their retail outlet in Chesterfield Derbyshire.

At the time they decided to be Orange exclusive because there was the potential to put enough Orange connections on to make the business sustainable.

Two-and-a-half years ago the pair also launched an online retail shop offering Orange contracts. This remains unaffected by the changes.

Optical recognition enables the user to tap the images of the keys which is replicated on a compatible PDA smartphone laptop or PC. Exclusive distribution is from Avenir which is setting up a website to sell the device to consumers. It will be rolled out into retail channels as production increases and new versions are released.

Haines masterminded the transition of the Vodafone brand from a UK network to a global giant through deals such as the sponsorship of Manchester United and the 110 million sponsorship of the Ferrari Formula One team.

He hit the headlines a year ago when rival F1 team owner Eddie Jordan unsuccessfully sued Vodafone for allegedly reneging on a 150 million deal to sponsor his own team.

Jordans case was based on a 15-minute telephone conversation in March 2001 between Jordan and Haines. Jordan claimed Haines told him that Vodafone would be Jordans sponsor for three seasons for a total of $150 million.

The judge ruled that Haines did not have authority over the Vodafone board to sanction the deal and Jordans case was dismissed. Haines is understood to have started his search for a managing directorship when that path was closed to him at Vodafone.

This compares with 211000 new customers for the previous quarter of which 46 per cent were contract customers and 258000 for the same period last year when 49 per cent were contract customers.

O2 UKs average ARPU for the period ending June 30 was 279 up on 272 for the previous quarter and 254 for the same period last year. O2 UK increased its net revenue growth target by 7-10 per cent as a result up from 5-8 per cent.

O2 UK sales director Mark Stansfeld commented:

We are very pleased. It is another strong quarter of growth and we seem to have maintained the momentum we have built up over the past year.

We are continuing to deliver high-value customers to the network and to maintain excellent relations with the dealer channel.

Stansfeld added that the arrival of newer networks which are expected to take market share from the incumbent network operators had not changed O2s business plan.

We are working to a plan to provide a good customer experience and consistency within the channels he said.

Whenever new networks come into the market they will have their plan. We work to our plan and these results show that it is working.

We dont have as deep pockets as some of the other networks so we are much more focused in our approach to advertising. O2s brand awareness is fantastic at the moment.

My summation is that any level of success were having is a total package. Its a virtuous circle.

We are driving high-quality customers to the network and working well with the channels. We are putting simple clear propositions into the marketplace with good lead times for dealers and the right advertising strategy. The sales process is good and easy to manage.