In a statement the network said:

A number of the support functions of Singlepoint and Vodafone have now been aligned with many employees reskilling or transferring to other positions.

The final integration project will be completed by April 2005 and it is anticipated that 195 roles will be put at risk of redundancy.

It is hoped that some redeployment will be possible at Singlepoint as well as in other parts of the Vodafone business.

When Vodafone acquired Singlepoint it made no secret of the fact that the company would become part of the Vodafone UK business.

Vodafone also recognised that Singlepoint had consumer telesalesexpertise and it developed Singlepoint as a telesales centre of excellence.

Over the past 10 months this has been developed as a telesales centre for all Vodafone consumer customers as well as a new direct sales service.

Call handlers are now also sharing customer calls with Vodafones other contact centres in Birmingham and Warrington resulting in a culling of many jobs now that the two businesses have been integrated.

A source close to Orange revealed: Oranges dealer roadmap for 2005 has 3G pencilled in for early February. Knowing Orange it is a loose date. It could be March.

Its just looking to dip its toe in the water at the moment and plans to spend 12 million which isnt much to acquire between one and 1.5 million customers this year.

According to the source the Sony Ericsson Z1010 is already on the roadmap as well as around three other models.

It will be a soft launch. It wont be big because it cant afford to get into a fight with the other 3G networks. None of them has mastered the technology yet and it will hurt Orange financially if it allows customers to migrate too quickly between its networks.

The source added that Orange will allow customers to upgrade between its 2.5G and 3G networks.

Orange said that no plans had been finalised with regard to the independent dealer channel.

It hasnt been nailed down yet said a spokesman. Its in the process of being confirmed. Nothing has been finalised. People will be talking about it because we launched our 3G services at the end of last year.

He leaves at the end of this month and will be replaced by business solutions vice-president Mike Newnham who joined Orange four years ago from PriceWaterhouseCoopers as vice-president of finance.

Alastair MacLeod formerly sales director of business solutions will assume Newnhams former position as vice-president of business solutions at Orange UK on an interim basis.

The six-year deal Sony Ericssons first global sponsorship is said to be the largest and most comprehensive sponsorship in the history of tennis and of womens professional sport.

It will see Sony Ericsson becoming the global title sponsor of the tour which is being renamed the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. This includes the end-of-season globally televised WTA Tour Championships which are held each November and feature the worlds top eight singles players and top doubles teams.

Sony Ericsson will also enjoy a significant on-court presence at the many WTA Tour tournaments throughout the season with hundreds of matches televised in every region of the world.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications president Miles Flint said:

Together with the WTA Tour we are exploring a range of opportunities that can integrate technology design music sport and fashion into a compelling entertainment proposition for consumers.

Meanwhile Vodafone has announced the extension of its Ferrari Formula One team sponsorship for a further two years.

According to Vodafone chief marketing officer Peter Bamford the agreement will continue to involve branding on both the cars and on the helmets of drivers and the overalls of pit crews.

We are very happy to continue our partnership with Ferrari he added.

The Formula One sponsorship has greatly enhanced our global brand profile and will enable us to continue to build Vodafone as one of the worlds leading brands.

He concluded: We are looking forward to generating greater affinity for the Vodafone brand and our products and services with our customers.

That was the claim of Hutchison Whampoa chairman Canning Fok in Hong Kong last week.

He also revealed that 3s global customer base rose from 6.7 million subscribers at the end of 2004 to 6.764 million by January 4 doubling its total customer base by adding 3.5 million in just over four months.

According to Dixons we had the industry-leading contract handset in the LG 8120 and the best-selling pre-pay handset in the NEC e616 claimed a 3 spokesperson. So we dominated sales on pre-pay and contract over the Christmas period which shows it was a 3G Christmas after all.

Of 3s competitors Vodafone has not yet released figures for the period. O2 and Virgin Mobile said they were unable to comment because the period is tied to their financial reporting cycles. Other networks declined to comment.

Daniel Whyte 38 of Bronte House Kilburn and Owen Foster 37 of no fixed abode were remanded in custody at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court for trial at the Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

They are charged with stealing a Nokia mobile phone and 10 cash from Jason Siret using force on January 3 outside the Costcutters shop on Harrow Road Paddington.

Foster is also charged with illegal possession of cannabis at the same time and place.

As of today (January 14) new legislation known as the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) regulates the sale of insurance policies.

No company can now sell insurance or recommend or refer clients to insurance providers unless that company is fully registered with the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

As a result O2 has dropped its O2 Insure policy from the independent dealer channel. It told its resellers: To comply with these new regulations we are no longer able to offer the O2 Insure product to Pay Monthly or Pay & Go customers through our independent sales channels.

Dealers were told to cease all O2 Insure selling activity and destroy all O2 Insure sales leaflets product registration forms and terms and conditions they may be holding.

O2 will no longer pay commission for any sales made after this week.

The legislation will also affect traders who may find that their goods in transit are not covered unless the policy was correctly purchased. Previously a call to a freight-forwarder and payment of an appropriate premium was all it took to insure a pallet-load of phones or crate of computer chips from its arrival in a warehouse to its ultimate destination.

Under the IMD however traders must use an authorised broker to arrange cover unless they are dealing with one of the very few freight-forwarders that have registered as an appointed introducer or representative for a regulated insurance provider.

Because of the additional administrative burden they face by doing so many freight-forwarders who currently sell insurance as a secondary activity have not applied for regulation.

The British International Freight Association (BIFA) estimates that that less than one per cent of its 1300 members will in fact register.

BIFA director general Colin Beaumont commented:

We fought to obtain exemption for freight-forwarders from the Insurance Mediation Directive but exemption has not been granted despite the negative impact that the legislation will have on UK trade.

According to Beaumont this includes substantial premium increases for exporters unfair competition with other EU member states who are not imposing this legislation on their freight-forwarding sector and the risk of more goods being transported without any transit insurance cover.

It is a complete nonsense when new legislation brought in to protect the insurance consumer has the opposite effect he said.

Alan Lee of mobile phone insurance company Fonesure added:

Within the mobile phone industry there are many insurance providers who are not ready to continue trading from today so many insurance companies will be falling to the sidelines in our industry.

David Riley director of Cheshire-based Insurance Brokers Abbott and Bramwell said this week that he had received scores of e-mails from shippers and traders who had only just realised the situation they would find themselves in.

Many traders have not heard about the new legislation and some of those that have dont realise the implications said Riley.

There are going to be a lot of uninsured goods travelling in white vans up and down the countrys motorway network thats for sure.

Traders may presume that they are covered. But if and when the worst happens they may well find they are not. Or at the very least that any claim they make is disputed.

He warned that traders may be exposed even when their consignments are in the forwarders warehouse waiting for onward shipment unless they arrange insurance themselves.

The IMD is going to affect the way we work as a company added Riley.

Whereas Abbott and Bramwell had previously has blanket policies with forwarders Riley said the company was now being forced to enter into hundreds of agreements with individual traders to cover the same risk.

Whether theyre looking for cover for an individual consignment or an annual policy the bottom line is that traders will have to source that cover from a regulated provider he said.

Theyll have to get their hands dirty or live with the fact that their goods will not be insured.

But the Mobile Data Association said dealers and distribution channels were not emphasising the benefits of the whole gamut of messaging services.

Because SMS is so pervasive different companies are using SMS in so many different ways. It is also no longer a preserve of youth. Older people are more readily using the technology said MDA chairman Mike Short.

There are still plenty of opportunities for growth. In the early 1990s dealers set up voicemail for SME customers themselves. They dont always apply the same attention to WAP and SMS.

Short also said that MMS would replicate the success of SMS when the penetration of MMS-enabled handsets matched that of SMS handsets.

Pricing is a factor though not a barrier he said. But it is becoming easier and more consistent all the time.

MMS growth is happening rapidly even though were not releasing figures yet.

The study shows that many young people now prefer to chat flirt make dates – and even end relationships – by text rather than mobile talk e-mail or landline.

The study was based on a sample of more than 1000 people aged between 11 and 21 years old

It shows that text messaging is used by 89 per cent of young adults at least once a day with more than half using it at least five times a day.

Around 55 per cent of those young adults polled have sent a text message to chat someone up with 40 per cent using it to make a first date. And when things start to go wrong 34 per cent of boys and 23 per cent of girls use it to end a relationship.

Of the sample audience 77 per cent said they cannot bear to be without their mobile phone and said that owning a mobile phone made them feel more secure.

Nearly a quarter of the sample surveyed have used their mobile phones to contact friends or family during an emergency or to make 999 calls.

In the fashion stakes wearing a mobile on your belt was regarded as a no-no for three-quarters of young people. More than half would never keep their phone in a special mobile pocket in their bag either. Instead most chose to keep their handset in their pocket.