Having suffered in Europe at the hands of the AG Customs are now looking to take their revenge against businesses who are not applying what Customs would consider to be adequate due diligence checks said Don Mavin of tax advisers Chiltern Mavin.

Customs is paving the way to withhold or block future (and possibly some of the currently withheld) VAT repayments by gathering information to apply their beefed up security provisions and joint and several liability notices against businesses which they consider do not have sufficiently robust due diligence procedures in place

It seems another nationwide Customs exercise is under way to visit selected dealers and gather information about the business to assist Customs in withholding any post Bond House VAT repayments by demanding security or by issuing a joint and several liability notice

Mavin says officers arrive at such visits armed with a questionnaire containing over 200 questions covering a wide range of topics. These include asking what due diligence checks are carried out details of the assets of the company and the names of the investors

No prior warning is given that the owner(s) will be expected to answer these detailed and searching questions. At the meeting the owner is provided with copies of Customs Notice on joint & several liability the recently-updated Notice detailing with Customs powers to demand security and the Statement of Practice concerning the deduction of VAT without a valid VAT invoice. The owner is asked to confirm whether he had previously been provided with a copy of these and asked to confirm that he had read them.

It seems to us that Customs are paving the way to withhold or block future VAT repayments by gathering information to apply their beefed up security provisions and joint and several liability notices against businesses which they consider do not have sufficiently robust due diligence procedures in place.

Vodafone customers can now send and receive up to 100 MB of data when using the Vodafone Mobile Connect service in a total of 15 countries.

Fone Logistics managing director Ian Gillespie said:

It is very much rumours. No formal agreement is in place with anybody to sell our business.

Carphone Warehouse indirect distribution director Steve Fraser said: There is no deal with anyone there is no price and we have done no due diligence

Ian Gillespie has confirmed already that we have had conversations but no deal has been done. There is more than one name in the frame.

Rival distributors counted themselves out. Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove said I dont know. None of us are aware of any talks.

European Telecom director of network services Frank Masson remarked: I would not have joined European Telecom if I thought it was to be bought out by The Carphone Warehouse

Essex Police were relaxed about details of the incident being released to the media. But they are furious Thomsons did not just call the phone a suspicious object.

If people are made aware that leaving or hiding a mobile phone on a plane can spark such a huge security alert then there could be lots of copycat or hoax incidences where this happens again said an Essex police spokesperson.

We advised Thomson that they should refer to the item as a suspicious object but they told the media that it was a mobile phone and now that has been widely reported.

We will definitely be having words with them.

The abandoned mobile phone is currently in police possession and the owner is currently being traced.

This operation has been costly for all the parties involved but owner wont face any criminal charges because they havent actually committed a crime said the spokesperson.

He also refused to reveal the brand model or even network for security matters.

A Thomson Holidays spokeswoman responded:

These kind of things escalate very fast and we were getting press calls about the incident long before theyd given us any advice about what we could and could not say.

The incident happened last Tuesday. A passenger found a mobile phone in an overhead locker aboard a flight on its way back from Portugal due to land at Coventry airport.

When it emerged that the phone didnt belong to anyone on board Air Traffic Control ordered the plane to divert to Stansted Airport.

Two fighter jets from RAF Coningsby escorted the diverted flight which landed at 7.54pm where crew and 103 passengers were disembarked and questioned.

The orphan mobile phone was then investigated by the bomb squad who finally decreed it safe.

Masson who moved to Data Select after quitting T-Mobile as head of channel sales leaves his role as head of business development at Data Select after just one year.

Phones International marketing director Eric White said:

Frank Masson has resigned from Data Select in order to take up a more senior role elsewhere in the industry. He has a period of gardening leave to complete first and he is then free to conduct business in his own inimitable way. We wish him well.

Said Masson:

I think I can make a difference. It is simply a bigger job. It covers more ground than the role at Data Select. That is the bottom line. My role encompasses the total UK market including networks and dealers as well as the sales force and marketing. It will allow John [Drinkwater] to spend more time on other business in other countries.

European Telecoms growth record impressed me. It has done a lot beneath the radar. It is a good contract connector of quality business and its dealers are as loyal as they come.

I enjoy the network side of the business very much. I had nearly seven years at T-Mobile. I understand the psyche of networks and the relationship between them and the manufacturers and figuring out in that the role of the distributor. A good distributor has to understand what the networks are doing and how to help the dealer channel.

Masson and European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater worked together previously at One2One.

Masson is on gardening leave with Data Select until the end of June.

The device also comes pre-loaded with 3D versions of Worms Forts: Under Siege Extreme Air Snowboarding and a new multiplayer version of Midways Gauntlet.

Sony Ericsson UK manager Peter Marsden thinks the phone will appeal to young adults with busy social lives a segment the manufacturer has traditionally shied away from in the past.

The Z520 is particularly aimed at young women who want a mobile that is small looks good but still has great functionality. The phone has Bluetooth and VGA camera and can be customised in a number of different colours to suit the owner.

The other new additions include the new 3G K608 which has 1.3 megapixel camera and features a direct video telephony button (full interview page 12)

Sony Ericsson UK general manager Peter Marsden told Mobile News that the S600 is aimed at the youth sector and the Z520 fashion phone at ladies two sectors the manufacturer has not normally gone after.

See full report page (12)

Called ExtremeMob the network will be a pre-pay service aimed at under 24s.

It will be available online from late July or early August and roll out through Extremes 18 high street stores which sell surf clothing during the autumn. Wider retail distribution through independent dealers is planned for 2006.

Extreme Group CEO and founder Al Gosling said:

We will tailor our tariffs content and customer services to a 16 to 24 age group. Virgin Mobile and other big airtime providers cant do that because they have to cater to an audience across all ages.

We spoke to all the UK operators and wanted the best we could find. Vodafone has the right size scale people professionalism and forward thinking.

We launch in mid summer with five or six handsets. We are in talks with Samsung Sony Ericsson VK and Siemens. We wont announce anything until much closer to launch. The industry moves so quickly and we can decide only a few weeks beforehand especially as its online retail only to begin with.

ExtremeMob will range high-end and entry-level handsets. Detail of wider distribution deals is not available yet.

Vodafone UK CCO Nick Read said:

Extreme is an attractive partner. It has a unique combination of brand content and its own distribution channel. Over the past year we have been approached by several parties for an MVNO deal. Extreme is the only one that convinced us that it has a genuinely different proposition that will add value to the market.

Carrie Pawsey an analyst at Ovum noted:

Extreme has been looking for an airtime partner for some time. Its a surprise that Vodafone emerged as its host network. Vodafone has previously been very anti-MVNO. Its deal with BT was an exception to its corporate wholesale strategy. This new MVNO deal with Extreme could signify a change of heart for Vodafone. There were rumours that Extreme was going to partner with Orange another anti-MVNO operator.

Of the four new slide phones the Nokia 6280 is a 3G model with a two megapixel and a VGA camera. The camera function operates in landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4 and carry a SIM-free price of 375 before subsidies or taxes.

The Nokia 6270 quadband slide phone also features a two-megapixel camera with flash and landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4.

The Nokia 6111 GSM slide phone has a one-mega-pixel camera and flash and a 6x digital zoom. It has an estimated retail price of 270 will also ship in Q4.

The dualband GSM Nokia 6060 is a clamshell device for basic voice communications. It is priced at 140 and is due to ship in Q3.

The Nokia 6265 slide phone is billed as Nokias most feature-rich CDMA phone to date. It has a two megapixel camera with LED flash digital 2 music player Bluetooth and mini SD card. It has a built-in FM radio and supports MP3 AAC and eAAC+ files. It is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The Nokia 2255 is a fold-style CDMA phone which will be available at an entry-level price point and is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The entry-level Nokia 2125 only 21.5mm thick and 85 grams features a 64K colour screen speakerphone and an integrated flashlight It is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2005.

The network is now paying between 50 and 300 on top of its regular consumer commission packages to independent dealers who connect customers to its new business tariffs.

3 informed independent dealers of its SME tariffs and commissions at a series of training days last week (see Sharp End P18).

3 told a training session of 20 independent dealers of its plans. Business tariffs are the same as its consumer tariffs except that the VAT is excluded in the advertised price.

The registration process differs as well. Dealers have to fill in a registration form via email instead of through 3s normal online registration process.

Raj Dooa of RD Communications in Tolworth said:

The commission is great and the dealer back-up is based in Glasgow instead of India which is positive. It is an issue that 3 wants dealers to manage the customer. If O2 or T-Mobile told me that I wouldnt have problem because they have a track record. But it is labour intensive and 3 isnt reliable.

It is passing the buck. Well take the pain. We can tell a business customer he will save money by going with 3 but as soon as a call drops out that customer could lose business himself.

Thats the reason businesses remain with Vodafone.

Matt Chambers manager of the Phone Chamber in Eden Bridge said:

3 wants us to sell it to the business market. Its really positive news. Its great value: more than twice the minutes that T-Mobile offers at the same price.

You have to be careful though. You have to tell the customer there is a reason the 3 price is cheaper Otherwise you risk losing them forever if the coverage cuts out.

The registration process is a bit more work and the credit check takes a bit longer.

Its good news the call centres are based in Glasgow instead of Delhi.

A 3 spokesman confirmed:

We have set up dedicated customer service team and a dedicated dealer support line both based in Glasgow.

O2 the technology partner for the Live 8 concerts received just over two million entries for 66500 pairs of tickets to the Hyde Park concert in London on July 2 and not the 70 million that the Evening Standard claimed.

An O2 spokesperson said: The Evening Standard in London stated that we were going to make a profit of 70 million from Live 8 which is completely incorrect.

This is gutter journalism and the paper has since retracted its story. It calculated that we were going to make 10p from every text and that 70 million people would enter for tickets. That is wrong on two counts.

We do not stand to make any money from Live 8 at all. The entry cost of 1.50 goes to charity. We are charging the customer 10p so that customers can receive a text back confirming that they have entered. But Vodafone and Orange are charging 12p for that service.

We also cover the cost of two more text messages: one to confirm a win and one as a reminder to pick up the tickets. Those are cross-network too.

The Evening Standard estimated that 70 million people applied but the reality is just over two million people entered. It got the figure from the number of text messages sent on New Years Eve which is around 50 million.

The Live 8 competition is one of the most successful text fundraising exercises ever conducted in the UK claimed O2

We coped very well said the O2 spokesperson.

All the mobile phone networks made sure that they were ready and could cope. There was a surge in text messages after the service went live and it continued as a steady stream until lines closed.

Harvey Goldsmith one of the main producers on Live 8 spoke with O2 head of sponsorship Paul Samuels about ways to get the tickets out to customers quickly and free of charge.

All winners had been notified yesterday by a free text message sent to their handsets.