The system is almost identical to the mapAmobile location service developed by mobile software company MI international and distributed exclusively by The Carphone Warehouse until September.

Both use base station information rather than GPS satellite data to identify the location of the tracked handset. Depending on the service they choose users register the phone number they want to track with either MST Locate or The Carphone Warehouse.

Each service costs the same with an annual subscription of 29.99. However this pays for 10 search requests on mapAmobile but 12 on MST Locate.

Owners of the mobile phone being tracked have to give their consent by responding to a warning text message before the service is activated.

MST Locate and mapAmobile provide the location information on a secure website which can be accessed by the registered user.

The site contains a map indicating the phones location. A location can also be requested by calling a 24-hour call centre.

No extra software is required. The services work with all handsets on T-Mobile Orange Vodafone and O2. 3 is not yet covered.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the mobile phone retailer to generate a totally new revenue stream with their existing business clients said MST International commercial director Stuart Thomas.

No matter what we do mobile phones will still feature in street crime he warned.

Cars have had better security systems fitted yet are still being stolen. It is everyones responsibility to make handsets less easy to steal and re-use. But theft is still going to take place.

That said we are behind the scheme and are currently engaged in trying to advance these issues. We have been very proactive of late. While I accept we havent got it right first time that hasnt stopped us from exploiting possibilities.

As part of the industrys drive to combat the apparent rising tide of mobile phone crime MICAF has been running an Immobilise advertising campaign to encourage people to report stolen and missing phones.

But while a phone can be switched off within minutes of it being reported stolen it can still be reprogrammed and reactivated using software available on the Internet.

My job will be to increase our dealer database. I know what dealers are looking for and understand the pains of retail. We are looking to double the customer base.

He went on to say: The growth is going to come from high-value customers. We are not interested in volume. We want dealers to bring to us their high-spending customers. We are prepared to pay them greater commissions based on the true value of the customer.

Sandford was made redundant from Project Telecom in May along with 50 other employees. He had been given a regional sales director role after selling Ternhill to Project for 500000.

Learn was launched two months ago with ads on store window displays TV radio and bus sides. The programme aims to help users get the most from their phones features and from mobile data.

As well as boosting store traffic the campaign urged 250000 customers to personalise their Your Page area on the Orange WAP portal.

Oranges campaign research also revealed the top 10 technical fears people have about their phones. Top of the list were questions on predictive text. The second most prevalent query was how to change ring tones.

The third biggest uncertainty for consumers was how to pick up their voice mail abroad Other questions included how to download ring tones set up speed-dial and perform group texts.

Learn also boosted the work of Orange call centres which have been dealing with more than 10000 calls a day. Traffic to the Orange website increased by 35 per cent while page impressions rose 67 per cent.

The number of users of Oranges Open Access service which offers 4 a month unlimited WAP access has tripled from 100000 to 300000. Sales of the Orange Open Access retail pack have more than tripled to 37000.

WAP usage rose 40 per cent with the number of WAP page impressions tripling and the number of WAP downloads quadrupling.

Orange eventually wants to achieve 25 per cent of its revenue from data by 2005. The Learn campaign has helped data revenues rise to 17 per cent of the total.

Advertisement and brand tracking consultany Millward Brown reckoned 47 per cent of the population remembered the Learn campaign when prompted.

Oranges brand recognition is twice as high as most brands with 76 per cent of those quizzed remembering that the Learn advertisements were by Orange.

Oranges Top 10 Learn requests were: How do I use predictive text or remove it? How do I change my ring tone? How do I pick up voice mail abroad? How many text messages can my phone hold? How do I download ring tones? Can you back up my numbers from my phone? How do I get e-mails on my phone? How do I transfer pictures on my phone to my PC? How do I set up speed dial? and How do I set up group text?

Other popular retailers will be joining the shopping service in the near future.

Retailers will provide an overview of available items illustrated withfull-colour pictures and accompanied by more detailed descriptions. Live! customers will also be able to view regularly updated special offers from each retailer.

An icon on the live! menu navigates users to a virtual shopping centre. Payment is by credit card and goods are despatched to the buyers registered delivery address.

The service costs 10p with a 25p message charge added to the customers Orange O2 or Vodafone bill.

Walker stressed that Customs is not after honest businesses that can demonstrate they have done all they can to avoid carousel fraud.

He claimed that traders have no reason to worry about checking beyond their initial supplier and customer as long as they ask the right questions before doing a deal.

If an honest and legitimate business does everything it can to avoid being caught up and we are satisfied it has made all reasonable checks we are not going to apply joint and several liability.

But the threat of being hit for liability has already driven several traders out of the business. This is having a knock-on effect up and down the supply chain.

MoCo Cell Link boss Maurice Whelan said: Handset trading has come to a shuddering halt. I am petrified of buying from anyone other than the networks or big distributors. It is even a big risk buying stock from respected traders.

Keith Bennett of trading company Furzfield added:

Customs owes us a large amount from March that we havent seen. There is no point staying in the industry. Customs has its talons out and it is looking for some people to make an example of.

A despairing Stuart Wright of Phone Trade said: We arent trading anymore. There is no way we can. With the joint and several liability ruling there is absolutely no way that I can continue trading.

The only people I can truly know if they are legit are my customers and my direct suppliers. Outside of that I just havent a clue.

A disgruntled former Orange store assistant is taking the network to court over wages he alleges are owed to him.

David Polson 25 worked in Oranges retail store in Yeovil for seven months in 2002 as a full-time assistant.

During this time he claims the network failed to provide him with the free Nokia handset it promised him failed to increase his wages following the successful completion of his training and failed to pay him his holiday entitlement when he left.

I received no support from my store manager or regional manager when I told them of my problems he said.

They were more interested with procedures and as long as the handsets were correctly lined up they thought they were doing their jobs.

I was told that someone was sorting it out but for my last month I found myself spending more time on the phone trying to sort out my wages than actually helping customers. This meant I was losing the chance to earn commission.

Polson who now works as a graphic designer with a business consultancy also says he incurred bank charges because of the failure of the network to pay his wages accurately. He is also demanding Orange pay the charges.

The case has been transferred to Yeovil County Court.

At time of going to press Orange had not commented on the case.

The ruling means corporate and private customers can legally use GSM gateway equipment such as Nokias Premicell. However the law forbids commercial telecoms companies from using the equipment to sell cheaper fixed-to-mobile calls to corporate or private customers.

Floe Telecom director Simon Taylor who is lodging complaints with the European Commission and Oftel said his company had expected the decision.

The DTI and RA caved in to the demands of the mobile phone operators he said.

The mobile operators and the Government are trying to hold out against de-regulating the market for as long as possible. But there are ways we can continue to service our customers in spite of the ruling.

The company which was founded by ex-European Telecom man Win Donaldson went into administration last month and has moved to Putney south London. Previously it operated out of Sutton where it shared an office with its former distribution arm M-Fusion.

M-Fusion went bust earlier this year with debts of 800000. In January this year the companys Mad Box Media content creation business also went into liquidation with debts of around 1 million.

According to a source at the company the move came about because the old Sutton office was impractically large following the redundancies.

There had been rumours that Euro Cellular had gone bust since there was no answer to its new telephone number for several days.

However the company said that there had simply been moving difficulties with the telephone network.

The store opened last Friday (July 25) and it is the first centre that will showcase Sony Music Sony Vision Sony PlayStation and Sony Ericsson under one roof.

The new store also has a dedicated business area. Central to the stores aim will be showing customers how the different technology devices can interact with oneanother.

Sony Ericsson marketing director UK Peter Marsden said: This is the first time we are seeing all of the Sony products under one roof. The idea is to start to pull together everything that Sony is about.

He went on: Showing people how different devices connect will be a major aim as will offering demonstrations. The idea is that people can see how their mobile phones can can talk to a laptop or a notebook.

Marsden said that the Sony Ericsson part of the store will have a similar feel to a Vodafone experience store where customers will be able to see downloads and applications available across the Sony Ericsson range.

He added that Sony was in discussions about rolling the idea out to its 110 Sony Centre stores across the UK.

If the concept is successful a decision will then be taken about rolling it out to the 300 Sony affiliate stores across the country.