Distributors and dealers were warned not to sell the handsets until the faulty chargers could be identified and recalled.

The rogue part has the identification number BML 162099/3 R1A and Made in Thailand by Delta is printed on the socket face of the charger.

Most UK distributors have suspended sales of the chargers until they can ascertain which stock is affected and can obtain replacements from the manufacturer.

Sony Ericsson claims it is starting to supply replacement chargers to distributors after carrying out an extensive recall campaign focused solely at consumers.

A third of its UK stock was shipped with the faulty chargers. The remaining handsets have mains chargers produced for Sony Ericsson by other manufacturers and are not affected.

Faulty electrical components within the Delta-originated units can overheat causing a build-up of air pressure. This causes the airtight charger casing to explode.

Sony Ericsson head of marketing Peter Marsden commented:

Our focus has been primarily on consumers and existing users. Stock in channel is a secondary priority. We have a good supply of chargers coming in and we are coping with demand.

Dealers should send any affected stock back to their distributor where it will be replaced. We are only a week or two away from receiving a batch of new stock. It has been annoying as the T610 was selling really well.

He went on: Overall the problem hasnt slowed down sales. The bigger distributors have been able to segregate stock getting back to business as normal. We have suspended the supplier of faulty product and we are investigating with them.

The trade told a different story however.

Orange Retail had suspended sales of the affected handsets. Orange said it was just starting to receive a new supply of handsets to its distribution centre.

Orange distributor Mainline was awaiting advice from the network.

We are not selling any handsets until we get further instruction from Orange said Mainline managing director Andrew Boden.

DataSelect managing director George McPherson said he had similarly frozen all stock and was working with the manufacturer on a solution to the problem.

We are not supplying any of the affected Sony Ericsson handsets to dealers he told Mobile News (See White Lines P48).

The three-year agreement covers the entire tournament from group stage through to the final and builds on 3s already strong football offering. The network is in the second year of its three-year deal with the English Premier League.

Like 3s Premiership service the Champions League offering will show near-live goals and major match incidents as well as offer text alerts and team news.

English teams involved in the tournament include Manchester United Arsenal and Chelsea.

Both the Premier League and Champions League packages are free to customers who sign up to a VideoTalk price plan before the end of September.

TMTI has now launched a premium rate Bluetooth support line. The approval has helped TMTI secure a deal to support Bury Bluetooth in-car handsfree kits being supplied by Elite Mobile to Vodafone retail stores.

TMTI will also be supporting a new range of Bluetooth products being launched by North London distributor Avenir Telecom.

TMTI has also won a contract to provide technical support to Unique distribution on a range of Vodafone-branded Trium Sirius pre-pay handsets sold through Woolworths.

TMTI managing director and founder Crispin Thomas said he was in talks with Bluetooth manufacturers with the aim of supporting their products.

There is a raft of devices appearing on the market and we can help dealers and distributors alike to support them he said.

Most problems are to do with pairing the accessory to the mobile and this is where we can help. We can cut down product returns and save the retailer the refund nightmare by including our support in or on the box.

Since its launch in June TMTI has secured distribution agreements for its premium rate support cards with a number of distributors including Avenir Telecom Fone Logistics 4U Distribution Elite Mobile Unique Distribution and TAP.

Research by the Finnish giant has found that 39 per cent of businesses in Europe intend to provide their mobile workers with e-mail access over the next 18 months.

In addition 19 per cent of businesses surveyed said they would be providing access to company databases and intranets from mobile phones. This represents a growth of over 200 per cent.

According to the survey the sectors that will see the biggest gains in usage are distribution utilities real estate and manufacturing.

At Cable & Wireless Royle ran the small business marketing team. He will be looking after Orange Business Standards – the small business offering that was launched last month by the network.

Royle has over 10 years experience in various marketing commercial and alliance roles within the IT and telecoms industry specialising in the business-to-business sector.

Before Cable & Wireless he worked for both Dell and Toshiba in commercial and marketing roles.

Launching the festive ranges Virgin Mobile sales director Graeme Hutchinson said:

We have the cheapest camera phone in the UK on pre-pay with the Sony Ericsson T230 at 99.99 and the smallest colour phone in the UK the Panasonic G50 at 120. It will be interesting to see how the other networks react.

Virgin Mobiles festive range is heavy on colour with every new phone possessing a colour screen.

Handsets exclusive to Virgin Mobile include two Alcatel models the 332 ( 70) and 735 ( 150) and the Panasonic G50. The network also has the Sendo M550 ( 100) in an exclusive design and an exclusive silver finish Samsung e400.

Other handsets added to the range include the Samsung C100 ( 100) the Samsung E700 (around 300) Sony Ericsson T610 (around 200) and Sony Ericsson T230 ( 100 including add-on camera).

Virgin Mobile will also include a free handsfree earpiece with every phone it sells.

Free voicemail sports text alerts and itemised bills are also being thrown in. Texts to other Virgin Mobile customers are still being kept at 3p a minute.

There are now 21 handsets on offer from the virtual network.

(See White Lines P48).

This means 3 customers will also be able to make and receive video calls while roaming abroad on 3 as well as making video calls from the UK to 3s overseas customers.

3 has also signed a deal with Japanese 3G operator NTT DoCoMo. This will allow 3 customers to make and receive video calls to NTT DoCoMo 3G customers in Japan.

However 3 customers will not be able to roam in Japan as the Japanese 3G network is incompatible with European specification 3G handsets.

International video calls originating in the UK will cost 1.50 per minute. Roaming video calls in Australia Austria Italy and Sweden will cost 30p per minute to receive and 1.20 to make.

Receiving a video call in Hong Kong will cost 50p per minute and making one will cost 1.20.

A 3 spokesperson said the network had been ready for some months but had not been activated for customers until pricing could be set.

The figure from GSM Network operators O2 Orange T-Mobile and Vodafone takes the daily average to 29 million compared with 26 million per day in June.

WAP figures are seeing a continued increase due to high consumer interest in mobile games downloads and ringtones said the MDA. We predicted earlier this month that sales of ringtones would reach 70 million in 2003 an increase of 60 per cent on 2002.

The MDA expects WAP page impressions to reach eight billion by the end of the year. Julys figure currently provides a cumulative total for 2003 of more than 4.5 billion.

Six to eight million mobile-phone users have downloaded a ringtone. That still leaves around 42 million users who havent said MDA chairman Mike Short.

The first incident occurred in Amsterdam in August after a woman dropped her mobile.

The unidentified handset burst into flames as she picked it up and tried to switch it back on again causing serious burns to her face. It is believed the handset contained a non-Nokia battery.

In a second incident two weeks ago a Nokia 7210 burst into flames while it was in a teenage boys pocket. It is not clear whether this handset also utilised a third-party battery or not.

Nevertheless the Finnish manufacturer is fairly confident the faults were caused by third-party batteries and not through any fault of the handsets themselves.

Nokias UK representatives have been quick to reassure the public that there is no safety risk posed by its phones as long as the handset is used with approved accessories.

Nokia business development manager Ray Haddow said:

There is no cause for alarm. We are only aware of the first incident. It appears to be an isolated case.

The information indicates a non-original battery was fitted but we cant verify that yet. Consumers can feel safe as long as they use an original battery and original accessories. We are not aware of any similar incidents occurring in the UK.

Haddow said Nokia had not been able to recover the handset and analyse the battery.

We hope to do this to see how the incident happened and check the origin of the battery he added.

There have been similar cases to this involving our handsets but these are due to non-original batteries being fitted. We recommend our resellers offer original components as they are designed to work specifically with our products. We cant guarantee the quality of non-original products.

O2 was the biggest creditor losing 1155760 in total. Orange was hit for 403451. Vodafone has written off 344843 and 4U is down 104607.

A number of other main trade creditors were owed more than 10000 each including Unique Distribution ( 43216) Ora ( 19085) and Pama ( 14067).

A report from joint administrators Ernst & Young shows that Convergent went bust when it was unable to raise 2 million to continue trading.

In a statement Ernst & Young said Convergent ran into severe financial difficulties because of general overcapacity and declining margins lower-than-forecast return from acquisitions significant bad debt write-offs and restructuring costs.

Retired Convergent founder John Weatherill said its woes began when it paid too much for the companies it bought and wrote that money off sometimes within months.

In June Weatherill who spent 1 million trying to prop up the firms share price blamed ex-managing director Tony Farmer for the debacle saying:

The management of Convergent turned 16 million into an 11 million overdraft in a little over two years. Its staggering.

Weatherill started the company in 1983 as John Weatherill Electronics.

The wind-up has so far cost 60807 in legal fees and 105179 in administrators costs.

Ernst & Young said there was little prospect of unsecured creditors seeing any dividend.