The changes come two weeks after Vodafone marketing director Mike Webb abruptly left the company amid strong suggestions that he had been fired.

The big winner from the in-fighting has been Vodafone Retail marketing director Helen Keays who now takes charge of all Vodafones brand management and advertising.

Another promotion has gone to Ken McGeorge who is now managing director for independent service provision. This role has been designed to give independent service providers their own top level Vodafone man who has the same clout as the heads of Vodafone Retail Vodafone Connect and Vodafone Corporate.

New Vodafone chief executive Peter Bamford has also created four centres of excellence in Vodafones UK marketing team to focus on advertising for specific end-user groups.

Vodafone Ltd marketing executive Colin MacDougal becomes marketing director (corporate) Vodafone Corporate marketing executive Kevin Taylor is in charge of advertising to business. Vodafone Connect marketing executive Tim Ward takes charge of consumer advertising.

They all report to Keays who is accountable for the time being to Bamford but it is expected that Vodafone will be looking to hire a heavyweight marketing executive from outside the industry to fill the hierarchy between Keays and Bamford.

Meanwhile the industry is alive with speculation over Webbs alleged sacking.

Said one top industry source:

It is an astonishing thing to do. Mike invented the incredibly successful Pay As You Talk product managed the re-branding and made sure they were in all the major retailers like Tesco.

There are few things that really shock me in this business. but I am astounded the new team at Vodafone think they can manage without him.

On the other side of the coin one independent service provider was not shedding any tears at Webbs departure.

There was once a time when Vodafone and its service providers were very close. When Webb joined he took all that away and pushed the SPs aside.

The majority of Vodafone SPs would say that close working relationship has gone. Now they see Vodafone as more of a competitor. In other words Vodafone has done a Cellnet. Im glad to see the back of him.

Wade Chester 23 filled out forms for 14 non-existent customers using stolen ID then kept the handsets for himself and his friends.

He cost his bosses 15876 in unpaid bills and missing handsets and also got hold of eight stolen credit cards.

Chester who has been offered a place at university studying financial management admitted a string of fraud and theft charges and asked for even more offenses to be taken into consideration.

He escaped a prison sentence at the Old Bailey and was given 220 hours community punishment and ordered to pay back 3000.

Judge Richard Hayward told him: You were in a position of trust but you embarked upon a course of dishonesty. This was a carefully planned and thoroughly dishonest enterprise. You could have no complaint at all if I passed an immediate custodial sentence.

The court heard that Chester who has no previous convictions had been working at the Liverpool Street branch of the chain for almost two years before his crime.

He was arrested after his bosses investigated the contracts he had worked on and police later found six stolen credit cards on him and at his east London home.

Helen Butcher defending said Chester had only started the fraud because his colleagues were doing the same thing and had not been caught. He was also deeply in debt and needed the money for day-to-day living expenses.

Chester of Ridgewell Road Canning Town admitted six counts of obtaining services by deception six of theft six of handling stolen goods and asked for 18 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Dass Solicitors announced the move at a VAT conference in Birmingham last week that it may seek judicial review of the policy.

Alias Dass of Dass Solicitors said: The closure of UK bank accounts is the next major problem for traders. If the banking problem isnt resolved then the industry will die. We have managed to get evidence that shows that there is some kind of policy to attack mobile phone and CPU traders.

Dass said the firm had obtained using the Freedom of Information Act confirmation of the existence of internal HMRC documentation which states that HMRC has put pressure on UK banks and used the threat of money laundering to make banks freeze traders accounts.

Dass Solicitors is also considering a civil conspiracy action against the banks.

The firm issued an action to challenge Customs for discriminating against exporters for judicial review on December 23.

In November and December 3 introduced massive changes to the price book. Commissions were slashed and the channel was left with an unsettled feeling said MoCo communications and operations director Harvey Alexander. We felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under us. Things had been getting better and better with 3 and then all of a sudden it changed in a downward direction.

MoCo switched its focus to T-Mobile which Alexander claims has a more consistent price package.

We read the tea leaves and started pushing T-Mobile. We went into the channel and got more T-Mobile dealers on board. The call centre had started to switch from business with 3 to T-Mobile.

According to Alexander the network had been offering the most consistent package over the past three months.

It dropped the price of the Sony Ericsson K608i by 60 in November he said. Over the past three months sales on T-Mobile contracts have risen by over 700 per cent.

Seemingly in response 3 last week lightened up on its stance on dealer commissions.

Now 3 is offering another 50 commission on the LG Muse. Its trying to win back some custom he said.

The company is expected to announce the strategy shift this week and the official launch of the product will be at next months 3GSM show in Barcelona.

As well as positional co-ordinates provided by the GPS satellite network the device will also include full-screen colour 3D maps and voice commands now familiar in many of the current navigation devices.

The news comes as Benefon is preparing for a share issue that it hopes will boost the companys coffers by about ¬13.5 million ( 9.2 million). In the companys most recent interim report published in November last year it revealed operating loss for the third quarter of 2005 was ¬1.6 million up from ¬746000 in the same period the year before.

The company said it hoped to shift 200000 units this year through distributor 20:20 with which it struck a deal in October last year.

It is understood that this months handset announcement is one of a number of such launches set to target both business and consumer customers.

The service called WePay pays pre-pay customers 5p per minute for calls and 2p per text they receive. Customers reclaim their credit when they purchase a new top-up voucher. Credit can be used to purchase any 3 services including music and TV. On top-up pre-pay customers have 30 days to accrue credit.

3 marketing director Graeme Oxby said that 3 wanted to give pre-pay customers a reason to port their number from rival networks a process that normally takes up to seven days.

Because the process can be slow only a fraction of people on pre-pay port their number when they get a new phone he said. Our new reward for picking up calls and texts makes it worthwhile for consumers to move their number.

3 UK sales director Marc Allera explained that the network is putting on a big marketing campaign on the launch on February 1 to drive home the message that it pays to be popular on 3.

We want to reward loyalty and stimulate use he said. There are six million mobile phone users out there with more than one pre-pay account and we want all of that usage on our network. Its a market-breaking proposition.

The network said that UK net service revenues grew by 12 per cent in the three months ending December 31 last year compared with 2004. UK customers increased by 895000 new connections taking the total UK customer base to 14.2 million. 12 month rolling churn fell to 27 per cent from 30 per cent in the same period the previous year.

O2 also revealed how its management structure would be affected by the takeover. Peter Erskine has been appointed as chairman and chief executive while Sir David Arculus has stepped down as chairman to become a non-executive director.

Telefonica general manager of coordination business development and synergies Julio Linares and executive chairman Cesar Alierta have also become non-executive directors.

David Chance Judy Gibbons Stephen Hodge Rudolf Lamprecht Patrick Lupo and Kathleen ODonovan have all stepped down as non-executive directors.

O2 was keen to stress to its channel partners that it was still committed to an indirect strategy. UK sales director Mark Stansfeld said: The overall pie is growing and the direct channel is only a part of that. We need all channels to be successful.

The e-mail read: 4.99 line rental per month for up to 12 months 30 thereafter 12-month contract. The ASA upheld a complaint that customers would actually have to pay 30 each month and then claim a redemption credited to their network.

The ASA ruled that the headline was likely to mislead as the redemption wasnt fully explained.

The ASA has also upheld a complaint over a T-Mobile press ad picturing a woman in a car.

The body ruled that the ad was irresponsible as it could encourage motorists to engage in other activities while driving.

The device which features a full QWERTY keyboard in a new sleek lightweight design will be available from T-Mobile from early February with a recommended retail price of 189.99.

However the handset will be available for just 79.99 on Relax 200 – an 18-month contract with 12 months half-price line rental.

In addition to standard BlackBerry functionality the BlackBerry 8700g was completely re-engineered to boost performance and features an Intel processor as well as 64 MB flash memory and 16 MB SRAM.

Maker Research in Motion (RIM) claims the improvements means the handset delivers faster Web browsing attachment viewing and applications. It also allows users to view common attachments such as PowerPoint Excel and Word.

The warning came following a series of disrupted handset shipments throughout the end of 2005 and a cancellation of major marketing events in Dubai following the death of the countrys ruler.

This was compounded by delay in the manufacture of its JAM PDA affecting markets world-wide.

The company said it had taken steps to meet the shortfall in supply for this handset by bringing forward the launch of the JAMIN due to commence shipment next month in most markets outside the US.

It said: The directors continue to expect to report significant year-on-year increased in revenue and profit for the year to March 2006. However the cumulative effect of the factors detailed above is expected to result in sales and profits for the year to March 2006 being lower than analysts expectations.

Former BT Cellnet manager and i-mate founder Jim Morrison was set to become a multi-millionaire when the mobile phone developer he created four years ago floated in London late last year.

I-mate supplies own-brand handsets for a number of UK networks including Orange O2 and Vodafone.