College student John Bogle (19) was bailed to appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on May 4.

His bail conditions include staying away from the Edgware Road in Paddington London – the scene of the alleged robbery.

Cellcom had sought to overturn Oftel director general David Edmonds ruling that Orange and One 2 One could bypass independent SPs if they wanted to.

The Judge Mr Justice Lightman said Edmonds only had to make sure telecoms services were available to meet demand in general.

These services are available from Vodafone and Cellnet. There is no suggestion that Vodafone and Cellnet do not have ample airtime to meet demands. There is no obligation on the part of the (Oftel) director general to maintain or make available to the Applicants the telecommunication services also of MPCL and Orange.

Commenting on the outcome of the case Cellcom chief executive Paul Cohen said:

We are grateful that Mr Justice Lightman has clarified the position as regards the continuity of supply of airtime services to independent service providers in the future. To maximise competition and choice for our customers it is desirable that we obtain airtime from all the networks.

Whilst this may not be possible mobile number portability will allow all mobile users to obtain our services irrespective of the network that is supplying us at the time.

Oftel director general David Edmonds said he warmly welcomed the judges ruling.

I am committed to promoting competition in the mobile sector and safeguarding the interests on consumers. We believe our licence amendments furthered this aim and were a step towards removing unnecessary regulation. The Judge agreed we were acting within our powers.

The licence modifications which removed the obligations on Orange and One 2 One to provide airtime to service providers was aimed at giving the two networks more freedom in choosing how to mar-ket their products and compete effectively.

The network says it also has the fastest growth in customer usage up by just under 20 per cent from 96 minutes per month to 114 minutes over the last year.

Increased annual revenue per customer is 2.5 per cent up from 376 to 385 on the comparable half-year period last year.

Market share is claimed to be up from 14 per cent of net new connections last quarter of April to June 1998 to 27 per cent the last quarter of July to September 1998.

Churn has reduced from 31.6 per cent to 28.5 per cent on the same comparable half-year period last year. Turnover increased by 104 million helped by 850000 people signing up to the First scheme.

Around 65 per cent of all connections go through Cellnet service provision division with BT handling the corporate sector and providing High Street presence. Vodafone posted a pre-tax profit increase of 476.9 million up 60 per cent for the six months to September 30.

All the networks are based in North America. These figures compare with 165 million UK text messages in just the first 24 hours of 2006.

According to Informa Telecoms and Media senior research analyst Kester Mann the continually glacial take-up of MMS is price. The average price of a 30K MMS message is $0.37 (21p). This is over four times the average global price of an SMS.

Mann said: Pricing is fundamental to the success of MMS. Subscribers are still unwilling to pay the comparatively higher tariffs for MMS – until the price ratio with SMS narrows traffic volumes will remain low.

Duarte will be responsible for strategy formulation and implementation responsibility for market research and analysis.

Formerly a partner in the Paris office of management consultancy Arthur D Little Duarte worked on business strategy issues in the telecoms industry.

The move comes just a month after the departure of 3 chief operating officer Gareth Jones who has yet to be replaced.

A 3 spokeswoman said that the network has yet to decide whether the role would be filled.

The service rewards new and existing dealers with an extra 10 towards their marketing fund for every new business connection they make – taking the total to 25 per connection. In addition Mainline is offering 5 marketing fund rewards on every B2B upgrade.

Included in its new Blueprint for Business menu is an option for dealers to convert part of their marketing fund into cash to be used as sales incentives for staff.

Coghill brought a private prosecution against the Welsh shop which sold him two phones. He claimed they should have been supplied with a health warning.

But magistrates at Abergavenny said he had failed to prove that mobile phones did not comply with Government-approved safety constraints.

Another two dealers have had their positions of Good Standing restored following successful appeals to the FCS Board.

The six banned dealers are Pankaj Pabari (Lexus Telecom 163 Green Street London) Anjad Mahood (Sunrise Communications 163 Killinghall Road Bradford) Mohammed Ateek Rashid (Talking Phones Communication Centre 233 Hollins Road Oldham) Gail West (Town & Country Trading t/a The Fone Factory The Green Guiseley) William Adcock (Direct Phones 2a Lady Lane Leeds) and John Newton (Elite Business Systems Mansfield 141 Nottingham Road Mansfield).

Elite Business Systems (Mansfield) has no connection with with Orange distributor Elite Business Systems in Northampton. Trading between the two companies stopped in May after Elite Business Systems (Mansfield) broke the terms of its license to use the EBS name.

Dealers restored to Good Standing are Christopher Edmund-White (Solent Cellular 170 Forest Road Liss Forest) and Zahoor Ghafoor Ahmed (Crystal Communications 322 Alfreton Road Nottingham).

From this month a Crime Prevention Scheme rule closes one major loophole that might enable dealers to escape its effects.

The Rules have been strengthened to now make it significantly more difficult for those not in Good Standing simply to carry on trading under another guise said James Malcolm manager of the Scheme.

A new clause now requires that the FCS Board be satisfied that any new person dealing in cellular phones from premises identified in a Notice of Breach of the Rules is not connected with the dealer (or any named individual) who is the subject of such notice.

Service providers and distributors must ensure that all new dealers proposing to trade at any address subject to a Notice of Breach apply to the FCS Board which must then be satisfied that no connection exists with the previous occupant. Provided this is so agreement will be given quickly.

New wording in the rules makes it more clear precautions must be taken and records kept for all phones in the possession of a dealer including those in for repair or other reasons said Malcolm.

He told Mobile News:

I wanted to leave. I had been there six years and had become very tired. They offered me something else and a few options but nothing I thought was suitable or challenging.

I needed a rest and time to recuperate. Im not doing anything in November and December except having a rest and getting fit. They (John and Brian Caudwell) have been incredibly professional and gentlemanly and Ive got nothing but good things to say about them.

A statement from the Caudwell Group Board added:

We are very grateful for the contribution John has made to the development of the distribution business during his time and wish him all the best in the future.

A trade source says Cellnet was given every opportunity to avoid this embarrassing failure but were unable or unwilling to complete.

Apparently DX sales managers have been told to terminate their Cellnet accounts and are receiving new Nokia kit direct from Orange.

DX spokesperson Paul Drury said:

DX policy is to offer an impartial service. When it came to reviewing the network that would provide our corporate communications DX asked a number of companies to quote for the business. It was Orange which came up with the best solution for the companys current needs. We are delighted to enter a deal with them that initially involves just 55 phones. To put it in perspective however DX last month connected more than 20000 new customers to all four networks. The relationship with Cellnet is as strong as ever.

Added Orange sales director Gareth Jones:

Orange has an improving relationship with DX Comms and as such it is natural that Orange will be part of their business portfolio because of the strength of our business offering.