Huntingford 49 is CEO of Chrysalis Group which runs UK commercial radio group Chrysalis Radio and UK independent music publisher Chrysalis Music. The latter represents David Gray and Outkast among other artists.

Huntingford has been CEO since 2000 after spending a year as group managing director and five years as chief executive of the radio division.

Virgin Mobile chairman Charles Gurassa said: Richard brings top-level commercial experience and a strong financial background to the board of Virgin Mobile. We are delighted to appoint someone of his calibre as our fifth non-executive director.

FTI chairman Anthony Elliot-Square told Mobile News that the industry body had received more than 100 reports from traders that have been issued with a notice to close their accounts.

It started about 18 months ago when a number of our members started to receive 30 days notice from a range of high street banks to close down their accounts said Elliot-Square. There were no grounds given. A lot of them had substantial funds in their accounts and had been with the banks for a number of years. They were given this notice out of the blue.

Barclays Natwest and Bank Of Scotland have all closed accounts because they perceive the industry to be rife with fraud claimed traders.

One trader said: Only a few companies are still dealing with Barclays because it has this attitude towards the industry. I know that the Royal Bank Of Scotland and Natwest have also kicked a lot of traders out.

Last month Eurostar Group founder and managing director Peter Carnall was given 30 days notice by Bank Of Scotland Business Banking that it was closing the accounts of the Stoke groups distribution business Eurostar Telecom and its software business Eurostar Technologies.

Carnall said: Banks have a blanket policy of turning down and closing down small business accounts instead of reviewing each trader on a case-by-case basis.

Barclays said that it had no blanket policy towards the mobile phone trade in the light of carousel fraud. It said that it judges each customer on its merits and will close accounts in the event that it suspects fraudulent activity.

If we suspect someone of fraud then we have to be very careful because we are bound by regulatory standards said a Barclays spokesperson. But we havent imposed an overarching policy because of carousel fraud.

Natwest and Bank Of Scotland were unavailable for comment.

See feature page 28

Qualcomm is accused of violating European competition law by refusing to license patents it holds on 3G technology to competitors and over-charging on royalties for the licences it does issue.

Ericsson vice-president for IPR licensing and patent development Kasim Alflahi said: Qualcomm made commitments to standard-setting organisations that it would licence its technology on fair reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. In spite of this and in breach of competition law Qualcomm is charging excessive and disproportionate royalties. It means that consumers may have to pay more than they should for their handsets.

Qualcom has dismissed the complaints saying it granted more than 130 3G technology licences to companies including five of the six requesting an investigation.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said: It is not surprising that the reported allegations come largely from entrenched 2G suppliers that have the most to lose from the enhanced and expanded competition in 3G.

Palm president and CEO Ed Colligan said the company had neglected the European market up to now but the European smartphone market was at a tipping point and that Palm now had a local presence to better address the needs of networks and subscribers in the region.

The European market represents a huge opportunity that we have so far under-exploited said Colligan.

There is enormous penetration of standard phones but smartphones are just beginning to take off.

He added: The demand for wireless e-mail the deployment of 3G networks and the popularity of digital in general has changed the dynamic [of the market] and will drive our business.

Colligan claimed European operators had unique needs.

In the US they are out of sight and out of mind he said. There is always a trade-off of resources in a company. If [US network operator] Verizon wants to buy 150 million units and Orange wants to buy 50 million who will you go with? We now want to make the European market self-sufficient and to understand it better.

Colligan said the European market represented 380 million mobile subscribers who will with time tend to migrate towards higher-end devices. He added that of around 50 million mobile workers in Europe few use e-mail on their mobile devices. That alone represents a great opportunity he said.

The objective of the Dublin centre is to be able to quickly deploy Palm devices to operators and subscribers in the EMEA region. It will be responsible for developing core technologies such as 3G supporting operators certification processes and implementing radio technology and operator-specific services.

It is impossible to serve carriers without a local presence said Colligan. The end-user usage pattern in Europe is different from other parts of the world so we want to have a presence on the ground.

The Dublin R&D centre located north of the city at Swords is staffed by just seven engineers at present but Colligan said numbers would rise to 35 by the end of the year.

We will start with testing and certification and grow it into a broader development centre to build [devices] from scratch he said. It is a 10-year vision. Our vision is that handheld computing is the future of computers. In the future people will turn to these devices first.

We are focused on bringing complex computer programmes to small handheld devices. There is no logical reason why we shouldnt have the same success in this market as we have enjoyed in the US.

Micheal Martin Irelands minister for enterprise trade and employment said:

Palm represents an important addition to the emerging wireless sector in this country a key target area for IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency).

He added: This centre is to service the EMEA region so that Palm is close to operators in Europe. There is an inextricable link between research and the marketplace. The market has to inform the research and not the other way around.

Palms Microsoft OS-based Treo device is expected to ship in Q3 2006.

Hampshire police said that the Vertu Ascent handsets which had a retail value of 190000 were worth around 40000 to Nokia the manufacturer.

The handsets were destined for the Russian mobile phone market when they were intercepted and have Russian text printed on them.

Detective Sergeant Dave Storey said: These phones are distinctive. We need to know where these mobile phones are now.

I am appealing particularly to those people who may have heard from friends or associates about who has the handsets now or where they are being stored. Have you been offered them for sale? Do you know where they are being stored?

Police said that a member of the public called at 3pm on November 1 to report seeing two men in a blue 3-series BMW approach a white Volkswagen van on Cove Road holding what appeared to be a gun.

Police said the two men stopped the delivery truck and handcuffed and blindfolded the driver before driving both vehicles away.

Thames Valley Police then received an anonymous call from a public telephone in Sandhurst at 4:11pm telling them where the driver of the van was.

Both driver and van were found at Swan Valley Lakes in nearby Blackwater. Police said that the driver was unharmed but was shocked and frightened by the incident.

Someone made an anonymous call from a telephone kiosk near Albion Road in Sandhurst that Tuesday afternoon telling us where the driver and van had been left said Storey.

If you saw anyone acting suspiciously last Tuesday either around that telephone kiosk in Sandhurst or at Swan Valley Lakes in Blackwater please contact us.

Anyone with information relating to the hijacking can contact the Operation Tamarillo team in Aldershot CID on 0845 045 4545 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The J220 J230 and Z300 are all models with basic functionality. None of them features a camera for instance.

These phones are all relatively low down on the portfolio said Sony Ericsson vice-president of product marketing Steve Walker.

But theres still a market where less is more he added.

Walker explained that the phones which he insists still hold true to the companys commitment to fashionable design and good build were not targeted at any particular customer demographic.

Walker brushed aside fears that higher-end devotees will be discouraged by the brands more mass-market strategy.

With these handsets weve tried to show a stronger link to the higher-end of the market. Its very important to be well-represented in all markets.

Mark Ryan chief executive of 20:20 Distribution; Tim Whiting group managing director of Phones 4U and Mark Ormerod group managing director of Dextra Solutions and 4U spoke to Mobile News in the wake of chairman John Caudwells announcement of his intention to sell the group.

Caudwell has made it known that he prefers to sell to a private equity company rather than a rival industry player. Apax Apollo Blackstone Carlyle and Permira have all been put into the frame as possible bidders for the group.

John has said he wants to sell the business as a single entity to a private equity firm. This is positive because it will be looking for the biggest return on its investment so it wont want to alter the structure of what is already a very profitable successful company said Ryan.

They say equity companies buy people and I definitely believe the strength of management is one of the key aspects that makes the Caudwell Group such an attractive buy. The term management buy-out is always a strange one but I know that myself Tim and Mark will be fully involved and locked into the sale.

Whiting added: As far as a management buyout is concerned the process was undergoing and was being tracked off. What is most likely is that a venture capitalist will be interested and the management team will be of value to it.

All the group MDs will be fully involved in the sale process with John said Ormerod. I look forward to continuing to build the group both in the UK and abroad now and in the future.

All three believe that even with a new owner the Caudwell culture will remain long into the future.

Anyone seriously interested in buying this business would need to understand the culture John has created because thats the key to success said Ryan.

Im not concerned that a new buyer will have a huge impact on the corporate culture added

Whiting.

Its the strength and depth in the management here thats resulted in tremendous performance. Any organisation looking to buy the group would look at the performance of the group and the value of the entire management team.

See interview page 10

JAG managing director John George revealed that he would know by today (November 18) whether or not a deal for the stores could be completed. JAG is already supplying stock and promotional material to a dozen KJC outlets.

George said: We are trying to do a deal for between 10 and 15 stores but we are dealing with administrators and unhappy landlords so it is unclear at the moment when it will go through. I hope to make an announcement on Friday.

He added: The sites we are interested in are not necessarily the best-performing ones in the big towns. They are located in smaller towns and have no crossover with our own footprint. But they are active stores with staff. We want to take over the stores and re-employ the same staff.

KJC went into administration in April. It has 29 stores though four of those have closed down in the last few months. KJC parent company Calipso Communications was unavailable for comment.

JAG has 71 retail outlets at present. It acquired the Communications Centre retail chain in June and southwest rival West Talk in May last year.

Meanwhile Paignton-based dealership Intek has taken over a KJC store in St Austell Cornwall taking its total number of stores to 25.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: We are continuing with organic growth. We are not in direct negotiations with KJC. We will look at the sites when the landlords start to market them.

Intek is currently negotiating five other leases in the South West with a view of opening up stores in the next few months.

Nokia UK group business director of multimedia Andrew Connell said: We are expanding our channel model not breaking it. We have a trial under way at Jessops which will stock the N70 N80 and N90. We will look at the results in January. The fact that they are being sold on contract makes them much more affordable.

Connell added: We are in discussions with high street music stores now. If you look at where the Apple iPod was stocked last year most of the mobile phone retailers had it because of the margin available on it. The N91 holds 3000 tracks and it has better sound quality than the iPod.

Nokia is looking to bundle the N91 with high quality headsets and speaker systems from the likes of Sennheiser and JBC next year.

Music will be our second focus said Connell then smart applications such as consumer e-mail. So we will also look to stock Nokia devices in computer outlets.

The adjudication follows a similar complaint brought by O2 over Vodafones claim for call success rate superiority in September (see Mobile News issue 350).

The ad headlined The best call success rate ever cited figures from an Oftel report spanning April to September 2003 which showed O2 had a call success rate of 99.2 per cent. The ad featured a birds eye-view of a city with high-rise buildings signifying full signal bars.

The complainants claimed that the data was not comparative that the data was out of date and that the ad was misleading by implying that the figures had been officially published by Oftel.

While the ASA granted that O2 had used data that was independent and comparative and did not think that the imagery used implied that O2 had a stronger signal than that of other operators it objected to the age of the data noting that other operators could claim even better success rates using the same methodology more recently.

The ASA concluded that superiority claims on call success rates can be misleading because the methods of measurement are not precise enough to justify an unquestionable claim.