Solicitor Ravinder Saimbhi told the court that Elizabeth Murphy had not set out to steal the phone but had simply signed for it while visiting her co-defendants home .

Murphy 44 of Endell Street Covent Garden London and Olugbe Akinade 50 of Sutherland Court Marylands Road in Maida Vale west London – both recovering addicts who are unemployed – pleaded guilty to stealing the 150 Nokia handset belonging to Edwin Henry on December 7 last year.

Akinade also admitted failing to attend bail at Marylebone police station on December 14.

The accused were remanded until January 11 for reports on bail with a condition that they attend any appointments as directed by the Westminster Drugs Project.

The new dates are January 19 in Solihull and January 20 in Bristol. Sixty dealers attended events in Birmingham London and Newcastle in December.

Sessions focus on driving B2B connections and increasing revenue by developing strategic partnerships through networking. Dealers are also offered information on products and services that would appeal to new business customers.

Former delegate Direct Telecoms director Jim Rock said: Although our sales team all possess varying levels of experience and industry knowledge they all benefited from different aspects of the day.

The research conducted by International Marketing Partners for technology solutions provider GMI surveyed the responses of over 17500 consumers around the world.

These covered 15 leading consumer electronics brands including Apple Canon Casio Dell Hitachi Hewlett-Packard Microsoft Nokia Panasonic Philips Pioneer Sanyo Sharp Sony and Toshiba. Nokia was the only pure phone brand surveyed in the research.

The results were announced at this years Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas last week.

Called Brandbarometer the research found that consumers across the world judged Nokia to be innovative friendly and engaging. The company also scored highly for being customer-focused and for being most responsive and empathetic.

Sony and Nokia were seen as the two most reliable brands on the list. In contrast Sanyo was perceived as stagnant dull insignificant and weak.

Nokia put the trust the respondents have in the brand down to consistency and managing expectations in the technology.

This result is based on the consistency of how we see the brand said Nokia UK director of communications Mark Squires.

We keep expectations of the brand on a manageable level. For instance we chose to modify our browser slightly over time. That does not always happen. Its a journey all good manufacturers take with their customers.

Tracks are categorised so listeners will get tracks they like based on their previous preferences. They will also get the opportunity to buy and download songs.

The service will be launched in the UK France Germany Italy Portugal and Spain in the coming months. It will be rolled out to 20 more countries over the year.

Vodafone director of consumer platforms Lee Fenton said: This partnership with Sony will drive Vodafones strategy to become a leading global music provider.

Xchange is designed for Elites dealer community to save points over a longer period than is usually allowed by other incentives. Prizes on offer include a Bose Digital home cinema sound entertainment system or a cage dive encounter with a great white shark.

Elite director of sales and marketing Barry Nash said: We are in it for 2006 to lock in and reward for loyalty. Rather than the usual three- or four-month burst we are running the scheme over a longer period because we dont want to disadvantage smaller customers.

Last September around 400 O2 customers were given a Nokia 7710 with a digital receiver that can pick up signals within a 120km radius of Oxford. Participants in the trial receive 16 TV channels covering music sport news comedy soaps documentary drama cartoons and niche interests.

Arqiva (formerly NTL Broadcast) and Nokia are also involved in the trial. The service is based on the DVB-H transmission standard.

O2 vice president of research and development Mike Short admitted: We were a little surprised at the interest shown in viewing mobile TV in the home. The initial results show that the viewing interest is of the order of three hours per week. He attributed the interest to a number of causes. First some of the channels are not available on terrestrial TV; second mobile TV is treated as a second receiver and because its mobile it can be watched in whichever room users choose.

We are pleased with both the home use and the level of use he added. The trial has not ended yet but we are encouraged so far and can see its scope going forward. But the spectrum rights and the content rights have to be sorted out before it can take off. The regulators have to move because a decision regarding spectrum needs to be made.

O2 will make public the interim results of its mobile TV trial in Oxford tomorrow (Tuesday).

It hopes CPWs 635 stores will help it double the number of ribbons sold last year to two million.

The issue can only be addressed through communication said chairman Charles Dunstone.

The channel will be split into three new tiers – Premier Certified and Registered – each determining the level of support given to members.

Mark Bond Vodafone enterprise marketing director said that existing BCC members would automatically rank highly in the grading structure.

We in no way want our existing BCCs to think this will take the gloss off being a BCC member he said. There will still be strict criteria that will determine which tier each applicant will go into.

Existing BCC members will automatically qualify for one of the top two tiers he said depending on their volume of business. New partners for example IT and voice sellers will go in the bottom tier he added.

Bond stressed that BCC members will still get all the perks theyve previously enjoyed. We will be visiting all of our BCC members personally to go through the changes he promised.

The new channel strategy launched yesterday.

However more than 400 people who attended a Vodafone channel event on Wednesday last week were invited to sign up early.

So far we have had about 250 people sign up so initial feedback is very promising. This service will run alongside the BCC club until March next year at which point the BCC will no longer exist so members have quite a while to switch over.

The channel restructure will see the introduction of a new online portal containing marketing collateral as well as product service and sales information. There will be dedicated sales and marketing support from Vodafone as well as structured training based on the individual needs of each channel partner.

Like-for-like sales were down 28 per cent compared with the same period last year. Total sales were down 21 per cent.

Like-for-like sales includes handset subsidies and the hardware costs on 3 handsets have gone down by a significant amount said Wood. But subsidies have changed year-on-year.

Meanwhile former Orange marketing director of pay monthly David Bugg has joined The Link as commercial director.

The network confirmed that its first franchise-owned store is due to open in Rotherham. However at the launch of the programme O2 UK sales director Mark Stansfeld forecast that the network would have around five franchises running by the end of the year.

O2 head of retail Dean Sykes admitted that this is now unlikely but said he was hopeful for more franchises early next year.

Weve set ambitious targets all along the way he said. We will always want more open than we have but its crucial to get everything right with the first ones.