The deal represents the business voice and data communications consultancys 15th acquisition since its formation in 2000.

Azzurri CEO Martin St Quinton commented: MiTech is our second acquisition in as many months. The company will be fully integrated into the Azzurri Group during the next 90 days. This acquisition puts Azzurri in a very strong position from which to consider our strategic options moving into 2006.

MiTech has an annual turnover of 20 million and employs 135 staff. Its management team will remain intact following the completion of the deal. Azzurri has an annual turnover of around 120 million.

But Vodafone added more than 587000 net new customers more than 2.5 times the 206000 achieved in the equivalent quarter of 1998 and over 10 times in the comparable period of 1997. Pay As You Talk grew by more than 654000 in the quarter taking the total PAYT base from over 1846000 to more than 2501000.

BTCellnet came in second as usual with 501000 new customers split by 360000 pre-pay connections and 141000 contract tariffs.

BTCellnet has now broken the five million customer barrier with a total base of more than 5.02 million users and claims to have the fastest-growing pre-pay customer base of 1.3 million U and Easylife users.

Orange put on 430000 net customers making 800000 new users this year. Oranges customer growth is more than three times faster than 1998 and it now has 2962000 customers more than double the level of one year ago.

Around 44 per cent of Q2 growth was on contract tariffs. The total Orange contract base stood at 1989000 at the end of June with a further 973000 pre-pay customers. Overall churn was 18 per cent for the twelve months to the end of June 1999 including churn on the contract base of 22.5 per cent. Churn on the Just Talk pre-pay base stood at 7.8 per cent

One 2 One put on 401000 net new customers giving it a total customer base of 2650000. Pre-pay customers accounted for 70 per cent on the net growth with a base of 1230000 new pre-pay users accounting for 46 per cent of the total base.

Manchester United and Vodafone announced the termination of their shirt sponsorship last week effective from May 2006.

LG Mobile did not rule out the possibility of a link.

LG Mobile marketing manager John Bernard said: We are talking to a number of Premiership football clubs at this time but cant say whether Manchester United is one.

LG Mobile has held shirt sponsorship talks with Fulham Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool as well as Manchester United. However it is understood that LG Mobile is unwilling to match the 9 million yearly fee paid by Vodafone and as reported last issue is most likely to strike a deal with Fulham.

Nokia meanwhile counted itself out of football sponsorship altogether preferring to focus on music. In May sponsorship hopeful Chelsea pulled out of a shirt deal with Nokia at the last minute instead signing with rival manufacturer Samsung.

Nokia UK marketing manager Simon Lloyd said: We are definitely not interested. I can say categorically that we are not in talks with Manchester United. We have made the decision post Chelsea that we are not going to look at football. Weve got a big year next year. Our main focus now is music.

O2 is thought unlikely to sponsor Manchester United because of its continuing commercial relationship with north London rival Arsenal as well as its new sponsorship of The O2 formerly the Millennium Dome in south-east London.

Despite losing its Arsenal shirt sponsorship to airline Emirates from next season O2 recently re-signed a content deal with Arsenal that runs until 2009. The O2 brand will also continue to appear inside the Arsenal stadium.

An O2 spokesman said: We are happy with our current sponsorship portfolio. We recently signed an agreement with Arsenal to extend our existing relationship as exclusive mobile content partner.

Vodafone becomes official partner and the official mobile network of the UEFA Champions League from July 1.

Rupert George James (34) is charged with murdering Dean Samuels (26) by stabbing him several times in the neck.

James appeared briefly last Thursday for a plea and directions hearing in the court.

Vodafone pre-pay customers will be issued with a swipe card.

Customers will then be able to have the top-up automatically credited to their phone using e-pays electronic system.

Sony Cellular Services is a acilities-managed airtime provider with all its billing handled under contract by Martin Dawes elecommunications which is now known as the BTCellnet-owned service provider Lumina.

It is likely the sale has been prompted by the termination of the contract by BTCellnet to manage Sonys customers.

Most of the staff that actually run the facilities-managed service will probably be returning to Lumina and BTCellnet.

Parkway will begin trading in September connecting small businesses through Vodafone Connect.

Theres a great lack of service within the Small Medium Enterprise community in the North West. This accounts for an awful lot of churn.

We believe we can provide that service within the five to 100 handset bracket and our inclusion in the Vodafone Ahead for Business programme. I cant say much more as I dont want to tell you competitors what were doing before we do it said Maddocks.

Maddocks joined Vanguard more than six years ago as financial director. He was appointed managing director in June 1998.

Sendo was set up last year by ex-Philips Consumer Communications manager Hugh Brogan with backing from Hong Kong company CCT. Brogan was heavily involved in the development of the Philips Genie.

Brogan has 15 years of experience in mobile telephony with Motorola and Philips in manufacturing sales product development and general management.

Chief operating officer is Howard Lewis who spent 13 years with Uniden Philips and Motorola in development product management marketing and sales and general management.

Director of industrial operations is Kevin Walsh who has 10 years of manufacturing experience with Motorola and Philips not only in the UK but also in Germany USA France Singapore and China.

Sendo is not connected (Cont P2) with similarly-named Sensei which was also set up by ex-Philips engineers to build phones to network specifications.

Virgin Mobile plans initially to introduce two Sendo phones to its range this autumn. They will be marketed as Virgin Mobile own-brand phones and carry features that have been especially incorporated to Virgins specification.

Other products and services are being developed for the future. The phones will also carry the Sendo logo.

The Sendo team is young fast innovative and dynamic yet collectively has decades of experience in the mobile phone industry. In a business where speed to market and technological leadership define the success of a company these are essential characteristics said Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson.

Sendo has operations in the United Kingdom Hong Kong and The Netherlands with manufacturing in China. The company will initially focus on GSM-based products for Europe and Asia with future expansion into the United States.

Sendo says its mobile phones are among the lightest and smallest phones available.

The company was set up to offer a complete custom program for networks from exclusively branded phones matched fulfilment programs and bespoke software with dedicated services.

It will have 200 employees by the end of this year. The company employs British French American Finnish Spanish German Chinese and Dutch specialists.

Sendos Asia Pacific Operations Centre is based in Hong Kong and its first phones will be manufactured in a new $35m manufacturing plant in Guangdong in China.

The plant is equipped with manufacturing technology specified by Sendo.

Sendos European centre is based in The Netherlands.

*In another development Virgin Mobile has been giving mobile shoppers the chance try out a Siemens phone for free before deciding to buy.

The scheme is called Trial and Dial and was introduced by Virgin Mobile at last weekends V2000 music festival at Hylands Park Chelmsford where Virgin Mobile was co-headline sponsor.

Festival-goers were given the chance to road-test a brand-new Siemens C35i handset on site free of charge by registering their credit card details with Virgin Mobile .

People were able to try the phone for the entire weekend and were given 20 worth of free calls and SMS text messaging. Those who liked the 120 phone were able to take it home with them. The cost of the handset and 12.50 service pack was charged to their card.

Virgin Mobile says it may offer the service into the High Street.

Jones was responding to mounting protests from Orange dealers who allege that Orange staff are intercepting requests for connections and upgrades and hijacking dealers orders by offering discounts and equipment prices dealers are unable to match.

In the face of more criticism of Orange by its dealers Jones said:

Mobile News has already published my view (July 24) and it has not changed. I have a long standing personal relationship with many Orange dealers which I would not allow to be jeopardised in such a way. I have given an undertaking that any specific complaint sent directly to me will be investigated and I will reply personally to every one. However I think the most important point to make is this: we are connecting half a million customers per month. The vast majority of Orange (Cont P2) connections come through Orange dealers.

Undermining them in the way they describe does not make business sense for us said Jones.

Our dealers are a crucial part of the Orange success story and we will continue to provide them with the resources and back-up they need.

Meanwhile one dealer Michael Malaspina from The Mobile Phone Shop in Scunthorpe says he is quitting the business after claiming he lost an order to sell 100 phones to Shell after Orange Direct became involved.

I believed I had closed the deal. I got the usual story from Orange namely that Shell had to fax over a purchase order to make the order legal. As soon as Orange received that official order they went direct to Shell offering all kinds of inducements for them to place their business direct including free car kits. I lost the business.

Ive decided to leave the industry because I am fighting a losing battle. There have been other cases. But Orange Directs poaching of the Shell account is by far the most blatant. Things that have happened before then could arguably have been down to coincidence But not this asserts Malaspina.

Theres no way that Orange Direct coincidentally cold-called Shell about this deal minutes after I faxed the order through. Someone from Orange Direct was hovering by the fax machine when I faxed the purchase order through to be processed by the connection staff. It all happened so quickly says Malaspina.

Nigel Guppy of Stirling Communications in Portsmouth said:

The thing that really got my back up over all this and made me speak out is Gareth Jones saying in the second Mobile News story of July 24 that he categorically denied any orchestrated poaching was going on. It is an organised campaign never mind what Jones says about theres bound to be some cross-over.

We are constantly being told that the dealer community is valuable to them especially as the business becomes more and more data oriented.

The way they are carrying on they soon just wont have any dealers to work with when they really need them. I would never have approached Mobile News if it was not for Gareth Jones denying that they were trying to actually hit and specifically targeting dealers business. I have proof that they are said Guppy.

Gary Saunders of Churchill Office Solutions in Edrington says he has had first-hand experience of the problem.

I had a situation where I was ringing on behalf of another of my customers on a query and the person on the Orange help desk then started to offer an upgrade at a lower price than I could do as a dealer. I told them I was the dealer and again they went silent.These instances have been occurring for at least over a year.

There are Business Teams and Customer Service Teams who can offer transactions that the dealer cannot match without making a loss.

Logically this means that this is authorised and agreed internally by Orange management.

It undermines credibility and goodwill between Orange dealer and customer and is not good business practice. Especially when it may have taken years to build customer rapport over the years.

It would be possible to introduce internal computer systems at Orange based on dealer codes which would flag when business was already being done through a dealer. Also true dealer support could be offered when required by their dealer through Orange.

Saunders is also less than impressed with Orange Customer Services. He claims he waited on the line 92 minutes with the customer in the shop.

When we got through we were told we had to ring back because the system was down .

All 10000 remaining analogue customers will be offered digital upgrades.