We had been telling the networks for a long time we couldnt understand why they sold SIM-only packs as we suspected they caused crime said Carphone Warehouse chairman Charles Dunstone.

If you couldnt buy a SIM card there wouldnt be much point in stealing a phone. But blacklisting phones is never going to stop criminals robbing shops.

The people who do armed robberies are not worried about IMEI chipping and exporting the phones they steal he said.

The IMEI blacklisting stops casual crime and playground theft. The fact that stolen phones are being blocked on all networks has filtered down to the thieves.

The people they sell the stolen phones to arent stupid and wont buy them anymore.

The Carphone Warehouses stance on crime was let down earlier this month by an embarrassing incident when some renegade staff agreed to buy stolen phones from a Sunday Mirror journalist posing as a customer.

The employees involved were immediately suspended.

(See full interview with Charles Dunstone P16).

The billionth subscriber was signed up during the second quarter of this year. The total at the end of June was 1.03 billion subscribers up 22.23 per cent from 846 million global users a year earlier.

Eastern Europe was the fastest-growing market. Its annual growth of 62 per cent annual meant it achieved 59.78 million subscribers by the end of June.

The report said that four of the worlds six fastest-growing markets are all in eastern Europe. These are Russia Ukraine Bulgaria and Lithuania. Russia saw more than 100 per cent growth and it is now both the largest market and one of the fastest-growing in the region.

For sheer numbers the strongest growth is in Asia-Pacific and China.

The Asia-Pacific market had 379.94 million subscribers at the end of June of which 176.17 million were in China.

The country added nearly 15 million users in the second quarter while annual growth was more than 40 per cent. Penetration is still only around 15 per cent.

Over the first six months of the year China added more than 31 million subscribers equivalent to more than 60 per cent of the Asia-Pacific regions total net additions and almost 35 per cent of total global net additions. Three of the worlds five largest markets by net additions are China Japan and Thailand.

Western Europe had 290.35 million customers at the end of June but had lost ground to Asia-Pacific over the previous 18 months.

At the end of 2000 western Europe was the largest market in the world with 243.61 million subscribers compared with 236.8 million in Asia. By the end of June 2001 Asia had taken the lead and the difference has now grown to almost 90 million users.

Mohammed Abdi Yasin of Caroline Street Hammersmith pleaded guilty to obtaining two Nokia 8310 phones by deception from Orange Shops in the Hammersmith and

Victoria areas of London.

The court heard that Yasin successfully bought two phones from the Hammersmith store on June 3 but he was caught when he tried to buy a further two in the Victoria Orange Shop later that day.

An Orange Shop assistant queried the stolen credit card and called the police. Yasin was arrested and the two Nokia phones he had already bought were found by police after they searched his house.

Yasins defence lawyer told the court that Yasin hadnt stolen the credit card but had been given it by a person who was probably involved in organised crime. Yasin had been instructed to buy handsets in return for a small amount of drugs.

His defence lawyer said Yasin had a drug habit but it was only a slight problem.

Cellstar UK managing director David Aitken confirmed that there had been no formal offers made for the company as yet.

No buyer has been found for the company and an orderly wind-down is taking place. We will continue to trade for at least another few months. No closure date has been determined yet.

The news comes as Vodafone appointed Fone Logistics to take over Cellstars UK Distribution Agreement. The agreement took effect from the beginning of this month.

Fone Logistics will take possession of Cellstars Vodafone dealer base which joins its expanding dealer network.

CellStars US parent company decided to shut its UK Argentina and Peru distribution businesses in June due to heavy losses (Mobile News June 10). CellStar will now focus on Asia Mexico and the US.

Cellstars UK division went into the red due to falling margins and bad debts totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from defunct companies such as Odyssey and The WAP store. Cellstar executives also admitted that Cellstar had not been profitable in the UK because it couldnt compete with UK-based distribution companies.

One-Tel which buys airtime from Vodafone is a subsidiary of the Centrica group which includes the AA British Gas and Goldfish.

The new network says it will instead look to off-the-page and sales to existing Centrica group customers.

We will concentrate on off-the-page selling for the most part and our relationships with existing Centrica customers for future sales. We used off-the-page with One-Tel to build up a strong membership of about 850000 customers.

With the Centrica database we have access to two-thirds of the UK population Hendey says.

The company has already been contacted by a number of retailers looking for partnerships but no agreements have been struck.

Hendey insists the company will not set up retail stores of its own.

Being part of the Centrica group will allow it to target customers of other groups as well as offer incentives to existing group customers.

Another benefit One-Tel can offer is that we can reroute mobile customers through fixed lines so that we can offer international calls on mobiles and fixed lines at the same price.

We now have fixed-line narrowband broadband and mobile services so if we want to we can bundle a whole range of incentives such as voice and internet together. But this is for the future.

We are being told that consumers arent that interested in mobile data packages.

The new MVNO will be handling billing and other customer services itself. With one of the lowest line rentals it seems to be targeting the same pre-pay and low-spend contract user that makes up Virgin Mobiles 1.75-million customer base.

A lot of people are saying that we are going after the Virgin market but we are not just going for its customers.

We did a lot of market research and found that a lot of consumers dont understand what they are paying for.

There is a fair amount of confusion out there. We are targeting any consumer who has used pre-pay and is unhappy with the scheme but doesnt feel comfortable with the high cost of line rentals that the networks offer.

We are also looking at the contract customer who is unhappy with the high tariffs.

Hendey rejects any suggestion that the One-Tel name is too weak to make any impact in the market:

One-Tel is a very powerful brand name. We have a 40 per cent national awareness and considering most of our advertising has been done in the south this is very high. We are still in the process of rolling out the brand Hendey adds.

The deal between Vodafone UK and Centrica-owned One-Tel is essentially a new-style of distribution for Vodafone where One-Tel is using the Vodafone network to provide the service. As host operator Vodafone is not providing any services. One-Tel will provide services such as customer support.

It is the first such agreement for Vodafone UK in a post-pay environment.

Rival MVNO Virgin Mobile issued a press statement warning people to do their sums before choosing to go with One-Tel.

Customers on the One-Tel tariff will pay nearly 5 a month before even making a call. Virgin Mobile has no contract to sign. One-Tel says in its advertising being fleeced by your mobile deal? Maybe it should ask itself the same question said the Virgin statement.

Elizabeth France currently the Information Commissioner for the UK will join the new Telecommunications Ombudsman Service in October.

This will be a resolution service covering disputes between fixed and mobile telephone providers and their customers.

It will also cover associated services such as voicemail and call forwarding.

Financial controller Peter Scheldt said Fonekit is restructurin to boost its expansion plans.

The parent company is remortgaging the buildings so that we move from fascias and to more sophisticated technologies. We may have people chasing us for money. That is the same for any business in the country.

Its assets were subsequently bought by Far East accessory firm Acson as a going concern.

An application to take the company into liquidation was made in March by creditor Equator (AG) for 83412. The courts granted the order and subsequently the company went into liquidation.

It is now understood that the liquidated company doesnt have any valuable assets and that it is unlikely that any of the unsecured creditors will get any dividends.

Should any assets become available then dividends will be paid to Oras 164 creditors.

The insolvency agency now has to carry out an investigation into the trading of Ora. This includes checking to see that accounts and records were properly maintained. After that the agency will apply to the Secretary of State to release it as liquidators.

Acson has a relatively low profile in the UK in the three years it has been established here. It was set up as a subsidiary of the Singapore-based holding company which has been going for nine years.

Acson has two factories in Singapore and a retail chain of 50 stores throughout Asia.

Over 2500 respondents interviewed. Respondents were aged 18-45 BC1 reflecting a range of attitude and aptitude relating to the use of wireless communications technology

The 200000 Detica research project which costs 395 to buy was undertaken with consumers over 12 months. It included mock-up applications for the financial services entertainment and travel sectors using demonstration 3G devices.

Over 77 per cent of those surveyed found the individual services either appealing or highly appealing. More than 70 per cent claim that they are likely to use similar services when they become generally

The research shows consumers are willing to ditch existing relationships if their preferred brands do not offer 3G services.

In the case of Financial Services 82 per cent of people polled said they expected these services to be offered by their bank.

After companies were burned by the failure of WAP to achieve widespread adoption many are playing a waiting game to watch what happens to those who go first with 3G said Detica head of research Jeremy Braune.

Barriers to 3G adoption concerning 3G devices themselves. Users are concerned with worries cost battery capacity handset fragility speed security the user interface.

Consumers were concerned that when buying services they could not feel sure that their instructions had been received or actioned appropriately.

The key to maximising acquisition and retention will be to adopt a similarly segment-specific approach to the development of individual services and the sales marketing and support infrastructures that underpin them.

A one size fits all approach will not be capable of maximising market potential said Braune.

In Germany 150000 people bought live! handsets while 60000 Italians connected to the service

We are on track to achieve our target of a million sales to customers by the end of March said Vodafone Group chief executive Chris Gent.