Eight brand managers have been recruited to work across geographic areas.

They will drive to shops in Siemens-branded Mini Coopers and will aim to improve ties with retailers and increase the recommendations of Siemens products. The team will provide dealers with support including in-store training and information on Siemens products.

The team is being run by national field manager Graham Bentley who recently moved to Siemens from Cityphone where he was national sales manager.

Rocom has been defending a 1 million clawback dispute over irregular connections through two of its former dealers because it alleges Orange employees authorised the deals.

The amount owed has slowly reduced to 500000 because Rocom connected handsets in stock.

Rocom chairman Bob Old lodged a counter-claim because he alleges that Orange employees are to blame for the situation.

The connections were mismanaged by Orange staff said Old. Orange has expressly denied this.

We have set out to prove there has been interference with the account. We have provided evidence to Orange which it has the right to investigate Old told Mobile News.

Orange sales head Stuart Henry said:

We are not walking away from Rocom.

We are adamant that it owes us a significant amount of money.

It is adamant that while it might owe it it does not think it is fair that it should pay it.

As well as normal public use the cab will also be used by The Carphone Warehouse for ferrying VIPs to and from the companys HQ

The 15-year-old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons had previous convictions for theft and attempted robbery.

Passing sentence Judge Linda Stern QC said:

These very serious offences of street robbery are an absolute plague.

The new swipe cards have been sent out to 400000 Virgin Mobile customers and will also shortly be available for T-Mobile pre-pay users.

The cards can be activated by store staff or the customer who dial 150 key in the card number and receive confirmation for top-up.

Said e-pay sales director Andrew Dellow: This means retailers will be able to convert all pre-pay customers currently buying vouchers over to electronic top-ups. The activation process takes only a matter of seconds and means customers can make use of their new e-top-up card immediately.

Margins are expected to be at or above 20 per cent reflecting good take-up of new products such as the 7650 imaging phone.

European demand picked up in July and August and Nokia is confident it will have achieved its estimate of 400 million handset sales by the end of this year.

Nokias infrastructure division Nokia Networks will not do so well. A decline in network capital expenditure on GSM means Nokias Q3 sales of infrastructure equipment will be down by around five per cent.

The new group which says it has attracted support from 100 dealers will focus purely on the interests of independent dealers who say they have felt increasingly marginalised.

Independent Dealer Group chairman Paul Hull said:

Independent dealers are facing a multitude of threats in the mobile marketplace and need to restate their value to the network operators which are both oursuppliers and our competitors said Hull.

Publicly the networks claim to be valuing the market contribution of the independent yet in the marketplace they are undercutting our ability to trade.

This is in turn pushing independents to resort to churn tactics to gain income which in the long term does not benefit anyone.

See White Lines.

The Earset is a clip-on accessory. Detachable and replaceable skins offer three designs and colours. It has a noise-concealing microphone and says Elite the sound quality is particularly crisp and clear.

The unit complies with the Bluetooth V1.1 standard. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery offering four hours of talktime and 72 hours standby. The Earset can operate up to 10 metres (from the host phone).

Autopower switches the unit off when it is inactive. There is automatic re-connection if the Bluetooth link is disrupted.

Other controls include a power button volume and two-colour LED indicator.

Said Elite marketing head Anique Grimbly:

We resisted the temptation simply to plunge in. Before we committed to the launch we insisted on the most exhaustive research and testing until we were satisfied that in the Earset we had a product that matches our established high quality design and manufacturing criteria.

The Earset is the first of a series of Bluetooth products well be launching over the next few months.

The service is available to any of Abbey Nationals 15 million customers who have an Orange Pay As You Go phone.

Top-ups are available in incremental 10 values up to 50 and will be applied to the phones in seconds.

The customer enters their PIN number selects the Mobile Top-Up option operator and value and types in their mobile phone number.

He replaces Bob Tomkis who returns to his position of analyst. Tomkis had taken the role of interim finance director stepping in after Ian Hodgson left the company in August this year.

Chandler was previously finance director at Equifax and has also worked for KPMG P&O European Ferries and brewery Marston Thompson & Evershed where he was group financial controller.

Steve brings considerable expertise and experience to the financial and business planning areas of our operation said Mainline managing director Andrew Boden.

I am confident he will be an exceptional addition to our team.