Live Telecoms is moving to a new office and warehouse base on the same trading estate in Great Shelford this month. The new warehouse has twice the storage capacity of its present site but Live Telecoms purchasing manager Simon Warren said the companys headcount had reduced.

Warren said 90 per cent of Live Telecoms staff were on annual leave this
month.

He said: We are moving this month because August is always quiet. There is never a good time to move in terms of business but trade is quiet at the moment and 90 per cent of staff have taken holiday this month. We are running our stock holding down ahead of the move and then we will build it
up again.

Sources claimed last week that Live Telecom was restructuring its finances. Warren responded: Business is good and we are moving in order to be able to do more business.

The central London outlet shut earlier this year. Nokia UK managing director Simon Ainslie said last week the new store opening will be attended by a series of smaller regional outlets. Nokia has 18 stores in the UK at present.

Ainslie said: The point of our flagship stores is to treat customers as guests and to give them a complete multimedia experience.

These are all branding exercises rather than sales exercises; so customers understand the design and functionality of Nokia products. The concept stores will perform the same function on a smaller scale in regional areas.

Ainslie said the Nokia outlets were not sales environments and devices would carry higher price tags than in traditional retailers.

Staff will be target driven on a customer experience; there will be no sales targets whatsoever. As soon as you start connecting salaries to sales you drive a behaviour thats different and that¹s not what we¹re after explained Ainslie.

The short-term loans are available to staff while they wait for insurance payouts.

Vodafone evacuated 2500 staff on 20 July after its Newbury headquarters flooded. As a result the group has offered to reimburse staff for out of pocket expenses incurred while trying to get home on that date.

Vodafone head of policy and reward Alan Thomas said: We take the welfare of our employees very seriously and recognise that some employees may have been unable to get home or indeed may have made it home to a distressing scene.

We hope that this support will go some way to helping employees who may need to bridge the gap while insurance assessments are done.

O₂ will be provided with over 300 pieces of content including video clips wallpapers and ringtones from popular BBC programmes such as The Office Doctor Who and Little Britain.

BBC Worldwide already has similar deals in place with Orange and 3 but it is the first one complied by Phil Mercier the newly appointed head of mobile at BBC Worldwide.

O₂ UK head of strategic content partners Grahame Riddell said: The programme brands that BBC Worldwide can bring on board are exactly what our customers are looking for well recognised and compelling.

Were constantly looking for quality new content that will appeal to our customers and this deal paves the way for access to the wealth of material available from the BBC in a range of different and innovative formats.

The network is keen to gain broader access to the non-specialist market and supply management business Comment offers a configuration customisation and service solution to retailers such as Woolworths WHSmith Littlewoods and Sainsburys.

Comment has similar deals with LG Sagem and Alcatel.

Comment managing director Michael Richardson said: Our aim is to help Sony Ericsson develop direct relationships with major retailers.

The Lancashire-based firm has teamed up with Vodafone to offer contracts of up to two years with optional handsets. Resellers can offer as much as 17.5 per cent discount against Vodafone retail prices. They will also be given marketing assistance and the opportunity to brand the offering under their own business name.

Resellers will receive up-front commission and retention bonuses for customers who then reconnect. Daisy is also negotiating a proposition with T-Mobile.

The distributor increased its focus on business connections last year in response to network demands of the dealer channel. This year it has introduced measures like network business specialists and a dedicated business team to support the initiative.

Dextra airtime sales director Angie Simpson said: We really started to focus more on B2B connections last year and now have a lot of building blocks in place to develop the offer. We had a blank canvas in B2B and the opportunity to do things well.

Simpson added the introduction of O2 and Orange business specialists would give essential knowledge and training to independent dealers.

B2B can seem like a minefield but knowledge is the ultimate sales tool she said. We introduced a dedicated internal business team with account management and sales and data support. The support team play a massive part in what the dealers do.

Kilmer stars alongside regular duo Mr Dresden (Brennan Brown) and Elliott (Steve Furst) who inevitably end up upsetting the Holywood star.

Kilmer follows a long line of stars in the ads including Patrick Swayze Ewan McGregor John Cleese and Steven Seagal.

The new six-month project called The Search is similar to its mobileAct Unsigned competition for new bands which it is running with Orange around its music-orientated Walkman devices.

The photography promotion splits the entries into categories with monthly prizes for each category winner. Celebrity photographers will also set challenges.

Monthly category winners will go head-to-head for the title of Cameraphone Photographer of the Year and entry into Sony Ericssons global competition.

A gallery exhibition of the best entries will also be staged. Cameraphone users can upload images to the Sony Ericsson website.

Sony Ericsson UK and Ireland managing director John Harber said: The cameraphone is spearheading a photographic revolution.

The K810i features a 3.2-megapixel camera and is on sale already. The HSDPA-enabled K850i has a five-megapixel camera and launches later this year.

As an extra promotional tool Sony Ericsson has counted public votes on the most iconic photographs of the past 30 years.

Images of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York the 1982 Falklands War and Diego Maradonas hand of god goal against England in the 1986 World Cup all ranked highly.

Mobile News understands Vodafone has sounded out certain manufacturers about such a scheme with potential revenue share arrangements meaning manufacturers would cut handset prices to networks in return for a cut of the users spend.

One source close to Vodafone said: The networks are constantly talking about revenue share with manufacturers internally. But nothing ever happens because the manufacturers wont allow it.

A manufacturer source said: One network has mentioned it offline. There is certainly nothing concrete and no manufacturer wants it.

Nokia UK managing director Simon Ainslie told Mobile News Nokia had no interest in cutting its prices. Ainslie said: The operators are always pushing for us to reduce prices. But the three years of development that goes into a device is never captured in these discussions. If youre going to lead breaking technology someone has to pay for the research and development.

We prefer people to pay good money for our products. The N95 has got more power and capability than a laptop. So its not in our interest to see prices cut and products being given away in that sense.

Ainslie added the complexity of such an arrangement would deter Nokia.

Another manufacturer source said:The UKs subsidy model already means expensive goods are devalued in the eyes of the consumer. The last thing manufacturers want is this to be eroded further by revenue share.

Manufacturers argued revenue share would only benefit the networks and they would prefer to retain the current pricing structure. There is no extra value to be had in such a deal. It is a win-lose arrangement said a source.

Manufacturers want arrangements that will build businesses. It doesnt add up and nothing is going to happen.

But a source close to Vodafone said the networks would not back down: The networks have cut costs everywhere through strategic partnerships and the renegotiation of deals with distributors and retailers. But their relationships with the manufacturers have gone unchanged. The manufacturers dont want change. But the pressure from the networks on them to do so will increase.

Meanwhile O2 is rumoured to have negotiated a revenue share deal with Apple for the iPhone which it is widely expected to get the exclusive rights to in the UK. Online retailers are already listing the iPhone on O2. But O2 maintained reports linking it to the iPhone were rumour and speculation.