Commissioner Billy Hawkes said: We are examining large volumes of information with a view to prosecuting those companies that have sent or allowed to be sent unsolicited communications.

Firms found to be breaking regulations will be barred in the future.

3 has dropped off the radar among independent dealers after introducing stringent sales terms in recent months.

Dealers said that 3 had dropped to fifth place during January. 3 has recently introduced new clawback downgrade and commercial terms which have angered dealers.

JAG managing director John George said: 3 has slumped massively in our sales ranking. Some days we dont connect any 3 at all.

George said 3 ranked behind Orange T-Mobile O2 and Vodafone throughout its 91 stores.

Its now charging £25 to downgrade and its forcing a lot of people to consider switching networks he said. Its baffling because 3 is losing all its customers.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: Business on 3 was down 40 per cent in volume from the same period last year.

Another said: Eighty per cent of our December and January business was done on Vodafone and O2. I dont remember selling a single handset on 3.

It was a drastic month for 3. As far as I know we didnt have a single enquiry about 3 in January said another.

European Telecom chairman Nico Dervisaj has revealed the company is on the point of acquiring one distributor in the US and one in Kenya.

The combined 2007 turnover for the two distributors is expected to be $310-$360 million (£161m £187m).

Dervisaj said: We made an acquisition last week in Kenya for a company to manage all of Eastern Africa. There is lots of room for growth in the African market. That company will do $60 million in 2007.

We are also finalising a deal for a distributor in the US which replicates the European Telecom model and will do around $250-$300 million this year.

Cardiff-based call centre dealer Landmark Telecommunications has agreed out-of-court the settlement with O2 for £0.5 million over mis-selling airtime contracts to O2 customers on rival networks Orange and 3.

O2 is considering taking legal action against three more distance sellers for such mis-selling.

O2 UK marketing director Sally Cowdry said: We are committed to delivering the best possible experience for our customers. We will take whatever action we consider necessary where there is evidence of third parties misleading our customers. At the least these calls are a nuisance at worst they are illegal.

O2 said last week it had received an increasing number of customer complaints about cold-calling companies that claimed to call on O2s behalf. The action known as slamming has seen O2 customers due for upgrade called by companies such as Landmark and unwittingly churned to rival networks.

The slammed customer only realises what has happened when the receive their handset and first bill.

O2 said that affected customers have complained because of inferior network coverage and customer service from Orange and 3 as well as being mis-sold a product.

A spokesperson for Landmark said: We value the companys reputation and would not set out to gain business by deceit. However after a thorough investigation we discovered that some of our employees were misleading our customers they have been dismissed.

3 director of indirect sales Bernie OBeirne said that Landmark had handled the situation well.

Landmark has traditionally supplied us with good quality connections he said. Landmark has been taken to task and done the right thing by settling with O2 and changing the way it operates. But he acknowledged the matter had taken a long time to resolve. It could have been done a lot quicker he said.

3 is understood to have put a lot of business through Landmark over the past 18 months but OBeirne said that 3s distance-selling activity had slowed markedly since the end of 2006 in line with other networks.

Every distance seller is seeing lower volumes from the networks as they move away from it he said.

Orange refused to comment on the Landmark case. But Orange head of indirect sales Steve Heald said it had tightened up its call centre activity over the past four months.

Our outbound call centre activity since September is vastly different and significantly reduced – not just by 10 per cent say but by a lot he said. And that is reflected in the fact that the number of customer complaints [about mis-selling] has also reduced.

Orange has cut distance selling commission which has helped cut out malpractice. Only those that can run their businesses effectively are still operating in that market he claimed. We have also altered our returns policy so dealers do not send out handsets to customers without prior and proper agreement.

Neither Vodafone and O2 provide the financial incentive to third-party retailers to encourage mis-selling and T-Mobile stepped back from the practice completely in May last year.

Following the arrival of managing director Jim Hyde T-Mobile banned dealers from making outbound upgrade calls altogether citing disruptive customer service issues as the reason for the ban.

But Heald defended Oranges approach to distance sales as pragmatic rather than knee-jerk. He said: We are trying to take a proactive and pragmatic approach to this. But there are clearly customer issues around distance sales and there is noise about the subject.

O2 has encouraged customers to report this type of activity to its new internal complaints desk called the Nuisance Call Bureau so that it can better tackle the problem.

Even without the name of the distance seller in question O2 said it could glean enough information to track the culprit from caller ID information.

O2 is also encouraging its customers to complain to the Trading Standards office Ofcom the Office of Fair Trading and the Information Commissioner.

The Landmark settlement comes on the heels of a High Court action brought by Sky Broadcasting against satellite equipment resellers which resolved in December in favour of Sky. The Sky case was the first to be put before the UK courts to consider the mis-selling of goods or services by call centres and looks to set a precedent for the mobile world.

The Carphone Warehouse is to split £10 million between 350 sales managers as their share options mature.

Carphone awarded 10000 shares to 350 store and direct sales managers in 2004 with the top-performing 25 per cent of store managers gaining 50 per cent more each year. The current share price is more than £3 each and staff can now cash in gaining £10 million before tax.

Carphone UK chief executive Andrew Harrison said: This payout is due to the hard work and commitment of our sales managers who continue to drive our business forward ultimately reflecting in our share price and their reward.

Carphone has made the top 10 Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For for the past two years.

Phones 4U rewarded its top Q4 salesman with a limited edition Audi A3 last week.

Chris Howells from Phones 4Us store Fareham sold a record number of contract and pre-pay phones as well as hitting customer service targets.

Phones 4U retail director John Welsh said: Chris demonstrated he can lead his team to deliver excellent results and the whole store will reap the rewards.

Phones 4U is to send over 100 staff on a four-day trip to Tenerife as part of the incentive. Another 400 staff will receive Xbox 360 consoles Samsung Camcorders MP3 players and other prizes.

Phones 4U gathered more than 300 senior managers to celebrate outstanding Q4 achievement with an exclusive black-tie award ceremony last week.

Phones 4U operations director Tom Shorten said: Its fantastic to get everyone together to celebrate a fantastic year. We are now aiming much higher for 2007.

l Phones 4U appointed former Virgin Mobile board member Charles Gurassa as non-executive chairman last week. He held the same role at Virgin Mobile. Phones 4U CEO Tim Whiting said: His experience will prove invaluable as we build.

Alcatel launched two budget prepay handsets last week and announced plans to increase sales in the UK by 30 per cent in 2007 and establish closer ties with The Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U.

Alcatel the UKs number five handset manufacturer said it shipped 500000 units in the second half of last year on Orange T-Mobile and Tesco Mobile. Prepay Alcatel handsets were available in non-specialists Woolworths and Argos.

Alcatel sales manager William Patterson said: We aim to grow by around 30 per cent this year. We are growing our product range not just with entry-level handsets but with entry-level camera phones and multimedia devices. Our focus is on the design look and feel and finish of the handsets. Thats what will distinguish us.

He added the manufacturer would continue to develop its existing network relationships and look to develop relationships with non-traditional retailers.

Where we need to grow is with traditional retailers with Carphone and Phones 4U he added. We worked with 20:20 Unique and Comment last year but our distribution relationships have been based around fulfilment to date.

The first new Alcatel handsets the OT-E230 and the OT-C635 will be available for around £60 on prepay.

Alcatel re-launched in the UK in 2005 following its takeover by Chinese manufacturer TCL. It shipped 95000 handsets to the UK in the second half of 2005.

Strax More formed after the purchase of the more group of accessories companies by US accessories distributor Strax is to rebrand as Strax with a new logo.

Strax UK managing director and group international director Barry Colman said: As a single entity we have a significantly greater opportunity to grow into new markets. The acquisition and integration has meant we can provide more compelling solutions.

3 has announced that it has 90 per cent population coverage for its 3G services in the UK.

3 claims to have undertaken one of the fastest network rollouts in European telecoms history with the help of its managed services partnership with Ericsson announced in December 2005.

3 UK chief technology officer David Cooper said: We have the best network coverage in the UK. This means more people can access our high-speed mobile media and entertainment services than with any other network.

Handset distributor Frequency Telecom has acquired accessories supplier Frequency 3G.

The two companies were formed separately by former European Telecom staff and have shared premises for around four years.

Frequency Telecom head of marketing Stephen Donovan said: The directors have known Frequency 3G owner John Willoughby for a number of years. The opportunity to sell both handsets and accessories was too good to turn down.

Donovan said the combined company expects to turn over £24 million for the financial year ending in June 39 per cent up on last year.

He also revealed plans for expansion of its accessories range. He said: John [Willoughby] has brief to expand the accessory range and we have identified some exciting products we will be bringing into the market.