Orange is expected to take £20-£30 out of its consumer commissions for dealers as early as July 1. At the same time it is expected to bolster its commissions on business tariffs.

Distributor sources said last week they had received verbal confirmation there would be a significant reduction in consumer connections commissions rates.

One leading distributor source said: Orange has sold really well over the past couple of months. The Unlimited offer has done well. But its always the way with Orange put the money in then pull it out again as it hits volumes.

Another said: Were still awaiting confirmation but weve been told everything will change in August.

However a dealer source said he expected the changes to be in place as early as the start of July. Theres nothing we can do about changes like this. It depends how much the customer wants to go with Orange.

Orange is set to pull its Unlimited offer which offers customer free landline calls on selected tariffs over £35 from the dealer channel on July 31.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) threw out the claims by Vodafone Orange O2 T-Mobile and 3 on the grounds that the original licence auction did not constitute economic activity and so does not fall under EU tax law.

Network operators paid a combined sum of £22 billion to the Government for 3G licences. They submitted VAT reclaims on the transaction which were rejected by HM Revenue & Customs.

The appeal was then brought before the VAT and Duties Tribunal which referred it to the ECJ.

The ECJs ruling is final.

Hartley Foster partner at law firm DLA Piper said: £3.3 billion is the amount of the proposed tax rebate for the UK alone. The appeal took into consideration all the other member states so the impact of such a claim would have had huge financial implications for all EU member states. It is naïve not to think that the ECJ took this into consideration when making its judgement.

Reports had claimed that a deal between O₂ and Apple for the much sort after phone was imminent. But the network has been quick to distance itself from the claims.

A spokesperson for O₂ said: This is pure speculation and we are not expecting to announce anything. Every network has been linked to the iPhone and now it seems to be our turn.

Comm Sense is expected to pick up ITsystems customer databases and stock from European Telecom.

Its airtime contracts have been withdrawn. Comm Sense is negotiating its own direct airtime distribution contracts with all network operators Mobile News understands.

Comm Sense founder and boss Barry Moore who re-acquired the business from European Telecom prior to its administration was unavailable for comment as was administrator Begbies Traynor. More than 80 European Telecom staff have been made redundant.

McCarthy has been in the industry for over a decade. He spent two years at Motorola heading the launch of its BT Fusion handsets. Prior to Motorola McCarthy headed teams at both BT and O2.

McCarthy said: Ill use my experience along with a clear vision of the opportunities in convergence to strengthen HTCs market share in the UK and Ireland.

Asda has rolled its prepay offering to 99 stores already following its initial launch online in late April and will more than double that figure in the next six months.

Were planning to roll-out to as many of our big and medium-sized stores as well as our Living outlets which specialise in technology and entertainment said Asda Mobile buying manager Craig Thirkell.

When Asda Mobile started we could never have expected to hit the 250 mark so soon. The success both in-store and online shows what a great job our partners Vodafone and 20:20 Logistics are doing.

Asda offers a SIM-only pack for £4.97 including £1 of airtime credit. Prepay handsets online range from £19.97 (Nokia 1600) to £97.97 (LG¹s KG800 Chocolate).

MoCo is in talks with Orange about the commercial package and terms that will be made available to MoCo dealers.

Benefits will include dedicated dealer support an ongoing revenue share preferential stock allocation and increased marketing funds.

MoCo managing director Ian Robinson said: Were very excited. Its a great deal for our partners.

Moco already runs a dealer club for its O2 business connectors.

The role of retail and distribution chief is new to Sony Ericsson which plans to grow its non-specialist channels ahead of the Christmas quarter.

Beechs remit also covers accessories and the Irish market. He reports in to SE sales director Nathan Vautier. Beech will be in charge of a 35-man retail training team.

Prior to SE Beech spent five years as a senior trading manager at Tesco and five years as a network account manager at Ericsson.

His recruitment completes UK managing director John Harbers management team following the appointment of Vautier who joined in September and David Hilton who joined in October. SE had a bumper six months rarely being off the top of the UK handset sales chart. But it relied heavily upon network and specialist retail for its sales.

According to a statement issued by Spanish police a 28-year-old man was arrested in Valencia following a seven-month investigation. He is accused of creating and spreading over 20 different variants of the Cabir and Commwarrior worms which attempt to infect mobiles running the Symbian operating system.

Mobile viruses are not nearly as common as malware that strikes PCs on a regular basis but they are just as illegal in their intent. Viruses are not harmless pranks; they cause real harm disrupting business and personal communications as well as destroying and stealing sensitive data said Graham Cluley senior technology consultant for IT security and control firm Sophos.

Computer crime authorities around the globe are becoming more experienced at tracking down hackers and virus writers.

A recent survey by Sophos suggested 81 per cent of business IT administrators are concerned malware and spyware targeting mobiles will become a significant threat in the future but 64 per cent have no solution in place to secure smartphones and PDAs against the threat.

He is responsible for web development marketing and fulfilment for Shebangs Web 3G and Sellfone 3G software packages.

Gray who has 22 years experience in the industry helped launch web fulfilment solutions Vanilla Mobile and Actiweb at Carphone and Dextra respectively.

Shebang managing director Iain Humphrey said: We are not just about creating a sales arena for ourselves but increasing the opportunities and support we give to our dealers. Mike will enhance that.

Meanwhile Humphrey has promoted Shebang commercial manager Dennis Job to commercial director.