ETs parent company Emblaze Group reduced its stake in the company from 51 per cent to just 10 per cent.

At the same time Emblaze said around £8 million in withheld VAT claims by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had driven the trading and distribution business of its subsidiary Emblaze Mobile into cash burn and growing losses. It said Emblaze Mobile will be scaled down.

Its chief executive Laurence Alexander handed in his resignation last week. Emblaze CEO Guy Bernstein said: We are not happy about the HMRC issues. The fact we are scaling down the business is not a reflection on Laurence or his team.

ET also advised Virgin Mobile to find a new handset and fulfilment partner for its Lobster ODM device last week. At the same time ET Business Solutions director Frank Masson quit.

Masson said: Emblazes decision to reduce its stake in ET has put enormous restraint on the business. Im a business developer not a business manager. My position was no longer tenable.

An administrator is expected to be appointed next week to manage the business and to sell off its component parts. Its business sales arm ET Business Solutions is considered its one going concern.

The Carphone Warehouse Data Select and Unique Distribution have all been approached about acquiring ETs distribution business. All have declined.

AxCom has projected revenues of £250 million this year. It is the leading distributor in Sweden and takes a 32 per cent share of the Nordic market.

The acquisition expected to close next month is 20:20s first under new owners Doughty Hanson. 20:20 now has operations in nine different markets.

20:20 CEO Mark Ryan said: It is an important step in our growth strategy and expands our international footprint into a key territory and an opportunity.

Expansys managing director Roger Butterworth says the clips will do a better job of showcasing products than store staff in high street retailers.

Butterworth said: The aim is for every device available for sale to have an accompanying video. We will soon be able to give a much better quality presentation than in a store where the quality of sales people varies every customer coming to our site will get the same video and the same key points highlighted.

He added: We already have online forums where people chat about the devices. Out of our 1.8 million historic customers about 300000 users have registered to use our online services.

The new tool enables customers to view devices from different angles and presentations talk them through different device features.

Butterworth also said last week Expansys will open a new sales office in Germany. It already has sales offices in Sweden Italy and Spain and a warehouse in France.

Following its debut on Londons AIM stock exchange it is also considering businesses for acquisition.

The Curve was available in the UK dealer channel on May 3. RIM product manager Karen Rudnitski said: The Curve is a smartphone with no compromises.

Weve built a camera application into the BlackBerry experience so you can easily upload images to the web. Weve made the media player behave like you would expect a portable music player to behave with features like shuffle and sorting by album genre or song. The media player is more graphic-based more intuitive and simpler to use.

Rudnitski added the integrated desktop multimedia suite would allow for easier download search and organisation of music and movie files.

She said: We recognised downloading multimedia files from your PC was a bit of a chore so we have made that process simpler.

The Curve includes a faster internet browser enhanced email increased security features and a two-megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom. The new 3.5mm headphone jack fits most headphones and BlackBerry has also made spell check available in text and email for the first time.

The Curve features RIMs trackball navigation system first seen on the Pearl.

Last quarter one million subscribers worldwide signed up to BlackBerry.

A new directory service has been launched to boost the presence of independents online giving them a higher position on search engines than their own stand-alone websites.

indie-guides.co.uk works via a virtual network; every dealer that joins helps to lever the indie-guides directory at the top of the online search listings giving independents more coverage when someone is searching for a mobile retailer in a particular area.

Members are given 200 words to write an editorial up to two images contact details plus the opportunity to add keywords to use the indie-guides search to its full capacity.

Indie-guides managing director Steve Wickens said: Indie-guides is a simple concept designed to be an inexpensive yet effective way of helping independent businesses prosper against the tide of corporate competition. Indie-guides is dedicated to boosting business for independent retailers. It will increase traffic to your website and generate email and telephone enquiries from genuinely interested prospects.

At present indie-guides is offering a launch promotion of a free 90-day trial with membership costing £10 per month per outlet/location thereafter.

To unlock a handset on SE Tool log files need to be purchased online at £2 per file.

Previously each handset required 25-30 log files but now some phones can be unlocked using just a few files making the cost more achievable for dealers.

One dealer said: SE handsets were unlockable but the price simply wasnt feasible. At this price dealers will be snapping it up.

Previously SE handsets of higher specification than the W810i were practically unlockable.

Five new bundles will be released next month. Pay monthly customers can choose from daily net browsing for £1; monthly evening and weekend browsing for £5; or monthly anytime browsing for £8.

Pre-pay customers can choose from £1 daily browsing or £5 weekly browsing. Users will be subject to a 1GB maximum under Oranges fair usage policy.

Customers who do not purchase a bundle and are pay monthly customers will now be charged a maximum of £1.50 a day for mobile internet browsing whereas pre-pay customers will be charged £2.

Orange customers will also now have free access to their own personalised Orange World homepage as well as news headlines and favourites. They can also use the Orange Local service free from July to September.

Orange mobile and convergence vice-president Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke said: Our new pricing structure makes it easy for our customers to understand exactly what they are getting and for how long when they access mobile internet.

Turner will report directly to Fonesure CEO and founder Mark Gordon.

He will be in charge of 16 staff and be responsible for developing the companys insurance products and new offerings.

Turner has more than 15 years experience in the insurance sector and will be based at the companys headquarters in Westcliff-on-Sea.

He joins from insurance company Allianz Cornhill.

The managing directors role is newly created.

Former strategy and business development director Craig Tillotson will lead the consumer business unit and remain on the UK board.

Ian Shepherd former commercial operations director for Vodafones consumer business unit steps into Tillotsons shoes as strategy and business development director. Tim Yates returns to being chief marketing officer on the UK board after a stint as interim business consumer director.

Vodafone UK CEO Nick Read said the new appointments would strengthen the companys leadership position and deliver its Mobile Plus strategy to become a total communications provider.

The Lords Committee recently published an influential report on the EUs proposals to cap mobile phone roaming charges and concluded that a wholesale price cap of 30 euro cents per minute was necessary to protect customers and ensure small businesses were not impeded from doing business across the EU.

While the committee welcome the EU moves to introduce caps they are concerned that the introduction of retail caps will stifle competition and discourage innovation in the mobile phone market.

Chairman of the committee Lord Freeman believes the vote will lead to is a step in the right direction. He said:

People have been overcharged for using their phones abroad for too long now and it has become clear the market would not have resolved this issue alone. This vote should ensure we move towards a fairer system.

However we do have some areas of concern with todays vote as we feel averaged wholesale caps rather than retail price caps could have ensured customer savings while maintaining an element of competition in the market that would encourage innovation.