Mobile News understands that alongside the 90 stores ear-marked by 3 for acquisition T-Mobile and Phones 4U are involved in discussions with O2 over the purchase of 11 stores each from the chain.

A Phones 4U spokesman said: We havent exchanged contracts yet but we are in discussion about 11 stores.

T-Mobile refused to comment. Orange admitted last week that no contracts had yet been signed with O2 and said that the nominal figure of 47 stores could rise or fall.

Virgin Mobile trading director Graeme Hutchinson will leave the company at the end of the month.

Virgin Mobile has made head of channel management Paul Williams its new director of retail responsible for Virgin Mobiles retail expansion. It has also promoted general manager of indirect sales Rob Shardlow to the role of director of sales and distribution taking responsibility for independent channels equipment marketing and procurement and logistics.

Between them Williams and Shardlow will cover Hutchinsons role.

In a letter to its retail partners Virgin Mobile managing director Alan Gow said:

Over the past few months Graeme Hutchinson has been working closely with ntl:Telewest to help shape our trading strategy and to agree the direction of the distribution of group products. That future direction has now been established and Im delighted to let you know that Virgin Mobile will be taking responsibility for selling group products through Virgin Mobile stores and our independent retail channels.

After seven highly successful years in the role of sales and marketing director and more recently trading director Graeme is choosing to move on and let his senior team crack on with the execution against the new strategy.

Williams and Shardlow join the management team and will report into Gow. They are expected to restructure the retail and distribution units over the next few weeks.

Online and business sector marketing headed by Brendan Cooling will move into Virgin Mobiles commercial function reporting into Virgin Mobile deputy managing director and commercial director Joe Steel.

Virgin UK CEO Alan Gow maintained that the change in management was minimal as both Williams and Shardlow already have time under their belts with Virgin Mobile. However he admitted that Hutchinsons boots would be tough to fill.

He said: Graeme has been with us for seven years and its true his successors dont have quite the same profile. But Rob is the guy who runs the sales force and he is well known. They both worked at T-Mobile together and I think it will be a seamless transition for him to step into a director role.

Mobile phone traders were told last month that they had until September 15 to close their bank accounts after the FCIB was served with a court order by The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland to suspend accounts in connection with suspected criminal activities.

But last week the FCIB informed traders by e-mail that the deadline had been put back to Friday (September 30) provided that no further freezing orders were issued and that they provided all compliance documents.

The FCIB said in the e-mail: Absent any further action by appropriate authorities or third parties by September 30 and upon having received the additional compliance information and documentation requested? [the FCIB] will release funds.

Cassandra Moore legal executive at Dass Solicitors said: It is a window of opportunity for Customs to go away and seek further freezing orders against over 180 companies.

The FCIB action against traders emanated in Scotland it emerged last week. More than 180 FCIB customers were linked with the business activities of 26 traders in Scotland under investigation by Strathclyde police. The Lord Advocate in Scotland issued the FCIB court orders.

It now appears certain that the same investigation that led to the 18 arrests for VAT fraud primarily in Scotland last month has also led to the FCIB action.

Applications for the release of funds continue.

Meanwhile two Dutch newspapers recently alleged that the FCIB is being investigated for reportedly operating without a banking licence tax evasion and fraud.

FCIB lawyers confirmed last week that its branch in Holland and its base in the Dutch Antilles have been raided by local police forces and that documents have been seized.

Vodafone is launching its first ever range of 3G phones manufactured by LG in time for Christmas.

The range includes an exclusive entry-level 3G handset from LG. The LG L600V clamshell will support video and mobile TV.

Vodafone will launch 24 handsets in time for Christmas all offering mobile TV services these include 10 exclusive handsets and half a dozen 3G Broadband handsets.

Vodafone will also launch its first single branded consumer 3G handset the Vodafone 710. The handset will have features like a 1.3MP camera and music services. It is designed to be easy to use for customers new to 3G.

Frank Rovekamp Global Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone group said: This attractive range of handsets extends Vodafones lead in 3G and offers a wide diversity of choice for our customers. We have secured good exclusivity with the leading handset manufacturers and we are delighted to offer our first phones from LG as well as our first own-branded 3G handset for consumers. These new 3G handsets for Christmas are smaller have improved functionality and extended battery life.

From October 1 Andy Coughlin assumes the role of national account manager for distribution replacing Ross Jefferies who will take on the T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile accounts. John French becomes head of network operator sales which account for 70 per cent of Samsungs UK business.

Susan Land heads up channel marketing for network operator business. Susie Donaldson leads channel marketing for retail and distribution.

As part of the reshuffle Daniel Webb becomes responsible for the Phones 4U and DSG accounts. Dermot Siney has been recruited from NEC in the past two weeks as service manager for mobile products. He replaces Richard McGowan who has been promoted to head of service for all Samsung products in the UK.

I like to keep the team fresh. I like change said Mitchinson. If people stay in their roles too long they can get too comfortable.

Experts are predicting that it will be a bleak Christmas for mobile retailers on the high street because of the sector?s focus on the younger end of the market according to the pundits

The KPMG/SPSL Retail Think Tank (RTT) has announced that the Christmas period will not deliver the respite from the gradual but steady consumer cooling off that UK retail requires. The RTT looked at three focus areas; demand margin and cost and concluded that prospects for Q4 2006 are now poorer than they were for Q3.

Director of SPSL Dr Tim Denison said: The think tank believes there is a slowing down in part by the customers Christmas will be ok but not as well as retailers would want.

The mobile market is concerned by the slow down in demand. This is in part because of a lot of their market is younger customers who are being hit by higher university fees and the higher prices of fuel for their cars but also because the market is moving towards saturation there are now lots of non-specialists grocery retailers and internet companies selling mobile phones.

The costs for businesses are also rising which is a major concern principally it?s the increase in minimum wage. This might hit mobile retailers quite hard because they employ younger people because of the products. The rent for mobile retailers is also a concern because they tend to be based in shopping centre locations and the rent rises at around 4.5% per year.

Avenir is the only distributor to supply Fossil Bluetooth watches to mobile retail outlets.

Avenir Telecom has been chosen to be the sole distributor for the Fossil Abacus MobileWear Wristwatch because of its strong relationships in the industry and will be launching the product directly to high street retailers dealers and the networks.

Developed by Fossil the watch uses Bluetooth wireless technology to notify users when their phone is ringing so they can see who is calling and if the user is busy they can mute or reject the call with one button on the watch. The watch also vibrates slightly if a text or voicemail is received as well as an envelope icon appearing on the watch.

Tanny Price MD of Avenir Telecom UK said: Avenir is passionate about being at the cutting edge of innovation so we are delighted to be working with Fossil a leading manufacturer to launch this ground-breaking product. Not only is it a progressive example of new product development focused on a fusion of lifestyle and technology it also provides new revenue opportunities across our entire customer base.

The Abacus MobileWear watch is available mid October and is priced at 149.99

The product is also available through Avenir strategic partner Widget UK which will be responsible for distributing the watch outside the mobile sector.

Yes Telecom has spoken out against BTs new Business One Plan calling it all smoke and mirrors.

Keith Horsted Yes Telecom Head of fixed line said: BT are charging extortionate amounts of money so customers reach the capped charge. It is scandalous that there is a set up charge of 7p whatever the duration. There is lots of hidden charges it looks good on paper but it is all smoke and mirrors.

BT Business One Plan combines fixed broadband and mobile into one package.
One plan offers customers a 50% reduction on BTs standard capped UK landline rates with a 25p cap for up to an hour. Customers also get a 5% discount on their annual bill.

BTs main selling point for the One Plan is that customers get one bill and one point of contact when things go wrong strikingly similar to service that Yes launched early in September.

Bill Murphy MD of BT Business said: We recognise that SMEs like consumers and large corporates will benefit hugely from consolidated communications services. Bringing together broadband with fixed-line and mobile simplifies things for customers by reducing the number of suppliers they have to manage and ultimately helping to reduce costs. Add to this our new BT Business IT Manager service and we can uniquely offer our customers a true one-stop-shop for all their communications and IT management leaving them free to focus on driving their business.

O2 UK and Movistar in Spain are the first networks to launch a service to remove incoming call charges for people travelling abroad in 35 European countries.

The high roamer service is aimed at frequent travellers. UK customers pay a monthly subscription of 5 to make calls at a reduced rate of 25p per minute. This is a big leap from the current roaming agreement which allows customers to receive free calls only when in Spain.

O2 selected Spain as more of its customers travel there than anywhere else. O2 will expand the service to more than 35 European destinations early next year.

Peter Erskine chairman and chief executive officer of O2 said: The high roamer proposition was rated as the most popular concept when tested on customers with many indicating that they currently left their phones switched off when travelling in order to avoid the cost of receiving a call. By starting to scrap the charge levied by all operators in the past for receiving calls abroad we hope to be removing that barrier.

LG Mobile has appointed former Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution Steve Fraser to head up its open market programme and boost sales through the retailer and distributor channels.

LG Mobile sales director John Barton recruited Fraser with whom he has worked at One2One and 3 to the role following the departure of Ian Hicks who left the business earlier this month for personal reasons. Hicks had been in the role for only two months.

Barton said that in the end Fraser exited Carphone on good terms and that there are no misgivings within the industry about his appointment.

Said Barton: I have spoken with people who were connected with Steve Fraser just prior to his departure from Carphone and there is no issue. There were errors made at Carphone but in the end it was something of nothing and he left in a way that was quite normalised.

I have worked with Steve twice before and I trust my own judgement. He knows the industry and that part of the market extremely well. He has a lot of experience of the independent channels and will help in the open market.

Barton added: Ian Hicks was in the role but left under his own steam. It was his own decision and we wish him well.

Fraser worked with Barton as head of dealer sales at One2One just prior to its takeover by T-Mobile and again as director of dealer and distribution at 3.

LG Mobile has also appointed Gary Venn as head of marketing. Venn joins from The Link where he was head of marketing for communications products and worked across the Dixons Stores Group portfolio on its approach to mobile.

He stayed longer than he should have perhaps but he stayed as part of [managing director] Nick Woods team. He had a role to play said Barton. We wanted to beef up our marketing expertise. Its a good time to add to the team.