Truphone CEO James Tagg told Mobile News since the providers registration date with BT on February 23 Vodafone Orange and O2 had agreed to connect Truphones free and low-cost VoIP calls via Wi-Fi and the internet.

Tagg said T-Mobile and 3 users who tried to dial Truphone numbers received a number unattainable message and were not connected.

Tagg said: T-Mobile gives us a different answer each time. The lack of connection might be deliberate or accidental. But the affect is the same.

Tagg said although 3 had an agreement with rival VoIP provider Skype it should not mean Truphone calls were not connected as well.

Tagg said he expected Ofcom to step in to the dispute as the champion of consumer choice.

Ofcom has an obligation to make sure networks route numbers without favouritism he said. Its charter says it aims to promote customer choice and innovation.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said the network allowed calls via Truphone for customers on the monthly £22.50 WebnWalk Max tariff which gives access to internet calling services adding Other customers could have this activated by calling customer services.

3 said it chose Skype over other VoIP providers as it offered greater coverage through 3G rather than Wi-Fi and is the largest VoIP community.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: We understand Truphones argument from a commercial point but Ofcom looks at a dispute from a consumers position. Operators are free to allow access to any services they choose. If a customer feels aggrieved they can leave a network.

We look for evidence of anti-competitive behaviour but there has been no evidence of that here.

Tagg also plans to address Ofcom about Orange and Vodafones refusal to enable VoIP on the Nokia N95.

Orange prepay director Pippa Dunn said the market for the new Call Abroad SIM comprises more than 20 million people in the UK adding that the market for international calling cards is currently worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Said Dunn: There are about 5.5 million British nationals living in the UK and 18.7 million foreign visitors to the UK every year who are looking for an affordable and convenient way to phone home.

The market for international calling cards is worth about £800 million so it presents a good opportunity for us.

The new SIM card is available for £5 from Orange stores dealers newsagents and other stockists and enables reduced rates for international calls. For example calls to India have been cut from £1 to 12p a minute while calls to Australia have been reduced from 40p to 6p a minute. Customers can port their phone number from an existing Orange tariff or another network.

Orange said the new SIM is a response to expensive international calling rates and confusing international calling cards. Users are not subject to third party carrier costs or the national call charge of 25p usually incurred with calling cards.

Orange has already trialled the service in 55 Orange stores and through selected distributors.

London-based B2B service provider Alternative Networks has signed an extension to its service provider contract with O2 that extends its partnership until July 2009.

Vodafone also renewed its service provider agreement with Alternative Networks at the end of last year.

Alternative CEO James Murray said: The renewal of our O2 licence is testament to the hard work of our mobile teams. Were always looking to build a very close relationship with O2 and Vodafone and work closely with them on the data aspect of mobile. Its also great news for our shareholders as theyre always interested in these announcements.

Alternative Networks has worked with O2 since 2002. O2 UKs general manager of business sales Ben Dowd said:

Its service driven approach knowledge of converged products and ability to bespoke services and applications to meet clients needs are critical in todays market.

The company had already announced plans to lay off 3500 workers by June and the latest redundancies will see its workforce decrease by 11%. The cuts are intended to return Motorola to profitability after they announced first quarter losses for 2007.

Motorola expects to save $600million through the latest cuts by 2008 and this figure is on top of the $400million it expects to save from the 3500 lay-offs announced in January.

The charges date from September 2006 to April 1 this year when Ofcoms new termination charge controls took effect. BT said the outcome of Ofcoms investigation into its complaint was disappointing and suggested landline customers were funding 3G networks.

BT director of voice services Matthew Dearden said: BT brought this dispute to Ofcom to prevent millions of consumers having to bear the cost of paying over the odds for dialling a mobile from their landlines. By agreeing yet again with the mobile operators fixed line customers continue to fund the 3G networks.

BT initially rejected the proposed call termination rates from the networks higher blended rates the networks claimed to have formulated by combining 2G and 3G charges. BT proposed lower rates to the networks which in turn rejected them. Ofcom ruled the blended rates charged to BT were not too high.

BT will need to pay all withheld charges to the networks but it and the networks must first agree the amount.

Azzurri says an audit of 1200 corporates identified possible savings of £60 million. Azzurri One evaluates existing communications solutions and offers cost-saving alternatives on a single bill. Around a dozen household names have already signed up to Azzurri One it claimed.

CEO Martin St Quinton said: We appreciate what a challenge it is for organisations to effectively manage their communications. With many suppliers and bills to manage budget control becomes almost impossible.

Dangaard chief Michaél Køehn said the merged company would decide on its strategy for entering the UK market at the deals conclusion. He said:

There are many good players in the UK and a very good distributor could be one of our relevant targets.

The Glasgow High Court heard last month that Athif Sarwar 28 had handled thousands of pounds of criminal property. Sarwar was found guilty of money laundering between February and April 2003 while working at Glasgow-based United Wholesale.

Sarwar was found guilty on two charges one of laundering £565000 as part of a VAT fraud scam and the second of moving £280500 from the firms bank account to another held by a shell company.

Assistant manager of the cash and carry firm Mansoor Khan 43 of Glasgow was found not guilty of any involvement in the money laundering scam.

Sarwar was bailed to appear for sentencing on June 28. His father a millionaire businessman and Labour MP for Govan said he would appeal against the verdict.

The group is to comprise manufacturers networks academics and law enforcement agencies.

Home Office crime reduction minister Vernon Coaker said: Rapidly changing technologies have given a boost to opportunistic criminals. Mobile phone crime can best be tackled when the handset is still on the drawing board. Manufacturers and networks have made considerable progress in tackling mobile crime but more can be done.

According to the British Crime Survey two per cent of mobile phone owners suffered a theft in the past year. Last month 500 handsets were seized and 15 people arrested for mobile phone crime in London.

Kenny McDonald of the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit said the rate of mobile crime in London had been cut by 5.7 per cent from last year. He said: The networks understand the impact of this crime where they used to have a sterile and detached approach. Theyve all hit their blocking targets of 90 per cent.

The committee said measures tackling missing trader fraud were unsustainable and the reverse charge ruling would cause fraud to spread to other industries. It called on the UK Government to work with other EU member states to implement a more efficient system for taxing intra-community transactions.

It said: While the amount of money being lost in the UK may have fallen in 2006/7 mutation into other industry sectors will bring a subsequent rise in fraud levels.

A wide-ranging change to the VAT system is required and the Government should start discussions with the European Commission and other member states on the form this should take.

It said extended verification will have limited effect as fraudsters will target goods free of such stringent checks. It will also harm legitimate traders attempting to claim back VAT said the committee which wants a flat VAT rate of 15 per cent to be applied to all EU cross-border transactions.

Dass Solicitors Robert Holland said: The report paints a pretty bleak picture but theres no alternative than to paint it.

Meanwhile the emergence of contra trading has also caused alarm. It is regarded as the latest development in VAT carousel fraud where carousels are linked across borders to offset losses in one country against another making it more difficult to track where tax has been unpaid.

Holland said contra trading had not reached the extent of carousel fraud but it could involve different types of goods which would be difficult to track between each chain.