3 has struck a deal with Irish retail chain Xtra-vision to distribute 3 products and services through 154 stores across Ireland.

Xtra-vision sells a range of consumer electronics from mobile phones to DVDs.

Xtra-vision will offer the new Sony Ericsson K610i in red the Motorola V3x in pink the LG8330 LG8360 and Motorola C975 among others. Customers will be able to sign up to 3?s pre-pay offer 3Pay in all Xtra-vision stores with post-pay contracts available in selected outlets plus special X-clusives only from Xtra-vision.

3 Ireland managing director Robert Finnegan said: 3 has changed the face of the Irish mobile market by offering customers more for their money with new exclusive services and great value pricing. Xtra-vision is at the heart of the home entertainment market attracting high spenders on video games and multi-media. With over 60 per cent of our customers regularly enjoying new mobile entertainment services Xtra-vision is an ideal channel to market for 3G on the high street.

The agreement strengthens 3s presence on the Irish high street following its entry into the pre-pay market in May. Xtra-vision joins 3?s existing retail partners including 3G Carphone Warehouse and independent dealerships across Ireland.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Industry pundits expected Hough who took voluntary redundancy from Orange earlier this month to fall in with former Orange sales director Stuart Henry at Carphone Warehouse after its SIM-free distribution arm Mobile Phone Express lost sales manager Mark Grice.

But Mobile News understands that Hough already has a verbal agreement to join Mainline which is part-owned by Orange and is located close to Houghs Staffordshire home. Houghs redundancy notice expired on Friday (July 28) leaving him free to agree terms with Mainline.

Both Mainline and Hough refused to comment.

Orange offered its channel staff until midnight on July 14 to apply for redundancy as the operator looked to integrate its mobile and broadband sales staff. Hough applied for redundancy.

Former Wanadoo head of sales Steve Heald has taken on the combined channel sales role at Orange for mobile and broadband services.

The issue also resulted in poor tariff performance for the network in July.

We have seen a huge drop in T-Mobile connections because of the commission issue? said Jo McLarty sales manager at distributor Hugh Symons Dealers still say that it is the best value tariff by far but this month it has been the worst performing by far. There can only be one reason – commission reduction.?

Fone Logistics director of marketing Julian Parven agreed: Any T-Mobile tariff with the WebnWalk bundle extension has been the poorest performing tariff for us this month.?

T-Mobile could also suffer further blows as O2s new tariffs prove popular.

O2s new tariffs have proved really popular and I think the network will continue to do well with its new weekend deal? commented McLarty. Orange is another one to watch next month as I think it will do well possibly to the detriment of T-Mobile again.?

Nokia has also suffered this month in handset sales despite posting good Q2 profits.

The LG Chocolate phone and Samsung E900 have been top performers in July? noted Parven. Whereas the Nokia E60 and N71 have been the worst sellers for us.?

But MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander remained confident that Nokia would keep performing well.

Nokia handsets were our top three selling handsets for July? he said. The 6230i 6021 and 6280 consistently perform well.?

McLarty agreed: We have got huge demand for the N80s and the 6230i continues to do really well as a basic handset.?

But he added: One rival Nokia should be aware of is Samsung as it has done really well with the E900. As soon as we get hold of them they just go.?

The cut-off date for joining the Group Litigation Order (GLO) was confirmed last week after it was approved by the High Court and London firm DLA Piper was appointed as lead solicitors.

Customs and DLA Piper have two more months to agree the issues to be determined in the litigation – including who can claim under what circumstances and how much. DLA Piper solicitor Simon Airey said that traders have six months from the date that issues are agreed to join the GLO unless the trader has unresolved appeals.

If a trader is involved in tribunal or other appeal proceedings against Customs relating to disputed assets or withheld VAT the cut-off comes six months after they are concluded. But Airey warned that traders should act sooner.

For most traders the cut-off will be early 2007. For those with unresolved appeals it may be later? he said. But traders should not sit on their hands. It is important that they take legal advice so that they are properly represented.?

He warned: If they are not any judgment may be useless to them. And there is no cost advantage of seeking to join the litigation later – all claimants will pay the same sum irrespective of when they join. The more claimants that join the litigation the smaller that sum will be?.

Any trader wanting a copy of the GLO should apply to DLA Piper.

The GLO will take the form of a class action pursued by a test claimant on behalf of the rest of the group. All claimants issuing relevant claims will be included.

The essence of the Business Partner Programme is to help our dealers to grow and develop their business and to be valued in the market? said MoCo managing director Ian Robinson. In return they will provide increased levels quality business.?

The programme is open to all dealers but they must meet certain criteria.

It is open to everyone but dealers must show 100 per cent commitment? said MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander said. They are selected on the grounds of the quality of their business and the length of time they have been with us.?

There are currently 20 dealers signed up to the programme and MoCo aims to gain a further 20 in the next quarter.

They will receive an array of benefits to entice them on to the scheme? said Alexander.

These will include improving their bottom line having someone to speak to when they have concerns and helping them develop their business in line with the changing market.?

Further programme benefits include enhanced commissions preferential stock allocation and training. Dealers will be signed up to the scheme for three months at a time before their membership is renewed or terminated.

Llanelli-based Landmark Communications which sells mobile packages on 3 disputes claims made in the survey that staff in Wales are poorly trained.

Managing director Grant Evans said: We are consistently closing more than 500 sales a day across our offices in Llanelli and Carmarthen. I dont think we could be doing that if our sales staff were not good at selling.

The survey carried out by sales training consultancy Silent Edge evaluated 1000 sales people and marked them out of 100.

Evans commented: We have an excellent training programme and each member of our staff has a product and training manual. Theres constant back-up available from our on-site managers.?

His remit is to strengthen the companys relationships with third-party channels and improve market share as the Caudwell Group readies itself for acquisition bids.

We have an exceptional team to do this and we are recruiting all the time? he said.

This is a new position created after the Dextra and 4U businesses were merged in May.

Jones reports directly to group managing director Mark Ryan and oversees the team headed up by sales director Angie Simpson who joined the group in April this year from Hugh Symons.

Jones was formally a sales director at Nokia before joining the Caudwell Group. He then moved on to become sales director for service provider Cellular Operations until it was bought by Vodafone three years ago.

Since then he has been working as a consultant in the mobile industry specialising in developing investment angel opportunities.

3s interim results show the company is increasing revenue in the UK faster than it is increasing its customer base.

The figures show that 3 UKs total revenue grew 16 per cent to GBP700338000 between December 31 2005 and June 30 this year. Year-on-year the figure shows a rise of 40 per cent. Total customer numbers grew just four per cent in the six months to June 30.

3 parent company Hutchison Whampoa attributed this partly to higher numbers of more valuable contract customers – a growth of seven per cent in the UK – though it admitted fierce competition in the UK market had boosted churn to 3.6 per cent in July this year.

The total number of 3 customers in the UK and Ireland at June 30 was 3750000 of which 1525000 were pre-pay and 2225000 were contract.

UK ARPU was up 20 per cent on the end of 2005 to GBP41.51 while non-voice ARPU was up from GBP8 in December to GBP10.16 in June and is now a quarter of total ARPU.

In addition 3 predicted rollout of its 3.5G HSDPA network would be completed for the major cities in the fourth quarter of the year and for the whole network in 2007.

It is the first joint offering since the companys acquisition of Virgin Mobile on July 4.

The package will combine NTLs existing TV broadband and fixed-line offers with a Virgin Mobile contract although the details of the mobile phone aspect of the package have not been finalised. The package will be priced at 40 a month.

The package will initially be offered through Virgins own stores but the independent channel may also get the chance to sell it according to trading director Graeme Hutchinson.

Initially we are selling the package through our own stores but we will be very quickly looking at where we can sell it through indirect retail? confirmed Hutchinson.

Its a case of which channels are most appropriate and whether the terms of the package are right for us and the retailer.?

NTL has promised additional packages in the future that will allow customers to buy any two services for 20 a month or any three for 30.

The LG LEO KG920 mobile phone will be the first mobile to have a five megapixel camera.

An LG spokeswoman said: We hope it will outperform some of the single device cameras on the market. This really is a proper camera.?

Other features include an autofocus lens a strobe flash and high-quality video recording.

The phone has a twist-design that allows people to take and view self-portrait snaps of themselves in the phones high-resolution screen. It will also come with a built-in MP3 player and Bluetooth.

LG is also set to launch a flip phone already dubbed the Chocolate flip? later this year. However the phone will not actually be part of its black label range.