The last half billion pre-pay subscriptions have been gained by mobile operators in less than 17 months since February 2005 nearly twice as fast as the 29 months it took to add the previous half billion? said senior analyst Abigail Browne.

The report – World Cellular Information Service – also predicted that while the number of pre-pay users is expected to keep rising growth will slow in coming years.

Informa also predicted that while overall mobile phone subscriptions will slowly decline the number of 3.5G mobile broadband subscribers will increase tenfold from 2.5 million in 2006 to more than 300 million in 2011.

However Informa predicts that a boom in 3.5G handsets is unlikely to occur until 2008.

Principle analyst Malik Saadi blamed a lack of compelling devices? for the slow uptake of 3.5G.

An average of 112 million messages were sent each day in June an increase of almost 30 per cent on the same period last year.

The World Cup is thought to have encouraged people to text friends with 140 million messages sent on June 15 when England played Trinidad & Tobago and on and July 1 when the team played Portugal. This is equivalent to six million SMS messages every hour.

The MDA predicts that 36.5 billion texts will be sent across the whole of 2006.
SMS – World Cup boost

The Palm Treo smartphone will include Microsoft Windows Mobile software and be available first to Vodafone customers before the year end.

This collaboration will provide a powerful tool for enterprise customers? said Palm senior vice-president of worldwide sales and customer relations. Partnering with Vodafone a world-class mobile operator is a significant step towards accelerating our geographic expansion and serving our European customers.?

Some two per cent of business e-mail boxes worldwide are accessed via mobile according to market research firm The Radicati Group. Palm Vodafone and Microsoft aim to target this large untapped market with real-time push e-mail using Microsofts Messaging and Security Feature Pack.

Varty left earlier this month. He has been replaced by Ben Threlfall formerly Vodafone head of IT reseller and distribution.

Both Varty and Vodafone refused to comment.

Vartys exit from Vodafone coincides with Vodafone UK CEO Bill Morrows surprise departure last week and follows on the heels of a slew of Vodafone channel staff changes.

These include the departures of head of sales for commercial partnerships Richard Hurring director of enterprise sales Chris Huggett senior manager of business partnerships Jason Rigby and head of dealer sales Iain Graham.

One distributor source said: It is a bit of a merry-go-round and Keiths departure has come as a bit of a shock. He hadnt been there a very long time. Richard Hurring was only there for just over a year.?

Avenir UK managing director Tanny Price said: Vodafone is going through a period of change with its channel staff. But the staff it has brought in to replace the old guard have been very impressive. Ben Threlfall is very nice and highly intelligent. These are experienced guys who have spent some quality time with us to find out about our business and how we can move forward together. It is very refreshing.?

Threlfall reports to Vodafones new head of sales for commercial partnerships Rob Sandford who reports to corporate sales chief Amanda Baker.

The Yahoo! Go for Mobile suite of services includes Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Yahoo! Address Book and Yahoo! Local.

Motorola corporate vice-president of global mobile products Scott Durchslag said: Our collaboration with Yahoo! will ensure that our customers and consumers get the most optimised Yahoo! experience possible on the coolest mobile devices.?

The companies will jointly market Motorola devices that have Yahoo! Go for Mobile pre-installed through their online networks device packaging and other targeted channels.

Orange has launched two dealer incentives with Northampton distributor EBS to drive sales in the dealer channel.

The first incentive is intended to boost dealer purchase of Orange tariffs through 250 EBS dealers from August to October. The top 15 performers and their partners will be recognised with a travel reward to Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast.

The second incentive intends to increase sales of Orange SIM cards through EBS dealers. The top six performers and their partners will be rewarded with a trip to Madrid. The Madrid jaunt is themed around the partying lifestyle of the Beckhams.

Orange will support the initiatives which have been put together with UK incentive company Archer Young with pre-launch teasers letters and brochures e-shots and trade press adverts.

Archer Young account director Sarah Booth said: The travel reward recognises the hard work and success of the dealers and gives them an experience they may otherwise not have a chance to have.

3 has added Nokias top-end N73 handset to its device portfolio.

The Nokia N73 bar-style phone is already available in 3s own retail chain on contract and will feature in its Superdrug concessions shortly. It is also available to independent dealers to order.

A 3 spokesperson said: The N73 combines high quality brilliant photos and a sleek and stylish handset. Never again will you need your digital camera.

The Nokia N73 features a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics. It is also billed as the first mobile phone with Yahoo!s Go application pre-loaded for full access to Yahoo! services.

T-Mobile is recruiting to fill 800 sales and service jobs as part of its plan for UK retail expansion.

The company is looking to recruit a mix of 80 store managers and sales consultants a month as it moves forward with its plan to open more than 190 new T-Mobile shops by June 2007 – more than doubling its retail estate to over 300 outlets.

Its our aim to be the number one mobile retailer in every town or city where we have a shop said T-Mobile head of retail Russell Taylor. He said the retailer was looking to recruit outstanding individuals with the mindset skills and experience to achieve it.

The drive for growth is on the back of recent network success with its popular Flext tariff as well as strong investment in Internet offering WebnWalk and its B2B-focused Business 1 price plan. It also dovetails with growing concern among independent dealers that T-Mobile has been edging them out (see Sharp End issue 368).

As part of a strategy to maximize returns and pay off its ballooning debt Vodafone has announced that it has agreed to sell its 25 per cent stake in Belgian mobile network Proximus to 75 per cent shareholder Belgacom for two billion euros (GBP1.35 billion) in cash.

The proceeds will be used to reduce Vodafones net indebtedness which currently stands at around GBP17.3 billion. On the down side of the balance sheet Vodafone will no longer receive anticipated dividend income of around GBP150 million this year and there will be a corresponding reduction in cashflow.

Commenting on the deal Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin said: We do not see ourselves as the most appropriate long-term holder of this minority stake. In line with our strategy of actively managing our portfolio and maximising returns we have achieved an attractive price with this sale.

Vodafone services will still be available in Belgium through a renewed long-term partner network agreement with Proximus with an initial five-year term. Services involved include Vodafone live! the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card push e-mail via BlackBerry and international roaming services.

The sale is subject to certain regulatory approvals and is expected to close before December 31.

Pre-pay customer losses were offset by gains in churn data revenues and customer reaction to the Free Weekends proposition. He hinted at an aggressive tariff review but also took time to pay his respects to outgoing European head Bill Morrow.

The headline for the results is that they are a bit mixed he said. Im pleased with the contract churn rate – 20.1 per cent is industry-leading. There is a good quality mix to the additions in contracts and we are in a strong position in the enterprise space at the moment.

Read was also cheered by the take-up of data services in particular growth in mobile broadband customer numbers. Vodafone is already the clear market leader in data cards and the new service has helped to build on this dominance he said.

Data revenue has been driven by 3G data cards and mobile broadband said Read. Since the launch of the service weve improved on our 80 per cent market share of data cards and doubled volumes of cards sold through our own retail operation. The Cheltenham business centre is really making an impact on the results and we will be seeing more of that in the future.

Read was also unafraid to hold his hands up to recent losses and revealed that a new tariff structure is imminent. The signs are that pre-pay prices will be simplified while contracts will be made more tailored in obvious response to the phenomenal gains made by T-Mobile.

I want to be aggressive in the market he said. We are the market leader and I want the company to act like it. The cut in pre-pay customers by 148000 is unacceptable. Our reaction has been innovation in pricing and a revision in commissions for pre-pay sales.

The Free Weekends proposition is the vanguard of Vodafones attempt to recapture lost market share. Whats interesting is that the offer is supported by a visually striking advertising campaign more resembling similar efforts from 3 and T-Mobile rather than its more laconic approach to the Passport and Stop the Clock campaigns.

We had a very strong launch with Free Weekends said Read. It works because its simple to understand and has been advertised imaginatively. That said Im not happy with pre-pay and will be launching a new proposition in three to four months. The move will be accompanied by a contract refresh by the end of Q2.

This progressive approach doesnt seem to be filtering down to the channel however. In a press conference last week group CEO Arun Sarin mentioned a review of the UK channel. Read would not be drawn on the subject but he didnt sound very encouraging.

Were always reviewing the channel he said. Its clear that with the saturation of the market place in pure mobile our growth has to be at the expense of someone else. What has happened with The Link is a sign of that. Other consolidation will happen down the line.

Finally Read praised European CEO Bill Morrow who has resigned unexpectedly to spend time with his family in the US. He is replaced temporarily by Vodafone Germany head Fritz Joussen.

Read acknowledged that it would be tough for the company to replace him but he was confident that there was enough talent remaining in the company to cope until then.

We have a strong talent pool and Fritz Joussen is an example of this. He has a strong marketing product and sales background and he drives hard on differentiation.