Vodafone has appointed two non-executive directors Nick Land and Alan Jebson to its board from December. The move is seen by pundits as an effort to create a mood of consensus and put earlier in-fighting firmly in the past for the network. Jebson retired this summer as group chief operating officer of HSBC and is a former colleague of Vodafone chairman Sir John Bond. Land recently retaired as chairman of Ernst and Young.
Bond said: Nicks financial expertise and experience of dealing with major corporations in many parts of the world will be invaluable to us and Alans knowledge of international information technology systems including his experience of CRM [Customer Relationship Management] and data mining as well as his financial background will be a great asset for Vodafone.

Lacey director of accounting consultants FAR Consulting joins other top VAT experts such as Dr Mike Cheetham (Bond House) and Will Southcott (Dass Solicitors) at the one-day event to be held at the Kingsway Hall Hotel in Central London.

The conference is a follow-up to the similar sell-out event held last November. The agenda will cover issues such as resolving loss of banking facilities fighting retention of VAT refunds and coping with HMRC investigations.

To book a place log onto mobilenewsconferences.co.uk or call Sarah Clacey on 020 7324 3509.

Carphone Warehouse has released strong half-year results as it announced a possible pan-European deal with Vodafone. However one-time costs dragged the bottom line down into negative figures.

The fixed line to mobile phones business recorded a 40 per cent growth in its financial half-year sales. It made 1.8 billion in revenue in the 26 weeks ended September 30 up from 1.2 billion in the same period the year before.

Pre-tax profits were massively down on last year however to a 4.7 million deficit due to start-up losses of over 45.1 million attributed to the companys free broadband offer.

On the retail side total connections grew 34.4 per cent to 4.34 million. Subscription connections were up 17.1 per cent to 1.82 million and pre-pay connections rose by59 per cent to 2.28 million. SIM-free sales fell by 2.7 per cent to 241000. Retail like-for-like growth was 12.1 per cent.

Carphone CEO Charles Dunstone said: This has been a busy six months. Our distribution business has maintained its momentum opening 143 new store and benefiting from the dynamism of the mobile market and customer demand.

Dunstone was quick to downplay the decision by Vodafone to give Phones 4U an exclusivity deal on consumer contracts. He used the results as a platform to announce that he was in talks with the network over a pan-European framework agreement.

He said: Subsequent to our announcement on October 12 we have been actively engaged with Vodafone regarding the development of a Pan-European framework agreement. It is intended that this agreement will encompass subscription and prepay connections where appropriate.

3UK has struck a deal with BSkyB to deliver mobile TV services over its network.

The neteworks customers will be offered up to 27 Sky Mobile TV channels including news sport music entertainment and documentaries. The service is a mix of made-for-mobile and as-live programming.

Three specific service packs are available each focused around news and sport entertainment and music. Each one is priced at 5 per month for unlimited access subject to 3s fair usage policy.

However the network plans to offer the service free for the first month of launch.

The service will be launched by the end of the year a 3UK spokeswoman confirmed.

The Bentall Centre location was treated to the full works within the networks T-Mobile Goes to Town programme which included staff giving out complementary parking vouchers rides around town in pink T-Mobile tuk-tuks (diminutive three-wheeled taxis) and free coffee dispensed to shoppers in the area.

For T-Mobile head of retail Russell Taylor the exercise is more than just a chance to show that the network can be fun – its also a marketing tool to lever the network into difficult locations.

Taylor joined T-Mobile five years ago and has been leading the retail business since July. At the time the network was clearly under-represented compared to the competition. Taylor decided on a store expansion to 250 stores by the end of this year and 302 stores by next year.

The first challenge was to consolidate the look and feel of the existing estate.

It wasnt just a lick-of-paint refit he said. They all look and feel like the store in Kingston.

By March this year 120 were refurbished and as the new stores are added theyll complement that refit. This is part of 1000 stores across Europe for the network all with the same look and feel.

This refit has helped T-Mobile get into destination shopping venues according to Taylor who thinks the superior look and feel has impressed landlords.

Weve spent an awful lot of time talking with the centre landlords letting them know what were about so that we can get sites that before just werent available he said. Were now at places like Lakeside which we werent able to get into previously. They see the relationship that weve built with the consumers. Flext has been a great success Ufix is a great success.

And this is where events like T-Mobile Goes to Town come in as it creates retail theatre from which the whole high street or centre can benefit. Even T-Mobiles local indirect retail partners are forewarned so that they can make the most of it.

We were with the landlord at Bluewater the other week and when we showed him the opportunity that we could bring he was excited about it because no-one else is doing it that way. We become more a part of the local community. And that links to the brand behaviour. It tells people who T-Mobile is.

This sort of spectacle is only one gambit for Taylor though. Alongside this is a solid commitment to in-store experience and to staff.

An example of how in-store experience has been addressed is the use of flat screens at the back of the store linked by server so that key messages can be changed centrally. Messages can be tailored according to region and changed throughout the day.

Taylor has also made a commitment to training through the use of e-learning packages. T-Mobile is taking on 290 people between now and December 31 to staff the newly-opened stores.

Taylor acknowledges the challenge of getting everyone on-message but his response is to make sure that area managers only have an average of 10 stores to deal with well below the retail average of 15 to 18.

He said: With 10 stores they can do a full day and half-day in every store a month and still have days for their own team meetings recruitment and so on.

Allied to this is a cadre of training managers each with the same number of stores to deal with. All will have a day and a half in each site.

Weve got our staff attrition rate to a low 20 per cent. In my understanding that is well below average. Our challenge is to continue to manage this when we grow to 1500 to 1600 people – we are trying to do this by making sure staff feel like theyve got a career with T-Mobile and a clear promotion path.