The Register is reporting today on a new music service from Carphone Warehouse designed to run alongside the MyMobileLife website launched recently.

Virgin Digital, owned by Richard Branson, are managing the new MyMobileMusic service which is only compatible with Windows phones at present. Apparently iPod users might get a look in at some stage in the future.

Tracks cost 79p each and the site uses a nice, clean interface with lost of bright colours to appeal to young buyers.

Orange, the UK mobile network, is understood to have signed a deal with Carphone Warehouse to allow them to continue selling Orange contracts until January 2008.

After Vodafone pulled its new contracts away from Carphone Warehouse there had been speculation one of the other networks might follow. It appears that Orange took the opportunity and managed to negotiate a much better deal with Carphone.

Strangely the new deal requires Carphone to connect a certain number of Orange broadband customers despite the fact this is in direct competition with the TalkTalk broadband they have been pushing hard this year.

Apparently the new deal requires Orange to pay less money up front and then top up the commission with payments relating to the customer spend in the future. Interestingly Orange are also restricting the number of online sales Carphone Warehouse can make which indicates Orange wants to sell more contracts on its own website rather than via a third party.

Via Mobile Today

Carphone Warehouse, Europes largest mobile phone retailer, wants exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK later this year.

While the final decision will be down to Apple we wouldn’t bet against them choosing a single retailer for the UK like they did with Cingular in the US.

Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, discussed the iPhone during the companies quarterly results and said he is looking for an exclusive deal with Apple in the UK. Optimistically the company has a pre-order form on their website already.

Although the results for 2006 were very good for Carphone, which has 700 stores in the UK and has signed up 3.26 million subscribers in the last 3 months, it is suffering after losing the rights to sell Vodafone contracts. Since Vodafone signed an exclusive deal with Phones4U Carphone has been unable to sell any Vodafone deals in its stores. Dunstone sees this as the biggest threat for 2007.

If Carphone Warehouse can secure exclusive rights to the iPhone its clear that Vodafone would come running back pretty quickly. For Apple to sign with a retailer in the UK rather than a network makes a lot of sense. Networks are a matter for personal preference and a lot of people would not be willing to switch or pay an upgrade fee to get the iPhone on their current contract. Carphone would have access to the majority of networks, all of them if Vodafone signs another deal, and is best placed to sell more iPhones than any other retailer.

The strong results for 2006 are apparently due to cheap prices of Motorola handsets resulting in large volumes of sales.

Via The Register

The Carphone Warehouse has renewed its deal with mobile network O2 to allow the retailer to continue to sell phones through its stores.

Carphone Warehouse has pledged to sign up more users to O2 than it does at present, presumably by pushing O2 deals harder, and will receive a lower commission per sale.

Last year Carphone Warehouse, the UK’s largest mobile phone retailer, was snubbed by Vodafone and is now not allows to sell new Vodafone contracts in its stores.

Vodafone is now tied to an exclusive deal with Phones4U and there had been fears that O2 would follow Vodafone and sign a deal elsewhere.

Carphone Warehouse have launched a cool new service to bling your mobile phone with Swarovski crystals.

Send your boring old handset to the Carphone Warehouse “Bling My Thing” team and they will cover it with bling crystals just like in the pictures below.

The service costs £100 and includes a courtesy handset to use while your phone is being blinged up.

Via Gadget Candy

Thanks to strong Christmas mobile phone sales Carphone Warehouse have posted third quarter revenues up over 30%.

Total mobile phone connections for the 13 weeks leading up to Christmas were up nearly 20% at 3.26 million. Carphone Warehouse have suffered this year after underestimating demand for their free broadband service.

Carephone Warehouse Chief Executive Charles Dunstone said
We have had another very good Christmas period. Delivering profitable like-for-like growth after last year’s very strong performance is a great achievement.

AOL has recently sold its UK arm to the Carphone Warehouse for £370 million making it the third largest broadband provider in the UK.

With 700 stores in the UK alone and over 1900 in total Carphone Warehouse is the largest retailer in Europe.

Carphone Warehouse has won back some of the business it lost from mobile phone giant Vodafone today with the news it can sell upgrades for the network.

Back in October Carphone Warehouse was told that Vodafone would only sell through rival UK store Phones4U in a move that saw the retailers shares tumble 20%.

Whether Carphone Warehouse had to beg for the business is unclear but Vodafone is showing huge arrogance in cutting out the largest retailer in the UK.

Nobody from either company was available for comment when I called them this afternoon.

Carphone Warehouse is telling customers to expect long delays before the company is able to install its broadband service. Since the mobile phone retailer first offered the free broadband service in April call centres have been inundated with up to 20,000 calls per day.

Over 340,000 new customers have signed up and 100,000 of those are still waiting for the free broadband to be installed. Carphone Warehouse are estimating the backlog to be cleared soon and the services to be installed by August.

The telecommunications retailer is investing more than £100m in its ‘free’ broadband offer, including start-up losses, in its bid to challenge BT. The offer requires customers to pay £11 a month for line rental and sign up for Talk Talk’s landline service for £9.99 a month.

Mobile phone network, Orange, launched its own “free” broadband offer last week, although it is available only to contract customers who spend at least £30 a month. The move is part of the company’s initiative to offer “converged” fixed-line and mobile services and the re-branding of Wanadoo under the Orange name.