A NORTH-East firm offering students the cheapest deals for mobile phones has re-launched its website for the new academic year.

The company, www.studentmobiles. has implemented the latest technological advances to redesign its site to handle the massive growth which has seen it receive more than 3.5 million hits a month.

The company, which was set up in 1999 by University of Northumbria graduate Steven Bell, 23, from Gateshead is now the top mobile phone site with UK students.

He said: "The growth of demand has been phenomenal in the last few months, mainly because of our accreditation from the National Union of Students, as the preferred supplier to students in the UK. We have redesigned our site before, but this project was a massive overhaul and design team, Ethic Internet, was briefed to start from scratch."