North London-based distributor Avenir Telecom UK is to increase its sales team from eight dealer managers to 12.

It is also increasing the number of sales executives from six to 12 and the number of corporate sales managers from two to six.

The move comes as the company was confirmed as having become 3s largest distributor for the first quarter of the year. Avenir also represents Vodafone O2 Orange and T-Mobile.

Avenir Telecom UK sales and marketing director Tanny Price said:

As well as experiencing significant and sustained growth across all five networks we are putting a strong emphasis on developing new business. In particular we are looking to widen our rapidly growing base of independent dealers.

We have already set the recruitment wheels in motion. Growth however will also go hand-in-hand with further improving the service we provide to our customers.

Dealer managers and sales executives will now operate across smaller geographical areas and be able to work in greater depth with each customer concentrating in particular on individual services and products.

Tomo chairman Richard Emanuel has altered his original vision for a nationwide chain of retail outlets.

Tomo last week opened two new stores in Emanuels hometown Glasgow creating 50 new jobs.

These are much smaller than Tomos existing stores in Nottingham and East Kilbride. Although expansion is on the agenda the chain dismisses the idea that it will establish a UK-wide presence in the near future.

Our approach now is a case of suck it and see said a Tomo spokesman.

The idea of a national chain is still there it will just be a more slow and measured approach. The north of England is definitely next on the agenda but if the markets not ready we wont race ahead.

The market isnt as it was in the 1990s. Richard [Emanuel] forecast a 3G revolution but the roll-out of 3G services has been slower than he anticipated. The industry is more sophisticated now. Theres no point trying to create a national chain if the markets not ready for it.

The two new stores are in the same location as two of Emanuels former DX Communications outlets. As well as reducing the scale and rate of Tomos projected expansion Emanuel has decided to reduce the size of the new stores compared with Tomos vast retail spaces in Nottingham and Kilbride.

We have refined the original model from two years ago said the spokesperson.

The original idea was that we would open Tomo stores that were three or four times the size of existing mobile phone outlets.

The Nottingham store has the highest footfall in the country after Oxford Street in London. But in other UK streets such stores wouldnt be viable.

The two new stores in Glasgow are significantly smaller than the other Tomo stores but theyre already doing fantastic business. Richard knows what works and what doesnt work and these smaller stores do work.

We have retained the concept of highly trained staff with a real passion for the industry.

Its almost official – Motorolas new products are scoring hits with consumers.

Findings last week from research and analysis firm Gartner Group show that after a stream of disappointing quarters Motorola has turned the tide with strong sales in Western Europe of the V300 V500/525 and V600 phones.

Motorola VP for personal communications for Europe the Middle East and Africa Ron Garriques gave a cautious welcome to the report.

Its just one quarter where weve had a little bit of momentum. We are trying to improve quarter by quarter.

Its down to two things. We really focused on the European market this time and on our UMTS handsets and value-added services. Four years ago we werent number one in the world anymore.

We set ourselves the target of getting back to number one in North America Latin America and China. We looked then at the European market and changed our mindset.

Garriques went on: We said that when Europe switches from GSM to UTMS we will be there. To change to UMTS was a major undertaking because we changed the whole software platform. It took us two years to nail it which is not an unreasonable amount of time.

The price cuts by our competitors have generally been on candy-bar phones so it doesnt actually affect us so much. We are pretty confident with out UMTS offerings and value-added services.

We have strengthened our handset portfolio across the board including our smartphone offerings and young-professional category. We are attacking four spaces in which we havent previously been so strong said Garriques .

According to Gartner Nokia suffered a decline in market share because of decreased sales in Western Europe and North America but worldwide sales were up by five million units.

Nokias dramatic drop in market share resulted from a weak product portfolio and the decision by operators in Western Europe to source more phones from Nokias competitors said Ben Wood principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner.

The challenge for Motorola is to maintain this strong performance. Now that it has started to regain the trust of key global operators it must keep its promises.

Jas Singh managing director of London dealer Microline says Motorola sales are improving but he adds that Motorola still has improvements to make before its phones will really appeal to consumers.

Motorola is asking us to sell more phones and is giving us extra commission but it still has a long way to go. It is resolutely sticking to its guns when it comes to its menu and its a real shame because its just not user-friendly.

Phones are becoming more complex and users need to be able to access information. Consumers love Nokia because its menu system is so simple. Motorola should follow suit.

Nokia director of corporate communications Mark Squires claims that by the end of year weak will not be a word anyone will use when talking about Nokias product portfolio.

We have another 30 product launches still to come this year he said. If you look at the uptake of the 7200 in the consumer market and the 6230 in the business market you will see the welcome they have received.

Ex-Phones 4U shop assistant Kevin Addison earlier this month pleaded guilty to 30 counts of fraud and theft and was fined 400 and ordered to pay 1200 compensation.

Addison forged more than 30 contracts and stole handsets. He left the chain last September.

A Phones 4U spokesperson said:

Any Phones 4U employee found to be involved in this type of activity will be dealt with in the strongest manner possible and will be reported to the police.

The racket was earning the gang 1 million pounds profit.

The trial and sentences follow an 18-month investigation codenamed Operation Zarzu that tracked down the men following a spate of burglaries at mobile phone shops across London between November 8 2001 and September 30 2003.

The Carphone Warehouse was one target with outlets in Richmond Woolwich Streatham Harrow Clapham Kingston Coventry Ilford Hampstead Swiss Cottage and Bexleyheath all hit by the gang.

Phones 4U shops in West Ealing Eltham Tooting Streatham Ilford Kingston and Battersea were also burgled. Other burglaries took place at the Vodafone shop in Orpington and Jessops in Kingston.

Police arrested the gang in November and they were sentenced earlier this month at Blackfriars Crown Court.

The crooks would target a prospective phone shop and carry out reconnaissance of the property often using several vehicles including vans and stolen vehicles some of which were later seized by police.

Two or more of the group would stalk the shop during the night setting off the alarms and disabling the security devices.

Police believed the gang had good knowledge of the security systems of the mobile phone shops.

The gang would hide and wait for the arrival of police or security having scaled either the roof of the building or found access to the rear.

The gang members would communicate with each other via walkie-talkie.

A police patrol would check for obvious signs of entry at the shop and finding none would leave. The gang would then break in and grab specified mobile phone handsets to order. These were then delivered to a business address in Middlesex registered to businessman Abdul Awada.

The handsets would be unlocked and re-packaged alongside bona fide and legitimately purchased mobiles that were to be exported. These boxes would then be packed into large laundry style bags and smuggled out of the country for sale abroad.

Awada 39 of 13 Corfe Close Hayes Middlesex pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handling stolen property and was sentenced to18 months

Peter William Clarkson 49 of 10 City View East Dulwich pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received an 18 month suspended sentence.

His son Peter Dennis Clarkson 26 of 134 Axminster Crescent Welling Kent pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received a five-year sentence.

William Dove 22 of 134 Axminster Crescent Welling pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received three years.

Joseph Reed of 8 Wayhill House Lough Road Camberwell was sentenced to four years.

The chief investigator detective inspector Martin Ford said: This investigation led to the arrest of a prolific and highly professional team of burglars culminating in guilty pleas before the Crown Court.

Mainline will run a series of ads in trade publications aimed at raising awareness of the uses of mobile phones and technologies in business.

Business customers responding to the insertions will be directed to a website and then forwarded on to their local Mainline dealer.

The marketing campaign is one part of its new b2b dealer programme called Business Mobile. Business Mobile also provides selected Mainline dealers with Orange accreditation and gives them extra dealer incentives.

We are confident that dealers involved will get a considerable number of leads from the marketing support we are providing through Business Mobile said Mainline head of marketing Gail Hollinshead. An increase in Orange connections should reflect that.

The seven top performing dealers selected for the Business Mobile campaign are In Touch Phone Box Lister Communications Geko Direct Direct Telecoms Phone Works and Redline Communications.

Speaking at the Nokia Connections event in Helsinki earlier this month Nokia senior vice-president of imaging and multimedia Juha Putkiranta agreed Nokia had taken its lead from other manufacturers in the design of its new 6260 clamshell phone.

Sometimes we innovate said Putkiranta. Sometimes we pay attention to what others are doing and copy with pride.

The swivel design of the new Nokia 6260 business phone launched in Helsinki with four other handsets resembles the Samsung P730 and the Motorola V80.

The 6260 can be used like a normal clamshell or opened up and folded flat so that the display faces up and it can be used as a bar phone. The display also twists 90 degrees for the camera/video function.

Kai Öistamo senior vice-president for mobile phones at Nokia said:

You have to take good ideas from wherever they come. You have to take good ideas and create something new.

We have always been open to ideas from other places. You could argue that this swivel function actually comes from video cameras. This whole movement and innovation originates there.

(See full story P18)

This follows Customs and Excises withholding of a 2.4 million VAT refund from its bulk handset division Phone Direct (Mobile News June 1)

The funding must be sanctioned by shareholders at an AGM on July 13. The funds will enable the group to resume bulk-trading activities and help finance other parts of the business.

The refinancing satisfies the working capital requirements and continues our original strategy which was to use the wholesale trading in mobile phones to get cash to grow other areas of the business. said TTG Group financial director Julian Synett.

We see this as a significant achievement in what is a difficult market to raise capital. The current climate and uncertainty about the economy has made it quite difficult for small-capital businesses like ours.

He added: It is an indication of the confidence of the institution investors in our ability to go forward.

TTG Europe has been chasing the 2.4 million VAT refund for nearly a year and the issue is to go to a VAT tribunal in October.

The bulk business remains part of our plan for the next 12 to 18 months as there will always be bulk trade in mobile phones but after that were not sure yet said Synett.

Anglia Telecom a subsidiary of TTG Group said it has remained profitable throughout despite Phone Directs situation.

Dixons is offering the phone for 49.99 as a web exclusive. Shoppers at Dixons high street stores will pay 64.99. The best price The Carphone Warehouse website can offer is 74.99.

Scott Allison of Glasgow-based Freedom Mobiles said: Its an incredible deal. This has got to be about numbers. Either 3 has to get enough customers to reach a critical mass by a certain date or it is taking part in a contest to see who can lose the most money in the least time. The logical conclusion is that soon 3 will be offering pre-pay handsets for nothing.

Amazon.com and Dixons are making little profit on the handsets. The E313 listed by 3 at 212.00. The network offers 180 in commission so the handset costs 30 to buy in.

A 3 spokesman told Mobile News Pricing is up to individual dealers. There are some very good offers out there especially on-line which has historically been more competitive than the High Street.

The E313 on ThreePay is just part of an offering that is currently delivering an extremely healthy ARPU of 44 per month. Our top-end phones are comparable in price to top end GPRS handsets from other operators he said.

The 20 Turbosound brand of headset fits phones by all manufacturers and comes with three different moulded earpieces which exclude background noise and enable the user to listen to audio at a lower level.

They were designed by audio specialist Andrew Shiach who has worked with musicians such as Radiohead Pink Floyd and AC/DC and have been developed in association with the deaf charity RNIDwhich represents the interests of nine million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK.

Music is becoming quite an issue in the mobile space as more phones come equipped with MP3 players so it is a good time to enter the market said Shiach.

The noise problem is a big issue and this product is a serious attempt to try to educate people about the potential damage done by earphones.

Shiach is looking for his contacts in the music industry to endorse his range of audio accessories and raise the profile of both the product and the problem.

The Carphone Warehouse will have stock of the new headsets in its shops in October.

Advanced Communications Solutions which is distributing the product to retailers is also in talks with Dixons and Orange.

Caudwell Group accessories division Dextra will distribute the headsets to the independent dealer channel.