They are Co-Star Electronics Dolphin Panorama The Accessory Zone Siemens Samsung Prime-mark NEC Motorola Intelliplus Hugh Symons Aspen and Alcatel.

Press who left NEC last Friday after 10 years Mobile News September 4 declined to comment on the tip that he was joining the motor giant But he did agree his new employer was a major multinational company not currently working in the telecoms industry.

His departure comes six months after Phone People sales director Paul Diffin and commercial director Scott Forbes left the company threatening to sue for constructive dismissal.

Meanwhile the Southport-based dealer chain said it is no longer looking for outside investment. Earlier this year joint managing director Amjad Baig confirmed that a deal was close to being announced. But Baig said last week the company was doing well from its 150 stores and no longer had any need to re-finance.

At the time of going to press JWE chief executive Tony Farmer would neither deny nor confirm a deal. No-one from GMC was available for comment either..

GMC headed by Graham Cornhill is now one of the top five independent dealerships in the UK with 37 stores doing 5000 connections a month.

JWE said in July it was looking for a buyer for the shops (Mobile News July 24) because of eroding profit margins and the dominance of pre-pay and voucher sales in the consumer market. The company was already in negotiations with a purchaser for its retail operation. But Farmer gave no hint as to the buyers identity.

Jacobson has worked for Compaq been managing director of a direct catalogue-based PC and supplies business and was UK chief executive of Software AG.

Ken is sales and marketing driven. I am confident he will bring a fresh new approach to the business said Ora founder and non-executive director Malcolm Hanson.

Vodafone UK chief executive Peter Bamford told Mobile News in an exclusive interview:

There is no doubt that exporting of pre-pay is a problem of the business and it is an industry-wide problem. We do monitor the levels of pre-pay usage very carefully.

There are certain characteristics and patterns of usage which can indicate the degree to which something odd has happened to a phone. In terms of absolute numbers of phones that there is no doubt some are going abroad. But as a percentage of our total pre-pay base it is small. We are talking probably over the last year about less than five per cent of total pre-pay ownership ending up out of the country.

Weve taken a number of measures over the past six to nine months to stop this as far as we can. We think we have succeeded in bringing the quantities fo pre-pay going abroad down significantly over the last four or five months. One measure is that there are certain circumstances or non-usage where we will claw back the activation bonus from the distributor.

Vodafone apparently noticed the problem when it realised that subscribers being put forward for connection by PocketPhone Shop were not achieving good credit scores.

Vodafone communications manager Corrinne Norris said:

Vodafone Connect has given PocketPhone Shop notice of termination of their contract although discussions are ongoing and it may be that we continue to work with them on the right commercial basis. The reason for notice being given in the first place is that there has been a marked deterioration in the quality as well as the quantity of the business that they have been putting on to Vodafone.

PocketPhone Shop managing director Andrew Fryatt added:

Vodafone has been unhappy over some months with the quality of connections through PPS. Since then there has been a change of management. We are in discussions at the moment.

Vodafone and we expect we are going to carry on trading. Vodafone want to re-negotiate the terms of our trading agreement with them. Im sure we will end up selling Vodafone product from Vodafone Connect said Fryatt.

Vodafone says its decision to end its contract had no connection with the fact that PocketPhone Shop is owned by One 2 One

The box comes with 10 worth of calls in the box.

Vodafone will launching Smartstep with a 12 million advertising campaign featuring actor Hamish Clarke who has fronted all the Vodafone pre-pay commercials so far.

Smartstep is being sold with a choice of Alcatel One Touch Club ( 39.99) Sagem MC920 ( 39.99) Trium Mars ( 39.99) Nokia 5110 ( 59.99) and Nokia 3210 ( 99.99).

JWE is expected to soon announce that it has sold its chain of 21 shops probably to GMC Holdings which runs Mobile Phone Centre dealerships.

Following Mobile News story on September 18 about the proposed sale JWE CEO Tony Farmer said:

Theres been no further movement Im afraid. Im hoping to be able to tell you something fairly soon.

We announced back in July that we were looking to dispose of the retail businesses and that we were hoping to do so fairly soon. That is still the case.

We are in discussions with the same parties as we have been in discussions with all along. These things take time and because we are a public company. Im afraid I cant be any more forthcoming until the deal is done. Im hopeful that we will have something more concrete to say in time for the next issue of Mobile News said Farmer.

GMC Holdings has not issued any denial of our report that it was in line to pick up the JWE shops.

GMC has around 37 stores producing approximately 5000 connections a month.

The work has been done for us by Kendal-based company bfinternet (www.bfinternet.co.uk) who have already created over 400 websites and internet related projects.

Bfinternet set up a new division this year to develop content consultancy design and production services for WAP and the mobile internet. To date bfinternet have created over 2500 wml pages.

It is appropriate that Mobile News is one of the first magazines available on WAP said bfinternet managing director Andrew Read.

Ora will supply DX outlets with Ora and Grab-branded accessories. Grab is a new youth-orientated brand of coloured accessories designed to appeal to the teenage market Ora is currently expanding its operations and facilities. The company recently appointed a new managing director Ken Jacobson (Mobile News September 18).