An announcement that the two companies have drawn up Heads of Agreement is expected by Christmas as a prelude to a full merger sometime during the first three months of next year.

There is no plan for any cash to change hands. The merger will be a share swap exercise engineered by Ora and Kondors venture capitalist backers Granville Baird (Ora) and Friends Ivory (Kondor) who are expected to eventually float their equity in a public offering.

The two firms are now in preliminary talks to establish areas of common ground.

Ora managing director Ken Jacobson told Mobile News:

At this stage these discussions are preliminary and no conclusive and binding decisions have been made by the boards of either company regarding the form of any future co-operation or alliance.

It is understood Jacobson will be chief executive of a combined 40 million turnover Ora/Kondor operation. Ora founder Malcolm Hanson and Kondor founder Malcolm Bartlett will continue to be non-executive directors of a merged operation.

Ora and Kondor are similar accessory companies in that large quantity of shares of both companies are held by venture capitalists

Both organisations have large trade accounts. Ora supplies Orange. Kondor deals with The Link and BTCellnet. The Carphone Warehouse is a major customer of both. Such large trade customers are expanding and require a more value-added services which a merged Ora and Kondor would be better placed to support.

No detailed integration plans have yet been drawn up regarding what a merged organisation would be called.

Skinner ITVs highest-paid comedy act is the latest in a long line of major celebrities to present the Mobile News Awards. He follows Rory Bremner (1995) Lily Savage (1996) Bob Monkhouse (1997) Ruby Wax (1998) Paul Daniels (1999) and Jim Davidson (2000).

Avenir which was in unsuccessful takeover talks with Banner Telecom last year is quoted on the French Stock Exchange at E1.2 billion.

The four networks are delighted with this move and have fully supported the acquisition said CMC managing director Geoff Walters.

Avenir was keen to expand into the UK and CMC offered the perfect partnership through schemes like the Mobile Alliance.

Also the wide range of affinity deals that provide the company with extended routes to market their products and services were of key significance.

Dealers will benefit from stronger buying power. Avenirs investment in our UK operation will mean more security and opportunities for CMC and this will have a positive impact on our dealer base. (Full story P14).

Some dealers believed the extra commission was only available on connections to Orange tariffs and not from conversions to Orange Value Promise.

However Orange has confirmed that all new connections regardless of tariff apply.

The increase is to bring the commission levels in line with those of our competitors. The increase is applied across the board to all new connections said an Orange spokesperson.

The news comes only weeks after Orange raised commission levels on handset upgrades.

Negotiations between RSL COM and Vodafone concerning the disposal of the remaining 30 per cent of its consumer base are understood to be nearing conclusion and an announcement is expected in the next 60 days.

The total number number of consumers involved in both sales is believed to be in the region of 100000. A similar number of business-to-business customers will remain with RSL COM.

Over recent months RSL Coms consumer base acquired mainly as a result of the companys purchase of Motorola TelCo some 30 months ago has sat uneasily in the portfolio as the companys business-to-business focus has become steadily more defined.

The sale signals a refocusing by RSL COM as a specialist business services provider. It follows acquisitions earlier this year of two of the UKs leading business-to-business ISPs (Internet Service Providers) REDNET and Voyager. RSL COM will now concentrate on supplying integrated fixed voice mobile data Internet and network services to the business market.

RSL COM will invest money from the sale in ramping up capacity on its 1200 km UK fibre network. The company is also preparing to rollout a broadband DSL Internet product to small businesses across the (Cont P2) UK in the coming months and launch a range of new value-added internet portal services to the corporate market including voice over IP and IP private networks.

Explains RSL COM UK MD Barry Mowbray.

RSL COM has built an extremely powerful position supplying fixed voice mobile data networking and internet services to business customers – a one-stop package that no other telecommunications company has been able to offer.

With the sale of almost three-quarters of our consumer business we can focus more on developing and marketing a stream of leading edge IP-based services to existing and new business customers.

We will continue to provide the latest mobile technologies and award-winning customer care to our remaining consumer mobile customers. RSL COM has a solid and profitable business-to-business customer base.

One of our main drivers for the next year is to raise this profitability even further by leveraging our strengths in bundled solutions and customer retention.

Says RSL COM UKs group sales director Matt Crabtree

We are delighted to have done the deal and got this phase of our life over with. Being able to devote all our time and energies to our business accounts will mean a huge amount to RSL COM. It has been extremely challenging for us to look after the two breeds of customers.

This development will allow us to sell and support the broad range of business services we offer properly.

We now understand the fundamental difference between the business customer and the consumer but we have only come to understand it since we started to deal with both kinds of customer on the acquisition of Motorola Telco. Its a phenomenon you can only understand when you are dealing on a day-to-day basis with the needs of both sets of people. It has been tough for us as an organisation but it is the business customers with whom we really feel we can make a difference adds Crabtree.

The message to independent dealers is that this deal enables RSL COM to focus on the opportunities presented by the business-to-business market.

We can now offer a truly dedicated and differentiated support for their business customers. Everyone has been preaching for the dealer community to embrace the business market.

More than that we believe they have to look to bundling other products and services together be they fixed line internet related or data networking services.

Its about the peripheral support on offer as much as the raw product itself said Crabtree.

Gary Sheppard who came to RSL when the company bought Advanced Communications 15 months ago and is understood to have been closely involved in the deal as has already been reported is leaving RSL COM.

Says Sheppard

At the moment Im looking forward to doing nothing. I hope to continue in the mobile industry at some point but I want to work for the right company at my pace.

Ive supported RSL since they bought Advanced. I hope they achieve their aspirations and believe they are set to do so. Personally though the time was right for me to move on.

Though my relationship with RSL wasnt a marriage made in heaven neither was it a bad one.

We had slightly different ideas about how the business would progress. That doesnt mean they were right or I was right. It just means we had different opinions which is what business is all about adds Sheppard.

Richard Dixon head of consumer and select marketing at BTCellnet told Mobile News:

We are pleased that we managed to keep RSLs customers which are generally of good quality in the BTCellnet fold.

As RSL COM want to focus on the business market our taking on the consumer element of their base is good for both sides. We will be continuing to work with and support RSL COM in their business endeavours.

We have a communications plan in mind to tell customers of the change in ownership that has taken place.

This is a legal obligation but we want to make the migration as smooth as possible so well be trying to make sure that the tariffs remain consistent for example explains Dixon.

This deal has come about because RSL wants to focus on the business market. It is not us going out and being predatory and has been driven more by RSL COM than it has been by us.

Having said that I would make the point that we are happy to take these RSL customers on board concludes Dixon. It is good business all round.

It is Alan Hadden (GSM Sup-pliers Association) Francesca Cura (EMC) Jacqui Brooks (Federation of Communication Services) Tom Wills-Sandford (Federation of the Electronics Industry) Ken Trowbridge (ex Vodafone Retail MD) Mark Hodgson (ex-PocketPhone Shop sales director) Jack Knight (ex-marketing director of Cellcom) dealer Chris Evans (Kiss Communications) dealer Mike Buckland (Mobile Communications) Gilly McCarthy (ex-BTCellnet sponsorship manager).

Judging takes place on February 8. Deadline for entries is January 29. Deliver to Mobile News 134 Petherton Road Highbury. London N5 2RT.

The sold-out Mobile News Awards gala dinner is at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 15 hosted by Frank Skinner (see White Lines).

The development is not unexpected. Before Christmas distribution boss John Barton warned dealers and distributors that measures would be introduced to combat box splitting if the practice didnt stop (Mobile News 27 November).

Im sad that we have to introduce clawback but Im not going to expose One 2 One when the other networks are taking measures against rogue dealers said One2One distribution and sales boss John Barton.

One 2 One is behaving sensibly in the way we address the issue of value under current market conditions. I get the impression that Vodafone is too. However I see no sign of a similar attitude from BTCellnet or Orange. What is not open to debate is that the one way to stop box breaking is to remove subsidy altogether said Barton.

Even with its higher price point One 2 One still offers an attractive proposition to the unscrupulous dealer and box stripper. I cannot afford for One 2 One to continue to be isolated from our three competitor networks and their view of the world.

One 2 One has already terminated some dealers and found some distributors wanting. The latter have been engaged in discussion as to the financial ramification for dealer and network alike.

Theres a different kind of dialogue taking place with distributors because they are sometimes in a position where they are sinned against by dealers. As long as they follow due process all we can do is encourage them to tighten up their procedures said Barton.

Dealer Mike Buckland is currently disputing the networks right to impose clawback and has taken his case to Oftel (Mobile News 2 October). (Cont P2) Buckland argues that just as a shop owner who sells a Swiss Army knife cant be held responsible for any crime committed with the knife so a dealer cant be held responsible if a phone bought from him does not end up connected to the network.

Says Barton: If anything comes from Mike Bucklands actions we will have to react to them. But I feel he is unlikely to succeed. I believe there are enough aspects and leeway to clawback to make the relationship seem reasonable to any arbiter.

A statement for the The Federation of Communication Services said:

The FCS has supported the industry in the establishment and operation of the highly successful Mobile Communications Industry Crime Prevention Scheme over the past five years and naturally regrets that this phase has come to an end.

The Crime Action Group considers the Scheme has been highly successful and has been able to identify and put a stop to a whole range of other illicit practices perpetrated against the industry. The credit for this goes to the inspectors on the ground.

A significant number of arrests and successful prosecutions have resulted from their diligence determination and skill and their working in close co-operation with local police forces where their investigations have uncovered the roots of criminal activity.

However since the inauguration of the Scheme five years ago much has changed in relation to the products and services offered by the networks and handset manufacturers and the way these are distributed in the marketplace.

At a meeting last Friday (January 12) of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Group comprising representatives from the mobile operators and handset manufacturers confirmed that an industry crime prevention scheme of some kind will continue.

The Crime Prevention Scheme was set up in 1996 and operated by the Federation of Communications Services. It used ex-police men to tackle mobile phone crime at dealer level. Funding and direction was provided by the four networks and main handset manufacturers.

The Crime Prevention Scheme was established as an industry self policing programme supported by a team of industry specialist inspectors. It had a highly focussed brief to stop the practice of receiving and selling on stolen and re-programmed handsets and claiming network connection commissions in the process. The Rules of the Scheme are still in place.

The closure of the scheme will result in nine employees including some former police officers losing their jobs.

BTCellnet was the network least happy with the direction of the Crime Prevention Scheme.

As the face of the industry changed an increasing amount of the inspectors time was being spent outside the initial remit though to the benefit of the industry as a whole. I wanted the CPS to grow to officially encompass the inspectors developing roles but was told that couldnt happen said BTCellnet security chief John Cross.

We agreed the way forward would be with a new scheme that may encompass some of the elements of the old scheme but we have not yet decided what elements if any. It may in fact be that we cant take the old scheme forward. We may have to renegotiate with the DTI .

The Chinese-made travel chargers which bear false CE markings failed independent tests ordered by Luton Trading Standards. It was found that people using the product are at risk from electrical shock.

The tests discovered the unit had faults including inadequate safety isolation failed electric signal strength requirement plug face measurements outside BS standard tolerances and risk of electric shock due to construction of the printed circuit board and transformer.

Elite spokesman Daniel Lennox-Foreman told Mobile News:

We have not issued a recall since we believe only a single batch to the customer is affected.

We dont know the numbers involved. We have tested all the units we have here and they are all OK. We have the EC Conformance Certificate to prove the product is compliant with the regulations.

However the German test house Electronic Technology Systems (ETS) whose name appears on the EC Declaration of Conformity confirmed it had not issued the document and that it was likely to be a forgery.

European Telecom issued a statement saying:

The details of the situation are being fully investigated and we are co-operating with Trading Standards. European Telecom takes great care with the quality of its products and would not knowingly buy a product that is below the acceptable standards set by law. This particular product was one of a very small quantity and purchased from another UK distributor to overcome short-term delivery problems

The fault was reported by a customer who bought the product from a branch of DX Communications in Luton. It blew apart when plugged in. The customer contacted Luton trading standards officers.