The Carphone Warehouse also scooped the Best Customer Service award which was presented at a gala black-tie Awards dinner/dance hosted by the UKs top comedian Jim Davidson at the Hilton on Park Lane on March 23 and attended by 1100 guests. (Full results P34 Pictures P36).

Banner joint managing director Mike Sharpe told Mobile News:

We are in discussions with a company who are interested in buying us.

Weve signed confidentiality and exclusivity agreements up to January 31 which gives them time to do their due diligence and make a firm offer if they are interested.

Avenir became one of the first mobile GSM telephone distributors in 1994 when it opened its first phone shop in Marseilles-Provence airport. It claims to have 33 per cent of the French accessory market.

The first two products have been targeted at specific markets utilising Siemens GSM handsets and two mini notebook PCs giving business mobile office capability connected to the World Wide Web through a bespoke business services portal.

Initial sales channels will be High Street Retail IT Distribution and mobile phone dealers with a specialist focusing on corporate sales.

European Telecom has posted a pre-tax profit of 1.4 million on turnover of 112 million for the six months to the end of September.

This is a 119 per cent increase over the pre-tax profit of 643000 on turnover of 111 million for the same period in 1998.

The company invested a further 500000 in its Racal joint venture Global Telematics.

The UK sales distribution division increased sales by 30 per cent and gross profit by 137 per cent against the same period last year. Turnover in the export sales division was down by some 30 per cent in the first half of the year but the gross profit contribution was down by only 16 per cent. Over 75 per cent of European Telecoms export turnover is now with European network operators and service providers.

The accessories (Cont P2) division TAG almost doubled its turnover compared with the same period last year resulting in a 53 per cent increase in gross profit contribution. European Telecoms South African subsidiary formed last year made an operating loss.

We have recently re-negotiated our exclusive contract with MTN one of the two South African Network Operators and can now market and sell TAG accessories to the entire South African market said European Telecom chairman and chief executive Warren Hardy.

The ServiceXpress repair business increased turnover by 97 per cent during the period. European Telecom is believed to be looking for a new financial director after the most recent one tendered his resignation last month.

Administrator KPMG confirmed that there had been a great deal of interest in potential purchasers for the shops including one approach from a foreign player in the mobile comms industry.

KPMG joint administrative receiver John Dare told Mobile News there had been about 60 responses to an advertisement in the financial press offering the Talk! shops for sale.

Dare said it was expected a deal would be tied up before Christmas. But he said it was highly unlikely that any unsecured creditors would get their money back.

TCL was set up in 1984. Despite a turnover of 21 million in the year to June the company ran into trading difficulties and lost its battle with its bank to continue its lending.

As well as providing handsets MArtin Dawes will be setting up a private wire system that will allow mobiles to be accessed as internal extension phones with a four digit internal number.

The service billed through Cellcom allows people to run a mobile phone without having to sign a contract or buy pre-pay vouchers.

After an initial charge of 39.99 for the Mitsubishi Trium phone the package costs 6 a month inclusive of calls. After this calls cost 25p a minute peak rate and 12.5p off peak up to a limit of 16.

Credit is topped up by calling a Carphone Warehouse phone line or visiting a Carphone Warehouse store. A text message warns users when they have 2 left to go on their 16 limit.

We think the gap between prepay and subscription is too big. But there are lots of people who still want the reliability of a subscription but dont want to pay 17.50 a month said Dunstone.

This was planned before Virgin Mobile came on the scene. Were buying the airtime wholesale from One 2 One and paying Cellcom as a facilities house to provide the billing. It is being promoted as a separate brand. There is no credit check. They buy the phone on their credit card. We charge 6 every month and give 6 of calls. There is 30 days notice to cancel. If they make calls over that we bill them by SMS not paper. You can go into any of our stores and print off a copy for itemised billing.

By Virgin coming into the market the market has changed to an extent. There are now other people being virtual networks so were adapting to that he said.

Theres certainly a big challenge here at Ora and Im looking forward to be part of it said McLuskie.

Ora has just won a big contract to supply BTCellnet with accessories.

Said a Virgin spokesperson:

Were ahead of forecast and ahead of expectations. Theres been a good mix across the range. Obviously the cheaper handsets have sold most but weve been selling handsets across the price range. The volume of internet sales has come as a surprise. We were doing 20 per cent of sales before Christmas via the web. We forecast between five per cent and 10 per cent in the post launch period moving towards 20 at the end of the first year. Our aim was to get 25 per cent of sales on the web by the end of our first year. Were nearly there already.