T-Mobile to offer online calculator

The service was launched on the back of research that discovered a third of SMEs have not reviewed mobile costs for two years or more.
The research conducted by YouGov and T-Mobile also found 69 per cent of SME managers believed it would be easier to predict monthly bills and control business costs more effectively if all mobile voice data and text services were combined in one simple plan.

Orange to start dealer cull part II

Orange would not be drawn on numbers but said that it would not hesitate to cut off dealers and distance resellers that did not meet its criteria for value connections.
Orange cut off two dealers one direct Orange reseller and one indirect last month.
"We are reviewing our position with a number of dealers" said An Orange spokesperson. "No cuts have been made yet but they will come. No decision has yet been made about numbers. It is unclear whether we will make only a few cuts at a time or many cuts at once."
Orange started an internal process last year to identify dealers and distance resellers that were delivering low-value connections. That process is now completed. It will examine the data about each and every Orange dealer and choose which to retain and which to fire next month.
Orange´s assessment of its dealer base rests on customer lifetime value data which tells the network how much profit it makes on each customer for both direct and third-party connections.
Orange will use the data to set targets for all its partners and will drop dealers that do not meet its targets.
Orange head of independent retail Chris Hough told Mobile News in January: "We have paid good money for commissions because we want to reward dealers not consumers. We will strengthen our relationships with the dealers that bring us good value business but we won´t hesitate to cull a few that fall below that threshold."
Earlier this month Orange signed 16 of its closest independent dealers to its new Specialist Partner Programme which will be phased over the next eight months to replace its longstanding Orange Business Partner scheme.
Orange´s specialist partners will receive a revenue share based on customer spend and have access to SIM-free Orange stock. Orange will recruit more dealers to the programme over the coming months based on the data from its internal dealer assessment.
l Orange has refused to rule out the possibility that it would price-match T-Mobile´s Flext tariffs with its Orange Value Promise (OVP) but said that such a move was not imminent.
Sources revealed last week that Orange was preparing to price-match Flext and/or put more money behind its animal packages in an attempt to stave off the flow of custom to T-Mobile.
An Orange spokesman responded: "There are no firm plans to add Flext to the OVP at the moment."

P4U in 1.5m footie ads

The campaign features TV print and outdoor advertising and runs until April 28. All marketing will focus on T-Mobile tariffs and services and be themed around the forthcoming World Cup football competition. The Nokia 6280 will also feature heavily as will T-Mobile football content.
"The FIFA world Cup is already generating great excitement among our core target audiences" said Phones 4U marketing director Jim Slater. "We are delighted to be partnering with T-Mobile to communicate our bespoke FIFA World Cup activity via an integrated TV press and outdoor campaign."
All marketing material will feature Phones 4U´s marketing spokesman Jack´.

O2 treats channel to two new tariffs

O2 500 offers 500 minutes of cross-network anytime minutes; 100 text picture or video messages to any network; free voicemail in the UK and rollover of unused minutes and messages to the next month. The tariff is available for £35 a month on an 18-month contract until June 2006.
O2 Double Talkalotmore doubles the standard Talkalotmore pre-pay service so that customers get 300 UK off-peak minutes with a £15 monthly top-up and 600 minutes with a £30 monthly top-up.
l O2 said it had to recall just 8000 X1 handsets after three customers complained that the devices overheated and posed a fire risk. O2 has sold 140000 of the handsets since launch in September 2003 but the network said the majority of X1 customers had already upgraded to new devices. It has replaced the 8000 active X1 devices still on the market with BenQ-made X2i handsets.
An O2 spokesman said: "140000 X1 handsets were sold but we stopped selling it last year so we have only had 8000 returns. Most customers have upgraded by now."

Dealers unfazed by Dixons rebrand

The move estimated to cost £7 million will re-brand all 190 electrical product stores as Currys.digital. The Dixons brand name will only be used for its web retailing operations.
Phone Dealer Forum founder Jez Harris commented: "As far as I´m concerned this is just a name change. They´ll still sell the same products so I don´t think it´ll make too much difference."
JAG managing director John George agreed: "It´ll make very little difference to us. But DSG knows what it´s doing so there could be an ulterior motive behind the name change."
DSG claims the change will enable Currys and Dixons to clearly differentiate their offer through two distinct channels retailing and e-tailing.
DSG chief executive John Clare said: "I am very excited about the prospects for the Dixons brand as a pure-play e-tailer. We intend to become the most successful electrical retailer on the web."
But Mobile Phones Direct CEO Karl Borges expressed doubts. "To re-brand to Currys after two decades of moving the Dixons brand away from white goods will cause customer confusion" he said. "That said throw enough money at anything and it may just be a success."

3 embarks on NI direct dealerships

A 3 spokeswoman said: "Only about 10 per cent of our outlets are being looked at and this decision does not signify problems with dealers in Northern Ireland."
Direct dealership will mean outlets deal directly with 3 rather than a distributor. However 3 denies this is a result of bad relationships.
"We rolled out 3G to Northern Ireland later than in the UK so our relationships with distributors are less mature" said the spokeswoman. "We saw this as an opportunity to go direct with certain outlets."

Dealer anger over mobile tax

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans in the 2006 Budget to tax workers who own second mobiles including BlackBerry communicators.
DM Telecom MD Dino Maroudias described the tax as "ridiculous" and "unmanageable". He added: "How on earth are they going to implement this? It´s just another stealth tax from a government bent on taking money from people."
Up until now employers used to be able to loan their employees up to five mobile phones each for their private use. However the Budget outlined new plans that mean only one phone per employee will be tax exempt.
KPMG partner Ian Hopkinson said: "It´s signalling an end to employers offering both a mobile and a BlackBerry to staff. In future companies are likely to force staff to use just one mobile device. This will clearly have a knock-on effect on handset providers."
Surrey Car Telephones business development manager Nick Oldham said he had seen no immediate backlash. "At present no customers have cancelled and there´s not been any real feedback on the issue" he said. However the tax could result in a surge in BlackBerry sales as people won´t want to be without e-mail access which could be detrimental to mobile handset sales."
The changes come into effect on April 6 but are not retrospective.

Yes to spend 5m on IT

The company said the revamp was necessary to cope with the increased workload on its back-end systems as it prepares for 100 per cent annual expansion for the next five years.
Much of the spend will go on the company´s Business Partner extranet capability. It has promised to develop web-based connection processing and re-sign applications.
Yes MD Keith Curran said the company´s internal systems would be fully overhauled.

T-Mobile in union pay clash

The CWU said that proposals by T-Mobile to overhaul performance related bonuses worth up to £1000 per employee could lead to a serious loss of earning potential for many staff members.
CWU telecoms organiser Nick Childs said: "What is currently being proposed would be to the financial detriment of the vast majority of our T-Mobile membership. We will challenge both the proposal and the transparency of the consultation currently in progress. We will also support any member who wants to take out a grievance about the impact T-Mobile´s proposals would have on them."
T-Mobile said that the performance bonuses had been replaced not scrapped. It said that employees had better ability to earn higher bonuses under the pay review.
A T-Mobile spokeswoman said: "Following full consultation T-Mobile has replaced existing bonus arrangements for customer services advisers with a new scheme. This increases the employee´s opportunity to earn higher-level bonuses."
Separately trade unions representing O2 staff recommended that O2 members accept O2´s latest pay proposals. Unions started to ballot members last week.
Assistant secretary and lead negotiator Grace Mitchell said: "We´d have liked a bit more but have accepted that this is the best offer we can reach through negotiation."
An O2 spokesman said: "The trade unions will recommend the proposals and consult with their members. We expect the results back in the middle of the month."
O2 shop staff will see a consolidated pay rise of between two and nine per cent with most retail grades receiving six per cent or more.

New powers for Customs on IMEI records

The measure was revealed in last month´s Budget statement by Chancellor Gordon Brown.
He said: "The measure will only be exercised where Customs has reasonable grounds to believe that the additional records might assist in identifying supplies on which VAT might go unpaid. This fraud most commonly arises from supplies of mobile phones and computer chips."
The measure is intended to stamp out VAT fraud and organised crime.
Thefts of large consignments of mobile phones have increased dramatically in recent months. Metropolitan Police detective inspector Paul Douglas told Mobile News that most thefts are either carried out to set up a VAT fraud or to remove Customs-stamped boxes from a supply chain.
"These kinds of attacks are fuelling VAT fraud" he said.
The Budget confirmed the right of Customs officers to apply date stamps to goods and to record goods by scanning them.
Until now insurance companies have not required traders to record IMEI numbers. Royston Ford a surveyor and investigator at Cunningham Lindsay loss adjusters said that insurers have started making losses on the mobile phone trade and have pushed for a policy change on the recording of IMEI numbers.
"The vast majority of policies issued to mobile phone traders have had no requirements whatsoever for IMEI retention" said Ford.
"A certain level of risk management is OK for insurers as long as they are making money. But as soon as they start to lose money insurers will look at their policies again. That´s the bottom line."
The Budget report stated: "The measure will supplement Customs´ existing power to specify record-keeping requirements for all businesses of a particular description. It will enable record-keeping requirements to be imposed where they are necessary to help combat fraud."
See crime feature page 30