Staff Reporter

The leaflet has been withdrawn but only to bring it up to date with new One 2 One tariffs and handset prices.

Virgins lawyers wrote to The Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone demanding the immediate withdrawal of the in-store leaflet because of inaccuracies and misleading information concerning not just our service but also the One 2 One and Orange tariffs.

Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson says that if The Carphone Warehouse: fails to recommend Virgin Mobile when Virgin offers a better deal (which is in most cases) The Carphone Warehouse would be in breach of public trust.

It would also demonstrate that The Carphone Warehouse only represents the commercial interests of the existing four operators – and not consumers Branson claims.

In addition Virgin Mobile has written to 250 Carphone Warehouse store managers to say:

We appreciate how much you and your staff take pride in offering your customers simple impartial advice. We know that you want to act in the best interests of consumers and then offer them the most suitable deal on the market which is why we are writing to you. We were troubled to learn that your management may have misunderstood your service and as a result has been giving you misleading and inaccurate information about it in an in-store leaflet.

The Virgin letter then proceeds to describe to The Carphone Warehouse employees the claimed benefits of Virgins proposition. Incredibly it asks The Carphone Warehouse staff to recommend Virgin Mobile where it offers the best deal. The letter ends with the sentence:

You may also benefit from knowing that our solicitors have written to Charles Dunstone requesting the immediate withdrawal of your in-store leaflet which compares Virgin Mobile to other services because of its inaccuracies and misleading information concerning not just our service but also the One 2 One and Orange tariffs.

At the time of going to press neither One 2 One nor Orange had objected to the leaflet.

Dunstone told Mobile News:

Theres a fantastic esprit de corp in The Carphone Warehouse so someone sending a letter like that isnt going to have any effect.

Our lawyers have responded to the letter. The guide will be back in our stores. The Sunday Times called me about it even before we had seen it. So when you get a call from a national newspaper about a letter you havent yet received you have to wonder what is going on.

Also you have to wonder how (One 2 One managing director) Tim Samples feels like with some of his budget being spent on attacking one of his best channels. The thing that galls me most about Virgin Mobiles claim is they keep saying they are not the middleman. What else are they? All they are doing is selling someone elses airtime Dunstone said.

A Virgin Mobile spokesman told Mobile News: Richard likes him (Charles Dunstone) enormously. But we will not allow our name to be sullied nor our service to be misrepresented.

A statement from Branson said:

You can work out how much Virgin Mobiles calls will cost you in a matter of seconds. Try that with the competition – you cant. Theres too much small print and too many catches. And its precisely because of this industry-led confusion that companies like The Carphone Warehouse survive.

No confusion – no need for middlemen – hence our direct approach. If Charles Dunstone refuses to send customers to our Virgin Megastores and Our Price shops when our phones are the best value he can no longer claim to be impartial. These figures prove which service offers the best deal. Even Charles Dunstone will be able to see that.

Branson has also laid into Orange boss Hans Snook following Oranges response to Virgins tariffs that it is able to match them under its Orange Value Promise.

Branson said:

We throw down our fair-deal gauntlet and challenge Orange. Honour your price promise. Its time to end the rip-off. Come clean with your customers. Match our cheap prices if you dare. You promised. There can be no excuses.

Ironically Snook came out with a press statement last month accusing other networks of fleecing customers.

Virgin accompanied its press release about Orange with a Terrys Chocolate Orange labelled Eat and Enjoy While Snook eats His Words.

By the beginning of October more than 215 million customers had signed up to GSM networks

In September alone 10 million people signed up to GSM services across five continents said GSM Association chairman Michael Stocks speaking at the Associations 42nd Plenary meeting in Montreal Canada.

GSM has demonstrated a growth potential that has outstripped even the most optimistic of expectations confirms Stocks.

At current growth rates we are on target to hit the quarter of billion customer mark by year end. We are confidently forecasting between 700 million and one billion GSM customers world-wide by the year 2005 Stocks reported.

The Asia Pacific region accounts for almost 30 per cent of the worlds total GSM customer base. China is the worlds single largest GSM market with more than 30 million subscribers.

The GSM Association says one in 30 of the worlds six billion population subscribe to GSM services.

This is an achievement that we are extremely proud of especially since the worlds first GSM network was launched just seven years ago Stocks added.

Latest statistics also illustrate a powerful trend towards pre-pay services. An estimated 66 million GSM customers have chosen GSM via the pre-paid route says Stocks.

Thats 79 percent of all the worlds Pre-Pay subscribers to all wireless services a trend that we expect to continue. GSM technology is on course for further evolution says Stocks.

The reality of verbal and visual communications is already within reach. This is driven by a demand for information on the move as our members continue to expand services they offer in terms of the value and variety of choice for

The dealers are understood to be based in Wales and have been selling Boxed & Ready Product as low as 49.99.

Letters of termination against three other Orange distributors CMC Cellcom and EBS have apparently been withdrawn.

Talking Points Orange portfolio has now been acquired by Mainline.

Orange director of sales Gareth Jones told Mobile News:

We had some concerns with the way some of the distributors were operating.

We didnt feel there was a consistency between the way Talking Point wanted to do business and the way we wanted to do business.

The whole thing has been labelled with the issue of pricing. But it was more fundamental than that. Were looking to work with people who share our interest in the brand. We have to be working with people we feel comfortable with. Were looking to get much closer to some of our distributors.

We had some issues with EBS Cellcom and CMC. But Im pleased the bulk of those issues have been resolved. The only one we have come to a parting of the ways with is Talking Point.

Talking Point director Darren Duesbury said:

We were getting aggravation from Orange about a couple of dealers discounting products. We heard nothing more. Suddenly Orange rang up and said they were sending termination notices out to settle the market and discourage certain dealers from offering high discounts.

They cant admit that it is about discounting. It is disappointing for us. But we didnt feel it was a constructive way to manage our business relationship.

We decided we were better off focussing on our internet brands.

Further discussions with Orange led us to decide to find a suitable home for our Orange dealers and focus energies and resources on our wide-ranging e-commerce businesses and mail order services. There are no redundancies planned.

Talking Point are supportive and grateful to the many dealers we have worked with over the years and wish them every success for the future. We are now happily in the position to supply some of our Mobile News Award winning e-commerce services and solutions to former competitors and customers.

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The (BTCellnet) ban reportedly commenced on September 27 and yet the implementation of sophisticated monitoring and detection techniques means that such large-scale frauds are now largely avoidable said Neural Technologies chief executive Nick Ryman-Tubb.

With mobile fraud costing telecoms operators $14 billion a year mobile operators must increase the sophistication of their monitoring systems to detect and eradicate such fraud. Networks risk alienating customers and reducing profits unless the size of the fraud makes such an action imperative. (Cont P2)

BTCellnet admitted that a ban on calls to India and Pakistan had been put in place. But it had been a temporary measure lasting just a few days while BT investigators were solving the problem.

Meanwhile the Easylife fraud whereby a chip can be fitted to a Philips Easylife Diga to allow unlimited call credit is apparently still alive (see The Sharp End).

The amount paid by RSL COM is not being revealed but industry sources put the figure at around 7 million.

Together with the purchase of Motorola TelCo last year this purchase says RSL COM makes it the largest independent supplier of mobile telephony in the UK with nearly 250000 customers.

Advanced Communications which won the Mobile News Award for Best Customer Service this year claims a churn rate of less than 10 per cent against the market average of over 30 per cent. Advanced currently has revenues of over 20 million per year and 130 employees.

Advanced epitomises whats best about independent service providers said RSL COMs UK managing director Barry Mowbray.

Despite operating in a notoriously volatile industry Advanced has exceptional customer loyalty. Like RSL COM its success is based on selecting the right solution for each individual customer and being more clever than most when it comes to customer service. This union supports RSL COMs objective as an integrated communications provider to meet more of the needs of our customers.

Advanced managing director Gary Shepphard added:

This is an exciting move for Advanced. Weve always been aggressive in providing services for our customers. Now we can provide a greater range of total solutions to our customers

RSL COM is a global facilities-based telecommunications company. It provides long distance calling card private line value-added and internet-based telecoms services on four continents in 21 countries.

1st Line entered the market 18 months ago and says it sells more than twice the number of post-pay mobile phones than rivals such as The Carphone Warehouse.

The company has no retail presence selling just Ericsson handsets connected to BTCellnet via a telephone sales force.

In a market of noise and confusion the 1st Line approach has been to simplify the customer proposition to enable us to sell a strong offer directly over the phone.

There is one airtime provider in BTCellnet and one handset provider in Ericsson said marketing director Claire Stroud.

In 18 months we have gone from entering the post-pay mobile phone sector to being the market leader she added.

The company is making two offers though the campaign. The first is a free Ericsson T10 on a BTCellnet First tariff linked to a 12-month contract for 14.99 a month.

The second deal is a free Ericsson A1018 with no contract but 30 days notice before sending the phone back and a monthly access charge of 9.99 for the first three months and 14.99 thereafter.

The TV commercials appear on all ITV channels Channel 4 and Channel 5 as well as some satellite channels.

Davidson currently presents the famous BBC Generation Game every Saturday night and is the latest in a line of famous entertainers who have presented the event.

They are Rory Bremner (1995) Lily Savage (1996) Bob Monkhouse (1997) and Ruby Wax (1998) and Paul Daniels (1999). Tables for the Mobile News Awards 2000 cost 1950 (plus VAT). However an early-payment discount of 100 is available up to November 30.

The fraud involves soldering a rogue chip on to the main circuit board of the Diga and programming it with software obtainable over the Internet.

The chip records the amount of allocated call credit and deducts it from the allowed call total. But switching the handset off and back on restores the credit to the original amount.

A statement from BTCellnet said:

BT and BTCellnet have the problem under control both through technical fixes and through active investigation and prosecution work in conjunction with the police.

The fraud has no impact on BTCellnet customers and no genuine customer will suffer loss. BTCellnet is identifying and cutting off phones being used illegally.

The handsets at risk of being doctored are no longer on sale to our channels and are no longer being manufactured for us. BTCellnet is arresting and will prosecute suppliers. The fraud requires specialist equipment both hardware and software and a substantial degree of technical expertise. See Full Story

Called Simplicity the plan involves customers paying the real price for the handset (eg 80 for a Panasonic G520) but with cheaper calls than either pre-pay or normal 12-month contract rates. Connections are to Cellnet. The only requirement is that they pay by direct debit.

Simplicity 3 gives 25 a calls at a monthly cost of 25. Simplicity 2 matches the Vodafone pre-pay service charge of 5 for 30 days.

Following network branding and their tariffs does not represent a way forward for independent service providers said Cellcom chief executive Paul Cohen.

We have always offered better tariffs than the standard network offerings Now we have moved further by aligning our tariffs with the prepay concept of only paying for the calls you want to use.

Pre-pay represents (Cont P2) more than 80 per cent of the market. The phone subsidies involved are relatively small compared to the substantial per unit subsidies on contract.

Why perpetuate a difference in product prices which only confuses customers? Why not offer lower prices on airtime no fixed agreement and no special introductory offers that last a year and which lead to churn after that?

We all know pre-pay provides the best solution for those who find it impossible to pass a credit check. But what of people attracted by freedom?

They may have a bank account and pay all their other bills by direct debit and may want to use a mobile phone to make calls on. They may find that high call costs and constantly topping up their phone is not at all convenient said Cohen.

A statement from RSL COM said he had decided to leave RSL to pursue other interests. But trade sources suggest Schweidler was forced to resign as part of a realignment of several European subsidiaries.

The new man in charge is another RSL COM man Barry Mowbray.

Schweidler became the Managing Director of RSL COM Telco UK following the acquisition of Motorola Telco by the American-based fixed line operator in August 1998.

RSL COM claims its customer base has grown to over 210000 making it the largest independent service provider in the UK.