Staff Reporter

He succeeds Christopher Hogg who retires at the end of the year.

Administrator Jeremy Frost of the Thompson Partnership in Croydon Surrey said the company was looking for a buyer amid continuing legal action against the operators.

Floe Telecom has been a leading proponent of the full legalisation and acceptance of mobile gateway servers for consumers he said. This has led to considerable (Cont P2) commercial conflict with certain network operators which seek to curtail these services.

He went on: The operators have taken advantage of the limited and somewhat inflexible wording of part of the DTIs recent determination but they have ignored or rejected the rest of this determination save where it applies to certain business-related service providers.

Because of the constant service interruptions initiated by certain operators he claimed Floe has lost a major portion of its end-user customer base.

This together with significant legal fees Government lobby group payments and the replacement of damaged hardware (caused by IMEI turn-offs) has had a considerable adverse impact on Floes finances and its ability to support its customers.

Constant service interruptions left Floe unable to predict its revenues related cash flows and its ability to make payments.

A decision is awaited from Oftel as to whether Vodafone abused its market position regarding the provision of mobile gateway services.

Floe is asking employees of the mobile operators to contact it with information to ascertain whether the operators have been involved in any anti-competitive behaviour.

Donne who is currently in charge of developing content partners joined Vodafone in 1984 from the automotive accessories business. He claims to have taken the networks first-ever customer order.

The chances of me staying after June 1 are looking to be limited. There is still a small possibility something might happen. But Im not bothered if it doesnt Donne told Mobile News.

Because my role wont exist from June 1 the boot is on the companys foot to find me something. Currently Im working with channels and selling.

Its not what I want to spend rest of my life doing. I could sit out my time here but Im not happy to do that. Id rather just agree my terms of departure and do something elsewhere. I have got other options with other organisations.

Donne is the second Vodafone veteran to leave the company. In April sales director Andy Smith left to join Anglia Telecom as CEO after 19 years at the network.

The O2 Gateway was touted as a fast and easy-to-use system but dealers report otherwise.

The O2 Gateway is collapsing. It really is a total bag of worms said Paul Leonard managing director of Sprint Communications.

We have had numerous problems with the O2 Gateway so much so that weve had to call in back-up systems. Im desperately hoping for a quick-fix solution.

He went on: Its got to the point where sometimes you simply dont know whether a connection has gone on or not. You can be 95 per cent of the way through and then the whole thing crashes and you have to start all over again. The whole system seems to have problems that need to be weeded out sooner rather than later. I appreciate that its a new system but it needs to work properly for our sake and theirs.

Ian Robinson MD of MoCo Cell Link said: Its been a nightmare. Technical problems have meant that the majority of times it is so slow Ive had to give up using it completely and go back to the manual method.

The worse thing is that when you do call up its not unusual to spend 30 or 40 minutes waiting for someone to handle your query which is a disaster when youre trying to get customers connected as quickly as possible.

It really is a frustration for us at the moment and I have spoken to other dealers who have said they are experiencing exactly the same problems. (Cont P2)

Were a distributor for O2 but at the moment putting connections on is a painful process. We are trying to put as many sales on as possible but at the moment we are being hampered in doing so. All I can say is: O2 please please put it right.

An O2 spokesman described the problems as teething troubles and insisted it was a network priority to get the system running smoothly.

As with any new IT system you expect there to be glitches as the system beds in he said. We are aware of these problems and are addressing them.

After the six-month free period ends customers are then automatically switched to 5-a-month billing for free weekend calling if they are on Anytime 30 Anytime 100 Anytime 200 or Anytime 400.

Existing Vodafone customers on selected tariffs are also eligible to sign up for the free weekend calls offer but must commit to a new 12-month contract term.

This offer gives Vodafone customers free weekend calls so they can call as much as they like at the weekend without using up their Anytime minutes said a Vodafone spokesperson.

Customers can use their mobile instead of the landline to chat at the weekends wherever they are. It brings consumers even better value on top of Perfect Fit tariffs to suit their calling patterns.

Stuart Baillie of Baillies Telecom Howard Place Stoke-on-Trent was arrested on April 14 and charged with money laundering and conspiracy to cheat the revenue according to a statement from HM Customs and Excise. He is on conditional bail.

The figure were looking at is 26 million a Customs and Excise spokeswoman told Mobile News.

Until last week 3 dealers foundmost customers were passing credit checks – even those who had failed with other networks. Then 3s customer credit checks became more stringent than those of rival networks.

Dealers with 3 stock on order say the change in policy could have serious financial implications for them.

European Telecom has already warned its dealers to be aware of the changes in 3s credit-scoring. European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater said:

We are aware of the changes in 3s credit-checking policy. It does look like its tightening its belt. As 3 signs more customers and it gains experience with its customer base it is something one would expect.

It doesnt cause us grave concern at present. We have warned our independent dealers of the development but we havent had any negative feedback from them yet.

If we did start to receive complaints from the dealers we would look to protect our independent dealers and address the situation.

Mark Whitaker at Findaphone in Accrington said: 3 could be tightening its credit checks for two reasons – either it has good sales and is looking to consolidate and weed out less valuable customers or it is suffering a lot of fraud and cant handle it.

Matt Chambers of The Phone Shop in Kent is more concerned.

It is worrying he said. We ordered 10 400 NEC handsets based on the connections we did when customers were passing 3s credit checks. We face losing a lot of money if people fail the credit checks and the kit becomes dead stock.

Five of Chambers customers failed 3s credit-checking process last week Two were regular customers and the other was an existing client on another network.

3s credit scoring is erratic he claimed. Three weeks ago just about everyone was passing 3s credit checks. It was accepting a lot of bad payers. People who failed on Vodafone Orange and T-Mobile could sail through on a 3 credit-check. Now 3 has started failing customers who would pass other networks credit checks.

Chambers went on: Last week a business customer wanted to connect eight phones. Vodafone and his existing networks were all glad to have him. But he failed his credit check on 3. It wanted a 150 deposit for each phone to sign him on to a 3 contract.

3 admitted its credit policy was subject to constant refinement. But the network denied that it had made its credit checks more stringent claiming it had simply adjusted its scoring policy to match that of others.

There is more centralised credit control than previously. So we have made the system more efficient and brought it in line with the industry standard said a 3 spokesperson.

Were a young company. The processes are constantly looked at and adjusted. A huge amount of work has been done on our back-office systems including credit control.

We target the top 65 per cent of the market. Our VideoTalk 500 and 750 plans are the most popular packages and customers who have good credit ratings will go for them. (Cont P2)

Customers who now fail 3s credit checks have to pay a deposit of 150 to get a contract with the network or else they are directed to the ThreePay pre-pay tariff for which no credit-check is required.

Recently however Chambers says that customers who are prepared to pay the 150 deposit have been asked to stump up 250 despite the fact that 3 informs the dealer in writing that only 150 is required.

In the past week customers have been ready to pay the deposit only to find out it has suddenly increased to 250. They have refused to pay the increased amount he said.

3 denied this was the case.

There is no way a customer that has been asked to pay a 150 deposit would be asked to pay 250 instead said a 3 spokesperson.

The 150 deposit is standard. The only possible explanation is that the customer wanted extra roaming services on the phone. In that case the deposit could theoretically increase he said.

None of Chambers customers wanted such a service.

The promotion offered an Orange voucher for a free Siemens A55 pre-pay phone or Samsung A300 on contract to customers who spent 15 or more on Avon Anew skin care.

But Avon only had a limited number of vouchers from Orange. The shortfall has led to complaints to trading standards offices from disgruntled consumers.

Avon claimed it had done nothing wrong.

We anticipated that this would be a popular offer and secured a level of vouchers consistent with our experience of previous customer promotions said a spokesperson.

The offer is subject to availability and certain terms and conditions stated in the brochure. These terms and conditions were clearly communicated to both representatives and customers. This offer has been enormously successful. It has created demand from Avon customers which has unfortunately exceeded the number of vouchers available.

But even people with a voucher are finding it difficult to get hold of a promised handset. Avon customers have been taking their vouchers to Orange shops only to find that the phones are out of stock. (cont P2)

Orange also blamed the shortfall on the fact that the offer was more popular than expected.

We ran the promotion with Avon as a way of acquiring new customers said an Orange spokeswoman. The promotion has been very popular and exceeded our expectations which in turn led to a limited number of customers experiencing a delay in being able to collect their handset.

She went on: Orange shops that are out of stock of the Siemens A55 or Nokia 6100 are meeting the demand with handsets of equivalent value where possible. Shops that cant supply an equivalent handset are taking customers details and will contact them when stock arrives. As long as the voucher is presented before April 30 they will be honoured. We regret any inconvenience caused to customers.

Dixons bought Genesis two years ago for 31 million from founder Brian Kennedy when it had around 120000 subscribers on both O2 and Vodafone.

Mobile News has learned that Vodafone may now be seeking a closer alliance with Genesis which has been a prime source of business connections to O2.

Ive heard that something is going on. It could be an outright takeover or just putting together a commercial package confided a top manager at one service provider.

These things tend to be discussed secretly at board level for months. Remember Vodafones talks with Singlepoint started a year before the press got wind of it.

The director of another telecoms group said he had also heard that Vodafone was considering Genesis and that he knew some people within Vodafone were asking whether anything was afoot with the SP.

A move by Vodafone on Genesis would be logical to overcome O2s close ties with Dixons mobile retail arm The Link he commented.

Another theory was that Dixons would not sell Genesis. This was because it was committed to maintaining an in-house service provider to leverage connections from small business customers purchasing mobile data applications from its PC World computer retail division.

Dixons wants people to go into PC World to buy their computers and mobile data cards and connect them on the spot he added.

No one at Vodafone was available for comment. A Dixons Stores Group spokesperson said:

We havent heard anything and dont believe theres any substance to the rumour.

The 199 T-Mobile Communications Centre packaged with a Multimedia Net Card will be available to corporate and small business clients from April with full commercial launch during May.

The package which costs 70 a month for unllimited data access includes software dual GPRS/3G plug-in card for laptop and user manuals.

The package wll be sold by T-Mobiles direct sales force.

Our vision is the creation of a multi-speed multi-media network that integrates 2G 3G and WLAN. The launch of the Communications Centre is the next stage in the fulfilment of that vision said T-Mobile managing director Brian McBride.

By enabling business customers to work remotely at speeds similar to broadband we are moving a step closer to seamless mobile working.

The T-Mobile announcement follows the launch last month by Vodafone of its 3G data card for laptops.

(See interview P8)