Staff Reporter

In the early hours of Tuesday August 13 thieves smashed through the distributors glass front doors as well as four subsequent doors to gain access to its secure warehouse.

Once inside the warehouse the thieves grabbed boxes of various Motorola Samsung and Nokia handsets.

Phone Direct managing director Alan Dugard said:

It is the first time we have been burgled and as a result we have spent a further 30000 on (Cont P2) enhancing the security system at the premises.

According to Dugard the thieves were on the premises for 45 minutes and carefully selected what to take. They picked and chose what they took. They knew what they wanted.

CCTV from Phone Direct and buildings around the area has identified the vehicles used in the burglary.

However Signal Telecom group general manager Julie Brotherton told Mobile News that Hulme will continue to work for Signal on a consultancy basis to continue an ongoing restructure of the company.

Brotherton told Mobile News: David Hulme has left the company. He has been helping us restructure the business and will work with us on a consultancy basis to continue that.

David Hulme wanted to pursue other business opportunities but there was no way he could pursue those opportunities whilst being in the employment of Signal said Brotherton.

Its unfortunate that he has left the company but he will still be working with us over the coming months added Brotherton.

Taiwanese handset manufacturer DBTEL plans to enter the UK market before Christmas with what it claims is the slimmest and lightest colour screen handset in the market.

DBTEL also claims (Cont P2)to have launched the worlds smallest clamshell WAP handset which has a dual screen display polyphonic ring tones and weighs 70g.

DBTEL head of sales and marketing Canice McKee says the company will focus on supplying handsets to operators to begin with before looking at selling directly to retailers and distributors.

We will be successful in the long term by adopting an operator strategy. It is the best way for us to start. We are close to announcing a deal to launch the DB2039 on one of the UK networks before Christmas. Operators are very interested in our product roadmap for next year. I am not saying we wont look at other routes to market but we will concentrate on operators first.

Our selling point is affordable colour display phones. We dont expect people to pay for technology that they dont want to use right now or the market is not ready for.

These are not low end products. The price has not been determined yet but we expect the DB2039 to be priced lower than Sagems MY X5 colour screen handset McKee told Mobile News.

DBTEL has been producing mobile phones since 1979 and McKee hopes to replicate its success in Asian markets over here.

tus right now.

The claim was dismissed by TAP which said they had just served a statutory demand against Ali khan for 60000 of unpaid stock.

Ali Khan served the writ to recover legal fees incurred for using lawyers to serve statutory payment demands against TAP. He says he has been forced to use lawyers to requisition extraordinary general meetings and conduct negotiations with Nasa Khan to sever his business ties with TAP following his resignation as a TAP director last summer.

He claims TAP have breached his shareholder agreement on many counts including a denial of access to the companys books and accounts.

Most recently Ali Khan claimed he would be suing Nasa Khan for having him wrongfully arrest by Police at TAP premises on August 20. Police quizzed Ali Khan for several hours at Kingston Police over alleged threats against Nasa Khan.

Police later released Ali Khan on bail but later dropped the case due to a lack of evidence (Mobile News October 28 2002).

TAPs group managing director Bav Majithia denied any knowledge of Ali Khans latest action saying.

He told Mobile News:

To our knowledge there has been no notice served on us or Nasa Khan. We have served a statutory demand on Ali Khan for 60000 of un paid accessories that Ali Khan purchased at the beginning of last year explained Majithia.

Ali Khan responded by saying TAPs latest claim was ridiculous and denied having purchased any stock from TAP.

Ive not received this notice nor have I purchased any stock from TAP. They are going to have to prove that they delivered the stock.

Many of the parent companys other businesses were also placed under administration but RSL COM UK as one of its most successful has been selected to continue to manage its own operations RSL MD Barry Mowbray told Mobile News:

The situation we face will have no direct bearing on the operations performance profitability or business of RSL Com in any way. Similarly there will be no direct impact on UK customers suppliers business partners or staff.

Mowbray continued:

No one ought to be concerned about ongoing revenue or commission thats owed by RSL COM. I can categorically state that these will continue to be paid.

I can understand some people asking the question in the light of whats happened. But Id like to emphasise both that it is business as usual for the UK Company and commissions will continue to be paid as usual.

Price Waterhouse Coopers the parent companys provisional liquidators have indicated that they want to sell the business as a going concern. There are rumours of a management buyout being in the offing.

RSL COM UK has been ring fenced from the rest of the group in order that it can continue to operate and trade as normal.

Its US parent has since suspended interest payments on some of its bonds and reportedly deferred repayment of a $100m loan. It has already spent some $1.5bn on network infrastructure .

The British handset manufacturer had a massive falling out with one-time partner Microsoft claiming Microsoft revealed Sendo trade secrets to competitors. (Cont P2)

It is now fighting a legal battle with Microsoft following a bust-up over the Z100.

Sendo chief executive Hugh Brogan admitted that the fiasco with Microsoft had left a lot of Sendos customers very annoyed.

Brogan said of the impending court case: We believe we are right and we cant wait to go to court to get it all straightened out. The sooner it is finished the better. But we couldnt be happier with the cooperation we are getting with Nokia and Symbian. As a result we are ahead of schedule.

Despite the Microsoft issue Brogan said that Sendo grew 600 per cent during its 2002 financial year with a quarterly growth of 30 per cent despite a difficult year.

We are back on our feet and traded our way through a difficult time and still managed to grow the business he said.

We are now shipping into more than 40 territories. We have 60 customers of which 50 are operators. We have the second best market share in the Netherlands because of our partnership with operator KPN added Brogan.

We recognise we are a small player. We spend our time working with operators to develop relationships. We are not selling on prices. We are not the cheapest and our phones come out at the top of the entry-level segment. It is not price led it is the customisation of our proposition.

Sendo will soon launch a colour clamshell design phone called the M550 in response to the demand of its network customers for an entry-level clamshell handset with GPRS and colour display.

The M550 will be available in a number of European countries in the second quarter of 2003 and will be priced below 100.

But Sendo says it is fully prepared for the US software giants delaying tactics

Sendo and Microsoft went into partnership in February 2001 to produce the first (Cont P2)

Windows-based smartphone the Z100. The unit was set for launch in August 2001 but after several forced delays the unit was scrapped. Subsequently Microsoft jointly launched the SPV with Orange manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC which also makes the iPaq and O2 xda.

Microsoft alleged the failure of the Z100 project was due to breaches of contract by Sendo and its fraudulent course of conduct in repeatedly misleading Microsoft as to Sendos financial situation.

These are the sort of delaying tactics that we were expecting said Sendo corporate communication director Marikje van Hooren. It makes no difference to us. We are moving ahead as planned. They denied all the charges against them and have taken out counter charges of their own. But its up to the judge and the jury to come to their own conclusions.

Microsofts submitted it received an report from a Sendo employee describing Sendos efforts to make the Z100 phone as a runaway train with management determined to release an unstable and unreliable product. Microsoft has neither named the person nor given out details of when the information was sent.

Without such detail it is impossible to comment on the accusations said Van Hooren.

Rocom had been defending the 1 million clawback claim by Orange on the grounds that Orange employees had authorised irregular connections made (Cont P2) through two of its former dealers.

Rocom chairman Bob Old alleged that Orange employees were to blame. But that claim was dismissed by the judge at a hearing on October 22.

Old then said he would battle on to challenge Oranges right to claw back commission. But that challenge ended following the settlement between both parties.

It appears unlikely that Rocom will stay as an Orange distributor. Old said that Rocom had refocused due to changes in the market.

We are still a service provider for other networks and a provider of handsets to dealers and small businesses he said.

But there has been a demise in the call-centre activity that we used to service. Commissions on anything other than business connections have decreased.

The network also gave the clearest indication yet of a March launch. 3 will accept on-line orders from February 22. 3 stores will open in early March for a mid-March launch.

Two fixed line rental tariffs cost 59.99 and 99.99 a month and will be known as Kit On 3 and Caboodle on 3. The pay-as-you-use is called 3ToGo.

The first 20000 subscribers to sign up for the fixed line rental options will get handsets at half-price saving almost 200. All 3 subscribers will be able to send e-mails and use services such as news reports sports news and fixture listings share prices free until June 30.

Pay-as-you-use subscribers pay 5p a minute for voice calls to other 3 users. Calls to other networks will cost from 10p a minute. Video calls are 50p a minute. Video downloads such as FA Premier League action will cost 50p each. Text messages will be 10p each and picture messages 25p. Up to 10 worth of video downloads will be offered free each month for the first three months.

Kit On 3 is a fixed monthly cost of 59.99 for a 12-month contract. Inclusive every month of 1000 minutes of voice calls 100 (Cont P2) video call minutes 250 text messages 50 downloads 60 picture messages and 40 video messages.

Voice calls beyond the allocated minutes are 5p a minute. Video calls above the allocated amount are 50p a minute.

Caboodle On 3 offers double the bundle allowances of Kit On 3 for 99.99 a month. Voice calls above the allocated 2000 minutes are 15p a minute. Video calls above the allocated 200 minutes a month are 50p a minute.

Across all the tariffs there are no peak and off-peak charges. Voice and video calls are the same price regardless of the time of day or day of the week.

3 UK managing director Colin Tucker said: We are looking forward to bringing 3s products and services to the UK market. 3 will bring about a fundamental shift in the mobile communications landscape. We are offering consumers the kind of services that were in the realm of science fiction just a few years ago – but at pricing which is highly competitive with existing mobile voice and text services. This is an incredibly exciting time for all of us at 3 as our vision finally begins to become reality.

Our message to the dealers is if they dont continue to invest in the future they will suffer the consequences said Vodafone UK director of sales and distribution Stephen Brewer.

The move is certain to put Vodafones relationship with the dealer market under renewed strain. The network had finally started to win dealers over having caused a outcry in Autumn last year when it forced limits on the amount of upgrades dealers could make as well as the commission they received.

Brewer explained the Competition Commissions ruling means 700 million to 800 million will be taken out of the industry in the next year.

We have to look to our bottom line. This means we could see a real step-change in handset subsidies – around 40 plus VAT could go on to the handsets. That could really slow the business considerably. Hopefully people will be convinced to make more calls because of all (Cont P2) the publicity this report has caused. But at the end of the day it means less on our bottom line.

Handset prices will go up and the market could slow down. Most of the market is now upgrades and switching.

When I came into this business some of the subsidies were between 400 and 500 a pop. We have to say goodbye to that. Maybe the manufacturers will start looking at pricing. They might have to start pricing more carefully.

We reckon there are at least 100 new models of handsets coming in the next few months. But who is going to pay for them? We have no choice but to look at not reducing tariffs as much as wed like to and reducing subsidies by about 40 (see full story P16).