Staff Reporter

T-Mobiles head of external communications Patrick Barrow said:

Clent has resigned of his own volition to go back to California. His wife is expecting a child and he wants to pursue activities that will permit him to watch his family grow up. There is no acrimony and he goes with (MD) Harris Jones fulsome tributes ringing in his ears.

He will be here until March doing his job as usual and we will examine the nature of any future role in the meantime. The position will be filled.

There had been suggestions that T-Mobile bosses in Germany were unhappy at the distance between Richardson and the dealer channel and that he had removed himself from the everyday running of the dealer market.

One senior industry player who knows T-Mobile well hinted that there may be more to Richardsons departure.

Clents abrasive and combative style was proving unpopular within the dealer market. (Cont P2)

Put it this way the bar bill for his leaving bash wont be too high.

He may have made all the right noises about listening to the dealers and forging closer links. But you have to back the words up with action. If T-Mobile announces a successor straight away then it is apparent that this is something that has been planned.

One T-Mobile store owner said:

If he is going home to spend more time with his family then someone has made a very bad judgement in appointing him. A lot of people have a family and it is a choice you make. But we dont all quit our jobs over it. If those elements were in his mind from the start then it would explain the way he has acted. If you look at the job he was brought in to do he has created more hassle than harmony.

European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater credited Richardson with giving T-Mobile the strong direction it needed after the uncertainty involved in the move across from One 2 One to T-Mobile.

Although the way he did things has ruffled a lot of feathers he did a good job in terms of connection figures said Drinkwater.

The operations will close in March. Staff were informed of the decision on Friday December 13. Among staff being laid off were national sales manager Rob Whellams product manager Lee Costellos national accounts manager Andy Franklin national marketing manager Becky Vickers accessories manager Martin Jolly and service manager Richard Flood. Whellams has been with Mitsubishi for 12 years and will stay until March to sell the companys remaining 300000 handsets.

A source close to the company told Mobile News.

The company can no longer make a profit from producing handsets in France and no longer wants to be a major player in Europe. It isnt interested in having offices around Europe and believes everything can be done through the Paris office.

Earlier this year Mitsubishi announced plans to close its production factory in Rennes France causing production to slow from more than 7000 units a day to 1000.

Production has been moved back to Asia while a repackaging factory is being run by a third party outside of Rennes. (Cont P2)

Last month Mitsubishi dropped the Trium brand name that it had used for mobile phones for the past three years.

Industry sources suggest Mitsubishi may be paying the price for pandering too much to Asian networks at the expense of the European operators. Slow product development and in particular the lack of an MMS product are a prime example of this.

Mitsubishi had the advantage of being one of the first Asian companies to adapt the Asian model for the European market. But it still listened to the Asian operators first and maybe that has been its problem.

I know Mitsubishi is going to have a complete re-examination at how to strengthen itself in Europe. It may pull out of certain markets altogether while others it may pull out and then return said the source.

Sarin (48) was formerly president and chief operating officer of AirTouch Communications until 1999. He then became chief executive of the Americas and Asia region of Vodafone until 2000 when Vodafones US-based mobile businesses were merged with others to form Verizon Wireless. (Cont P2)

Sarin will relocate to the UK to join the executive committee of Vodafone on April 1 as chief executive designate with a base salary of 1.1 million and incentives to match those Gent has been receiving.

Gent was managing director of the UK operating company from its launch in 1985 and became chief executive of the group on 1 January 1997. At that time Vodafones market capitalisation was 7.5 billion. It is today valued at over 75 billion (the legacy of Chris Gent. See P10)

Under the new scheme dealers receive payments for upgrades based on customer spend as well as predicted propensity to churn. Previous upgrade payments were based on a customers call plan rather than spend.

Vodafone has told dealers that it plans to launch a second stage in the new year to take customer loyalty into account. Dealers will receive a higher commission if a customer hasnt had an upgrade in the previous 18 months.

Commission payments for the Company Caller Tariff will rise by 40 to 70 to answer criticism made when 50 was cut from the commission payment.

The dropping of the cap system is great news and the new upgrade scheme isnt that bad said (Cont P2) MoCo Cell Link managing director Ian Robinson.

Vodafone seems to be getting back to the old system where the networks gave a customer a certain value based on his loyalty and spend. The second stage should give a much more accurate picture of the true value of a customer. Prior to this the loyalty of a customer didnt seem to count.

Robinson noted dealers will no longer be able to forecast what sort of upgrade commission they are likely to receive from Vodafone before sitting down with customers.

It means talking upgrades will be a two-stage sell. We will have to talk to the customer find out what sort of upgrade commission we are likely to receive then tell the customer what sort of deal we can offer. If a customer has their last months bill you can make a rough guess. But it is highly unlikely they are going to have the previous 12 statements.

Customers will be allocated a classification letter depending on their spend. This will correspond to the payable commission and can be checked on Vodafones computerised credit-checking programme SPICE.

Kevin Billington of Sussex-based dealership KEB said dealers would no longer be able to contact existing customers and offer them upgrades.

This was because the dealer would not know what sort of upgrade payments he was likely to receive.

Wearside Communications corporate sales manager Lee Bromham said the new plan made little difference and would continue to force dealers to churn from Vodafone.

The industry has educated the customer to expect a new phone every year.

By not giving the independent dealer the commission to provide a free phone the networks are forcing dealers to churn.

Vodafone can say we have to get the customer out of the 12-month upgrade cycle. But Vodafone is the worst culprit for throwing a new handset at a customer if he threatens to churn.

Geremy Thomas denies the allegations.

In an announcement to the stock market last week PNC said Thomas who is trying to regain control of PNC (Mobile News November 25) could be in breach of regulations.

The directors also accused him of trying to seize control of the company without making a formal offer to shareholders.

PNC directors wrote to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) requesting them to investigate Thomas share dealings.

PNC directors questioned his purchase of shares despite two profit warnings. PNC alleges Thomas bought the shares in advance of interim results. They suspect he received sensitive information from his younger brother Crispin who was PNCs director of marketing until last month.

The DTI would not confirm or deny that it had received a complaint from PNC. The FSA said it was looking at the points raised by PNC.

These are simply allegations of insider dealing. We will have to make some preliminary enquiries before we decide to investigate said an FSA spokesperson.

Geremy Thomas told Mobile News: PNC ensured Crispin had no access to any financial information to protect him. It is just a feeble tactic by them to destroy my reputation he said.

The battle for control of PNC also took a new twist when PNC blocked Thomas request for an EGM on the grounds that his notice of EGM was not properly served because it was faxed rather than mailed.

PNC directors want Thomas to reveal the identity of his backers.

They are worried one of his supporters may be former chief executive Darren Ridge who is a 6.5 per cent shareholder.

PNC is litigating against Ridge over the alleged misuse of company funds. It says its case would be undermined if Ridge was involved with Thomas bid to take control of the company.

Phones4U threatened legal action after an online affiliate of (Cont P2) The Carphone Warehouse secured the domain address phones4you.co.uk.

Phones4U managing director Anthony Catterson demanded a public apology and financial compensation from his high street rival. But The Carphone Warehouse says it had received no correspondence from Phones 4U.

The Carphone Warehouses website was the eighth most visited site in November according to internet search engine Google along with sites connected with with Ulrika Jonsson John Leslie Pamela Anderson and Britney Spears. The Carphone Warehouse website is the only mobile phone company site listed in the top 10.

This year growth has been 147 per cent. We are getting more than 500000 unique visitors per week. Half of Carphone Warehouse customers are researching on carphonewarehouse.com before going in-store said director of online business Chris Murton.

Australian-born Mia Nickoli Tripodi 21 had been charged with stealing 1934 from Oranges Oxford Street store in June.

But district judge Rosamond Keating discharged her after refusing the Crown further time to prepare its case.

She was formally charged last month said Hatfield police.

An earlier hearing on November 26 was adjourned to allow Westbrook (39) of Welwyn Garden City to employ a solicitor. She was remanded on conditional bail.

X Art went bust last month because of the alleged 60000 embezzlement and a 50000 debt by the Pau bothers failed accessory company Blue-I said the creditors report.

Westbrook was employed as a bookkeeper from November 2001 to July 2002.

X Art discovered financial irregularities a day after she left the company. A cheque issued to the Inland Revenue for 20000 was not able to be paid as there were insufficient funds in the companys bank account. Neither X Art director recalled signing or authorising the cheque.

X Art directors are in dispute with the bank for allowing doctored cheques and cheques with false signatures to have been paid.

Dealers are unhappy that Orange stores and Orange customer services seem to offer handsets to customers at the same price for upgrades as new connections.

Oranges commission structure for the independent dealers means dealers have to charge more for a handset upgrade.. Dealers say this is causing customers to buy direct from Orange

Jeff Butterworth of Bolton based JB Communications has asked his distributor Mainline to convene a meeting with Orange.

I am losing five customers per day on average because Oranges own shops can afford to offer customers cheaper upgrades. They offer a Nokia 7210 on upgrade for 100 some 70 cheaper than us independents. If we were to offer the same deal we would lose 30 on every deal. We cant sustain a business on that.

Mainline that it is trying to organise a meeting with Orange to resolve a number of issues. I have been a solus Orange dealer for more than seven years. I am losing g customers because they dont understand why Orange shops can offer upgrades 70 cheaper than us (cont P2)..

Sales of Bluetooth products have really taken off and sales of the T68 have been very high. The problem we have is that the forecasting hasnt been accurate.

As a result the demand has been greater than we expected. Its not like turning a tap on.

To ramp up plastics components and production takes three to four months. We are working to resolve the situation. A new headset is due to be launched at the end of the month.

We are not unduly concerned. It is just a short-term issue. The problem has been exaggerated because handset sales have been successful said Marsden.

The biggest problem is that we cant build the handsets quick enough. We have ramped up production of the T68i.

Were taking this problem seriously. Some accessories cost as much as entry-level handsets. Perhaps few imagined that people would be prepared to pay as much as 120 for a headset but they are. We are resolving the situation but our customers need to help us by giving us better forecasts and making commitments to stock.

We are not going to produce products without those commitments. If customers fail to give manufacturers the right forecasts then the manufacturer will fail every time.