Staff Reporter

But a source close to mloop hinted that a new investor had been brought in whose budget was yet to clear. As a result a number of due mloop debts remain unpaid.

I can categorically refute the suggestion that we are in any sort of difficulty. All our private investors are with us and there are no problems chief executive Byron Rose told Mobile News.

According to Rose the company was set for flotation at a value of 29 million but three weeks ago decided to stay private. (Cont P2)

Mloop was launched in November 2001 to allow network operators manufacturers distributors and dealers to buy or sell stock globally with anonymity.

The company has appointed a series of industry big-hitters such as GSM chairman Jim Pratt (chairman at mloop) and former Orange sales chief Gareth Jones who came in as non-executive director earlier this year

Ora previously supplied Orange stores but will continue to supply accessories to Oranges corporate and business departments. Ora will also fulfil mail order requests from the Orange magazine which is sent out three times a year to customers.

Orange started looking for alternative suppliers while Ora went into administration because it felt Ora did not have sufficient cash-flow to maintain volumes of supplies.

Rutland-based Clockwork Logistics was one of Oranges suppliers during Oras dministration.

The news comes as a blow to Ora which designed a new range of packaging for Orange accessories before administration.

Ora MD Peter Oliver (whose accessory firm Acson purchased Ora) hoped he could to maintain the supply of accessories Orange.

We bought into Oras brand its relationships with clients and an infrastructure to support that said Oliver after completing the deal.

Oranges decision to source accessories from multiple suppliers conflicts with what Oliver believed on taking over Ora.

Customers want to deal with fewer suppliers.

Operators and large retailers want to deal with a smaller number of suppliers who can give them everything that they need said Oliver at the time of the deal.

Dinsey 51 will be responsible for the complete customer experience at 3 and his duties will include overseeing its call centres in Glasgow and Mumbai India.

He will have a sizeable task ahead of him as the networks customer service has received significant criticism from consumers since launch – although users have reported a noticeable improvement in recent weeks.

3 chief operating officer Gareth Jones said:

Im pleased to welcome Eric to the team – he has many years of experience in managing customer relations and I look forward to working with him on the ongoing improvements we are making in customer relations.

It is important that customer experience is at the heart of everything 3 does. We have made significant progress in our first six months and we want to ensure that we offer a first-class product and service to our customers.

Dinsey commented:

Customer relations never stands still you must always strive to improve service levels and deliver the best experience.

The distributor has brokered a deal to supply the Newgen C800 compact to Tesco Mobile as the first offering from its new three-year supply relationship with Korean manufacturer Newgen.

The pink clamshell which resembles a ladies power compact has a camera video capture and playback dual speakers with 3D stereo sound effects and two pre-loaded games. It will go into Tesco stores this week at the launch price of 99.97.

Outgoing Unique CEO Angus Dawe said: Unique and Tesco Mobile have worked together to deliver an exclusive handset to launch our supply partnership.

When we saw designs of this product in our initial meetings with Newgen we felt confident that it would fit the bill. The process of brand and technical conformance has run smoothly thanks to the support of the key people at Tesco Mobile.

Unique has also announced a partnership with Alcatel to distribute the Elle GlamPhone Alcatels first handset dedicated to women.

The red dual-screened clamshell cameraphone is packaged with an exclusive E necklace in a perfume style presentation box. At a touch the internal screen can be transformed into a mirror.

The handset goes on sale in Elles eight regional stores this week for 149.99. Deals are currently being ironed out to get the handset on the shelves in high street retailers by the end of the month.

Alcatel sales director Julien Fouriot said Unique won the deal because it presented a full appreciation of brand issues and the best plan to deliver the offering in the UK.

The project is more complex than simply moving volume and the team at Unique has a clear understanding of our long term objectives said Fouriot.

Unique CFO Rob Lees said the two contracts had come about because of a refocus within the distributor to move away from virtual manufacturing to concentrate on vendor placements instead.

It was Unique that pioneered Virtual Manufacturing with the introduction of VK to the UK in 2004 he said. That was a massive success for us and helped to prove the concept to manufacturers networks and retailers.

This year we have advanced the model to develop Vendor Placement. Although a natural progression Vendor Placement places the emphasis squarely on placing the right products in the right channels to serve the right market sector.

Our story ended: Orange refused to comment.

In fact Orange had submitted a statement that we inadvertently omitted.

The statement said:

Like all networks we have a short-term supply difficulty primarily driven by volume constraints placed upon us by manufacturers late launches and cancelled launches due to quality issues. This has been exacerbated by an unusually high number of orders which we were happy to satisfy last month.

We expect this situation to be rectified in the coming weeks.

We are happy to set the record straight.

Allera 31 joined 3 as director of retail sales in March 2001. He has been responsible for retail roll-out of 3 flagship and Superdrug stores which now number 160 as well as establishing and managing 3s relationship with its main retail partners.

Barton is believed to have become frustrated by the handset shortages that have hit 3s sales figures in the past few months.

Barton told Mobile News:

I have had offers outside of the industry which I am considering. 3 may well be my last job in cellular. I havent made a decision on my future yet.

He went on: I have done the job I came here to do. We achieved the fastest ever retail rollout of more than 150 stores in a year. Admittedly it isnt enjoyable waiting for the handsets to come through. When the handsets do start to come through in volume 3 is in a good position to see a rise in sales.

My goal was to make sure 3s distribution was right. The network is getting better by the day.

It has been a rollercoaster ride and 3 became the fastest-selling contract phone in record time. Im proud of what I and my team have achieved. We have always performed to targets.

The news has not come as much of a surprise to leading industry figures including some 3 distributors although Avenir Telecom MD Isahi Novick said he was surprised by the timing of the move.

It is a shame to see him go but Im not surprised he has left. There were a lot of rumours when Gareth Jones joined that he would be pushed aside at some point. I can understand that maybe he was frustrated that lack of handsets was holding back sales and it was an issue outside his control.

Fone Logistics managing director Ian Gillespie added:

Im not surprised John has left. These things happen. John is a nice guy. Ive known him a long time and I wish him well in what he is going to do in the future. I didnt have much to do with John on a day-to-day level. We reported into the head of distribution who reported into someone else below John. John ultimately reported in to Gareth Jones. Once Gareth joined 3 the management structure became top heavy. Maybe they decided to trim things down.

Orange head of sales Stuart Henry takes a similar view:

I wasnt sure how long John and Gareth would last together but that doesnt seem to have been a factor in his departure. He would have been frustrated at being a sales director with nothing to do. If I had no handsets to sell for two or three months I would be frustrated.

Anglia Telecom sales director Dave McGinn added:

When Gareth joined 3 the network took a different strategy and sales took off. Maybe John felt his nose had been put out of joint by the new management. Maybe there was a clash of personalities between John and Gareth. It would have been really frustrating to be in a position where you have such a strong demand for kit you cant fulfil.

Barton started his career at Vodafone moving to Talkland Phones 4U and One 2 One before joining 3.

Only 1000 Aston Martin Motorola V600s have been made. The handset features the Aston Martin logo and has the sound of an Aston Martin engine as the ringtone. The handset also features video-clip playback an integrated camera quad-band technology and Bluetooth.

It comes in an exclusive Aston Martin gift box and is available from December 11 only through Aston Martin dealers.

Siemens and Samsung have admitted they are all out of stock until the new year (see news P8). Nokia admitted that it had been having some problems on certain lines.

The shortages of Sony Ericsson kit is a blow to the joint-venture which has finally started to record positive sales figures and has seen its T610 become the fourth most popular handset in the market according to recent sales figures.

But like other manufacturers Sony Ericsson has been hit by an unexpected increase in demand.

Sony Ericsson marketing manager Peter Marsden said: We have done what we can do in terms of increasing production. But its not like turning on a tap. A shortage of supply for other manufacturers and the lateness to market of some of their products – as well as the popularity of our products – has led to an increased demand for us.

Phone Fix was the brand name for Service Xpress the repair company that Phones International bought from European Telecom in May last year.

Phone Fix was recently shut down and its outstanding business transferred to Total Repair Solutions.

Barry Jenkins of Jersey dealer Photo Sound says he was alerted to a problem when some handsets had still not returned from Phone Fix three months after they had been sent away for repair.

They should have come back in four weeks.

He says he chased Phone Fix without success but received a letter from TRS saying it had taken over Phone Fixs repair business. TRS says it cannot locate any of the missing handsets.

He claims he has had to replace the handsets or refund customers money.

This is not a satisfactory situation. TRS says some of the handsets are not on its system. Its a shambles said Jenkins.

We have had to replace three handsets for customers This has cost us 600.

The letter from TRS said we would experience a better service. It has actually got worse. We have been left in a difficult situation.

Phones International says it wrote to Phone Fix customers stating that the business was being transferred to TRS.

Phones International claimed it was forced to jettison Phone Fix after a change in Nokias repair payment policy and because of its inability to achieve accreditation with other manufacturers. The decision cost 12 jobs.

We are concerned that customers are reporting problems said Phones International Group marketing director Eric White.

I am happy to look into individual cases. We are still in a transition phase transferring the business to TRS.

White commented that the market for service and repair has been a challenging one.

We chose TRS on the basis of who could best serve needs of customers and support us as a group he said.

This is a good set of figures for Caudwell Group in another tough year for the mobile telecoms sector said CEO John Caudwell. We substantially grew volume turnover and profit – but pressure on margin remained a constant factor.