Staff Reporter

TMTI has now launched a premium rate Bluetooth support line. The approval has helped TMTI secure a deal to support Bury Bluetooth in-car handsfree kits being supplied by Elite Mobile to Vodafone retail stores.

TMTI will also be supporting a new range of Bluetooth products being launched by North London distributor Avenir Telecom.

TMTI has also won a contract to provide technical support to Unique distribution on a range of Vodafone-branded Trium Sirius pre-pay handsets sold through Woolworths.

TMTI managing director and founder Crispin Thomas said he was in talks with Bluetooth manufacturers with the aim of supporting their products.

There is a raft of devices appearing on the market and we can help dealers and distributors alike to support them he said.

Most problems are to do with pairing the accessory to the mobile and this is where we can help. We can cut down product returns and save the retailer the refund nightmare by including our support in or on the box.

Since its launch in June TMTI has secured distribution agreements for its premium rate support cards with a number of distributors including Avenir Telecom Fone Logistics 4U Distribution Elite Mobile Unique Distribution and TAP.

The three-year agreement covers the entire tournament from group stage through to the final and builds on 3s already strong football offering. The network is in the second year of its three-year deal with the English Premier League.

Like 3s Premiership service the Champions League offering will show near-live goals and major match incidents as well as offer text alerts and team news.

English teams involved in the tournament include Manchester United Arsenal and Chelsea.

Both the Premier League and Champions League packages are free to customers who sign up to a VideoTalk price plan before the end of September.

Distributors and dealers were warned not to sell the handsets until the faulty chargers could be identified and recalled.

The rogue part has the identification number BML 162099/3 R1A and Made in Thailand by Delta is printed on the socket face of the charger.

Most UK distributors have suspended sales of the chargers until they can ascertain which stock is affected and can obtain replacements from the manufacturer.

Sony Ericsson claims it is starting to supply replacement chargers to distributors after carrying out an extensive recall campaign focused solely at consumers.

A third of its UK stock was shipped with the faulty chargers. The remaining handsets have mains chargers produced for Sony Ericsson by other manufacturers and are not affected.

Faulty electrical components within the Delta-originated units can overheat causing a build-up of air pressure. This causes the airtight charger casing to explode.

Sony Ericsson head of marketing Peter Marsden commented:

Our focus has been primarily on consumers and existing users. Stock in channel is a secondary priority. We have a good supply of chargers coming in and we are coping with demand.

Dealers should send any affected stock back to their distributor where it will be replaced. We are only a week or two away from receiving a batch of new stock. It has been annoying as the T610 was selling really well.

He went on: Overall the problem hasnt slowed down sales. The bigger distributors have been able to segregate stock getting back to business as normal. We have suspended the supplier of faulty product and we are investigating with them.

The trade told a different story however.

Orange Retail had suspended sales of the affected handsets. Orange said it was just starting to receive a new supply of handsets to its distribution centre.

Orange distributor Mainline was awaiting advice from the network.

We are not selling any handsets until we get further instruction from Orange said Mainline managing director Andrew Boden.

DataSelect managing director George McPherson said he had similarly frozen all stock and was working with the manufacturer on a solution to the problem.

We are not supplying any of the affected Sony Ericsson handsets to dealers he told Mobile News (See White Lines P48).

Police searched business premises and homes in the north west of the province an early morning swoop. Police believe companies in Spain and Denmark were also involved in the fraud.

Their arrests follow arrests of a Cheltenham man and woman (Mobile News September 8).

O2s off-peak tariff is called Leisure Time and offers 500 cross network minutes and 100 text messages. T-Mobile will introduce a three-month deal of a 50 per cent increase in bundled minutes on its Everyone 100 and Everyone 200 tariffs.

O2s closest off-peak tariff is O2 Leisure Time Plus which offers 500 minutes on-network and 50 cross-network calls.

This costs 20. Outside the bundle calls cost 30p peak and 5p off peak while texts are 12p.

O2 is also introducing three new business tariffs for small businesses that can share minutes across two to five handsets.

The new tariffs are called O2 400 ( 38.30) O2 1000 ( 76.60) and O2 2000 ( 148.94).

Calls are valid for any time and cross-network. O2 400 comes with 50 text messages.

O2 100 has 100 texts and the 200 comes with 200 texts.

Calls outside of the bundled minutes to landlines and other O2 mobiles cost 6.81p. Calls to other networks are 25.53p.

T-Mobile said that Everyone 100 and 200 were chosen to fill the gaps that existed between Everyone 100 200 and 400.

Software company Iceberg Systems has developed technology it says will create a wireless privacy zone which temporarily disables the cameras in mobile handsets.

Iceberg Systems managing director Patrick Snow said the system would be ideal for places like courtrooms research centres and production houses or any other area where secrecy or privacy is important.

It allegedly works by the installation of software into a handset that would then receive a signal when the user enters a privacy zone. On receiving the signal the handset would turn off the camera while other functions would continue to work.

But major manufacturers have expressed doubt about the idea.

It sounds a bit fanciful said Sony Ericsson marketing manager Peter Marsden.

I cant see how it is possible to turn off the camera when it is not connected to the network. All it would take to blow the system would be for one manufacturer not to sign up to the scheme.

Samsung head of distribution and retail Simon Walsh said:

Its not something Ive heard about. But I can see many problems with it. Manufacturers would be nervous about anything that claimed to do something temporarily.

If this thing turns a function off temporarily the danger is that it wont turn the function back on straight away. That would then cause all sorts of warranty issues and repair problems. Im not sure networks would like it either as it would mean they would lose revenue while the function is disabled.

Nokia business development manager Ray Haddow said Iceberg had not spoken to Nokia about the idea.

It is an interesting idea but I would have to know more about it he said.

Despite the fact that key manufacturers had not heard of the idea Snow said Iceberg was in discussion with the major manufacturers and networks and that these talks had been very positive.

Snow said Iceberg would approach networks manufacturers and governments.

Our system helps networks make money he claimed. When large companies ban their employees from taking their camera phones into the office networks cant make any money out of these customers for the entire working day. Privacy zones will let users make calls and send messages. As for not being able to turn the camera function back this has never been a problem in tests. We are definitely able to control the camera functionality of mobile phones and PDAs over the air. You would be surprised how many of the functions of a phone can be controlled remotely.

Snow said he had been in conversation with the Korean government which is concerned about issues of privacy surrounding camera phones.

Earlier this year Samsungs security was compromised by someone using a camera phone to take pictures in its research and development factory.

In England camera phones are banned near courts including streets nearby because of the risk of identification of key witnesses and police.

Recently a man was arrested and fined 250 for taking a picture of a defendant at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court south Wales using a mobile phone. The man had reportedly pointed the phone towards the dock when a defendant was present.

In a keynote speech to the industry Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin told the 3GSM World Congress:

I would dispute that handsets are available today. They are bulky they get hot and they dont have battery life. The experience today is unacceptable to our customers.

He went on: In 1992 we built a GSM system in Germany D2 and sat on the network for 12 months waiting for handsets. Twelve years later things havent changed a lot. We are still waiting for handsets having deployed our network.

The congress heard from all sides that mobile broadband would not become widely available until Q4. The delay was laid firmly at the feet of the handset manufacturers.

T-Mobile chief executive Renee Obermann who joined Sarin on stage agreed: Our networks are up and running in the UK Germany and Austria but we still dont have the devices at hand. We didnt want to launch on the basis of a card service only.

In response to the exasperation of the networks Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila referred to it as a chicken and egg situation.

In 1991 and 1992 when we launched GSM and a few years ago when we were launching GPRS we had the same kind of comments from our friends the operators so there must be something generic here.

Ollila said that the wait for handsets was reasonable considering the complexity of the development in technology with 3G.

Where Arun was absolutely correct was about the consumer perspective because consumers are demanding said Ollila. What they want is experience. Size and technical performance need to be better than the phones that are available now.

Ollila suggested that Nokias UMTS handsets were likely to be available in the second half of 2004.

Van driver Kevin Moran 46 of Rochdale was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in November at Liverpool Crown Court.

Moran hit motorcyclist Gary Smith after making an illegal right turn while talking on his mobile phone to his wife. The motorcyclist died later in hospital.

There are three routers. If capacity on one is very high it switches to another said O2 spokesman Dave Massey. That didnt happen. Were trying to work out why. But the problem itself is now fixed.

Several thousand of O2s 8.5 million pre-pay customers were affected by the delay.

Phone numbers themselves are assigned to specific routers. Numbers affected came from a group of O2 customers whose top-up requests were processed by a single failed router during a four-hour time slot on Sunday morning March 14.

This is the first time this has happened. There are three routers to provide resilience when there is high capacity but the switch from one failed. Were happy thats now fixed. Theres no longer any top-up delay but well continue to carry out tests said Massey.

(See Mystery Caller P32).

Sendo has previously shied away from public branding as it has been an OEM handset supplier.

Sendo is looking for ways to enhance its image as Britains number one handset manufacturer. We spent months putting the right criteria down for the deal and looked at all the options said Sendo spokesman Kevin Lawless.

We dont do things in increments we get it right first time around. This is a big step no doubt about it. The decision was made because of the exposure it offers and the popularity of the sport. We are easily outbid in bigger sporting events like football – Superbikes has guaranteed advantages.

The Brands Hatch event is said to be the biggest spectator event in Britains sporting calendar.

The championship should give Sendo brand exposure on Sky Sports the BBC Eurosport and on highlights shows in Asia and the US.

The TV value is very significant to Sendo. But there is also the opportunity to explore a range of world options with a wild-card entry to the world championship and a high degree of exclusivity for us added Lawless.

Virgin Mobile which sponsors the Yamaha team at the British Superbike Championships (see picture) said it welcomed Sendos involvement in the sport.

It will be interesting to see what Sendo does. Its good to see other manufacturers in the field and superbikes could be the perfect match for the telecoms industry said a Virgin spokesperson.