Staff Reporter

However bonuses have been increased for managers at bigger stores. This is a deliberate move to encourage the companys best managers to aspire to work in its leading stores.

The bonus payment changes come as part of a wide-ranging pay review at The Carphone Warehouse.

Despite current market uncertainty with cost cuts inevitably coming from the networks in reaction to the Competition Commissions ruling we have made no commission cuts said a Carphone Warehouse spokeswoman.

Basic salary levels have actually increased three per cent for sales consultants and two per cent for store managers she added. There are also other elements in the pay review that allow employees to earn more.

One branch manager who declined to give his name said that the bonus cuts for the smaller stores could see some managers of small stores leaving.

Many store managers rely on their quarterly accelerator bonuses. The cuts now reduce our income by 2000 a year he said.

Whellams will be responsible for developing new business with the networks. He was about to join Unique Distribution after turning down an initial offer from 20:20. But then 20:20 made him an offer he couldnt refuse.

Distribution is a tough business. I am looking forward to the challenge and hoping to develop new business with the contacts I gained while working for Trium he said.

Whellams was made redundant from Trium when owner Mitsubishi pulled out of the UK. His last deal was to sell a big shipment of Trium handsets to Unique Distribution.

Whellams says he is looking to encourage dealers to maximise sales of SIM-free handsets.

People dont realise the potential of sim-free sales. The Carphone Warehouse is one of the few retailers making the most of sim-free handset sales. Selling sim-free handsets is easier for retailers because the customer doesnt have to think about tariffs. With prices coming down SIM-free sales could boom he predicted.

New rules drawn up by the Code of Advertising Practice (CAP) Committee say marketers using e-mail or SMS must state their messages are advertising in the subject bar.

Unsolicited e-mail marketing communications must now be clearly identifiable without the need to open the e-mail or attachments.

Unsolicited e-mail and SMS can only be sent to existing customers and only relating to a similar product already purchased by them. An opportunity to object must be offered.

Otherwise the explicit consent of consumers is required before sending marketing e-mail or SMS.

Marketers must identify whether consumers have asked not to receive marketing communications and whether they have had the opportunity to say that they dont.

A kerfuffle ensued when the funsters reached 3s shop where a team of over-enthusiastic 3 shop assistants asked them to move along but only succeeded in dislodging the Virgin Mobile-branded helium balloons which became stuck under the shops awning. Enjoy.

Ironically Elite boss Ajay Gokani is a supporter of rivals Liverpool FC.

We have been bidding for the licence for the past four months. Manchester United licensed products will contribute a large part to the business he said.

Gokani is hoping the deal will allow Elite to sell licensed team mobile phone products in supermarkets that already handle other Manchester United goods.

For European sales Elite will appoint an agent in each European country.

E-pay was set up in 1999 by John Gardiner and Paul Athasen. It claims to be the largest electronic payments processor of pre-paid mobile airtime top-up services in the UK and Australia with approximately 35 per cent and 75 per cent market share in each region respectively.

In the fourth quarter of 2002 e-pay generated net revenues of approximately $24 million and operating income of approximately $2.5 million. During this period the company processed approximately 15.7 million transactions up 214 per cent from five million transactions in the fourth quarter of 2001.

In 2002 the company processed approximately 42 million transactions up 281 per cent from 11 million transactions in 2001.

This acquisition is a huge step towards our goal of offering our products and services to the global market said Althasen.

Derbyshire dealer Richard Hunt of Phones Direct first alleged he had had his quarterly connection targets drastically cut by O2 and that the network was stopping him from using a distributor to make up the shortcomings.

Hunt claims O2 channel marketing manager Ian Driver said that by contacting Mobile News he had breached the trust of the dealer-network relationship and was having his dealership status terminated.

Driver absolutely refutes this offering the assurance that:

The suggestion that we would sack a dealer for speaking to the media is nonsense.

O2 has served a 90-day termination notice following a breakdown in the relationship. We have talked with him at some length about the issue of him connecting to O2 via routes in addition to his status as a direct O2 dealer.

The dealer has not accepted O2 policy. On this basis and despite a great deal of account management time being spent with him it was felt that the breakdown was irretrievable.

O2 UK sales director Mark Stansfeld added:

Its just not true. We would never sack a dealer for talking to the media. Listening to dealers complaints whether directly or through the press is all part of the open way in which we try to work.

Driver said that when a dealer sought other routes for connecting to O2 the network needed to be mindful of any consequential inefficiencies in its sales channels.

He added: O2 needs to keep these inefficiencies to a minimum. On that basis would not want a direct dealer also making connections to O2 via another supplier.

Hunt responded:

Ian Driver gave me a number of reasons for the termination. He said one of them was speaking to Mobile News which showed that I didnt trust O2. But why should I trust them if this is the way they act? I was told that the only reasons O2 would terminate a dealer were if he didnt make the connections and if he breached the terms of his dealer agreement.

I have always made the connections and havent breached the agreement terms. I have always been loyal to O2.

Hunt alleges that after terminating his dealership Driver required details of his customer database and instructed Hunt not to contact his customers for 12 months.

They want my business because they say I didnt trust them. I was told that if I was not happy with the original restriction in connections I could work through a distributor.

I was happy working with O2 direct and making up the connection shortfall through a third party. But I was told that I had to choose between one or the other.

I was reluctant to sever ties with O2 completely because I would lose my ongoing commission and the chance to earn more commission by upgrading existing customers.

Hunt says he is now consulting with his solicitor.

Project will take over the customer management and billing of around five million Energis customers a subscriber base worth an estimated 5 million annually.

Energis said the agreement was made because the company wants to concentrate on its top 30 customers including Boots the BBC and Bank of Ireland.

The transfer of customers is expected to happen over the next six months. Project Telecom will handle billing and payment for its new customers and then take a margin for this service.

Energiss 20 business-to-business resellers move under Project Telecom control.

Project Telecom has also signed with Martin Dawes System (MDS) to use MDSs DISE 3G service covering order management billing and customer relationship management as well as ongoing training and systems development.

The MDS solution will manage more than 200000 mobile and fixed-line Project Telecom corporate customers.

The system is claimed to be capable of managing well over five million subscribers without significant additional enhancements.

Project Telecom has grown its corporate business around 30 per cent year on year.

The money was raised by O2s Can Do In The Community programme which supports local communities through donations to projects and sponsorships.

Six charities get donations of 5000 each. They are the German charity Aktion Mensch (supports people with disabilities) Stichting Weeskinderen (Netherlands orphanage charity) Crossroads (Isle of Man disabled charity) Northern Counties Horses and Small Animals (UK animal welfare charity) Limerick Animal Welfare and the NSPCC.

This was one of the crime statistics given at a press conference attended by Home Secretary David Blunkett last week to announce the launch of Immobilise Phone Crime an ad campaign organised by the police and mobile phone industry and which is backed by the Home Office.

The initiative is being funded with contributions from all the networks and main retailers and handset manufacturers.

The campaign coincides with a police crackdown on criminals under the Mobile Telephones (Re-Programming) Act.

This enables police to arrest criminals who reprogram stolen phones and allows convictions to be punished with jail for up to five years.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens said there had been several arrests in the last month of people cloning phones.

This is the first time that the police the government and the mobile phone industry have all worked together to crack down on mobile phone theft he said.

The message from this new scheme is clear – stolen phones will not work. Anyone who thinks they can get away with cloning phones is in for a shock.

Mobile phones are stolen in 50 per cent of street crime. In 30 per cent of street crime they are the only items stolen.

The Immobilise campaign started in London last week and will roll out to phone-crime hotspots across the country.

Retailers will be putting up stickers and posters and distributing leaflets urging victims of mobile phone crime to report the loss on-line or by phone.