Staff Reporter

The original ET under Warren Hardy had been Oranges biggest distributor before it went into administration last year.

But the MobiShop-backed company that bought ET failed to secure the contract when it took over.

The move now allows ETs in-house sales team to connect to Orange but does not extend to the distribution of kit or connections.

ET managing director John Drinkwater believes the move is a step in the right direction for the company.

Drinkwater said:

This is not earth-shattering news. It is a small step but a step in the right direction. It is a positive move in terms of having good commercial relations with Orange. I dont know if it will lead to a distribution licence but it is a stepping stone in terms of building relations.

When we first secured the take-over of European Telecom Orange told us it wasnt going to give us the distribution agreement because we didnt have a trading history.

It is now more than a year since we took control and this agreement is a significant step in terms of helping people see what our aims are. This is a solid company that has shown stable ongoing growth with sensible business plans.

The Orange agreement follows the award of an O2 distributionlicence to European Telecom in January this year. European Telecom is also a T-Mobile distributor.

The offer was sent out as a bill insert to existing customers a direct mailshot to other customers and an insert into Oranges magazine O-Mag.

The new customer gets a 50 voucher for money off a new handset or 50 credit to their account.

A similar scheme exists for pre-pay customers with existing customers receiving 15 credit and the new customer receiving free text saver or group saver deals if he spends over 99 on a handset.

The move follows Orange sales director Stuart Henrys announcement to Mobile News that the only way the network is able to match 3 is by working directly with the customer.

Sendo originally brought the action against Orange in June this year because it believed the design of the circuit board in the Orange SPV smartphone infringed a patent that had been granted to Sendo.

Orange had developed its SPV smartphone in partnership with Microsoft and Taiwanese developer HTC which also produces the xda for O2.

Microsoft had previously been involved with Sendo to produce the Z100 smartphone.

But the partnership ended acrimoniously last year with Sendo accusing Bill Gates software company of stealing ideas and then using them to create the SPV.

Sendo is currently taking legal action against Microsoft in the US.

Mobile News understands the court costs in the Orange affair are not substantial and are in the tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A Sendo spokeswoman said the legal action had to be taken against

Orange to defend Sendos intellectual property rights.

Now that the rights have been sold to Texas Instruments however there is apparently no longer any legal issue between Sendo and Orange.

Sendo took the action against

Orange because it is the sole distributor of the SPV in the UK she said. If we didnt take action then we would not be able to legally challenge any other handset that used our patent.

We said at the time that we regretted taking the action. Orange is a customer of ours and we look forward to working with it in future.

A spokesman for Orange said:

Orange has always denied any impropriety regarding the intellectual property rights of the SPV.

But Sagem admits the SARS virus caused a sales slowdown in China. Sagem forecasts total sales of 13 million mobile phones and GSM modules for 2003. In fixed-line telephony Sagem sold 450000 fax machines and doubled DECT digital cordless handset sales to 400000 compared with the first half of 2002.

The store opened last Friday (July 25) and it is the first centre that will showcase Sony Music Sony Vision Sony PlayStation and Sony Ericsson under one roof.

The new store also has a dedicated business area. Central to the stores aim will be showing customers how the different technology devices can interact with oneanother.

Sony Ericsson marketing director UK Peter Marsden said: This is the first time we are seeing all of the Sony products under one roof. The idea is to start to pull together everything that Sony is about.

He went on: Showing people how different devices connect will be a major aim as will offering demonstrations. The idea is that people can see how their mobile phones can can talk to a laptop or a notebook.

Marsden said that the Sony Ericsson part of the store will have a similar feel to a Vodafone experience store where customers will be able to see downloads and applications available across the Sony Ericsson range.

He added that Sony was in discussions about rolling the idea out to its 110 Sony Centre stores across the UK.

If the concept is successful a decision will then be taken about rolling it out to the 300 Sony affiliate stores across the country.

The company which was founded by ex-European Telecom man Win Donaldson went into administration last month and has moved to Putney south London. Previously it operated out of Sutton where it shared an office with its former distribution arm M-Fusion.

M-Fusion went bust earlier this year with debts of 800000. In January this year the companys Mad Box Media content creation business also went into liquidation with debts of around 1 million.

According to a source at the company the move came about because the old Sutton office was impractically large following the redundancies.

There had been rumours that Euro Cellular had gone bust since there was no answer to its new telephone number for several days.

However the company said that there had simply been moving difficulties with the telephone network.

The ruling means corporate and private customers can legally use GSM gateway equipment such as Nokias Premicell. However the law forbids commercial telecoms companies from using the equipment to sell cheaper fixed-to-mobile calls to corporate or private customers.

Floe Telecom director Simon Taylor who is lodging complaints with the European Commission and Oftel said his company had expected the decision.

The DTI and RA caved in to the demands of the mobile phone operators he said.

The mobile operators and the Government are trying to hold out against de-regulating the market for as long as possible. But there are ways we can continue to service our customers in spite of the ruling.

Walker stressed that Customs is not after honest businesses that can demonstrate they have done all they can to avoid carousel fraud.

He claimed that traders have no reason to worry about checking beyond their initial supplier and customer as long as they ask the right questions before doing a deal.

If an honest and legitimate business does everything it can to avoid being caught up and we are satisfied it has made all reasonable checks we are not going to apply joint and several liability.

But the threat of being hit for liability has already driven several traders out of the business. This is having a knock-on effect up and down the supply chain.

MoCo Cell Link boss Maurice Whelan said: Handset trading has come to a shuddering halt. I am petrified of buying from anyone other than the networks or big distributors. It is even a big risk buying stock from respected traders.

Keith Bennett of trading company Furzfield added:

Customs owes us a large amount from March that we havent seen. There is no point staying in the industry. Customs has its talons out and it is looking for some people to make an example of.

A despairing Stuart Wright of Phone Trade said: We arent trading anymore. There is no way we can. With the joint and several liability ruling there is absolutely no way that I can continue trading.

The only people I can truly know if they are legit are my customers and my direct suppliers. Outside of that I just havent a clue.

A disgruntled former Orange store assistant is taking the network to court over wages he alleges are owed to him.

David Polson 25 worked in Oranges retail store in Yeovil for seven months in 2002 as a full-time assistant.

During this time he claims the network failed to provide him with the free Nokia handset it promised him failed to increase his wages following the successful completion of his training and failed to pay him his holiday entitlement when he left.

I received no support from my store manager or regional manager when I told them of my problems he said.

They were more interested with procedures and as long as the handsets were correctly lined up they thought they were doing their jobs.

I was told that someone was sorting it out but for my last month I found myself spending more time on the phone trying to sort out my wages than actually helping customers. This meant I was losing the chance to earn commission.

Polson who now works as a graphic designer with a business consultancy also says he incurred bank charges because of the failure of the network to pay his wages accurately. He is also demanding Orange pay the charges.

The case has been transferred to Yeovil County Court.

At time of going to press Orange had not commented on the case.

The service costs 10p with a 25p message charge added to the customers Orange O2 or Vodafone bill.

Other popular retailers will be joining the shopping service in the near future.

Retailers will provide an overview of available items illustrated withfull-colour pictures and accompanied by more detailed descriptions. Live! customers will also be able to view regularly updated special offers from each retailer.

An icon on the live! menu navigates users to a virtual shopping centre. Payment is by credit card and goods are despatched to the buyers registered delivery address.