Staff Reporter

The MDA announced that nearly 700 million WAP pages were viewed in May a figure that has doubled over the past eight months.

More than three billion pages have been viewed since the beginning of the year with the MDA estimating that eight billion pages will have been viewed by the end of 2003.

The figures mean that UK mobile phone subscribers view an average of 22.5 million pages per day.

The MDA reports that ring tone and screensaver WAP sites are among the most popular among users. However the figures also show a growing interest in sports and news sites.

According to the MDA the growth in WAP usage has been stimulated by improvements to mobile devices which are now available with larger colour screens faster WAP access and a better choice of WAP content.

A 3 spokesman insisted it would not cause problems for dealers as the network uses several subcontractors in the area and point of sale material would be brought in from other suppliers to cover.

The network was confident that it would recover all of the material that had been seized.

Elite managing director Ajay Gokani said the company had seen a decline in sales since new VAT laws regarding joint and several liability were proposed earlier this year.

He told Mobile News:

We made nine people redundant last month. The handset market is cautious at the moment and sales have dropped.

Even distributors with direct relationships with manufacturers are seeing a slowdown. There is confusion over the new VAT directives which has brought caution into the trade. We have spoken to local customs officers and even they dont know where we stand.

He added: Trading has slowed down as a result and we could not afford to have people sitting around doing nothing. The industry has also been hit by pressure on commissions and reductions in margins which have started to bite.

Traders had been getting line check advice from a Customs and Excise helpline in Redhill Surrey set up for VAT number queries.

The service was meant to give traders advice on potential deals by checking the supply chain and identifying possible missing traders. Customs would then advise the traders as to whether they should do the deal or not.

Now however Customs has reverted to dealing only with VAT number queries.

Federation of Technological Industries chairman Mark Cook a trader who is leading a fight against the Governments proposed new joint and several liability VAT clause condemned Customs move.

Customs wants everything its own way he said. The Redhill helpline was a lifeline for people who wanted advice on the deals they were doing. Customs has stopped giving line check advice because it could potentially backfire if it later discovers a fraud on a deal it approved.

Elite Mobile managing director Ajay Gokani (see story below) says the move has hit some traders sales.

We have not been directly affected because we never used the facility he said. However some of our trading partners who did use it have become more cautious in the market.

Another trader who declined to be named said fewer and few people were using the helpline because Customs were taking too long to verify the deals.

It could take up to 48 hours to give you the okay on a deal. In this volatile market that is too long. In the time it took Customs to verify a deal we could have sold two or three consignments. The market is so volatile. You cant afford to hold on to stock for so long.

Another problem was that Customs might approve a deal only for your customer to tell you that he had been advised by his local VAT office not to buy your stock.

There was also inconsistency in the trading advice we received from different Customs offices. It looks like the service has been withdrawn because it was taking up too much of the officers time.

Former customs investigator Don Mavin who works for tax specialist firm Chiltern Taylor said:

The danger for Customs was that some dealers were using Redhill approval as a defence against an assessment.

It meant traders could blame Customs for their tax liability. I can see the reason why it has withdrawn the facility.

Its not fair on the dealer said Essex dealer Paul Leonard. If we can match the deals its not a problem. But when T-Mobile is telling us to sign up high-revenue users and then offers them better terms it makes it an uphill struggle.

If we do sign up that sort of user and he later finds out that he could have got a better deal on the networks website he is going to feel hoodwinked.

A friend who does a lot of T-Mobile connections says that he is scared that his customers will discover the T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile should have contacted dealers and warned them of what they were doing. At least that would have been fairer.

Orange has advertised 500 free text messages a month and half price line rental for six months for purchases direct from the Orange website.

Link Telecom dealer Mike Bower said: The networks are testing the boundaries. It is hard out there. They are trying to see how much they can get away with in terms of alternative routes to market. Its a sign that they dont really view the channel as they should.

At the time of going to press both Orange and T-Mobile were unavailable for comment.

Industry sources close to both companies say Vodafone has moved swiftly to acquire Projects 185000 subscribers (which include 155000 on Vodafone) after learning that another network or service provider was making a move on the base.

Project became a prime takeover target after it issued a profits warning in April and laid off 50 staff including Ternhill founder Matt Sandford (see story P10).

Said one source: It wouldnt surprise me if Vodafone bought Project Telecom. Project made most of its money in the distribution of pre-pay handsets and vouchers.

Its airtime business isnt very big. With margins being squeezed by the networks the service provision side of the business will never contribute massive revenues to a company of Projects size.

The deal would make perfect sense for Vodafone because it has acquired virtually all of its independent service providers.

Vodafone said it never commented on rumours while Project Telecom chairman Tim Radford was unavailable for comment.

Vodafone is still expected any day to announce the purchase of Caudwell groups service provision arm Singlepoint for an estimated 300 million (Mobile News April 7). Vodafone recently spent around 50 million to buy 500000 customers from Swindon service provider Cellular Operations and then closed the operation down.

Unique Distribution MD Angus Dawe said:

Iain has a long history in the dealer market and understands the challenges they face. This will be key to us developing a business based on long-term relationships with the dealers.

Sinnott said:

I am looking forward to reliving some of the experiences of my time at Martin Dawes. First we want to become the distributor of choice for dealers and then we want to help develop the potential these dealers have by supporting business-to-business and other initiatives. I am not talking revolutionary concepts just good old-fashioned hard work and commitment to the channel.

Dealers connecting via Unique Airtime will have the advantage of receiving favourable terms when purchasing SIM-free handsets and genuine accessories. With the support we are able to leverage from the other divisions of Unique Distribution we can save our customers time money and effort.

Mobile Internet figures from O2 Orange T-Mobile and Vodafone totalled 635 million pages in April taking the daily average to 21 million. This almost doubles the figure of 11 million per day for September 2002 when the MDA began issuing WAP statistics.

Aprils total shows that mobile-phone users are utilising their handsets for a wider variety of purposes than ever before. Mobile Internet services continue to increase in popularity and are a part of the growing range of messaging services available to the end user said the MDA.

The most popular WAP sites viewed continue to be those offering ringtones and screensavers although there is an increasing percentage now coming from sports and news.

The MDA confidently forecasts continued growth and expects WAP page impressions to reach eight billion by the end of the year.

The advertisements were placed at the end of 2002 and beginning of this year by Interway director Zeshan Rashid.