Staff Reporter

Nokia head of marketing Simon Lloyd said:

Nokia had flown in and met [club owner] Roman Abramovich. It was a done deal as far as we were concerned. It was a big surprise to me when we were with [Chelsea chief executive] Peter Kenyon on April 20 to sign the deal and he told us that Chelsea had decided to go with Samsung instead.

It dropped on us like a bomb. We were close to a deal. We had been in talks with Chelsea since before Christmas. We were in negotiations until the week before the Samsung deal was announced.

Lloyd maintained that the deal collapsed because Chelsea misled Nokia on its international rights to Chelsea content. Nokia believed that the deal covered global content rights only to find at the point of signing that four markets – Macau Taiwan Hong Kong and Singapore – were excluded from the deal.

Nokia wanted to be able to provide operators such as China Mobile content to sell on Nokia phones according to Lloyd. But Chelsea already had a deal in place with TWI a provider of media management and delivery solutions which covered those markets. Lloyd claims Chelsea offered to renegotiate the TWI deal before pulling out.

It was a stumbling block for us he said. It was a totally different deal but we were still prepared to negotiate around it. We were still committed but Chelsea went quiet on us. Kenyon told us one thing. Chelsea promised something it couldnt deliver.

We are a bit bemused by the Chelsea turn-around. It was an opportunity that would have been nice if it had come off. There was a lot of potential for us in markets like China and Russia. But there are bigger and better opportunities out there. It isnt something were going to dwell on.

According to Lloyd Nokia is reappraising its brand.

Music is a big focus for us as is the youth market in general which football fits into. There will be more from us. Were just not going to sponsor Chelsea.

He said of the Samsung deal: Chelsea is going with a simpler more straightforward shirt deal.

The Chelsea-Samsung contract announced on April 25 is worth a reported 50 million over five years and eclipses the 9 million per season contract Vodafone has with Manchester United to become the largest in British football.

Samsung UK director and lifelong Chelsea fan Mark Mitchinson refused to comment on the size of the deal nor Nokias interest.

He said: There were other companies including other telecoms companies interested in Chelsea. But Samsung is a truly global brand. Asia North America and the Far East are very important markets to Chelsea and were already in those markets.

The partnership is more important for us than the amount of money we paid to get it and Chelsea isnt short of money anyway. The synergies between both companies work.

Samsung will leverage Chelseas existing relationship with Orange which revolves around content.

We havent yet discussed our relationship with Chelsea but it makes sense to take advantage of the Orange-Chelsea-Samsung triangle said Mitchinson.

We have got a five-year deal so we will look to establish a very strong relationship get access to the fans to Jose Mourinho and to the players in order to run incentives and sell more Samsung phones.

Mitchinson said that Samsung had been in talks with Chelsea FC for seven months. The deal was done on the back of a record quarter in which Samsung Mobile exceeded its targets by 50 per cent.

We will practically hit our annual target in the first half of this year he added. March was a record month in terms of sales. Mobile represents now between 65 and 70 per cent of the total business of Samsung Electronics UK.

He was formerly on the management board of O2 with responsibility for operations in Germany Ireland the Isle of Man and The Netherlands.

He has also served in senior management roles at FirstMark Communications Vodafone Airtouch International and Marakon Associates as well as an independent director at a number of telecoms and technology companies.

The Lions game is being released across all top tier mobile phone networks to coincide with the Lions seven-week tour of New Zealand ending in a three test series with the All Blacks.

O2 the technology partner for the Live 8 concerts received just over two million entries for 66500 pairs of tickets to the Hyde Park concert in London on July 2 and not the 70 million that the Evening Standard claimed.

An O2 spokesperson said: The Evening Standard in London stated that we were going to make a profit of 70 million from Live 8 which is completely incorrect.

This is gutter journalism and the paper has since retracted its story. It calculated that we were going to make 10p from every text and that 70 million people would enter for tickets. That is wrong on two counts.

We do not stand to make any money from Live 8 at all. The entry cost of 1.50 goes to charity. We are charging the customer 10p so that customers can receive a text back confirming that they have entered. But Vodafone and Orange are charging 12p for that service.

We also cover the cost of two more text messages: one to confirm a win and one as a reminder to pick up the tickets. Those are cross-network too.

The Evening Standard estimated that 70 million people applied but the reality is just over two million people entered. It got the figure from the number of text messages sent on New Years Eve which is around 50 million.

The Live 8 competition is one of the most successful text fundraising exercises ever conducted in the UK claimed O2

We coped very well said the O2 spokesperson.

All the mobile phone networks made sure that they were ready and could cope. There was a surge in text messages after the service went live and it continued as a steady stream until lines closed.

Harvey Goldsmith one of the main producers on Live 8 spoke with O2 head of sponsorship Paul Samuels about ways to get the tickets out to customers quickly and free of charge.

All winners had been notified yesterday by a free text message sent to their handsets.

The network is now paying between 50 and 300 on top of its regular consumer commission packages to independent dealers who connect customers to its new business tariffs.

3 informed independent dealers of its SME tariffs and commissions at a series of training days last week (see Sharp End P18).

3 told a training session of 20 independent dealers of its plans. Business tariffs are the same as its consumer tariffs except that the VAT is excluded in the advertised price.

The registration process differs as well. Dealers have to fill in a registration form via email instead of through 3s normal online registration process.

Raj Dooa of RD Communications in Tolworth said:

The commission is great and the dealer back-up is based in Glasgow instead of India which is positive. It is an issue that 3 wants dealers to manage the customer. If O2 or T-Mobile told me that I wouldnt have problem because they have a track record. But it is labour intensive and 3 isnt reliable.

It is passing the buck. Well take the pain. We can tell a business customer he will save money by going with 3 but as soon as a call drops out that customer could lose business himself.

Thats the reason businesses remain with Vodafone.

Matt Chambers manager of the Phone Chamber in Eden Bridge said:

3 wants us to sell it to the business market. Its really positive news. Its great value: more than twice the minutes that T-Mobile offers at the same price.

You have to be careful though. You have to tell the customer there is a reason the 3 price is cheaper Otherwise you risk losing them forever if the coverage cuts out.

The registration process is a bit more work and the credit check takes a bit longer.

Its good news the call centres are based in Glasgow instead of Delhi.

A 3 spokesman confirmed:

We have set up dedicated customer service team and a dedicated dealer support line both based in Glasgow.

Of the four new slide phones the Nokia 6280 is a 3G model with a two megapixel and a VGA camera. The camera function operates in landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4 and carry a SIM-free price of 375 before subsidies or taxes.

The Nokia 6270 quadband slide phone also features a two-megapixel camera with flash and landscape mode. It is expected to ship in Q4.

The Nokia 6111 GSM slide phone has a one-mega-pixel camera and flash and a 6x digital zoom. It has an estimated retail price of 270 will also ship in Q4.

The dualband GSM Nokia 6060 is a clamshell device for basic voice communications. It is priced at 140 and is due to ship in Q3.

The Nokia 6265 slide phone is billed as Nokias most feature-rich CDMA phone to date. It has a two megapixel camera with LED flash digital 2 music player Bluetooth and mini SD card. It has a built-in FM radio and supports MP3 AAC and eAAC+ files. It is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The Nokia 2255 is a fold-style CDMA phone which will be available at an entry-level price point and is expected to begin shipping in Q4.

The entry-level Nokia 2125 only 21.5mm thick and 85 grams features a 64K colour screen speakerphone and an integrated flashlight It is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2005.

Called ExtremeMob the network will be a pre-pay service aimed at under 24s.

It will be available online from late July or early August and roll out through Extremes 18 high street stores which sell surf clothing during the autumn. Wider retail distribution through independent dealers is planned for 2006.

Extreme Group CEO and founder Al Gosling said:

We will tailor our tariffs content and customer services to a 16 to 24 age group. Virgin Mobile and other big airtime providers cant do that because they have to cater to an audience across all ages.

We spoke to all the UK operators and wanted the best we could find. Vodafone has the right size scale people professionalism and forward thinking.

We launch in mid summer with five or six handsets. We are in talks with Samsung Sony Ericsson VK and Siemens. We wont announce anything until much closer to launch. The industry moves so quickly and we can decide only a few weeks beforehand especially as its online retail only to begin with.

ExtremeMob will range high-end and entry-level handsets. Detail of wider distribution deals is not available yet.

Vodafone UK CCO Nick Read said:

Extreme is an attractive partner. It has a unique combination of brand content and its own distribution channel. Over the past year we have been approached by several parties for an MVNO deal. Extreme is the only one that convinced us that it has a genuinely different proposition that will add value to the market.

Carrie Pawsey an analyst at Ovum noted:

Extreme has been looking for an airtime partner for some time. Its a surprise that Vodafone emerged as its host network. Vodafone has previously been very anti-MVNO. Its deal with BT was an exception to its corporate wholesale strategy. This new MVNO deal with Extreme could signify a change of heart for Vodafone. There were rumours that Extreme was going to partner with Orange another anti-MVNO operator.

The device also comes pre-loaded with 3D versions of Worms Forts: Under Siege Extreme Air Snowboarding and a new multiplayer version of Midways Gauntlet.

Sony Ericsson UK manager Peter Marsden thinks the phone will appeal to young adults with busy social lives a segment the manufacturer has traditionally shied away from in the past.

The Z520 is particularly aimed at young women who want a mobile that is small looks good but still has great functionality. The phone has Bluetooth and VGA camera and can be customised in a number of different colours to suit the owner.

The other new additions include the new 3G K608 which has 1.3 megapixel camera and features a direct video telephony button (full interview page 12)

Sony Ericsson UK general manager Peter Marsden told Mobile News that the S600 is aimed at the youth sector and the Z520 fashion phone at ladies two sectors the manufacturer has not normally gone after.

See full report page (12)

Masson who moved to Data Select after quitting T-Mobile as head of channel sales leaves his role as head of business development at Data Select after just one year.

Phones International marketing director Eric White said:

Frank Masson has resigned from Data Select in order to take up a more senior role elsewhere in the industry. He has a period of gardening leave to complete first and he is then free to conduct business in his own inimitable way. We wish him well.

Said Masson:

I think I can make a difference. It is simply a bigger job. It covers more ground than the role at Data Select. That is the bottom line. My role encompasses the total UK market including networks and dealers as well as the sales force and marketing. It will allow John [Drinkwater] to spend more time on other business in other countries.

European Telecoms growth record impressed me. It has done a lot beneath the radar. It is a good contract connector of quality business and its dealers are as loyal as they come.

I enjoy the network side of the business very much. I had nearly seven years at T-Mobile. I understand the psyche of networks and the relationship between them and the manufacturers and figuring out in that the role of the distributor. A good distributor has to understand what the networks are doing and how to help the dealer channel.

Masson and European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater worked together previously at One2One.

Masson is on gardening leave with Data Select until the end of June.

Essex Police were relaxed about details of the incident being released to the media. But they are furious Thomsons did not just call the phone a suspicious object.

If people are made aware that leaving or hiding a mobile phone on a plane can spark such a huge security alert then there could be lots of copycat or hoax incidences where this happens again said an Essex police spokesperson.

We advised Thomson that they should refer to the item as a suspicious object but they told the media that it was a mobile phone and now that has been widely reported.

We will definitely be having words with them.

The abandoned mobile phone is currently in police possession and the owner is currently being traced.

This operation has been costly for all the parties involved but owner wont face any criminal charges because they havent actually committed a crime said the spokesperson.

He also refused to reveal the brand model or even network for security matters.

A Thomson Holidays spokeswoman responded:

These kind of things escalate very fast and we were getting press calls about the incident long before theyd given us any advice about what we could and could not say.

The incident happened last Tuesday. A passenger found a mobile phone in an overhead locker aboard a flight on its way back from Portugal due to land at Coventry airport.

When it emerged that the phone didnt belong to anyone on board Air Traffic Control ordered the plane to divert to Stansted Airport.

Two fighter jets from RAF Coningsby escorted the diverted flight which landed at 7.54pm where crew and 103 passengers were disembarked and questioned.

The orphan mobile phone was then investigated by the bomb squad who finally decreed it safe.