Staff Reporter

O2 has increased the business tariffs and sharetime commissions it pays to its dealers to bring it closer to rival Vodafone.

Dealers recently received their commission structures from the network outlining what they will earn for putting connections on certain business and sharetime tariffs.

O2 has doubled commission for secondary connections from 100 to 200 to bring it closer to the commissions Vodafone offers. An O2 spokesman admitted that the network hoped it would close the gap on competitors.

Feedback from our sales channels suggested we were losing substantially valuable connections due to our secondary connection commission being uncompetitive he said.

We have increased commission for secondary connections. We continue to monitor the market to ensure we remain competitive.

But as O2 is bringing its commissions up Vodafone is bringing its own down. The network has made adjustments to the commissions it pays for the same tariffs. Vodafone has kept the commission it pays for secondaries the same but clipped the commission it pays for lead connections which dealers say means some deals will earn them more money on O2.

Ian Robinson of MoCo Cell Link said: Basically it depends on the deal but if you have more sharer connections when compared side by side with Vodafone youd earn more by connecting to O2 by a nose.

It will also unveil a new 9000 sq ft office and warehouse facility on a new Daventry retail park in the next month.

The new stores will be in Louth Daventry Northampton Richmond Leeds Hull Selby Mansfield Northampton and Kettering.

The openings which are set to be complete by December will take its total retail base to 25 stores.

Go Mobile chairman Iain Humphrey said the company had spent three years working on an automated distribution and retail system called Sellfone 3G.

This lets dealers monitor the flow of business through their stores in real time.

Sellfone is a live retail system that lets dealers understand where their businesses are on a day-to-day and hour-by-hour basis said Humphrey.

It offers more security and detail about stock and commissions.

Our systems know exactly what accessories are relevant to which IMEI numbers and it calculates discounts for the customer if they choose to buy certain extra products with their phone. It also orders stock depending on what a store sells.

He claimed no other distributor was offering this kind of system.

The independent dealer is looking for the kind of stability that lets them know whats going on with the networks.

Sellfone 3G was developed by Go Mobile distribution arm Shebang of which Humphrey is managing director and Northampton-based PC Control Systems.

It links in to Shebang and other distributors and is online in 200 independent dealerships at present.

The e616V has two zoom cameras and a camera light which enhances images captured in low-light conditions. It also features GPS functionality for location-based services and can be connected to a PC via a USB cable.

Million-2-1 is acquiring tens of thousands of new customers each month he claimed.

The challenge for the business is how to accelerate and service that growth and customer base. I will be helping Million-2-1 to become a key partner for media owners who are looking to grow profitable revenues from interactive services.

Million-2-1 was set up in 2000. It runs fixed-odds betting prize competitions and lotteries both online and over mobile phone.

In June 2004 the company launched The Manchester Lottery a non-profit lottery for local charities in the Greater Manchester area.

Under its terms the network will match any money raised through sponsored events by staff.

MmO2 will also add 20 per cent to any regular charitable contributions that come out of an employees monthly salary. The scheme also takes advantage of tax rules that maximise contributions to charity.

About 60 mmO2 staff will be advisers to the Weston Spirit the charity set up by Falklands War veteran Simon Weston that works with mmO2 to help disadvantaged young people.

Smartnav operates at the touch of a dashboard button ( top left above). This connects the driver to a Smartnav operator who takes destination details verbally. The route is calculated using Trafficmasters traffic information and uploaded to the vehicle.

The service won the Mobile News Award for Innovative Service last year.

Shazam allows people to use their phone to identify a track simply by pointing it at the music source and dialling a short code – 2580. They receive an SMS tag within seconds giving details of title and artist.

The service is supported by four UK mobile networks and is recognised as a valuable promotional tool within the music industry

Reaching a million callers highlights the strength and loyalty of our UK customer base which is repeatedly turning to Shazam and adopting the service as part of their mobile life said Jerry Roest CEO of Shazam Entertainment. Shazam was launched just over two years ago and generates revenues from the music that customers buy.

Louise Forbes joins the company from Wellas consumer products division where she oversaw the styling shampoo and conditioner portfolios of brands such as ShockWaves and Silvikrin.

She now has responsibility for the Siemens brand marketing team which oversees a portfolio of marketing activities including advertising sponsorship PR and events.

This is an exciting time for the mobile devices sector but with so many new products coming on to the market only those with a strong USP and communications strategy will succeed in winning and retaining customers she said.

With a clear focus on design Siemens has a long heritage of innovations that have shaped the market and captured the imagination of the consumer. In an increasingly competitive field these are the strengths that will set Siemens apart and will form the cornerstone of our strategy.

Forbes will also be responsible for driving channel marketing activities and plans to use forthcoming trade initiatives to reinforce Siemenss ongoing commitment to on-the-ground support for dealers retailers and networks.

Hugh Symons will distribute Sproqit Personal Edition in the UK on PalmOne Handspring Treo 600 devices.

Sproqit gives users direct access to calendar diary and full e-mail capability. Instead of relaying e-mails through a central data centre as other wireless e-mail solutions do Sproqit creates a direct link between the users PDA and office PC making the PDA a remote control for the PC.

Sproqit CEO Peter Mansour claimed corporate users want more from their mobile device than BlackBerry offers.

BlackBerry will be redundant in five years. [BlackBerry manufacturer] RIM should be running scared. There are some diehard BlackBerry fans but there is a huge market for which BlackBerry doesnt do the job he said.

There are a large number of BlackBerry users who want to use their mobile phone as well as e-mail. Our product does all these things. E-mail is only a single part of our proposition. Everything you do on your PDA will also happening in real time on your desktop said Mansour.

Sproqit only streams data to the PDA when it is requested. Otherwise only data that updates the PDA is transmitted as e-mails arrive in the users inbox. According to Mansour it means that network bandwidth is no big deal.

It will be the first major LG mobile marketing campaign in the UK and the biggest LG campaign since 1999.

Commercials will appear on terrestrial and Sky TV in the six week run-up to Christmas.

The campaign will be product-led with the launch of the LG u8150 on Orange and the LG u8138 on 3. The TV campaigns focus on the 8100 series phones.

LG will launch the LG u8150 3G handset an updated version of the LG u8130 with more memory and a revised design on Orange this month.

LG UK marketing manager for mobile John Bernard dismissed a BBC Radio 2 report that Orange has postponed its 3G launch until the new year:

We have got our launch of the LG u81150 this month. The launch of Orange 3G is imminent. The phones are in.

We have delivered all the handsets to the networks already.

The u8138 will be available on 3 from early November. LG is also to release the LG u2200 and the 1.2 megapixel LG u5100 expected to compete with the Samsung D500 on T-Mobile but neither of these handsets will be supported by consumer advertising on the same scale.

We will spend even more in 2005 said Bernard. This is just a springboard. We want to be a top-three manufacturer worldwide and in the UK specifically by 2007.

GfK statistics for August show we had a 6.1 per cent share of the total UK market. This is phenomenal for a new entrant.

It took Samsung nearly three years to reach that. We did it in 12 months and it brings us ahead of Siemens.