Phones4U threatened legal action after an online affiliate of (Cont P2) The Carphone Warehouse secured the domain address phones4you.co.uk.

Phones4U managing director Anthony Catterson demanded a public apology and financial compensation from his high street rival. But The Carphone Warehouse says it had received no correspondence from Phones 4U.

The Carphone Warehouses website was the eighth most visited site in November according to internet search engine Google along with sites connected with with Ulrika Jonsson John Leslie Pamela Anderson and Britney Spears. The Carphone Warehouse website is the only mobile phone company site listed in the top 10.

This year growth has been 147 per cent. We are getting more than 500000 unique visitors per week. Half of Carphone Warehouse customers are researching on carphonewarehouse.com before going in-store said director of online business Chris Murton.

Geremy Thomas denies the allegations.

In an announcement to the stock market last week PNC said Thomas who is trying to regain control of PNC (Mobile News November 25) could be in breach of regulations.

The directors also accused him of trying to seize control of the company without making a formal offer to shareholders.

PNC directors wrote to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) requesting them to investigate Thomas share dealings.

PNC directors questioned his purchase of shares despite two profit warnings. PNC alleges Thomas bought the shares in advance of interim results. They suspect he received sensitive information from his younger brother Crispin who was PNCs director of marketing until last month.

The DTI would not confirm or deny that it had received a complaint from PNC. The FSA said it was looking at the points raised by PNC.

These are simply allegations of insider dealing. We will have to make some preliminary enquiries before we decide to investigate said an FSA spokesperson.

Geremy Thomas told Mobile News: PNC ensured Crispin had no access to any financial information to protect him. It is just a feeble tactic by them to destroy my reputation he said.

The battle for control of PNC also took a new twist when PNC blocked Thomas request for an EGM on the grounds that his notice of EGM was not properly served because it was faxed rather than mailed.

PNC directors want Thomas to reveal the identity of his backers.

They are worried one of his supporters may be former chief executive Darren Ridge who is a 6.5 per cent shareholder.

PNC is litigating against Ridge over the alleged misuse of company funds. It says its case would be undermined if Ridge was involved with Thomas bid to take control of the company.

Under the new scheme dealers receive payments for upgrades based on customer spend as well as predicted propensity to churn. Previous upgrade payments were based on a customers call plan rather than spend.

Vodafone has told dealers that it plans to launch a second stage in the new year to take customer loyalty into account. Dealers will receive a higher commission if a customer hasnt had an upgrade in the previous 18 months.

Commission payments for the Company Caller Tariff will rise by 40 to 70 to answer criticism made when 50 was cut from the commission payment.

The dropping of the cap system is great news and the new upgrade scheme isnt that bad said (Cont P2) MoCo Cell Link managing director Ian Robinson.

Vodafone seems to be getting back to the old system where the networks gave a customer a certain value based on his loyalty and spend. The second stage should give a much more accurate picture of the true value of a customer. Prior to this the loyalty of a customer didnt seem to count.

Robinson noted dealers will no longer be able to forecast what sort of upgrade commission they are likely to receive from Vodafone before sitting down with customers.

It means talking upgrades will be a two-stage sell. We will have to talk to the customer find out what sort of upgrade commission we are likely to receive then tell the customer what sort of deal we can offer. If a customer has their last months bill you can make a rough guess. But it is highly unlikely they are going to have the previous 12 statements.

Customers will be allocated a classification letter depending on their spend. This will correspond to the payable commission and can be checked on Vodafones computerised credit-checking programme SPICE.

Kevin Billington of Sussex-based dealership KEB said dealers would no longer be able to contact existing customers and offer them upgrades.

This was because the dealer would not know what sort of upgrade payments he was likely to receive.

Wearside Communications corporate sales manager Lee Bromham said the new plan made little difference and would continue to force dealers to churn from Vodafone.

The industry has educated the customer to expect a new phone every year.

By not giving the independent dealer the commission to provide a free phone the networks are forcing dealers to churn.

Vodafone can say we have to get the customer out of the 12-month upgrade cycle. But Vodafone is the worst culprit for throwing a new handset at a customer if he threatens to churn.

Sarin (48) was formerly president and chief operating officer of AirTouch Communications until 1999. He then became chief executive of the Americas and Asia region of Vodafone until 2000 when Vodafones US-based mobile businesses were merged with others to form Verizon Wireless. (Cont P2)

Sarin will relocate to the UK to join the executive committee of Vodafone on April 1 as chief executive designate with a base salary of 1.1 million and incentives to match those Gent has been receiving.

Gent was managing director of the UK operating company from its launch in 1985 and became chief executive of the group on 1 January 1997. At that time Vodafones market capitalisation was 7.5 billion. It is today valued at over 75 billion (the legacy of Chris Gent. See P10)

The operations will close in March. Staff were informed of the decision on Friday December 13. Among staff being laid off were national sales manager Rob Whellams product manager Lee Costellos national accounts manager Andy Franklin national marketing manager Becky Vickers accessories manager Martin Jolly and service manager Richard Flood. Whellams has been with Mitsubishi for 12 years and will stay until March to sell the companys remaining 300000 handsets.

A source close to the company told Mobile News.

The company can no longer make a profit from producing handsets in France and no longer wants to be a major player in Europe. It isnt interested in having offices around Europe and believes everything can be done through the Paris office.

Earlier this year Mitsubishi announced plans to close its production factory in Rennes France causing production to slow from more than 7000 units a day to 1000.

Production has been moved back to Asia while a repackaging factory is being run by a third party outside of Rennes. (Cont P2)

Last month Mitsubishi dropped the Trium brand name that it had used for mobile phones for the past three years.

Industry sources suggest Mitsubishi may be paying the price for pandering too much to Asian networks at the expense of the European operators. Slow product development and in particular the lack of an MMS product are a prime example of this.

Mitsubishi had the advantage of being one of the first Asian companies to adapt the Asian model for the European market. But it still listened to the Asian operators first and maybe that has been its problem.

I know Mitsubishi is going to have a complete re-examination at how to strengthen itself in Europe. It may pull out of certain markets altogether while others it may pull out and then return said the source.

T-Mobiles head of external communications Patrick Barrow said:

Clent has resigned of his own volition to go back to California. His wife is expecting a child and he wants to pursue activities that will permit him to watch his family grow up. There is no acrimony and he goes with (MD) Harris Jones fulsome tributes ringing in his ears.

He will be here until March doing his job as usual and we will examine the nature of any future role in the meantime. The position will be filled.

There had been suggestions that T-Mobile bosses in Germany were unhappy at the distance between Richardson and the dealer channel and that he had removed himself from the everyday running of the dealer market.

One senior industry player who knows T-Mobile well hinted that there may be more to Richardsons departure.

Clents abrasive and combative style was proving unpopular within the dealer market. (Cont P2)

Put it this way the bar bill for his leaving bash wont be too high.

He may have made all the right noises about listening to the dealers and forging closer links. But you have to back the words up with action. If T-Mobile announces a successor straight away then it is apparent that this is something that has been planned.

One T-Mobile store owner said:

If he is going home to spend more time with his family then someone has made a very bad judgement in appointing him. A lot of people have a family and it is a choice you make. But we dont all quit our jobs over it. If those elements were in his mind from the start then it would explain the way he has acted. If you look at the job he was brought in to do he has created more hassle than harmony.

European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater credited Richardson with giving T-Mobile the strong direction it needed after the uncertainty involved in the move across from One 2 One to T-Mobile.

Although the way he did things has ruffled a lot of feathers he did a good job in terms of connection figures said Drinkwater.

West Sussex dealer STS Communications is one of the dealers which has been told that due to a poor connection rate it is no longer suitable to be a T-Mobile dealership.

The company has been in the mobile business since 1984 and used to connect through all four networks. It was once a direct dealer for One 2 One and is still a Nokia service centre for West Sussex.

It is surprising because we are the only dealer in Littlehampton that supplies T-Mobile.

We are only a small independent and we dont make a massive amount of connections but our connections are mainly business users. I thought that might protect us against termination but obviously not said STS owner Mike Browne.

Browne received a letter from his T-Mobile distributor European Telecom confirming the termination. He approached Hugh Symons but was told that if T-Mobile had terminated the dealership he wouldnt (Cont P2) be able to get stock at all.

We were cut by Vodafone direct in May but at least it gave us the option to go through another channel. We found another distributor and it has worked out well on almost the same commission. But T-Mobile says it doesnt want us to be associated with them. Funnily enough we still get promotional posters from them.

European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater said he has been told by T-Mobile to cut a very small number of such dealers.

It is harsh but it is a trend that dealers are wrong to try and fight. T-Mobiles targets for dealers arent unreachable. They are just looking for a certain amount of support from the dealer.

I can see why a dealer would be upset. But T-Mobile has been very clear that it wants dealers that are going to promote it. The move may reduce T-Mobiles business in some areas but it is not going to harm it overall. A lot of networks will think this way.

Dealers will have to decide who they want to support. If a dealer isnt doing a sizable share of connection figures with a certain network then that network wont want to be seen in his store.

A dealer will have to look at his sales and decide which networks he wants to support. The days of a dealer doing all four networks could soon be coming to an end.

So said 3 sales director John Barton in an exclusive interview with Mobile News last week.

We are going to give the independent channel the best quality support right from the start. It important for the independent dealer to realise that there is going to be someone to take care of him. Channel partners are treated differently across the industry. Not everybody thanks the channel for doing good work. We recognise the good work that the independent channel does Barton promised. (Cont P2)

We will include all our partners from day one. Im not going to put 3 into a large high street retailer three or four months before the independents. The full spectrum of channels and distribution capability will have phones and services to sell he added.

Networks have been known to offer initial packages of deals and propositions only to selected channels and sometimes to cut out the smaller independent player who can do as good a job as the larger players.

We have appointed Avenir and Hugh Symons as distributors because of the quality of response they gave to our initial request for information. Each of them will take on about 50 or so quality stockists who will work through them.

They will be the highest quality players the channel can deliver.

They will be self-selecting but will have to go through an accreditation process.

We have the final say and will maintain a watching brief. The smaller specialist independent dealer also has a key part to play. We are vetting applications from those who wish to deal directly with us. (see P14 for full interview)

Hutchison 3G also last week announced that The Link will sel lits 3G handsets and promote 3 products and services in its 290 specialist communications products stores across the UK.

The licence cost f114.1 million payable over 15 years. The first instalment has to be paid in advance. O2 already has 3G licences in the UK Germany and Netherlands.

Retailers are missing out on the profit potential of selling downloadable content such as ringtones and logos says a new Mintel report commissioned by mobile content provider M4 on the usage patterns of mobile phone users.

The report says demand for downloadable content including ringtones logos screensavers and games will increase tenfold by 2004 and will be potentially worth 1.5 billion. Of 2000 people interviewed 80 per preferred to buy downloadable content from retailers rather than from the internet or off-the-page dealers.

M4 managing director Steve Hughes says the report highlights the revenue potential in selling downloadable services.

Retailers have been slow to take up downloadable content because they have been unsure about the revenue potential. Few content providers have put together a package that appeals to retailers and offers them a retail margin.

Operators encourage retailers to sell services. But they do not give the retailer anything in return.

The report comes as accessory distributor Dextra launches its new range of downloadable content services which are claimed to allow dealers a 30 per cent margin from 5.99 packs.

Dextra says its aim is to make retailable mobile content packs more available in distribution routes and for high street retailers.

The new packs cover musical artists Eminem and Destinys Child and offer five pieces of content from a choice of ringtones icons and colour backgrounds for the Ericsson T68.

Future releases of artist packs include Blue Atomic Kitten and Oasis.

Sendo which formed a partnership with Microsoft in 2001 to develop the Sendo Z100 smartphone is suing the American company for allegedly stealing trade secrets.

Sendo claims that Microsoft took the information it gained during the development of the Z100 and passed them to Taiwanese company HTC which later developed Oranges SPV in partnership with Microsoft. Significantly the Z100 never made it to market.

Sendo senior communication manager Marleen van Lookeren says Despite the court case it is very much business as usual for us. We have added a lot more customers over the last couple of months and we are looking forward to doing what we do best creating quality phones.

Van Lookeren says the company has recently acquired new customers in Eastern Europe as well as opening an office in the Middle East.

We have new handsets that we will be unveiling in February or March and we have finance in place to see us through another year.(Cont P2)

According to Van Lookeren the new handsets wont be smartphones but instead will be GPRS camera phones with colour screens MMS and polyphonic ringtones. Van Lookeren says Sendo still plans to release a smartphone with the second half of the year a likely release date.

Van Lookeren is also confident that the court case will not be a protracted affair. From what I understand the Texas courts are very efficient and we should have a result before the end of the year. We will take it as it goes but for us it is business as usual.

Question marks hung over the future of Sendo after Microsoft turned a 8million investment into a loan but Van Lookeren says Sendo received a cash injection at the end of 2002 that will see it through 2003.