Cityphone boss Barry Donaghey told Mobile News he had been in talks with the administrators for some time about taking the 120 stores.

I understand that another company is bidding. I would like to know who it is. I might be able to do a deal with them said Donaghey.

The other bidder is believed to be a consortium of dealers based in the North of the country. Administrators HLB Kidsons confirmed there were two bidders for Phone People but declined to name them.

Seventy Phone People stores closed earlier this year with redundancies of 70 staff.

It seems potential buyers have not been impressed with what they were being offered.

WAP store boss Graham Cornhill said:

Ive been offered the stores. But I do not think it is worthwhile spending thousands of pounds on stores when we can open up a shop next door for next to nothing. Not many of the stores have a good trading history.

Fone Logistics managing director Ian Gillespie said he put in a bid but has now pulled out of the running.

We put in a serious bid about two months ago but heard nothing back from the administrators. In the meantime we have re-assessed the situation and decided not to pursue our interest any further.

Donaghey is unsure as to what the outcome of his talks will be.

I dont know if we will definitely buy or not. I just hope that after all these negotiations we are not going to find out that the shops are in a worse condition than weve been told. But negotiations are taking an awfully long time.

Elite boss Ajay Gokani said.

The van has been recovered but the cargo of 50 Nokia handsets is missing. They were a return load of 30 Nokia 8850s and 20 Nokia 8210s. They were brand new (Cont P2) phones being returned because some of the boxes were damaged. We have a list of the IMEI numbers.

It happened mid-morning. The driver had stopped off to have a cup of tea after making a delivery in Manchester. We think the men are from the Manchester area. I dont believe they followed the van all the way from London said Gokani.

Manchester Police confirmed the attack took place at 10:10 on Tuesday June 26.

Two men both five foot eight tall and wearing blue balaclavas approached the Mercedes Sprinter van from the rear and opened the doors. The driver was dragged out from behind the wheeland dumped on the road.

He suffered minor grazing to his knees and forearm. No goods have been recovered said the police statement.

Police have arrested two men. They are John Griffin (41) of Wishaw and Edward Morcombe (27) of Fauldhause.

Morcombe has been identified as being a former employee at the plant. The men appeared at Linlithgow Sheriff Court and were released on bail pending a further appearance on July 25.

The theft took place at 3pm on Friday June 22 while inventory was being shipped in readiness for the formal closure of the plant the following week. Police said that it appeared the thieves simply attached a tractor unit to the parked trailer and drove off unchallenged by site security.

Motorolas spokesman Tony Joyce confirmed that the raid took place but said as the company were co-operating fully with the ongoing police investigation Motorola did not wish to compromise any prosecution by saying anything more.

CID officers at Livingston are continuing their investigation and other arrests are expected.

The theft was only discovered after a container trailer disappeared from the loading bay at the Bathgate plant.

None of the phones have been recovered Dealers have been warned to be suspicious of purchasing a retail boxed blue Motorola T180 handsets supplied with charger and hands-free kit at less than standard pricing.

The money will be spent on new IT systems boosting customer services and gearing up for offering total telecoms convergence. Central to the relaunch of Singlepoint is a billing system called Geneva. This is said to be able to calculate the best tariff based for customers based on their previous thee months use. It can also calculate payment plans loyalty schemes and be configured top sell new products.

A key objective is to establish start-to-finish customer care. This will create enormous efficiency improvements with virtually no customer waiting time said Caudwell Group chairman John Caudwell.

Shuttleworth (38) takes over from Don Gunn who joined ET at the beginning of 1999 from Cellcom which he joined when it was a start-up in 1985. Gunn had an earlier career with British Aluminium Company Vestric and Expamet International.

Shuttleworth is European Telecoms fourth financial director in as many years and follows Max Ashton Huw Evans and Gunn.

Gunn was heavily involved in getting European Telecoms bank the Royal Bank of Scotland to continue to provide banking and debt facilities to ET for the next 12 months in the face of 27 million losses over the last financial year (Mobile News July 9).

Before joining Ora Shuttleworth was finance and operations director for US electronic security group Sensormatic Electronics Corporation. ET group MD David McKinney said:

With the departure of Don Gunn we recognise the need to appoint a group finance director with the experience of successfully taking a company into profitability through the generation of significant margin improvements and the continued implementation of operating efficiencies.

Mark is well placed to assist in the rebuilding of ET into a profitable group focussing on supplying value added fulfilment services for the telecoms and converging industries.

Network operators and service providers will now use the same database. The process of porting will be co-ordinated over a business-to-business web-based system accessible by all network operators and service providers.

Customers will be able to choose the date they wish to port their number. Network operators and service providers will share a common view of the process allowing customer information to be accurate and consistent. The new initiative will be phased in during September and October. It has been agreed developed and delivered by the mobile network operators working as a single body.

The move was welcomed by

Oftel whose director general David Edmonds who said:

I have been seriously concerned at the inadequacy of existing arrangements for porting mobile numbers. I therefore pressed the operators to provide a simple and cheap way to port numbers.

Oftel welcomes the new arrangement by the four mobile network operators. This means that from October consumers can switch their mobile numbers between networks easier and faster.

Improving the transfer process will provide an opportunity for more consumers to retain their mobile number and maximise the benefits of switching between operators to get the best deal.

This new arrangement is an example of telecoms operators working together. Oftels strategy encourages self and co-regulation and I am pleased to see this initiative will deliver benefits to consumers.

Oftel said the need for such action as underlined by results from an independent mystery shopper survey that looked at whether consumers were being given the correct advice when enquiring about transferring their mobile number.

Conducted in 300 retail outlets and call centres of mobile service providers the research shows that only one in five people were given correct advice when asking whether they could transfer their number the costs involved and the length of time the process would take. Similarly almost one in three consumers were told that it was not possible to keep their number or staff did not know whether it was possible.

Edmonds added:

This mystery shopper exercise has revealed some worrying findings.

For example four out of five customers were given wrong or no advice about whether they could transfer their mobile number and the costs and timescales involved.

Oftel wants to ensure that consumers are well informed and aware of the choices available to them so I am writing to the mobile operators asking them to comment on these findings and set out their plans for improved performance.

The survey also looked at SIM locking handsets to one particular network.

The results show that less than half of the consumers surveyed were told they could keep their handset when changing supplier. Current guidelines allow operators to lock handsets but the results of the survey will feed into Oftels current mobile market review.

Diffin leaves Manchester service provider Yes Telecom to relaunch the Phone People with a strategy designed to breathe new life back into the UKs second largest mobile phone retailer.

The Phone People went into administrative receivership last year after piling up debts under a regime led by founders Jason Pickthall and Amjad Baig who set the company up in 1989.

The move back to Phone People (as it is now called) is sweet revenge for Diffin who along with marketing director Barry Neild and commercial director Scott Forbes had a falling out with Pickthall and Baig which led to him suing The Phone People for more than 200000 for alleged constructive dismissal and breaches of contract.

The new board is led by non-executive chairman and acting managing director Mike Bahbout Diffin (sales and marketing director) and Howard Nicholson (financial director). Nicholson was financial director with the original company.

Bahbout (42) is new to the mobile phone industry. He recently sold his company The Quay a full marketing services agency to advertising agency McCann-Erickson last October for 14 million.

The objective of the management team will be to now regain the companys High-Street presence reinforce its position as a customer-driven operation and build a strong platform for the future in anticipation of 3G technology said Diffin.

Phone People believes in the potential that 3G will have to offer the consumer and business user creating new and exciting routes to market.

The current objective is to stabilise and strengthen stores and the customer base before focus switches to taking a profitable slice of the 3G market. Were optimistic this is an industry set to surge forward. The lesson is to plan for the changes ahead and ensure the company is in shape to meet the upward curve.

Phone People currently has 92 stores cut down from its original 125 outlets. It employs 250 people.

Distributors Cityphone and Fone Logistics were also in talks to buy The Phone People from the administrators (Mobile News July 9).

Administrators Kroll Buchler Phillips are to run the holding company to try and reduce costs and bring in the needed finances.

Dolphin spokesperson Stephen Brill told Mobile News.

Dolphin has passed into voluntary adminstration to reorganise and get protection from creditors. We want to restructure so we can deliver a stronger more viable business.

We are having trouble raising finances. Its tough for any telecoms business to raise finance right now. Dolphin is not yet a mature business. We are continuing to invest and it is important for us to draw the funding we need said Brill.

Unfortunately we have reached a point where the directors needed to take the matter to court. By filing for voluntary administration Dolphin hopes to avoid going bankrupt while the necessary finance or perhaps a buyer can be found said Brill.

Charles Aylwin of the FCS Dolphin ISP Group said: (Cont P2)

The survival of the PAMR industry in a viable form is essential. As Dolphin is taking this opportunity to restructure its finances it is clearly in everyones best interests to support the most credible way forward for the network said Aylwin.

We would expect the administrator and the regulator to objectively evaluate proposals from all interested parties. As independent service provision has been the most successful route to market for Dolphin to date ISPs will continue to work with the refreshed business. Above all the customers interests are paramount he added.

Numerous warnings have been sounded about Dolphins predicament. The company has been forced to reduce costs over the last six months due to uncertainty over funding.

The company is $1.2 billion in debt. Majority shareholder – Telesystem International Wireless is owed $400 million in loans. Infrastucture and handsets suppliers including Motorola have so far given Dolphin $115 million in credit facilities. Twelve UK banks are owed about 91 million. The remaining $600000 is tied up in bank debt and high yield.

It became apparent that Dolphin was failing in November last year. In a statement accompanying the third quarter results Dolphin admitted it had yet to secure financing needed to fulfil its 2001 investment plans.

Dolphins credit facilities with one United Kingdom bank were lowered from 215 million to 64 million after it failed to meet repayment obligations. In December the company announced it required a further $700 million of funding to carry out its plans to rollout new networks second generation handsets and maintain services over the network. It secured $300 million from TIW but has yet to raise the $400 million balance.

In addition Dolphins $250 million German Credit Facility has been lowered to $110 million the amount it owes to date.

Furthermore Dolphin announced it expects to be in breach of certain covenants relating to these credit facilities this year.

Head of mobile services Paul Lawton agreed Your Communications did not want to accept some new connections or ports until this month.

Your Communications is still recovering from a scam involving 12000 handsets that were connected but not used earlier this year. (Mobile News May 29).

Managing director Hugh Logan told Mobile News on 11 June the company had overhauled its connection procedures to eliminate future attempts by unscrupulous dealers to claim commission for unused phones after facing a potential clawback bill of millions from Vodafone.

One of the measures is the trebling of credit scoring points required for connection. Dealers accuse Your Communications of stopping connecting phones in July because it couldnt afford to pay out any more commissions until this month.

Stoke on Trent dealer John Hepworth of Garner Bennet Group said:

Your Communications has stop-ped accepting connections because the credit scoring points have been raised. Its extremely hard to process new connections.

I know they had problems with the Ilkeston Co-Op travel deal but we are trying to give them quality business. Ive got handsets sitting here waiting to go out to customers for the beginning of August and we (Cont P2) are hoping to process the applications in the next few days. One of my customers who purchased a large quantity of handsets has requested to have the international call bars removed. But Your Communications has refused to lift the bar for three months. Ive been on the phone to my dealer manager screaming and bawling because no-one would tell us what the problem is or help us said Hepworth.

Lawton explained:

This is to give us the time we need to refresh the way we work. We want to be certain that we are getting the quality of business we want from dealers and the loyalty we need.

In line with that I can confirm we have raised the credit scoring for dealers. The move has been made to protect all parties in the supply chain and yes it does follow some of the more challenging business situations we have faced in recent months. Lawton says not all dealers will find the situation workable.

There will be dealers who find it difficult to meet the new standards and some who simply cant do so. We recognise too that they may wish to complain about the situation.

Your Communications made it clear around two months ago that it was moving towards a position where it reduced the number of dealers it traded with to around 10 partner dealers. We have given due notice to those dealers that do not fit the criteria we have laid down and we are honouring existing commitments with every dealer that has ongoing agreements with us.

Mobile News reported in June that I had been parachuted in to Sheffield to restore an even keel – that is true. Thats what these measures are all about said Lawton.

Hepworth said he understood Your Communications reasons for taking tough measures

Your Communications has refused to tell us directly what is going on. I first heard the news from a dealer friend of mine. It was only when I started making my own enquiries that Your Communications told me what was going on.

Until then the only news we have from Your Communications is a visit to explain that commissions were being reduced. They intend to pay commissions based on customers call spend.

Ironically they called us to ask how much business we would be giving them this month. Its more a question of how much business they want to accept from us. They have put a stop on everything that we tried to put through. I was told they had reached a limit on the amount of commission they could afford to pay out. Ive had to connect some of my customers through other service providers.

Ive been informed that I will be one of their premium dealers but Im annoyed they left me in the dark about everything else. Ive had to put customers off because we couldnt get them connected and didnt know why. I see that they want to increase direct selling but customers prefer to talk to dealers. They dont want to go direct to the networks.

Walker who starts at Ora this week has been on gardening leave since April after being made redundant by European Telecom following its acquisition of Banner last year.

Walker had been working with ex-European Telecom managing director John McFarnon on special projects before McFarnon resigned in March. Walker worked with Banner for five years.