Motorola UK director of dommunications and public affairs Mark Durrant told Mobile News that the reports carried in the national press and TV were total speculation.

Durrant says that Motorola will not be announcing any decision until it has consulted with staff.

A consultation forum has been set up so that elected employees can consult on the companys proposals. No proposal has yet been put forth from the company.

It was reported that the Prime Minister Tony Blair had intervened personally to try and safeguard the factory.

A Downing Street press spokesperson added:

Tony Blair had a telephone conversation with the president of Motorola Chris Galvin and he made it clear that we are keen to explore if there is anything we can do to influence the decision.

So if Motorola had no intention to shut down the plant why did Blair feel it necessary to call Motorola president Galvin to intervene?

Apparently the Minister for Enterprise Scottish MP Wendy Alexander became aware that Motorola was coming under increasing pressure to announce a downsizing of its operations in conjunction with its latest reports showing losses to appease its shareholders.

On returning to the United Kingdom Alexander called a meeting to make a case for Motorola to look at the broader picture and to take time to look at the significance of Bathgate to its operations in Europe. This was followed up by Blairs call to Galvin to make a case for Scotland and the labour force of Scotland.

After this conversation Motorolas president apparently confirmed he would be happy to continue discussions and not make an immediate decision on the future of the plant.

Speculation has grown over the closure of Bathgate for a number of reasons.

In September last year Motorola reduced production from three shifts per day to two and has shut the plant for the first time over this coming Easter Holiday.

In March this year Motorola also announced that part of its next major step in a continued effort to reduce costs in its wireless handset business would involve reducing its global workforce by at least 7000 positions.

Motorola said that these reductions would affect all aspects of the business across all geographies because it was committed to becoming the most cost effective enterprise in the industry in order to help grow market share.

Kenwood will now concentrate on 3G product. Kenwood had been on the verge of launching product in the UK after launching some product in Belgium and Turkey. However the company concedes it struggled to get the proposition right

We had a problem playing catch-up we just couldnt get the product right for launch said Kenwood communication director Mike Atkins

There were a number of factors that affected our decision. Each time we felt that we were ready to launch the price wasnt right or the feature set wasnt right and then when these were resolved we had a problem trying to get the right volumes ready in time.

We were very close and had full intention of launching. But we just couldnt get that final push. It just goes to show how difficult it is to enter the market right now.

Its very hard to launch product in to. We feel that focusing on 3G is the right decision. I think if we had taken the risk it may have been dangerous for us as a company Atkins said.

Nevertheless Atkins says that Kenwood intends to be a serious player in 3G bolstered by its current success in the Japanese market.

Kenwood is very strong in the Japanese market. We felt that it will be better to focus on 3G because it is a world standard. By having Japanese engineers working on 3G on their own soil it will give us a chance to come in at a sensible level rather than playing catch-up. Kenwood has a significant share of the Japanese market and for to be successful we need to come from a strong base.

The admission comes after a week of turmoil for Motorola which is closing a major factory in Bathgate plant in Scotland.

Motorolas general manager personal communications sector for UK and Ireland Doug Goodwin told Mobile News Motorola is to ditch is Personality user interface and pep up its low-end entry models with improved design and much smaller form .

Our products will be dramatically improved going forward. The MMI has been most publicly criticised. We have now corrected the process and new products coming through in Q3 and Q4 will have a new Synergy interface. Some of our customers have suggested that they dont have a problem with the user interface and others have said they dont find it intuitive. We have taken the best of the past and evolved it making it a lot more consumer friendly.

Goodwin also admitted that some of Motorolas low-end product had not been as competitive in terms of size and design.

Some of our products were perceived to be too large. Some of the newer entrants into the market have been providing a much smaller form factor at an entry-level price. In the course of Q3 and Q4 the platform has been regenerated and we will be reflecting the form factor of our V3688 in a non-clamshell form factor phone. It will be extremely appealing and we are addressing some of the criticisms across the range.

Goodwin agrees Motorola lags behind its rivals such as Nokia in its marketing message but promises a very strong message from Motorola in the future.

Trying to create a life experience around a brand takes time and investment. Our Nordic colleagues have been working at it longer than us and have invested more than us. We are playing catch-up and we recognise we have a lot of work to do to catch up and pass them.

Goodwin says content will play a key part in Motorolas message.

Content will be a critical component in our message. We are developing partnerships with companies whose brands can be intrinsically linked to Motorola intellectual properties.

People will understand that you can play the Millionaire game on a Motorola device on whichever networks are supporting it and win a prizet will be a simple message for people to understand. Theres too much jargon in the market. Well use the Millionaire logo to get a simple message across.

BT Selected specialist dealers will be offering the Motorola Timeport 260 for an unsubsidised 200 aimed at heavy SMS WAP and mobile data users rather than new customers.

I dont know who did it and Im not going to point my finger at anyone Patel told Mobile News.

The police have taken statements from a number of witnesses and are following up their enquiries. They have recovered the car used by the attackers and are trying to contact the owner to help them with their enquiries because it has not been reported stolen. As far as I am aware no arrests have been made.

Patel says that the attack may leave him permanently blinded in one eye.

Doctors dont know if they will be able to restore sight in one of my eyes.

Patel says the horrific injuries have adversely affected Chatternets business.

At the moment most of my time is spent going to and from the hospital. Ive got several operations to go before I can really recover from my injuries but we are trying to cope the best we can

The first phone will be a GSM and GPRS version of a camera-phone Sharp is already selling in Japan. The BT version will be badged Cyclops and is planned to be on sale by the end of the year.

Steven Bold managing director of Sharp telecommunications Europe said:

Weve had a research and development centre in Oxford England for about 10 years now. But last year we were asked to extend our operations to see how our Japanese mobile phones could be re-engineered for Europe. The decision by Kenwood to sell its R&D development centre came at the perfect time for us and we did a deal to take over the centre in January.

Bold claims that operators are interested in the new Sharp product even though it has yet to be built.

Sharp will supply products to BT which will market and sell them in the UK and other countries through its joint venture partners and subsidiaries including Genie.

The Cyclops product is claimed to take and send pictures to the internet. It will also have a WAP browser camera lens colour LCD screen picture storage capability and transmission speeds over GPRS of up to 56 KBPS where available. BTCellnet director of group products and services development team Tony Greaves said:

The Sharp deal is part of BT wirelesss mobile Internet strateg for personalised communications.

The speed at which this partnership has been established and is to bear fruit demonstrates the commitment by BT wireless and Sharp to deliver exciting new products and services to the consumer. Cyclops is the device which heralds the start of our relationship.

The prestige Question Time pane comprises Mark Stansfeld (sales director BTCellnet) John Barton (sales and distribution director of One2One) Andy Smith (Vodafone UK sales director) either Gareth Jones or Richard Hanscott from Orange and James Malcolm of the FCS.

Make sure youre there early for this important event.

Chitter Chatter director Leonard Leeson told Mobile News that a number of shops had been on the market but these have been withdrawn.

None of our stores are on the market. Any stores that have been on the market have been withdrawn. We are very close to One 2 One and are one of their key customers. We re-assessed the market and decided that business will improve. Every business has to make decisions based on whether its stores are profitable or not.

Leeson denied industry reports that Chitter Chatter stores in London and the South of England were being sold because they are unprofitable due to One 2 Ones plans to withdraw loyalty commission payments.

But Leeson did hint that the chain might be for sale at the right price. Chitter Chatters London outlets are in Kensington Covent Garden and Oxford Street. (Cont P2)

The company issued a statement admitting:

KaLL International Limited was established in May 2000 and is a re-seller of least cost routing and wholesale fixed line products. In February this year it became known that the company had been hit for substantial fraud through their switches the (Cont P2) total of which is still being reconciled. As a result the business has been placed on hold pending an enquiry from KPMGs forensic team to ascertain the future of the business and liability for the debt. KaLL International is independent from Dabcom Ltd trading as KaLL the mobile phone distributor and this action will in no way will no way impact that business.

A spokesperson admitted that KaLL has no idea how long the fraud had been running for and but warned that estimates of 2 million losses were premature. The trick involved customers entering a set of keystrokes on their telephones before making a call that allowed them to pay lower European rates for their calls when ringing countries in Asia. The fraud came to light following the recent earthquakes in India when call volumes rose significantly. KaLL says that the service has been suspended indefinitely.

KaLL was established in the UK in 1994 under the name A to B. It started as a mobile dealer for all four networks. In 1996 the company decide to work solely with Orange

In 1998 the company entered the fixed line telecom market and established Telesse to specifically target dealers of fixed line products and services.

In April 200 both A to B and Telesse were rebranded KaLL followed shortly after by the creation of the least cost routing business known as KaLL International.

Dabcom went under following a 2 million call routing swindle that hit its least-cost call routing arm KaLL International (Mobile News May 14).

The fraud went through one of its switches and allowed customers to call Asia at European rates.

In May the company said:

KaLL International is independent from Dabcom Ltd trading as KaLL the mobile phone distributor and this action will in no way will no way impact that business.

KaLL is now being run by Administrative Receivers Kroll Bulcher Phillips in Grosvenor Street London.

Kroll Bulcher Phillips spokesman Lee Manning exclusively told Mobile News.

Dabcom appeared to have its fingers in too many pies. Now that KaLL International and Dabcom have ceased business the whole operation has failed. Its a terrible mess. We are trying to see if any of the businesses can be saved. Dabcom is finished because it sold off the customer base.

It is understood that Dabcom chairman Dave Breith may be forced out of his home as a result of Dabcoms crash. It is understood he lives in one of the company properties.

Breith told Mobile News:

We did everything possible to avoid this but were unable to prevent this course of action.

Manning added:

Were not quite sure what Dabcoms liabilities are. Its a real mess. It is owed money by Orange. But in turn could owe Orange as much as 1million. We reckon that 90000 is owed to the Inland Revenue in tax. The banks are owed 500000.

Manning revealed that dealers are owed about 70000 in unpaid commissions. But Northampton Orange and One 2 One distributor Elite Business Systems (EBS) has bought KaLLs customer base and says it will pay the commissions conditional on dealers doing further business with EBS. (Cont P2)

EBS chairman Ray Kingston said:

EBS can confirm the acquisition of the KaLL dealer base We will be making arrangements with dealers concerning the commission owed by KaLL for connections made between the April 22 and the June 9.

Kingston warned that some dealers might not be paid all commissions they are owed by KaLL.

We cant go back six months. We agreed with KaLL to pay commissions from the last few weeks because thats where the majority of the money is owed. If dealers are owed money from before April 22 they will have to go to KaLLs Receiver.

Dealers who want their commission have to commit to us. We were given the base on the understanding that we paid dealers the outstanding commissions and continue to serve them. If we pay their commissions and look after them we hope they will stay with us because of the service we are giving them. Not just the fact that we have paid them. We have recruited four of KaLLs dealer managers so that dealers can continue their relationships with us.

Some dealers may choose not to work with us. If so they wont be paid. Some dealers have signed up. We want to work with them. We dont want to see people go bankrupt.

Kingston refused to confirm that 70000 is owed saying its complicated.

Manning believes KaLL sold the dealer list to EBS too cheaply.

Theres nothing we could do. The sale to EBS took place before we became involved. There were about 192 dealers on the list.

Manning says KaLL Internationals 2 million call routing swindle (as reported in Mobile News on May 14) hit Dabcom despite Breiths assurances a month ago that it was business as usual.

However Manning said Dabcom guaranteed liabilities of 400000 to Worldcom which supplied fixed phone airtime to KaLL International. Dabcom was also supporting a number of smaller loss-making operations paying wage bills and ordering stock. It has run up a massive bill with Orange on stock it supplied to another loosely affiliated direct-selling operation called Claritel.

The call selling fraud that sealed KaLLs fate involved customers entering a set of keystrokes on their telephones before making a call that allowed them to pay lower European rates for their calls when ringing countries in Asia.

The fraud came to light following the recent earthquakes in India when call volumes rose significantly. KaLL rushed to close the service and suspended it indefinitely.