Sony Cellular Services is a acilities-managed airtime provider with all its billing handled under contract by Martin Dawes elecommunications which is now known as the BTCellnet-owned service provider Lumina.

It is likely the sale has been prompted by the termination of the contract by BTCellnet to manage Sonys customers.

Most of the staff that actually run the facilities-managed service will probably be returning to Lumina and BTCellnet.

Parkway will begin trading in September connecting small businesses through Vodafone Connect.

Theres a great lack of service within the Small Medium Enterprise community in the North West. This accounts for an awful lot of churn.

We believe we can provide that service within the five to 100 handset bracket and our inclusion in the Vodafone Ahead for Business programme. I cant say much more as I dont want to tell you competitors what were doing before we do it said Maddocks.

Maddocks joined Vanguard more than six years ago as financial director. He was appointed managing director in June 1998.

Sendo was set up last year by ex-Philips Consumer Communications manager Hugh Brogan with backing from Hong Kong company CCT. Brogan was heavily involved in the development of the Philips Genie.

Brogan has 15 years of experience in mobile telephony with Motorola and Philips in manufacturing sales product development and general management.

Chief operating officer is Howard Lewis who spent 13 years with Uniden Philips and Motorola in development product management marketing and sales and general management.

Director of industrial operations is Kevin Walsh who has 10 years of manufacturing experience with Motorola and Philips not only in the UK but also in Germany USA France Singapore and China.

Sendo is not connected (Cont P2) with similarly-named Sensei which was also set up by ex-Philips engineers to build phones to network specifications.

Virgin Mobile plans initially to introduce two Sendo phones to its range this autumn. They will be marketed as Virgin Mobile own-brand phones and carry features that have been especially incorporated to Virgins specification.

Other products and services are being developed for the future. The phones will also carry the Sendo logo.

The Sendo team is young fast innovative and dynamic yet collectively has decades of experience in the mobile phone industry. In a business where speed to market and technological leadership define the success of a company these are essential characteristics said Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson.

Sendo has operations in the United Kingdom Hong Kong and The Netherlands with manufacturing in China. The company will initially focus on GSM-based products for Europe and Asia with future expansion into the United States.

Sendo says its mobile phones are among the lightest and smallest phones available.

The company was set up to offer a complete custom program for networks from exclusively branded phones matched fulfilment programs and bespoke software with dedicated services.

It will have 200 employees by the end of this year. The company employs British French American Finnish Spanish German Chinese and Dutch specialists.

Sendos Asia Pacific Operations Centre is based in Hong Kong and its first phones will be manufactured in a new $35m manufacturing plant in Guangdong in China.

The plant is equipped with manufacturing technology specified by Sendo.

Sendos European centre is based in The Netherlands.

*In another development Virgin Mobile has been giving mobile shoppers the chance try out a Siemens phone for free before deciding to buy.

The scheme is called Trial and Dial and was introduced by Virgin Mobile at last weekends V2000 music festival at Hylands Park Chelmsford where Virgin Mobile was co-headline sponsor.

Festival-goers were given the chance to road-test a brand-new Siemens C35i handset on site free of charge by registering their credit card details with Virgin Mobile .

People were able to try the phone for the entire weekend and were given 20 worth of free calls and SMS text messaging. Those who liked the 120 phone were able to take it home with them. The cost of the handset and 12.50 service pack was charged to their card.

Virgin Mobile says it may offer the service into the High Street.

Jones was responding to mounting protests from Orange dealers who allege that Orange staff are intercepting requests for connections and upgrades and hijacking dealers orders by offering discounts and equipment prices dealers are unable to match.

In the face of more criticism of Orange by its dealers Jones said:

Mobile News has already published my view (July 24) and it has not changed. I have a long standing personal relationship with many Orange dealers which I would not allow to be jeopardised in such a way. I have given an undertaking that any specific complaint sent directly to me will be investigated and I will reply personally to every one. However I think the most important point to make is this: we are connecting half a million customers per month. The vast majority of Orange (Cont P2) connections come through Orange dealers.

Undermining them in the way they describe does not make business sense for us said Jones.

Our dealers are a crucial part of the Orange success story and we will continue to provide them with the resources and back-up they need.

Meanwhile one dealer Michael Malaspina from The Mobile Phone Shop in Scunthorpe says he is quitting the business after claiming he lost an order to sell 100 phones to Shell after Orange Direct became involved.

I believed I had closed the deal. I got the usual story from Orange namely that Shell had to fax over a purchase order to make the order legal. As soon as Orange received that official order they went direct to Shell offering all kinds of inducements for them to place their business direct including free car kits. I lost the business.

Ive decided to leave the industry because I am fighting a losing battle. There have been other cases. But Orange Directs poaching of the Shell account is by far the most blatant. Things that have happened before then could arguably have been down to coincidence But not this asserts Malaspina.

Theres no way that Orange Direct coincidentally cold-called Shell about this deal minutes after I faxed the order through. Someone from Orange Direct was hovering by the fax machine when I faxed the purchase order through to be processed by the connection staff. It all happened so quickly says Malaspina.

Nigel Guppy of Stirling Communications in Portsmouth said:

The thing that really got my back up over all this and made me speak out is Gareth Jones saying in the second Mobile News story of July 24 that he categorically denied any orchestrated poaching was going on. It is an organised campaign never mind what Jones says about theres bound to be some cross-over.

We are constantly being told that the dealer community is valuable to them especially as the business becomes more and more data oriented.

The way they are carrying on they soon just wont have any dealers to work with when they really need them. I would never have approached Mobile News if it was not for Gareth Jones denying that they were trying to actually hit and specifically targeting dealers business. I have proof that they are said Guppy.

Gary Saunders of Churchill Office Solutions in Edrington says he has had first-hand experience of the problem.

I had a situation where I was ringing on behalf of another of my customers on a query and the person on the Orange help desk then started to offer an upgrade at a lower price than I could do as a dealer. I told them I was the dealer and again they went silent.These instances have been occurring for at least over a year.

There are Business Teams and Customer Service Teams who can offer transactions that the dealer cannot match without making a loss.

Logically this means that this is authorised and agreed internally by Orange management.

It undermines credibility and goodwill between Orange dealer and customer and is not good business practice. Especially when it may have taken years to build customer rapport over the years.

It would be possible to introduce internal computer systems at Orange based on dealer codes which would flag when business was already being done through a dealer. Also true dealer support could be offered when required by their dealer through Orange.

Saunders is also less than impressed with Orange Customer Services. He claims he waited on the line 92 minutes with the customer in the shop.

When we got through we were told we had to ring back because the system was down .

All 10000 remaining analogue customers will be offered digital upgrades.

VTech makes childrens electronic learning toys and cordless phones and has been looking to enter the lucrative GSM market. Sensei co-founder Michael Camilleri said:

With the greater financial backing provided by VTech we can be more competitive and it gives us the backing to start offering the product in the fast-growing European markets. In terms of production we enjoy a much greater purchasing power and secondly we effectively have our own production line and dont have to worry about paying a middleman to produce phones for us he added.

Camilleri and the rest of his staff have been give shares in the new mobile phone company which is not yet listed on the stock exchange but is still a part of the VTech group.

He expects to be selling Sensei phones to both operators and direct to the distribution channels within the next few months.

Camilleri is actively recruiting a sales and support team to further these aims. In addition to offering the product to operators Camilleri wants to sell product directly to distributors and retailers.

Sensei-branded phones are expected in the UK within the next month if all goes according to plan. The company is now looking to talk to anyone that is interested in taking on the product.

Sensei is planning a new tablet type mobile data device that will offer the performance and features of a Nokia Communicator but weighing no more than its premium dual-band phone.

We have people keeping an eye on 3G and where it is going but we wont start producing a 3G handset until the market has reached a point where 3G handset sales will equal or better those of GSM. We know we can produce a handset within a period of one year so why spend millions developing and debugging 3G handsets when we can let the big boys do that he asks?

Press declined to identify his new employer but said it was a household name company which would be launching into the telecoms sector next year.

Ive had 10 fantastic years at NEC. It has been a roller coaster at times but always with a purpose.

Press with NEC director Tony Hutson fought to make NEC in Japan realise it was losing the race in the UK and European cellular market by its clinging to analogue and not developing a GSM product.

Said Hutson:

Andy has led the effort to give NEC the profile it deserves in this market. We all thank him for his tremendous enthusiasm.

Montes is director of European software development and third party publishing relations for Sony Computer Entertainment – Europe.

Montess move to Motorola indicates that Motorola is making a fundamental shift in strategy to break into the entertainment arena in all market segments. Motorola is expected to announce new partnerships to allow it to add entertainment solutions to its future products.

Management for the Southport-based mobile phone retailing chain called police in after notification from the credit company that six sales had been made on the same day at the Stourbridge branch using a stolen credit card. Police interviewed certain members of staff which resulted in the charges being made.

Police are still pursing enquiries with other Phone People staff and more charges are expected. Police are trying to trace a third female suspect.

The move is seen as a precursor to a possible flotation of the network from its BT parent to increase the market valuation of the network. BTWireless chief executive Peter Erskine acknowledged at a BT briefing last month that the network was saddled with too many poor-value pre-pay subscribers.

An informed trade source told

Mobile News:

BTCellnet realise they have missed out on lots of things by not having a proper strategy and losing contacts with dealers. They have allowed lots of dealers to have direct relationships with the other networks. They are struggling with a shrinking contract base. They need to address that. Especially if they are going to float. Any analyst will look at a networks business and put a higher value on a contract base.

If they are smart they will take advantage of the fact that Orange is now losing the loyalty of the independent dealer base and capitalise on that.

BTCellnet put on 670000 net new connections last quarter (April to June) but declined to give a break down on how much of this was contract business.