Cellstars decision to close its

UK organisation makes it two distributors down in as many months.

While any industry has its casualties the demise of CellStar and European Telecom is significant for their size.

These werent tin-pot garden-shed organisations but multi-national players with vast turnovers.

So what is it about the distribution market that allows it to chew up and spit out such organisations?

Were these companies badly run? Or was it a result of supply and demand and poor control of bad debt?

In CellStars case it was unable as a US-centric company to localise itself enough to tap into the psyche of a UK industry peculiar for its in-breeding especially among the top levels of management who have all worked with each other in previous jobs.

Firms must now be leaner and more competitive to survive. While the job losses that follow closures are unfortunate the surviving distributors and dealers will become stronger.

CellStar probably wont be the last distributor to exit the market.

With MMS 3G and associated technologies ready for release the next explosion should soon follow. But even so distributors should not be complacent that they are immune from the afflictions that caused the collapse of CellStar UK and ET.

Registered visitors will be emailed a newsletter and offered exclusive deals and competitions such as the chance to win a new XDA PDA from O2.

The Link will be targeting early adopters with new-look point-of-sale materials including an evolved version of its Buyers Guide.

Starting with the XDA The Link plans to offer a preorder service on new products in-store and online on both thefuturelook.com and www.thelink.co.uk.

Joe Garner from The Link said:

Early adopters are a vital part of this market. They want to know whats coming next rather than whats available now.

We want visitors to bookmark this site as the most user-friendly place to find the latest developments in mobile technology. Early adopters are also distinguished by their dislike of overt branding and advertising methods.

Anglo provides airtime to business and government clients such as Humberside Probation service Old Mutual Securities and Ultra-tone. Recall acquired Anglo when it only had 5500 customers.

Our monthly revenues continue to show a net monthly increase said Recall managing director Mark Weir.

The network launched Business Services last week in an attempt to increase its share of the SoHo (small office home office) market. As well as banded price plans it offers a free 14-day trial of a Personal Assistant service 50 free text messages a month a priority line of a second mobile number for important contacts and a next-day phone replacement.

But Mike Bowyer of Yorkshire dealer Link Telecom says the only way he can achieve his customer value bonus is if he places his customer on a tariff plan not in line with the customers usage.

For example the Everyone 150 plan offers 150 free minutes for 75 a quarter. But for the connecting dealer to qualify for a bonus of 45 the customer has to spend more than 110 a quarter.

Bowyer says if a customer knows they are going to make 110 worth of calls they would be better off on a tariff with more free minutes. But this would deprive him of his customer value bonus.

My staff say they feel uncomfortable selling this new package said Bowyer.

We tell every customer we provide them with the right tariff. If they then use more than their free minutes they will think we dont know what were talking about. This latest plan seems a bit misconceived. It isnt doing us any favours.

The small office customer is going to be even more discerning than a normal user. They are looking for an even better level of service. If they see they are on the wrong tariff they will think we have given them bad advice.

A T-Mobile spokesperson explained:

Such analysis assumes the customer only wants to make voice calls and is only concerned with the voice allowance. But most customers use their mobile for more than just voice. All other elements such as roaming data text bundles MMS bundles and AllDay PA count towards the usage threshold. The intention of the customer value bonus and training is to focus the customer on additional services and features and get them on to the price plan best suited to their needs he said

It will operate over Vodafones GPRS network to provide business users with an always on seamless and secure link to their corporate email inbox.

Emails and calendar appointments are forwarded to the users BlackBerry wherever they are. There is no need to dial in or log on.

Following Vodafones announcement of the introduction of its GPRS roaming capability across 14 European countries BlackBerry users will be able to hook into their corporate inbox over the Vodafone GPRS network while abroad.

Vodafone plans to initially offer the service with support for Microsoft Exchange with Lotus Domino to follow.

Sales for Nokia Mobile Phones decreased by seven per cent compared with the previous year reflecting lower sales in Europe and the Americas partially offset by growth in Asia Pacific.

Nokia predicts sales for the second quarter of 2002 are anticipated to grow by two per cent to seven per cent compared with the second quarter of 2001 for Nokia Mobile Phones and – 10 per cent to five per cent for Nokia Networks.

Overall sales growth is forecast to accelerate to 15 per cent or more for the second half culminating in full-year annual sales growth ranging from four per cent to nine per cent.

The company put in a solid overall performance for the first quarter 2002 with mobile phone profitability exceeding all expectations said Nokia chairman and chief executive

Jorma Ollila.

The strong bottom line in our mobile handset business continues to be driven by Nokias global leadership. Based on Nokias preliminary research for the first quarter 2002 we believe we have at least maintained our estimated 37 per cent share of the overall mobile phone market in line with our long-term 40 per cent share target.

Once the initial bundle of inclusive minutes is used up customers continue to pay a flat rate for extra calls. A business tariff called O2 All Calls has also been introduced with an inclusive call allowance package which can be used for all call types.

Other new O2 packages include a pre-pay tariff called Pay and Go Wild which gives up to 25 worth of text messages and voice calls to any UK network or landline for just 10 direct debit per month.

Customers get 2.50 free call time on activation and a further 2.50 when registering details within 30 days of activation. Up to 50 text messages and 50 minutes of calls to any network can be made each month.

O2s UK chief executive David McGlade said:

In the past customers have been expected to adapt to complex mobile tariffs. Now we are changing and simplifying our charges.

People much prefer easy-to-understand calling plans that give them the freedom to choose how they use their mobile along with inclusive text messages and inclusive minutes for calls to other mobile networks.

Every six months customer calls will be carefully analysed and if they could be on a better calling plan well tell them so and invite them to change added McGlade.

Abrar Hussein (20) of Henderson Road Forest Gate was caught when he tried the same trick at the shop two months later and arrested.

Hussein pleaded guilty to obtaining the phone by deception and attempting to similarly obtain the second phone. He was remanded on bail until May 16.