The Kent company has been working as an O2 distributor to a select number of dealers on a limited basis since October 2000 but the signing of the agreement will see MoCo distribute handsets airtime and pre-pay options to dealers.

The agreement comes into effect from tomorrow (October 1).

It was the obvious step says managing director Ian Robinson. The agreement we signed with BTCellnet in 2000 allowed us to act as a distributor for 40 dealers. When BTCellnet became O2 it allowed us to keep that number but not expand it.

We then found ourselves being approached by a number of dealers who expressed an interest in working with us.

The new agreement allows us to aggressively go out and try to build our dealer base. We are looking at around 60 over the next couple of months.

The first step is obviously to go to those people who contacted us in the past.

We currently have 40 dealers. We are signing up another 12 next week and have a further eight interested.

We are looking for mainly post-pay and SME business dealers. At the moment we make around 2000 connections a month through our dealer channel.

Over the next 12 months we would hope to achieve 3000. I dont think that is too adventurous.

According to Robinson MoCo which is also a limited distributor for Orange will start a recruitment campaign in the middle of October and is negotiating with O2 to put together an introductory promotional package.

Robinson says the company is looking for dealers across the country and wasnt put off into moving further into distribution following the recent collapse of North East distributor Pointgold.

It is a tough market out there at the moment but we are confident that we have the right set-up to make a go of the new agreement says Robinson.

We have chosen to target a different market to Pointgold. The SME and post-pay business market has always been more robust than the consumer market.

Mobileshop was forced to take legal action for a second time after mistakenly serving a winding up order against Fonekit Ltd instead of Sell-line corporation trading as Fonekit (Mobile News September 2).

Mobileshop head of finance Gary Proctor issued a statement to Mobile News saying:

I can confirm a second set of proceedings were issued by Mobileshop against Sell-line Corporation trading as Fonekit.

This resulted in full payment of our outstanding account plus interest and costs.

Proctor disagreed with Sell-line financial controller Peter Scheldts claims that Fonekit Ltd and Sell-line were unrelated companies.

Mr Scheldts statement to Mobile News that Fonekit and Sell-Line Corporation Limited are not associated is frankly disingenuous. A simple search of Companies House Records reveals a Mr Hill as being a common director of both companies.

At the time of going to press Scheldt was unavailable for comment.

Cellstar UK managing director David Aitken and IT director Mike Hart were among the final members of staff to leave the company earlier this month.

Cellstar USA is chasing debts and trying to find a new tenant for the 17500-square-feet of office and warehouse space Cellstar UK leaves behind in Trafford Park Manchester.

The company has yet to be placed in formal liquidation but Cellstars European chief financial officer Micky Sandall says that there is no urgency in the matter.

At one point Cellstar had 60 staff but heavy losses and the parent companys decision to focus on Asia Mexico and the US led to the announcement it was pulling out of the UK.

The companys Vodafone dealer base was handed to Fone Logistics in June.

Falling margins and bad debts totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from defunct companies such as Odyssey and The WAP Store saw Cellstar UK fall into the red and forced Cellstar USA into action.

Executives also admitted that Cellstar had not been profitable in the UK because it couldnt compete with UK-based distribution.

Cellstar had not been without its troubles over the last few years especially when it fell victim in early 2000 to a large-scale fraud and theft which will cost the company millions of dollars depending on the outcome of insurance settlements. The US parent had to issue a profits warning.

Under the terms of the deal agreed at the beginning of last week Generation Telecom has acquired the corporate and SME customer base of Anglo and will manage the majority of Anglos O2 virtual service provider (VSP) customers.

Generation Telecom MD Keith Westcott told Mobile News:

We are now an O2 service provider. As part of that we have acquired the O2 customer base of Anglo communications. We saw an opportunity and this helps us grow the business.

Westcott would not be drawn on the future of former Anglo VSPs.

We are reviewing the management of the base to bring it in line with Generation Telecom strategy he said.

Generation Telecom launched at the beginning of this year with a focus on direct sales to corporate and small businesses (Mobile News January 21).

Phones International head of service provision Keith Westcott drafted in his former Ericsson colleague Barry Nash as sales and marketing director.

Generation acquired Global Crossings service provision business and customer base. Only a fortnight ago it purchased Anglos Vodafone customer base (Mobile News September 16).

He will assume responsibility for managing all aspects of the UK business.

Gavins promotion reflects his personal contribution to the continued success of Vodafone UK since joining in February 2001 and the groups confidence in his management team commented Peter Bamford Northern Europe Middle East and Africa chief executive.

Falling margins on paper vouchers are being blamed for the decision which will see the customer base transferred to Caudwell Group-owned 20:20 Solutions.

Project Telecom managing director Tim Radford said:

The margin in pre-pay vouchers has been disappearing for some time now and the market has been under increasing pressure for the last two years.

We got into pre-pay in 1998 and over the years have made a lot of money. It has helped us build our corporate business operations and this is where we are going to concentrate.

We decided to call it a day while we were ahead and while it was a profitable business.

In order to maintain continuity to our customers and ensure that lines dont go dead at the end of September we are transferring the business to 20:20 which will take over from October 1.

Project Telecom is keeping its electronic top-up and Sim-free businesses.

Although PT Distribution had a 250 million turnover it only generated a tenth of that in profit.

The PT Distribution management team is to be integrated into Project Telecom. Chris Tombs who ran the division for three years becomes managing director for the indirect channel.

PT Distribution had already been forced to make cuts in June this year when it made 50 staff redundancies. In March the operation had 146 people. Currently there is a workforce of around 75.

The 50 staff who retain their jobs will be moved across into Project Telecoms business operations or will work on the e-top-up and Sim-free businesses.

The company is also retaining PT Distributions buildings and assets.

Radford added: We are closing the operation ahead of transferring it to someone who can make a better go of it.

Our core business is corporate services. We have been thinking over this move for the past 18 months as the screw has been tightened and tightened.

The networks have changed the agenda. They have moved away from pre-pay and are now putting the emphasis on higher ARPU and retention and getting quality contracts.

We are a corporate business enterprise. Today we are a niche service provider with 175000 business customers. We are looking to get this number up to 500000 subscribers by 2005. We see this as an opportunity to own the business market as far as possible and be the centre of excellence.

Radford says now only a heavyweight firm can really extract benefits from voucher distribution.

If you have the scale like the Caudwell Group and you have a highly efficient and focused operation that has massive economies of scale then you can make money from the small margins. But it is extremely hard for anyone else.

Although the operator market is a crowded one we believe there is space for a MVNO that concentrates entirely on business users. Not one of the existing networks is working for the business customer said Bob Denton business development director for Aerofone.

Aerofone will offer four bundled tariffs which it claims will be on average up to 25 per cent cheaper than Vodafone and O2. A number of support services such as AeroBill Lite let the business user access and analyse their bill. Overnight handset exchange will also be offered.

Subscribers will also get cheaper domestic calls.

Calls to Virgin T-Mobile and fellow MVNO Fresh will be considered on-net calls.

Denton says the dealer channel will play a significant role. Aerofone will pay dealers commission on the actual airtime their customers spend as opposed to the ARPU they generate. Dealers will also receiver commission for sign-ups.

Dealers are being told to raise the ARPU of their customers. But ARPU is going down because the cost of calls is reducing. If dealers are being rewarded on increase in ARPUs this is being a bit tawdry.

Dealers will receive commission on the amount of minutes and connections that their customers use.

Aerofone also launched a distribution division which offers a pre-pay e-terminal service as well as a calling card which gives cheap calls.

But rival telecom brands Nokia and Ericsson declined 14 per cent and 49 per cent respectively.

Nevertheless Nokia is ranked number six in Interbrands ranking of 100 of the worlds most valuable brands. Samsung comes in at number 34.

The list is topped by Coca Cola followed by Microsoft IBM GE and Intel.

Companies still wishing to enter can obtain entry information and forms from us by calling 0207 704 7440.

The Mobile News Awards will be presented on March 27 at a gala dinner dance at the Hilton on Park Lane.

There are a limited number of resticted view tables available.

Person-to-person figures for June reached 1.3 billion up by 380 million on the same month in 2001.

June also saw the daily rate almost triple over a two-year period. Britons sent 45 million text messages each day compared to a daily rate of just over 32 million in June last year.

This takes the UK text messaging annual total so far to eight billion against a 12-month MDA forecast of 16 billion for 2002 which allows for summer slowdown and seasonal holidays.

Big Brother interactive voting increased by 52 per cent to 11.03 million.