12m ad campaign for Everyone 100 tariff

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The TV radio outdoor and magazine campaign has the line We Include Everyone and attempts to show customers that they can have a one2one with anyone.

Everyone 100 enables users to call any UK network free from their monthly call allowance. The campaign is by Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

2 million July Tomb Raider promotion from One 2 One and Ericsson

7000 dealers will receive the pack by July 2 in time for launch of the film that took $36m in its opening weekend in the States.

The film will be shown in over 450 screens from July 6th giving it blockbuster status.

Ericsson products including the Bluetooth headset and R310 mobile phone feature heavily in the film.

Brand manager Lindsay James said Ericsson deliberately featured product in the film that consumers could go out and buy.

We learned a lesson from our involvement in the 1997 Bond Movie Tomorrow Never Dies because consumers went to stores looking to buy the special concept smartphone.

In Tomb Raider Lara uses everyday Ericsson products to complete her mission.

James said the promotion would raise Ericssons image after a troublesome year.

We are still selling phones. We want people to see we are a young funky brand.

Music and gaming will drive content in the future. We want to team up with Sony in the best possible position and we are strengthening our relationship with One 2 One.

The customised T20e phone features special Tomb Raider start up and shut down graphics and ringtones. Ericsson is shipping a Tomb Raider PC game handsfree kit and secret symbols in the pack.

It will sell for 89.99 on pre-pay or 19.99 on contract.

Consumers will be able to take part in a secret symbols collector scheme with specially branded merchandise and a Land Rover adventure trip as prizes.

Creditors approve Paragon (ex-Fone Range) offer of 9p in the

Jay and Vimal Paus subsidiary Blue-I (formerly Fone Range Partnerships) which owns licenses to distribute accessories for Warner Brothers and Coca Cola will pay Paragon a goodwill payment of 300000 over two years to release its shares. Blue-I is also purchasing 100000 of stock and equipment. Paragon will go into liquidation within two months. Administrator Shay Bannon says creditors will be paid once outstanding money has been collected.

Paragon will remain in administration for another month or two and will then go into liquidation. The payment from Blue-I is deferred over two years. We cant pay creditors before we have collected the money in. We will start to distribute the money once we have enough to pay 5p in 1. It doesnt make sense to pay creditors in small amounts.

Paragon (ex-Fone Range) went into receivership in March after losing 708000 in the nine months to December last year.

Vodafone new pre-pay price plans offer three tariffs from one box

The new price plans are Firststep New Smartstep and Nextstep. Like the BTCellnet offering customers will automatically be connected to the new enhanced Smartstep plan but can switch to any other available price plan within 28 days at no charge.

After this initial period customers can migrate between pre-pay price plans for an administration charge of 7.50 unless they are moving to Nextstep where it will continue to be free.

The three price plans are aimed to appeal to weekend and evening users keen texters and talkers and heavy users.

Firststep has calls at 5p per minute for evening and weekend Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls rising to 10p per minute for national and local evening and weekend calls.

New Smartstep calls are 25p per minute for the first three minutes in a day. This drops to 5p per minute thereafter. Text messages cost 12p for the first three messages in a day and then 9p per message thereafter.

Nextstep is a flat rate designed for the high user costing 50p a day for 50p worth of calls and/or text. Local national and Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls cost 10p per minute and 10p per text message.

Handsets range from 79.99 to 199.99 and include models from Nokia Panasonic Sony and Motorola. All current top-up methods can be used by customers to credit their accounts. Existing allcalls customers may remain on the allcalls price plan or move to one of the new price plans.

The package will also include up to 5 of calling credit. This will be made up of 2.50 allocated to the handset and a further 2.50 on registration with the network.

Mobile gaming forum formed

The Big Four have set up a Mobile Games Interoperability Forum (MGI) to specify a global standard and to develop certification procedures to encourage a wide adoption of the standard. The MGI Forum will provide recommendations to standards bodies and to ensure that the specification meets the needs of games publishers and developers game platform vendors game service providers mobile network operators additional device and infrastructure vendors and service integrators. They are all encouraged to join the forum.

Benefon forms joint venture with Hong Kong manufacturer

The products will be manufactured by CTLs factory in China and by Benefons factory in Salo. Benefon will licence the joint venture to produce its current Benefon Q model in China. CTL will buy from Benefon relevant production equipment and material for the Q. The joint venture company will market the Q in Far East markets. Benefon will sell it to the rest of the world.

Benefon immediately benefits from around $5 million of cash from the sale of the equipment and material. Benefons product marketing director Jukka Nieminen becomes chief operating office with overall responsibility of the business operations of Benefon.

Investment banker joins Orange Venture

These are units formed to develop partnerships and joint-ventures with technology companies and content providers.

He will also be responsible for the management of all current strategic investments including Wildfire Communications and news portal Ananova.

Lap was previously co-head of Morgan Stanleys Global E-Commerce Group and Strategic Ventures the firms corporate venture capital unit.

Europes GSM network operators draw up new Code of Conduct on international roaming

A new Code of Conduct on international retail roaming prices will help mobile consumers make better-informed decisions about the choice of network current prices and the range of services on offer when they travel in other countries.

The Code was announced by GSM Europe the European interest group of the GSM Association in Sweden last week.

This is all about giving people more choice and better value for money said GSM Europe Chair Caroline van Weede.

The Code of Conduct aims to make life simpler for customers when they go abroad.

Consumers have asked us for more clarity about the services they can get and how much they cost and this is our response.

Operators will ensure that it is easy to obtain clear price information on all calls and text messages sent to and from the phone of a roaming customer. However there should also be information on whether unanswered calls are charged and whether set-up charges are applicable.

Customers will have access to the numbers and website addresses of customer care and information services of the visited network.

These are just a few areas of best practice that already exist in the market. We want to encourage all operators to live up to the same high standards says van Weede.

Among the Codes provisions is that the home page of the operators website should have a clearly visible link to a section containing roaming information.

Operators should provide information to their customers using every means at their disposal. In addition to information via customer care and the internet the Code also encourages a series of other sensible methods that fulfil this objective.

This includes traditional forms of customer service in the high-street shops to newer methods such as WAP e-mail and fax-on-demand.

Mobile operators have a real interest in signing up to this voluntary programme says van Weede.

Customers are always looking for more choice and value for money – and want to use operators they can trust safe in the knowledge they are getting accurate price information. This Code gives consumers the reassurance they need van Weede added.

Orange and One 2 One unhappy with Oftel calls probe

Oftel last week said that termination charges are still above costs and noted that Vodafone and BTCellnet processed calls at levels higher than would be seen in a truly competitive marketplace.

All four operators will be forced to reduce by 12 per cent a year for four years the amount charged to deliver a call to other mobile and fixed-line operators.

One 2 One PR and marketing manager Neil Bent said:

We are surprised and disappointed that Oftel does not appear to have acted in the long term interests of consumers or the mobile phone industry.

We are disappointed with Oftels proposals to control the cost of calls from fixed lines to mobile and mobile to mobile. The proposals could have a negative impact on the levels of investment by operators in the UK which could in turn slow development of 3G services. Ultimately the UK could lose its position at the forefront of mobile communications and suffer economic consequences.

Oranges director in charge of regulatory affairs Paul Franklin also said it was disappointing Oftel was unwilling to trust market forces and is proposing to extend the current price control.

We question whether Oftels decisions are consistent with the Governments objectives of minimum necessary regulation Franklin said.

BTCellnet is happy with the Oftel measures and called them a step in the right direction.

Oftel also wants operators to provide clearer information on pricing and services and put an end to SIM locking.

Oftel said it was concerned about roaming calls but said that it would assist the European Commissions investigation.

Vodafone said Oftel had failed to recognise the huge costs of 3G licence acquisition and infrastructure deployment costs.