3 said last week that its new budget tariff would provide dealers with sufficient value to discourage cashback offers.

Its new 18-month voice contract launched last week includes 500 cross-network anytime voice minutes for £15 a month. It represents a £10 monthly saving on its old £25 voice tariff which also included 500 minutes. The new tariff is available during February only.

It is available to all sales channels. We want to shake up the other networks again. This package gives great value without the need for dealers to issue cashback said 3 director of indirect sales Bernie OBeirne.

There is a £180 saving to consumers straight away and we are still paying dealers very useful commissions on the package.

The new £15 tariff is available on the Sony Ericsson K610i Z610i and the LG u400.

Vodafone will launch advertising on its mobile phones in the summer it said last week. The network said its network is the only pan-European delivery system for advertisers.

Vodafone new business development director Frank Boulben said: Brands are suffering from a lack of international media in Europe we havent got players with a significant reach in each corner of the large European market. As Vodafone weve got close to a third of the western European mobile market so we could be the first truly European mass media.

Following trials last year Vodafone wants to incorporate interactive mobile elements such as coupons and reward schemes into traditional TV radio and print advertising. It said customers are willing to accept advertising on the handsets in return for subsidised content downloads rather than advertising-funded free downloads.

Head of mobile internet and content services Al Russell said: The volumes are very high on free but customers dont value the content or interact with the games. They just trial it and throw it away.

According to Boulben more than one million Vodafone customers have already opted-in to receive free text messages which contain news or sport content alongside the occasional advertisement. An idle screen ad format is also being trialled.

It has developed partnerships with Yahoo to incorporate banner and link advertisements and Google to incorporate its search engine into Vodafone handsets in all its markets by the end of the year.

By opening the window to the youth market Vodafone also hopes to tap into advertisers growing mobile budgets. Boulben said: Fifty-two per cent of brands expect to spend between five and 25 per cent of their advertising budget on mobile advertising in five years time.

The network is also working with the GSM Association to establish common advertising standards with country-specific guidelines for age appropriate content.

Russell said Vodafone would manage advertising quality as it could not afford to let it turn into spam. Responsible advertisers dont want to be invasive so well manage it through policies frequency and placement because otherwise the whole industry will be damaged he said.

Former Orange sales director and 3 UK chief operating officer Gareth Jones has joined Northampton distributor EBS as a non-executive chairman.

EBS founder and majority shareholder Ray Kingston said: Gareth has got so much experience in the mobile industry. He can bring a lot to the table with his experience and contacts. He obviously wouldnt have put his name to the business if he didnt believe in it.

EBS turned over £164 million in 2006. It is responsible for 60 per cent of all Orange SIM packs in the market said Kingston amounting to around 60000 SIM cards a month. EBS is looking at opportunities in fixed-line services recycling insurance and MVNO services. It is also set to launch a multinational SIM card with 3 and is already selling Orange broadband products.

Kingston said: It is a tough market for distribution at the moment. Were succeeding because of the service we give to our customers and the diversification of our portfolio.

Kingston becomes deputy executive chairman. Jones will give around two days a week to EBS.

Jones said: I am delighted to be joining EBS and involved in its future plans.

Jones was sales director for Orange until 2001 and chief operating officer at 3 for two years from early 2003.

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Staff hope for judge ruling to release frozen funds for wage payments

The channel was mourning the death last week of Derek Davey founder of south-west dealership West Talk who died on February 5 at the age of 51.

Davey remembered by the dealer community as outspoken and passionate had been diagnosed with cancer before Christmas.

Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution Stuart Henry who worked with Davey when sales director at Orange said: Derek was eccentric. I remember sitting around a campfire in Botswana with Derek regaling us with some very strange tales which ended with him telling everyone in all seriousness that he was the son of God. He was mildly barking but great fun. He was a lovely fellow and very passionate about what he did. I am very sad to hear that hes gone.

Davey set up Orange dealership West Talk with his partner Jeff Woolaway from the proceeds of the sale of the Vodafone Centre which had five stores to JAG managing director John George in 1999. George took a further 27 sites from Davey when he bought West Talk in 2002.

Davey then ran the West Talk brand as a B2B dealership. He sold the business before Christmas.

George said: I knew him for many years. He was always a competitor but he was great fun too. He was madcap and fun.

Zero7 managing director HJ Kempf added: He phoned me three weeks ago and told me about his illness. He said he was going to fight it. It is very sudden and very sad.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: I had run-ins with him but always counted him as a friend. He spoke his mind and was one of the few guys that really stood up to the networks and fought them all the way on poaching and encroachment. I am very sad that hes gone.

Go Mobile managing director Iain Humphrey added: I went on several trips with him. He always made me laugh. He will be missed.

A former Carphone Warehouse trader was one of 12 people charged and remanded in custody last week as part of a suspected £250 million missing trader VAT fraud.

Amir Naghib (aka Amir Naghibossadat) 36 was a trader within Carphones wholesale division from 2003 when suspects were first identified and arrested until August 2004. He was arrested in police raids across England and Wales on February 5.

A Carphone spokesperson said: We can confirm that the company is not implicated in any charges.

Five of the 12 suspects including Naghib were remanded in custody with the trial ongoing as Mobile News went to press. They could face up to two years in custody before the cases go to trial said lawyers acting for the defendants.

Anthony Barnfather of Pannone a leading lawyer in the field and involved in this case said: With these defendants on bail for so long and previously attending when requested this represents a remarkable change of stance in this case. A judge must be persuaded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant will fail to surrender for trial before refusing bail.

Obviously a judgement to remand in custody in these circumstances is particularly onerous given that in my experience such a complicated case wont reach trial until mid-2008. I would expect defence lawyers to appeal to a county court judge.

At the time of going to press 11 others had been charged.

They included: Curtis Laurent 48 from Cardiff; Marcus Hughes 36 from Uttoxeter; Keith Bennett 46 from Beaconsfield; Hashib Apabhai 47 from Bedworth; Adam Amani (changed by deed poll from Mohammed Novsarka) 45 from Warwickshire; Peter Ebbrell 55 from Coventry; Keith Ponder 56 from Beaconsfield; Sampson Goldstone 31 from Cheshire; Jo-Anne Halliday 57 from Stoke; Quentin Reynolds from London; and Ebrahim Sodha from Nuneaton.

Apabhai Amani and Goldstone were also charged with money laundering offences. Reynolds was also charged with cheating the revenue. Sodha was charged with cheating the revenue and money laundering.

All the accused appeared at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court on February 6 and 7.

The arrests and charges are part of a five-year investigation by Customs called Operation Euripus that saw 42 arrests as 350 officers raided 93 premises across the UK and Spain in July 2003 (see Mobile News issue 293).

Customs said the 2003 raids led to analysis of half a million documents and the hard drives of 391 computers.
European arrest warrants have also been issued in France and Spain against four individuals.

A second profit warning from Deutsche Telekom will see T-Mobile go hell for leather for contract and data connections in Q1 say sources to show as earnings by the year end.

The emphasis will then shift to prepay with commission for contract connections being slashed. Prepay connections have lower levels of subsidy and show as earnings far sooner.

One distributor told Mobile News: All the networks realise that selling direct means the indirect channel becomes less important. T-Mobile in particular seems to be turning itself upside down. I expect the announcement of a significant restructuring within the month.

Despite the rumours Mobile News understands that the jobs of head of contract connections Mark Duncan and head of dealers and distributors Glyn Horsfield among other senior channel roles are safe but that several roles at dealer account level are at risk as part of a T-Mobile internal cost-cutting exercise dubbed Save For Service.

But T-Mobile confirmed that it has entered into a 90-day consultation period with its national and local employee councils to make up to 140 staff redundant and outsource a further 194 field-based roles. It has notified The Department of Trade and Industry to that effect.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) criticised T-Mobile last week for its decision in the light of good annual results and for leaving staff in the dark.

CWU organiser Peter Morris said: It has caused great concern. T-Mobile has given us no explanation yet. We really need to reassure our members. Whats all the more confusing is that T-Mobile performed well in 2006.

T-Mobile said affected staff will receive generous redundancy packages. A T-Mobile spokesperson said: We are in consultation with the relevant local employee councils.

Gwent-based dealership Get Connected is set to open three new stores in the next fortnight. The move will take the number of outlets in its chain to 33.

Get Connected managing director Damian Cole has his sights set on a total of 50 stores by the end of 2007.

Cole has already purchased the premises of a new shop in Cardiff and has agreed the takeover of two other independent dealerships. They are Fonetalk in West Glamorgan and Mobile Phone Services in Craven Arms Shropshire.

Signalling his ambitions to develop a wider retail base Cole said that he would consider taking over dealerships located anywhere in the UK.

The takeover of these two stores as well as the new site in Cardiff will increase our footprint by 10 per cent he said. Wed like to take our portfolio of stores up to 50 stores by the end of the year. Were looking at going concerns and well talk to anyone.

Get Connected is the largest independent dealership in Wales.

Mainline has appointed former Hugh Symons sales manager Jo McLarty as regional sales manager.

McLarty spent seven years at Hugh Symons where she led Orange sales before becoming sales manager. She is to develop key dealer accounts and will manage Mainlines field-based dealer team for the North Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Mainline managing director Andrew Boden said: Jos experience will help tremendously as we focus on supporting dealers.

McLarty added: Our single-network focus means we can concentrate on developing and supplying complementary services.