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European Telecom has been given three months to improve the quality of business it delivers to Orange or face being axed in March.

European Telecom has also been issued with a do not trade notice by Carphone Warehouse SIM-free distribution arm Mobile Phones Express (MPE) because of unpaid bills. Sources claimed European Telecoms credit has been cancelled by several trade suppliers.

Orange director of indirect sales Steve Heald said: We are working with European Telecom to improve the quality of business that it delivers to Orange. That is our focus in 2007 as we have stated before. If the right quality business is not delivered then we will review our partnerships.

European Telecom finance director Jim Mann admitted that Orange had brought it up on the levels of distance selling it was doing but that its sales team would meet targets by March.

It is to do with distance sellers and the need to improve the quality of business delivered to Orange said Mann. There is no problem other than we have to make sure that the quality of business is good.

Meanwhile European Telecoms handset distribution business was also said to be failing last week. Sources claimed it has unpaid bills with MPE stretching back as far as November.

MPE refused to comment but a source close to MPE said: It has got European Telecom on hold and wants its money.

Mobile News understands that European Telecom has outstanding invoices from December at least.

Carphone has European on stop because it hasnt paid a bill since November said a source.

Another distribution source said: Everybodys withdrawn their credit lines from European Telecom on the handset side. That is the vast majority of what those guys do.

But Mann put the cashflow problems down to the Christmas hiatus in trading.

He said: We shut down around Christmas and it took us a few weeks to get back in gear. It is the same cashflow problem that affects any distribution business.

3 was also rumoured to be evaluating its ties with European Telecom last week but 3 director of indirect sales Bernie OBeirne said: We have a good trading relationship with European Telecom which goes back nearly four years and were not aware of any financial problems.

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Midlands dealerships Phonebox and Go Mobile have been struck off by O2 as part of a wider cull of direct dealers.

O2 has withdrawn both dealerships ongoing revenue payments worth more than £60000 a year.

Phonebox managing director Nigel Harrison said that O2s initial termination letter had said Phonebox was at liberty to manage its base via a distributor and that it would continue to receive a share of its customers ongoing revenue.

But Harrison said that having informed his O2 customers that Phonebox would continue to manage them via Fone Logistics O2 dealer manager Shaun Clarke informed them in writing that they would instead be managed by O2 Advance dealer CDM Global going forward.

Harrison said: Im aggrieved. We were told that wed retain both our base and ongoing revenues via a distributor of choice. This has subsequently been withdrawn and replaced hurriedly. To add insult to injury we have since found that our ex-O2 account manager has been actively hawking our customer base to his Advance dealers.

O2 head of indirect partners David Plumb put the mistake down to human error. Clarke had sent the wrong letter said Plumb.

Go Mobile managing director Iain Humphrey has also been instructed to hand over his O2 customer base and warned not to poach back his former customers from O2.

Phonebox and Go Mobile connect around 10000 customers a month between them. Humphrey and Harrison said their O2 numbers would have been better if O2s commissions were on a par with networks.

Plumb said that dealers that miss volume targets but maintain low churn can connect via distributors and upgrade their own customer bases. Those that fail on both counts must relinquish their base to O2.

He added: The focus is quality business connections incorporating two-year contracts and data. That is the sweet spot. They were not able to deliver on those KPIs.

But Humphrey said that he had not at any stage received minimum performance targets from O2.

Weve never sat down with O2 to discuss churn levels and data. Other networks have given us very clear guidelines on performance he said.

O2 has cut 12 direct dealers in total bringing its direct dealer base to 42. This excludes its Advance dealer partners which number 24.

The other 10 dealers to be cut off by O2 are Mobile Fun Fone Trader Phone City Fylde Telecom Mobile Phones Direct JHL Comms Spectrum Airphone Phone Land and The Phone Shop.

At the same time O2 has appointed Pure Communications and Totility as direct dealers.

The Carphone Warehouse is selling its AOL Broadband package alongside its TalkTalk proposition in more than 725 of its stores.

AOL Broadband was acquired by Carphone at the end of 2006.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said: This demonstrates clearly our ambition to grow the AOL Broadband business.
It is the perfect complement to TalkTalk free broadband.

AOL Broadband Silver offering a free wireless router plus safety and security software at a speed of 2MB a second costs £9.99 for the first three months and £14.99 thereafter.

Nokia will launch the Nokia 7373 Special Edition handset designed in association with fashion designer Giambattista Valli at Paris Fashion Week at the end of the month.

The Nokia 7373 expected in UK stores next month with a guide price of £190 comes in two colours with Valli-style phone accessories.

The powder pink version comes with a pearl necklace for a strap and a miniature pink skull. The black chrome version has an onyx-like crystal strap and a black skull.

Each handset comes pre-loaded with a video about Valli and a selection of Valli wallpapers and graphics.

Valli said: Depending on your mood you swap bags and transfer the contents. Nokia has applied this idea to the world of mobility. Just swap SIM cards from one mobile phone to another to match your personal style.

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The latest in Nokias biggest-selling mid-tier handset range the Nokia 6300 will be with all sales channels by the start of March and will sell better than its predecessors Nokia claimed last week.

The 6300 will be available on both prepay and contract with a retail price of around £160 before tax and subsidies. Nokia expects it to appeal to the youth market and business users alike.

Nokia UK head of product marketing Marcus Dacombe said: It will be best in class at this price point not just across our portfolio but across all of retail for music video and design. We have high expectations. It will sell even better than previous 6000 series handsets.

It is at a good price on both prepay and contract. We are ready to ship the product into the channel for the first weekend in March and it will be ranged across all networks and retail channels.

The Nokia 6300 which launches in silver and black follows the popular 6230 and 6210 handsets. It has a stainless steel casing a two megapixel camera and an expandable memory slot with storage for 1500 music tracks.

Dacombe said it was the counterpoint to the N95 Nokias other big handset launch for the year which is set to hit the shops six weeks later.

The 6300 will launch with a two-week billboard advertising campaign followed by a two-month print push and viral marketing activity through the year. Nokia is also expected to put significant funds behind its point-of-sale activity.

The UK mobile phone market is setting Sony Ericssons agenda for sales in the rest of the world.

Sony Ericsson vice-president and head of product marketing Steve Walker told Mobile News that its success in the UK where it took the number one spot from Nokia at the end of last year serves as a model for its global operations.

He said: Were pretty much in the lead in the UK now so it has a high degree of influence.

Walker said that Sony Ericssons close relations with UK-based network operators play out in other markets around the world.

There are five extremely well-developed network operators in the UK that have a presence in other markets he said.

The things we do in the UK in terms of service development applications even marketing is very much a benchmark for the ways we operate elsewhere.

Walker added that Sony Ericssons global ambition to become a top-three handset manufacturer would not be achieved by pursuing market share at the expense of profitability.

To attract a premium for handsets you have to offer something more to the consumer and to the network he argued. We can offer something more. The day we offer something that other manufacturers offer is the day that premium on our products disappears.
Sony Ericsson is expected to launch around 20 handsets to the UK market this year.

Despite handset development being split mainly between Sweden and Japan Sony Ericssons global headquarters are in London and its president Miles Flint is British. It allows us a real feel for the UK market said Walker.