Orange may follow Vodafone and drop its Carphone Warehouse (CPW) retail contract next year because of high distribution costs.

Orange is considering its options in independent retail. It is in the process of reviewing its independent retail strategy for 2007 because of customer acquisition costs.

Orange said in a statement: Our relationship with both Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U remains unchanged. However since our indirect distribution costs have gone up significantly over the last few years we are in the process of reviewing our independent strategy for 2007.

The statement comes hot on the heels of Vodafones announcement that it has dropped CPW in favour of a better deal with high street rival Phones 4U. The move reduces Vodafones commission costs.

The timing of Oranges announcement puts increased pressure on CPW just days after it completed the 370 million acquisition of AOL Time Warners UK Broadband base.

Orange has confirmed the departure of Business Services vice president Alastair MacLeod at the end of the month.

MacLeod has been with Orange for five years. Orange said that he had accepted a role as chief operating officer in company outside the telecoms industry.

MacLeod will be replaced by Cynthia Gordon who has been vice president of marketing for the Orange Group since 2003.

An Orange spokesperson said: Cynthia is well known to Orange UK having been part of the senior management team in the early days of the directorate as director of business marketing and for the last three years has worked across Europe where Orange has been growing its business market revenues rapidly.

Gordon has 15 years of commercial telecoms experience in mobile fixed and broadband with BT Demon and T Mobile.

Carphone Warehouse has responded to the deal struck between Vodafone and Phones 4U for the retail chain to become the networks exclusive third party retailer for contract customers.

Carphones share price plunged by over 40p on the news.

In a statement Carphone said:

Carphone Warehouses business is based on the fundamental principle of impartial advice. This cannot and will not ever be compromised: it is the foundation on which customer trust and loyalty is built. We sell phones on the basis of what is the right and best for our customers not on the basis of guaranteeing volumes of sales for networks.

Vodafone approached Carphone Warehouse to enter into the same arrangement as they have today announced with Phone 4 U. It would have meant guaranteeing to sell a high percentage of Vodafone subscriptions no matter how competitive the offer was for customers.

Less than 10% of our subscription customers today choose Vodafone as their contract of choice. This is simply because 90% of customers feel they are getting a better deal from another network. It is a sad day for Phones 4 U customers to know that they are not being offered the best deal for them but instead the best deal for Phones 4 U and Vodafone.

Our customers will always receive impartial advice on the best deal for their individual needs and rest assured they will always have the best deal on offer.

Vodafone has struck a deal with Phones 4U to be its exclusive third party retailer for contracts. Other channels will retain the chance to sell pre-pay propositions.
Vodafone UK CEO Nick Read said: The combination of Phones 4Us experience and Vodafones flexible product offering creates an exiting proposition. This strategic deal will complement our direct distribution capability and ensure we can target all key customer segments through their channel of choice.

Carphone Warehouse has acquired Time Warners AOL UK internet business for 370 million.

Under the deal Carphone will acquire AOLs UK customer base plus supporting management and infrastructure. AOL will provide a co-branded portal and manage online advertising sales.

Carphone CEO Charles Dunstone said: The acquisition is transformational for our broadband business. It gives us significant scale to complement the rapid organic growth of our free broadband proposition.

Carphone today (October 11 2006) released trading figures for the second quarter. The company has incurred approximately 20 million in costs for setting up the free broadband proposition as it struggles to cope with the unexpected demand.

As of September 30 there have been 625000 applications for the service with 421000 made live.

South West-based independent mobile retailer Jag Communications is planning an expansion bid into new UK territories.

Managing director John George said We have been consolidating our position in the market since buying KJC outlets last year but now we feel its time to start expanding again.

The first new store is in Port Talbot in south Wales which is set to open before Christmas. It supplements the seven existing outlets in the region.

George added: We would be happy to acquire another company if that would speed up this process in South Wales but the price would have to be right. Buying companies has worked well for us in the past as we get a pool of trained staff.

More store openings will be announced soon.

Mobile communications specialist ROK has launched a subscription-free IP TV service. The service dubbed FreeBe TV is based around a desktop application that can be used with 21 WAP enabled phones currently on the market to tune into 12 channels of content. Citing findings from analysts at ABI Research the company believes that the global market for IPTV could reach revenues of up to 14.5 billion a year by 2010.
The company said that the service is made free to consumers in an effort to stimulate a sluggish market hidebound by cost. Revenues will be recouped through advertising on the service.

Ridin released on 3 on June 26 sold 5800 downloads in a day. It is not out on CD until August 14.

Record labels are releasing singles first on 3 and were pleased to see the labels are as excited about the growing sales as we are? said 3 marketing director Graeme Oxby.

Ridin has now sold more than 10000 downloads in the UK alone.

We are keen to embrace innovative ways to deliver our artists music to the consumer? said Island Records Group head of mobile Neil Jennings.

3 has struck a deal with Irish retail chain Xtra-vision to distribute 3 products and services through 154 stores across Ireland.

Xtra-vision sells a range of consumer electronics from mobile phones to DVDs.

Xtra-vision will offer the new Sony Ericsson K610i in red the Motorola V3x in pink the LG8330 LG8360 and Motorola C975 among others. Customers will be able to sign up to 3?s pre-pay offer 3Pay in all Xtra-vision stores with post-pay contracts available in selected outlets plus special X-clusives only from Xtra-vision.

3 Ireland managing director Robert Finnegan said: 3 has changed the face of the Irish mobile market by offering customers more for their money with new exclusive services and great value pricing. Xtra-vision is at the heart of the home entertainment market attracting high spenders on video games and multi-media. With over 60 per cent of our customers regularly enjoying new mobile entertainment services Xtra-vision is an ideal channel to market for 3G on the high street.

The agreement strengthens 3s presence on the Irish high street following its entry into the pre-pay market in May. Xtra-vision joins 3?s existing retail partners including 3G Carphone Warehouse and independent dealerships across Ireland.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Industry pundits expected Hough who took voluntary redundancy from Orange earlier this month to fall in with former Orange sales director Stuart Henry at Carphone Warehouse after its SIM-free distribution arm Mobile Phone Express lost sales manager Mark Grice.

But Mobile News understands that Hough already has a verbal agreement to join Mainline which is part-owned by Orange and is located close to Houghs Staffordshire home. Houghs redundancy notice expired on Friday (July 28) leaving him free to agree terms with Mainline.

Both Mainline and Hough refused to comment.

Orange offered its channel staff until midnight on July 14 to apply for redundancy as the operator looked to integrate its mobile and broadband sales staff. Hough applied for redundancy.

Former Wanadoo head of sales Steve Heald has taken on the combined channel sales role at Orange for mobile and broadband services.