European Telecom has been appointed as a distributor of Vodafone pre-pay products for the first time.
European Telecom sales and marketing director Frank Masson said: ?Vodafone has always been the missing link in terms of our pre-pay play. It is an important win for us.?
He added that European Telecom believed it could add value to Vodafone pre-pay. ?Not just by distributing to high street retailers like Woolworths and Argos where everybody trades but in other routes? he said.
Vodafone head of pre-pay sales Nick Birtwistle said: ?European Telecom is ideally placed to support our growing retailer and dealer base we are pleased to have them on board 2006?.
European Telecom is a pre-pay distributor for all five major UK networks.

Hugh Symons offers dealers reassurance

Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove said this week that dealers should expect a steadier roll-out of Hugh Symons? combined airtime/SIM-free proposition.
Sweetlove admitted that the pace had slowed following Carphone Warehouse?s purchase of Hugh Symons in December.
?It is probably fair to say that our approach with the networks in the first six months has not been ideal? said Sweetlove. ?With recent changes in personnel we are doing a lot of work to ensure that we remain a well-respected and key partner.?
His comments follow gripes from dealers that the hype that followed the acquisition has not borne fruit.
Karl May co-founder of Manchester dealership MK Mobiles said: ?The Hugh Symons Carphone thing hasn?t moved at the rate that [former Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution] Steve Fraser gave us the impression it would. The takeover was quite promising at one stage but it doesn?t seem to have developed properly.?
However the departure of Fraser last month following an internal investigation appears to have eased tensions.
Sweetlove said: ?Dealers are now going to see a more steady build-up of the proposition.?
Sweetlove who takes some of the slack left by Fraser aims to bring Hugh Symons? airtime division and Carphone Warehouse?s SIM-free business Mobile Phone Express (MPE) closer together.
?Hugh Symons and MPE can align to offer a more co-ordinated product and service proposition to the independent dealer? he said. ?Initially we will continue business as usual but we plan to develop quickly to allow dealers to buy airtime and handsets on one account. Closer alignment will also allow both sales teams to access a wider customer base.?
Hugh Symons dealers should be able to offer Carphone Warehouse?s LifeLine insurance product and its TalkTalk landline service shortly.

Tough market places Celltalk in liquidation

Manchester online dealership and telesales business Celltalk has gone into liquidation blaming tough market conditions.
Begbies Traynor has been appointed as insolvency practitioner and has sold the company?s call centre operation in South Africa. The proceeds will go to pay creditors but early indications are that the funds will fall short of the amount needed.
Jesse Meredith-Watts and Richard Marsden have resigned as executive directors but will remain as joint managing directors. They are currently preparing year-end accounts to March 30 which will be announced at the end of this month.
The company previously experienced a spell in voluntary administration in 2002.

Voda Business suffers slow connections

Vodafone Business dealers complained this week that they had lost business because customer connections were taking up to four days.
Dealers claimed that Vodafone?s new fulfilment software called Libra/Gemini was installed last month without warning. They said connections on the old fulfilment system Dice took just a few hours.
One dealer said: ?Vodafone sprung it on us on June 13. We?d happily gone through the Dice connection process for five years. It was a little archaic but it worked well. The new system is all e-mail-based but it takes up to four days to credit check and connect customers.
Another dealer said: ?The nightmare is real. Business has suffered because Vodafone has changed its fulfilment system. Connections are taking longer and there was no warning of the changeover.?
Vodafone said that it had not moved any of its dealer base to new fulfilment software but a Vodafone spokesperson admitted: ?There are a few small localised issues in the area of credit checks and connections.?

New Fone Logistics dealer programme

Fone Logistics has set itself ambitious internal targets of 3000 O2 business connections a quarter and launched an internal dealer programme in conjunction with its new status as an O2 Advance distributor.
Fone Logistics has picked 14 O2 business dealers to join its new Select Business programme which it developed ahead of O2?s Advance distributor programme.
However Fone Logistics head of marketing Julien Parven said the figure would probably reduce to around 12 through a process of natural wastage.
Select Business dealers will work to agreed six-month performance targets and receive marketing tools and guidance.
?We will help them with lead generation and pass on tools we receive from O2 in terms of training and recruitment? said Parven.
Fone Logistics agreed its own six-month business plan with O2 ? around customer churn tenure and ARPU ? last month and is set to reach 2500 business connections a quarter within nine to 12 months.
Now it is raising the bar with Select Business which went live on July 1 with targets of 3000 a quarter.
Fone Logistics has also launched a field support division to work alongside its eight dealer managers offering support and field audits.
?We have invested in this division as a non-profit entity within our business? said Parven. ?We can work more closely with our dealers to manage risk and educate them as to how to market to and sign up value customers.?

P990i set to hit channel in August

Sony Ericsson?s long-delayed P990i smartphone will reach the channel early next month.
The P990i was first announced to content developers in October. It was originally slated for release in Q1 but shipping dates were put back to Q2 to allow Sony Ericsson?s M600i 3G smartphone to gain traction in the market. It now has a projected August shipping date.
Sony Ericsson marketing manager Richard Dorman said: ?We don?t have the exact date for the launch of the P990i handset but it looks likely to be the earlier part of August. We delayed the launch of the phone to differentiate it from the M600i which was a fresh product.?
The P990i is just one of nine new handsets Sony Ericsson will launch in the next three months including five new Walkman-branded devices.

T-Mobile connections have dropped up to 70 per cent from last month and are set to fall further in August.

T-Mobile is unlikely to put money back into the independent channel until after Christmas.

Dealers are now reluctant to connect T-Mobile following commissions cuts of 25 per cent at the start of the month. Many dealers have removed T-Mobile point-of-sale material from their stores altogether.

Dealers are also frustrated because they have been saddled with stock that they cannot return to T-Mobile and cannot profitably shift. They have resorted to running T-Mobile stock down by drip-connecting it.

T-Mobile would not be drawn on its future channel strategy. Distributors said T-Mobile has already blown its acquisition budget for the year.

One distributor source said: T-Mobile says it is tracking at 70 per cent less than last month across the board which is certainly what were finding. Both its Flext and Business 1 plan tariffs have been so successful that it has already hit its targets. When it first dropped its prices back in May it thought sales would slow but they didnt so it took another 25 per cent out of the package in July.

Midlands-based Go Mobile expects to sign just 50 customers to T-Mobile in July – down from 150 last month and 700 during June.

Go Mobile managing director Iain Humphrey said: When T-Mobile launched Flext it had a real opportunity to build partnerships with the channel that it didnt take.

Business is being switched to Orange and 3.

Avenir and MoCo said T-Mobile sales were tracking at 60-70 per cent less than in July. Hugh Symons European Telecom and Fone Logistics said T-Mobile connections were down by at least 50 per cent.

MoCo managing director Ian Robinson said: Dealers will continue to sell stock to wash it out of the channel. That is why sales have been reasonably buoyant in the first two weeks of July. Into August sales are likely to fall even more.

Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove said: Connections are down 50 per cent on last month but it is likely to be even slower next month if dealers run their inventories down and no new stock is sent out. It is very hard to return kit to T-Mobile so most dealers will sell the kit they already have. Then we will see which dealers move their business to other networks.

Mobile News columnist and Futurenet Communications founder Jez Harris said: We can?t send the stock back and have had to come to terms with the fact that we?ll have to drip connect T-Mobile stock.

T-Mobile added to the frustration last week by extending its clawback period from 90 days to 120 days.

Mobile phone networks have condemned the EU?s latest plan to slash roaming call rates.
The new proposals announced as Mobile News went to press aim to cut roaming costs by 70 per cent and include a cap on the charges customers pay to receive a call on their phone when roaming abroad.
EU commissioner for information society and media Viviane Reding said: ?Reducing roaming charges will not only be beneficial for citizens travelling within the EU but also enhance the competitiveness of Europe?s industry.?
But UK networks slammed the plans having already taken independent steps to cut their charges.
T-Mobile UK MD Jim Hyde said: ?True mobility means affordable mobility and at present too many mobile customers don?t use their phones abroad. That acts against their interests ? and against ours. Our new 55p roaming rate is as simple as it gets. It?s for every customer whether pre-pay or contract.?
The GSM Association calling the EU?s latest proposals ?a straitjacket that will stifle innovation dampen competition and harm consumers.?
A Vodafone spokesman added: ?It is still a prescriptive regulation and we?re not convinced that it?s in the best interests of our customers.?

If it ain?t broke don?t fix it

The UK mobile industry wastes 54 million per year because users return their phones when they?re not actually faulty.
A new report by data service provider WDSGlobal drawn from analysis of 15000 monthly post-sales support calls claims that 63 per cent of mobile devices returned as faulty are actually in perfect working order ? users just haven?t learned to use them properly.
UK mobile phone users are struggling with applications on their mobile phones claims the report.
WDSGlobal head of communications Doug Overton said: ?The industry needs to look at the causes behind this trend and take positive action to improve the general out-of-box experience for the mobile subscriber.?
Each device that is returned costs operators manufacturers and retailers about 35 resulting in an overall bill for the global mobile industry of 2.5 billion.

Now Carphone wants to be Zara of mobile

Carphone Warehouse is opening two more concept stores next month. One will be in central London?s Marylebone Road the other in Guildford.
The stores will be used to develop design cues for a gradual store refit focusing on in-store experience and the reduction of queues.
Carphone Warehouse UK chief operating officer Richard Walker said: ?You won?t see an overnight change but it will cover the look feel and behaviour in the stores.?
UK CEO Andrew Harrison added: ?We are moving into a market where a phone purchase is similar to that of a pair of sunglasses or jeans. We want to be taking a similar approach to the one taken by Zara. The products might be cheap but they are desirable and displayed in a nice environment.?

World Cup boosts 3 TV

3 claims its mobile TV usage increased 61 per cent during the World Cup with 3.6 million viewings of its three dedicated World Cup channels.
3 marketing director Graeme Oxby said: ?The World Cup has put mobile TV on the map with the weekly viewing figures for World Cup TV peaking at over a million.?
Content included match highlights five minutes after the final whistle. All 3?s 3.5 million customers could tune in free which helped boost 3?s average weekly TV viewings during the Cup to more than 740000.

Computer manufacturer HP has struck a deal with Vodafone to sell HP laptops with 3G and HSDPA built-in.
The deal will offer coverage in western Europe and the Pacific region. Vodafone global director of business marketing Nick Jeffery said: ?Notebooks with built-in 3G broadband offer customers an easy way of accessing e-mail office data and the Internet on the move.?
HP senior category manager of notebooks Steven Gales said: ?Expanding the range of HP notebooks to include 3G mobile connectivity is critically important to addressing global customer needs.?
The first release will be the HP Compaq 6400.

O2 enters IT retail in strategy shift

O2?s embraced the IT retail channel last week to enable thousands of IT dealers to sell O2 tariffs and enterprise bundles to business customers.
The announcement comes on the back of a new supply deal with wholesale IT distributor Westcoast and a contract which it has snatched from Vodafone to supply 9000 SIM cards to the AA.
O2 said that the high demand for data and cost-saving services within the UK business market has caused it to revise its corporate sales strategy.
Despite the demand however there is a shortage of data solutions in the market. O2 intends to plug the gap ahead of network rivals and grow its share of the corporate sector.
?Less than 10 per cent of all data users leave the office with e-mail access at the moment? said O2 general manager of business sales Ben Dowd. ?There is an opportunity here because that is expected to grow to 60 per cent in four years.?
O2 is taking a more IT-focused and consultative approach to corporate sales. It is utilising partnerships with companies such as RIM and Microsoft to provide fuller solutions. O2 is the only UK network to be accredited as a Microsoft Certified Partner.
?As the market moves into data we have to think more like an IT company and less like a mobile network operator? said Dowd. ?Therefore we have partnered with the best companies in the IT sector.?
O2?s sales academy which has been running for 18 months will keep sales staff and business managers up to speed with converged technology solutions and how to best offer customers competitive advantage.
O2?s partnership with Westcoast its first distributor partner in the IT space will enable IT dealers to sell O2 mobile solutions alongside IT propositions to business customers.
Westcoast?s specialist IT dealers will be given the opportunity to undertake training to become ?Mobility Specialists? and connect business customers to O2?s voice and data tariffs. Other IT dealers will be able to sell a range of O2 product bundles to businesses for set transaction fees.
Westcoast commercial director Andy Dow said: ?We can now offer our resellers the full mobility solution ? starting with the PDA and including voice and data tariffs and interactive software and security. We want to work with resellers who wish to invest in mobility and who want to have a deeper knowledge and variety of solutions.?
He added: ?Other players in the market still have not found the right approach for telecoms and IT to come together. We have chosen to work with O2 because it offers far more flexibility in the way they work and transact and also in how it remunerates the channel.?
Last week O2 announced its success in signing a deal to provide all mobile voice and data services to the AA. The new contract is made up of around 5500 voice connections and more than 3000 data connections mainly used for the AA?s service fleet across UK.
?It?s a massive win and a win we took from Vodafone? said Dowd. ?Porting 9000 numbers is a nerve-racking experience but it has gone extremely well.?
The deal means AA customers can also take advantage of airtime discounts of around 30 per cent if they sign up to O2 tariffs.

O2 head of games Antony Douglas said: We have broadened our popular mobile entertainment services to include a fun and intriguing selection of mobile puzzles that should speak to a wide audience among O2s 16 million customers.

Puzzles including Sudoku Kakuro wordsearch and crosswords will now be available on O2 Active. It offers new puzzles every day as well as an archive of 1000 more puzzles to choose from.

The mobile versions of Sudoku and Kakuro allow users to ?pencil in possible solutions cheat on parts or the whole puzzle and enter league tables. In future mobile users will also be able to win prizes.

European Telecom sales and marketing director Frank Masson said: Vodafone has always been the missing link in terms of our pre-pay play. It is an important win for us.

He added that European Telecom believed it could add value to Vodafone pre-pay. Not just by distributing to high street retailers like Woolworths and Argos where everybody trades but in other routes he said.

Vodafone head of pre-pay sales Nick Birtwistle said: European Telecom is ideally placed to support our growing retailer and dealer base we are pleased to have them on board 2006.

As Mobile News went to press a total of around 170 premises have been searched and 23 people have been detained: 16 in Glasgow five in Manchester and Oldham and two in London.

So far police have arrested and charged 18 people. No names will be released until the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland brings formal charges. The operation continues.

Customs has deployed more than 400 criminal investigators supported by 100 officers from Strathclyde Police Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police Service.

The investigation is being co-ordinated by Customs and Strathclyde police and the arrests outside Glasgow have made because of intelligence from Scotland.

A Customs spokesperson said: This operation is part of an international criminal investigation into frauds that may run to hundreds of millions of pounds. The investigation that has led to these arrests has been ongoing for a year.

Missing trader fraud affects a number of inter-linked businesses so the frauds are connected. But these arrests have nothing to do with any recent prosecutions.

Informa senior analyst Chris Coffman said: The quality of mobile games has improved significantly over the past year but it will be tough to convince consumers of that until the content discovery and provisioning process is simplified.

The report predicts that global revenues from mobile games will reach $7.2 billion (GBP3.8 billion) by 2011 but providers will need to attract new players.

Though mobile gaming has grown into a $2.4 billion business in 2006 it is not yet a mass-market activity added Coffman. The five per cent of mobile subscribers who download mobile games today wont be the engine that drives the next five years of growth.

The handset is fully HSDPA-enabled and provides users with connection speeds of up to 1.8 megabits per second.

Derek Williamson head of business marketing at T-Mobile said: By launching the MDA Vario II T-Mobile is ensuring that our customers are the first to truly experience broadband-speed connectivity on the move via their mobile phone. T-Mobile continues to take the lead in transforming the way people live and work by supporting their need for access to information and communication any time.

It is hoped that the increased speed of the service will provide users with better quality Internet video calling and e-mail experience on a mobile device.

The MDA Vario is also Web n Walk-enabled allowing customers constant Internet access for a specific price each month.

The device features a QWERTY keyboard a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash a VGA camera and Bluetooth connectivity. The handset is available in a red silver or black casing exclusive to T-Mobile.

Thomas Chambers chief financial officer for Symbian said: Our units have increased by 65 per cent year on year and we continue to grow the number of units shipped. Since the commencement of Symbian OS we have shipped 82.8 million phones.

He added: People want more functionality from handsets these days. Its not just a phone anymore its an MP3 player and a camera too. Therefore I see this as the beginning; its only the start of things for the smartphone market.

Nigel Clifford chief executive officer of Symbian said: Symbian continued to lead the smartphone market in Q2 2006 with more than 12.3 million Symbian smartphones shipping worldwide. During Q2 Symbians revenues grew to GBP41.2 million – an increase of 54 per cent on Q2 2005.

Symbian confirmed that 23 new phone models were shipped in Q2 2006. He added: As TV and micropayment are built in to phones the smartphone market will continue to grow. I do still think people need to be educated on the benefits of smartphones but that process has begun and I think it will continue to grow.