20:20 Logistics has appointed Peter Hubbard as its new managing director.

Hubbard former vice president and general manager of Dell Corporation replaces Rod Millar who left in November.

20:20 Mobile Group CEO Mark Ryan said: Peter brings with him a wealth of experience of working for the worlds largest supplier of computers. He has considerable experience of delivering results within a dynamic constantly changing market.

Hubbard said: 20:20 Logistics is a great business that operates in a dynamic and constantly changing market. Im looking forward to the challenge of taking the business forward.

Hubbard spent 11 years at Dell running various sales and marketing functions across the business.

Both dealers and distribution are backing 3 s new quality-based incentive. The new 40 direct debit bonus available only if customers sign up to contracts on direct debit replaces its old guerrilla bonus that was based on volume. The bonus is paid to distributors and 3 direct dealers in the fifth month of a customer s contract instead of the first as previously. It will not be paid if customers cancel their contract within the first four months or move to another form of payment.
All distributors will pass the money down to dealers in the fifth month instead of paying commission upfront.
Fone Logistics head of marketing Julien Parven said: It s good news for the dealer channel. It will clean up some of the business and stop two-box tricks and under-the-table offerings.
MoCo director of marketing and direct sales Harvey Alexander said: It is a step forward to deliver quality in the industry. Rewarding quality forces the industry to clean up.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We will support 3 s drive for quality. All distributors will welcome initiatives like this as they drive good quality connections.
But Sprint communications managing director Paul Leonard pointed out that dealers were not always to blame. It s not a bad way of remunerating he said. But sometimes it isn t the dealer s fault it is the network that vets customers.

Time is running out to submit entries to the Mobile News Awards. The January 26 deadline is less than two weeks away.

You dont have to be an outright winner to benefit from entering the Mobile News Awards. All finalists and commended entrants are name-checked on the night and get a write-up in the Book of the Night which is sent to 6500 Mobile News readers said event co-ordinator Sarah Clacey.

The 13th Mobile News Awards will be presented at a sold-out gala dinner dance at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 22.

See www.mobilenewsawards.co.uk for category descriptions and details.

The distribution sector is gripped by fear and paranoia as airtime distributors re-evaluate their business strategies in the light of Vodafone s recent cull of lower-quality connectors.
Rival networks are expected to ape Vodafone which finally cut its ties with Hugh Symons before Christmas and to start to rationalise their distribution partnerships by the end of March if not before.
T-Mobile and Avenir which has rated highly in both Vodafone s and O2 s recent appraisals of the distribution channel came close to parting ways before Christmas according to sources. A high-quality high-volume December appears to have extended their relationship for the time being.
One distributor said: Everyone is paranoid. We are looking at the end of the first quarter and then we will see more distributors cut.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We ve got a great relationship with the guys at T-Mobile. We had a great December and we are on track to achieve the targets that have been set.
Tellingly distributors themselves are now considering sacking networks in order to better focus on fewer airtime providers. Margins in distribution are minuscule around 15 per box perhaps before overheads are taken into account.
One distributor said: We would consider [stopping work with a network] because obviously some are more profitable than others. Some we make very little money from. We have to review our position as well month-to-month.

Tough choices
Distributors are suddenly faced with a tough decision: whether to back their network partners as their commercials predicate month-to-month or to throw their weight behind certain network relationships and risk others.
Distributors are now faced with a dilemma said a distributor. Business strategy has become very awkward. By putting all their eggs in one basket and backing certain networks they risk leaving themselves exposed and coming completely unstuck.
Vodafone put together a league table of distributors last year to assess which channel partners were delivering best ARPU churn and customer lifetime value. Avenir and Anglia came out on top alongside service provider Yes Telecom which it formally backed in July when it took a majority stake in the business.
Dextra s airtime division which is unique among Vodafone distributors insofar as it makes consumer connections appears set to be the only airtime distributor with contracts with all five networks.
Vodafone axed Fone Logistics in October MoCo in November and finally Hugh Symons which had originally been bought time by the intervention of Carphone Warehouse director of indirect distribution Stuart Henry last month.

Pre-emptive strike
Like Fone Logistics Hugh Symons decided to pull Vodafone connections from its portfolio early after Vodafone dropped the package available to its dealers by around 50 per cent.
Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove whose original plan was to play the five-network distribution card has had to re-evaluate his strategy. However he claims Vodafone s decision will not disrupt Hugh Symons to any major degree in terms of accounts or dealer service.
The remaining networks will absorb any shortfall and we still have a very strong product and service proposition for all quality independent consumer and business dealers he says.
Kent distributor MoCo retains its status as a direct Vodafone dealer and contrary to reports as a 3 distributor too. Having run down its consumer distribution business with the network it is expected to ramp up 3 connections again when 3 launches its business offering in April.
Sources reckon that Vodafone s actions have been brought about because a part of the dealer channel has failed to move with the times. Vodafone has little use for old-school box-shifters in a market that has reached saturation point and offers declining voice revenues.
One dealer said: It is much harder to survive now. Where are you going to find the same levels of business as back in the glory days?
According to internal customer research carried out by one unnamed airtime connector the market is over-serviced. Customers get four-to-five calls per day from dealers pushing mobile solutions. There isn t a day that goes by when they re not contacted by a mobile phone dealer said a source within the company.
On the one hand pundits argue that dealers have undermined reputable businesses. The reason they got axed is because of their dealers said a distributor. They re victims of too many dealers on their books that haven t put through the right quality. Anglia and Avenir have been quite careful about which dealers they work with.
One dealer said: The emphasis for dealers today in the current climate is to provide a more consultative approach rather than to just offer the cheapest deal. We have to run customer account reviews and provide more advanced solutions better tailored to clients needs. We can t battle it out on price alone because the networks aren t interested.
On the other hand a source close to Vodafone suggested that it is the fault of distributors that Vodafone has consolidated its channel presence.
The dealer has to be provided with the tools to support the customer better and to deliver a better service. In some cases it is the distributor encouraging churn and going to dealers and pointing out to them where they can make money from new connections.
Others argue that some distributors have brought the right customers but for the wrong reasons.
These guys even if they target SOHO and SME customers which Vodafone wants them to target are still competing on price and dropping the ass out of the package to get customers to sign up. Those customers aren t earning the network the kind of revenue they would if other distributors had signed them.

New business
Avenir and Yes Telecom have both as expected picked up new business from dealers following Vodafone s distributor cull. Anglia was unavailable for comment. Both Avenir and Yes Telecom are being more circumspect in their recruitment of dealers with only around 50 per cent of new account applications accepted in both cases.
Yes Telecom managing director Keith Curran said: We have seen more account applications but in fact we are only taking on around 50 per cent of those because the jury is still out [on the quality] of the other 50 per cent. We won t just sign a form and do business with these guys.
Avenir managing director Tanny Price said: We have had 70 new account applications since October 1 [when Fone Logistics was axed by Vodafone]. We would normally receive around 25 to 30 in that time although we have increased our advertising too. But we haven t relaxed our dealer recruitment criteria. If anything we re probably erring on the side of caution.
What is clear is that the first cut is likely be the deepest as rival networks follow Vodafone s lead.
One Orange distributor said: I wouldn t be surprised if Orange doesn t cut everyone except Midland and Mainline. It has seen that Vodafone is working with just two distributors now and that it hasn t lost any business as a result. Midland and Mainline and EBS which is its very high-volume connector could be all that are left.

Orange has appointed Duncan Hay formerly of Britvic as its new UK sales director.

Hay replaces Stuart Henry Carphone Warehouses director of indirect distribution who left 16 months ago.

Hay reports in to Orange UK vice president of sales Mike Newnham who has had replacements for Henry in position on three separate occasions since Henrys departure only for deals to fall through at the eleventh hour on each occasion.

Hay will be responsible for managing existing partnerships and creating new relationships within the indirect channel across mobile broadband and beyond.

Newnham said: Duncan has shown a drive and enthusiasm that will sit well within the Orange team. His tenacious approach has ensured the Britvic brand portfolio has been expertly represented across the UK while operating in one of the country s most competitive industries.

His wealth of experience will help Orange drive forward as we deliver both our existing and future services while continuing to deliver better value for us and our existing and future partners.

Most recently Hay held the role of business unit director at Britvic working across key UK sales channels. Before joining Britvic Duncan spent his career in the Mars Corporation. His roles ranged from sales and marketing to finance and project management.

Hay begins his new role at Orange on March 5.

The Carphone Warehouse Group has suspended its sponsorship of Channel 4s Celebrity Big Brother programme estrimated to be worth GBP3 million.

Having maintained yesterday (January 17) that the content of the show had nothing to do with it and that it would continue to back the show Carphone boss Charles Dunstone today confirmed that it had indeed terminated its sponsorship deal.

Dunstone said: Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house. We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse. As a result we feel that as long as this continues we are unable to associate our brand with the programme.

We had already made it clear to Channel 4 that were this to continue we would have to consider our position. Nothing we saw last night gave us any comfort. Accordingly we have instructed Channel 4 to remove our sponsorship name and branding with immediate effect.

Television watchdog Ofcom has received over 20000 complaints from viewers that Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has been subjected to racist remarks from fellow housemates Jade Goody Danielle Lloyd and Jo OMeara.

Carphone is expected to consider reinstating its sponsorship for future series of Big Brother.

Sony Ericsson posted record sales for the Christmas quarter on the back of hit handsets in Europe Asia and Latin America.

Sony Ericsson attributed its success to its K800/K790 Cyber-shot phone and Walkman range and to the fact that it maintained retail prices in the face of high consumer demand.

Its Q4 volume and sales growth topped 60 per cent compared with the end of 2005. Its volume for 2006 increased to 74.8 million units of which 26 million shipped in Q4.

Sales jumped to 10959 million (GBP7202 million) for the year of which 3782 million registered during the three months to December 31.

Income before taxes for the quarter was 502 million a year-on-year increase of 144%. Net income for the quarter was 447 million.

In total Sony Ericsson shipped 60 million music-enabled phones including 17 million Walkman phones across all its markets during 2006.

Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint said: We finished a strong year with record volumes sales and net income due to the soaring popularity of our imaging and music phones. Earlier investments in R&D and marketing have enabled us to expand the portfolio and strengthen the brand to increase consumer and operator appeal.

Our target is to become one of the top three players in the industry and the momentum we established in 2006 makes this an achievable ambition.

Sony Ericsson claimed it had grown its global market share by two per cent during Q4. Sony Ericsson has a nine per cent share of the global market it said.

JAG managing director John George reacted furiously when he learned that a Motorola field rep had been bad-mouthing his business to his employees.

George has called into question the value of all manufacturers and networks field personnel and banned Motorola field staff from visiting JAG stores altogether.

The move comes after an ex-staffer who joined Motorola as a field rep was found to be making negative comments about his old company when visiting JAG stores.

JAG managing director John George said: I was really unhappy to learn of this situation. We value our staff second only to our customers. I really dont want to hear of people being invited in to our shops only to be rude about our company and demoralise our staff.

George said he tried initially to address the situation with Motorola directly. But Georges objections were dismissed by Motorola.

Said George: We didnt seem to be taken seriously by them [Motorola]. All they said was they were sure it wasnt what it sounded like. In the end I took the difficult decision to tell them we didnt want their representatives in our stores any longer. We have had a relationship with Motorola since 1990 – right from JAG s start – so it really is a shame that it came to this. Its not an action I took lightly.

JAGs larger stores are visited by around 15 field reps from networks and major manufacturers each month with each visit taking up to an hour.

Whether a store manager spending 15 hours a month talking to field personnel is the best use of time is debatable said George. We understand how important it is to keep abreast of our suppliers latest developments but Im sure that for every worthwhile visit there are also pointless ones. And hearing of a situation like this calls the whole process into question.

At the moment Jag has no plans to change its policy on other field sales forces visiting stores but George said that he will monitor the visits of field reps more closely.

Benefon chief executive officer Jonathan Bate has resigned with immediate effect.

Bate handed in his resignation prior to Christmas.

Benefon said in a statement: The board accepts his resignation and releases him from his duties. The board of directors is actively conducting a search for a new chief executive officer.

Bate is expected to take a short time-out but is understood to have a number of opportunities within the industry open to him.

Bate was unavailable for comment.

Benefon chief operating officer and former chief executive Tomi Raita will assume the responsibilities of chief executive officer as the company searches for Bate s replacement.

Bate has also worked in senior management positions at Siemens Motorola Philips and Samsung Electronics.

A staggering 214 million messages (nearly nine million per hour) were sent between midnight on New Year s Eve and midnight on New Years Day the highest ever-daily total recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
Texters over festive period also broke records with 205 million messages (eight million per hour) being sent on Christmas Day another new record high.
The MDA has forecast that SMS will become even more popular in 2007 reaching 45 billion for the year (3.75 billion a month or 123 million a day).