The admission comes after a week of turmoil for Motorola which is closing a major factory in Bathgate plant in Scotland.

Motorolas general manager personal communications sector for UK and Ireland Doug Goodwin told Mobile News Motorola is to ditch is Personality user interface and pep up its low-end entry models with improved design and much smaller form .

Our products will be dramatically improved going forward. The MMI has been most publicly criticised. We have now corrected the process and new products coming through in Q3 and Q4 will have a new Synergy interface. Some of our customers have suggested that they dont have a problem with the user interface and others have said they dont find it intuitive. We have taken the best of the past and evolved it making it a lot more consumer friendly.

Goodwin also admitted that some of Motorolas low-end product had not been as competitive in terms of size and design.

Some of our products were perceived to be too large. Some of the newer entrants into the market have been providing a much smaller form factor at an entry-level price. In the course of Q3 and Q4 the platform has been regenerated and we will be reflecting the form factor of our V3688 in a non-clamshell form factor phone. It will be extremely appealing and we are addressing some of the criticisms across the range.

Goodwin agrees Motorola lags behind its rivals such as Nokia in its marketing message but promises a very strong message from Motorola in the future.

Trying to create a life experience around a brand takes time and investment. Our Nordic colleagues have been working at it longer than us and have invested more than us. We are playing catch-up and we recognise we have a lot of work to do to catch up and pass them.

Goodwin says content will play a key part in Motorolas message.

Content will be a critical component in our message. We are developing partnerships with companies whose brands can be intrinsically linked to Motorola intellectual properties.

People will understand that you can play the Millionaire game on a Motorola device on whichever networks are supporting it and win a prizet will be a simple message for people to understand. Theres too much jargon in the market. Well use the Millionaire logo to get a simple message across.

BT Selected specialist dealers will be offering the Motorola Timeport 260 for an unsubsidised 200 aimed at heavy SMS WAP and mobile data users rather than new customers.

I dont know who did it and Im not going to point my finger at anyone Patel told Mobile News.

The police have taken statements from a number of witnesses and are following up their enquiries. They have recovered the car used by the attackers and are trying to contact the owner to help them with their enquiries because it has not been reported stolen. As far as I am aware no arrests have been made.

Patel says that the attack may leave him permanently blinded in one eye.

Doctors dont know if they will be able to restore sight in one of my eyes.

Patel says the horrific injuries have adversely affected Chatternets business.

At the moment most of my time is spent going to and from the hospital. Ive got several operations to go before I can really recover from my injuries but we are trying to cope the best we can

The first phone will be a GSM and GPRS version of a camera-phone Sharp is already selling in Japan. The BT version will be badged Cyclops and is planned to be on sale by the end of the year.

Steven Bold managing director of Sharp telecommunications Europe said:

Weve had a research and development centre in Oxford England for about 10 years now. But last year we were asked to extend our operations to see how our Japanese mobile phones could be re-engineered for Europe. The decision by Kenwood to sell its R&D development centre came at the perfect time for us and we did a deal to take over the centre in January.

Bold claims that operators are interested in the new Sharp product even though it has yet to be built.

Sharp will supply products to BT which will market and sell them in the UK and other countries through its joint venture partners and subsidiaries including Genie.

The Cyclops product is claimed to take and send pictures to the internet. It will also have a WAP browser camera lens colour LCD screen picture storage capability and transmission speeds over GPRS of up to 56 KBPS where available. BTCellnet director of group products and services development team Tony Greaves said:

The Sharp deal is part of BT wirelesss mobile Internet strateg for personalised communications.

The speed at which this partnership has been established and is to bear fruit demonstrates the commitment by BT wireless and Sharp to deliver exciting new products and services to the consumer. Cyclops is the device which heralds the start of our relationship.

The prestige Question Time pane comprises Mark Stansfeld (sales director BTCellnet) John Barton (sales and distribution director of One2One) Andy Smith (Vodafone UK sales director) either Gareth Jones or Richard Hanscott from Orange and James Malcolm of the FCS.

Make sure youre there early for this important event.

Chitter Chatter director Leonard Leeson told Mobile News that a number of shops had been on the market but these have been withdrawn.

None of our stores are on the market. Any stores that have been on the market have been withdrawn. We are very close to One 2 One and are one of their key customers. We re-assessed the market and decided that business will improve. Every business has to make decisions based on whether its stores are profitable or not.

Leeson denied industry reports that Chitter Chatter stores in London and the South of England were being sold because they are unprofitable due to One 2 Ones plans to withdraw loyalty commission payments.

But Leeson did hint that the chain might be for sale at the right price. Chitter Chatters London outlets are in Kensington Covent Garden and Oxford Street. (Cont P2)

The company issued a statement admitting:

KaLL International Limited was established in May 2000 and is a re-seller of least cost routing and wholesale fixed line products. In February this year it became known that the company had been hit for substantial fraud through their switches the (Cont P2) total of which is still being reconciled. As a result the business has been placed on hold pending an enquiry from KPMGs forensic team to ascertain the future of the business and liability for the debt. KaLL International is independent from Dabcom Ltd trading as KaLL the mobile phone distributor and this action will in no way will no way impact that business.

A spokesperson admitted that KaLL has no idea how long the fraud had been running for and but warned that estimates of 2 million losses were premature. The trick involved customers entering a set of keystrokes on their telephones before making a call that allowed them to pay lower European rates for their calls when ringing countries in Asia. The fraud came to light following the recent earthquakes in India when call volumes rose significantly. KaLL says that the service has been suspended indefinitely.

KaLL was established in the UK in 1994 under the name A to B. It started as a mobile dealer for all four networks. In 1996 the company decide to work solely with Orange

In 1998 the company entered the fixed line telecom market and established Telesse to specifically target dealers of fixed line products and services.

In April 200 both A to B and Telesse were rebranded KaLL followed shortly after by the creation of the least cost routing business known as KaLL International.

Dabcom went under following a 2 million call routing swindle that hit its least-cost call routing arm KaLL International (Mobile News May 14).

The fraud went through one of its switches and allowed customers to call Asia at European rates.

In May the company said:

KaLL International is independent from Dabcom Ltd trading as KaLL the mobile phone distributor and this action will in no way will no way impact that business.

KaLL is now being run by Administrative Receivers Kroll Bulcher Phillips in Grosvenor Street London.

Kroll Bulcher Phillips spokesman Lee Manning exclusively told Mobile News.

Dabcom appeared to have its fingers in too many pies. Now that KaLL International and Dabcom have ceased business the whole operation has failed. Its a terrible mess. We are trying to see if any of the businesses can be saved. Dabcom is finished because it sold off the customer base.

It is understood that Dabcom chairman Dave Breith may be forced out of his home as a result of Dabcoms crash. It is understood he lives in one of the company properties.

Breith told Mobile News:

We did everything possible to avoid this but were unable to prevent this course of action.

Manning added:

Were not quite sure what Dabcoms liabilities are. Its a real mess. It is owed money by Orange. But in turn could owe Orange as much as 1million. We reckon that 90000 is owed to the Inland Revenue in tax. The banks are owed 500000.

Manning revealed that dealers are owed about 70000 in unpaid commissions. But Northampton Orange and One 2 One distributor Elite Business Systems (EBS) has bought KaLLs customer base and says it will pay the commissions conditional on dealers doing further business with EBS. (Cont P2)

EBS chairman Ray Kingston said:

EBS can confirm the acquisition of the KaLL dealer base We will be making arrangements with dealers concerning the commission owed by KaLL for connections made between the April 22 and the June 9.

Kingston warned that some dealers might not be paid all commissions they are owed by KaLL.

We cant go back six months. We agreed with KaLL to pay commissions from the last few weeks because thats where the majority of the money is owed. If dealers are owed money from before April 22 they will have to go to KaLLs Receiver.

Dealers who want their commission have to commit to us. We were given the base on the understanding that we paid dealers the outstanding commissions and continue to serve them. If we pay their commissions and look after them we hope they will stay with us because of the service we are giving them. Not just the fact that we have paid them. We have recruited four of KaLLs dealer managers so that dealers can continue their relationships with us.

Some dealers may choose not to work with us. If so they wont be paid. Some dealers have signed up. We want to work with them. We dont want to see people go bankrupt.

Kingston refused to confirm that 70000 is owed saying its complicated.

Manning believes KaLL sold the dealer list to EBS too cheaply.

Theres nothing we could do. The sale to EBS took place before we became involved. There were about 192 dealers on the list.

Manning says KaLL Internationals 2 million call routing swindle (as reported in Mobile News on May 14) hit Dabcom despite Breiths assurances a month ago that it was business as usual.

However Manning said Dabcom guaranteed liabilities of 400000 to Worldcom which supplied fixed phone airtime to KaLL International. Dabcom was also supporting a number of smaller loss-making operations paying wage bills and ordering stock. It has run up a massive bill with Orange on stock it supplied to another loosely affiliated direct-selling operation called Claritel.

The call selling fraud that sealed KaLLs fate involved customers entering a set of keystrokes on their telephones before making a call that allowed them to pay lower European rates for their calls when ringing countries in Asia.

The fraud came to light following the recent earthquakes in India when call volumes rose significantly. KaLL rushed to close the service and suspended it indefinitely.

The FT Mobile phone package ofers a choice of WAP phones. it includes personalised SMS text updates on a requested industry and sector as well as market reports and company news. Users can call a special number to hear the full stories and can personalise the WAP site to prioritise news and live share quotes.

The Carphone Warehouse is responsible for distributon of the phones through its stores and direct call centre. It will also be providing all after-sales care and customer support.

The FT Group says it has received more than 6000 advance registrations for the service.

Called m-viron (mobile environment) the scheme is aimed at helping independent adapt to selling the latest technological.Orange and Mainline will provide selected with the resources support and investment to help therm compete with the multiples. Participating dealers will retain total control and ownership of their business. There is no financial commitment.

This is not simply a branding exercise says Mainline managing director Andrew Boden. Its a development in the way dealers a distributor and a network can work together for mutual benefit and long-term success.

Orange and Mainline have been working on the m-viron scheme for the past three years. This was the reason Orange acquired a 28 per cent stake in Mainline.

We have presented m-viron to around 30 quality independents and the response has been positive. The nature of the m-viron package means there can only be one participating specialist in an area. m-viron will appeal to dealers wanting to benefit from a closer distributor/network relationship better marketing and training and a stronger stock supply line. (full story next issue)