Primemark boss Asif Laher told Mobile News:

The administrator had agreed to give us access to Odysseys computers to remove the software. Last week they sent us a fax expressing concern that our removal of the software would not enable them to access records and historical data on the computers. We had an agreement to visit the Park Royal office last Thursday where all the store computers have now been delivered but that has been postponed. If the administrator continues to use FoneMan we will sue him personally.

If the administrator wants to continue using FoneMan he needs to purchase licences for the software or allow us to remove it immediately to avoid legal action warned Laher.

Leonard Curtis was unavailable for comment.

The scheme is called m4b (mobiles4business). Over the next three years Ternhill plans to launch 40 franchises nationwide. Ternhill boss Matt Sandford is confident this strategy will enable Ternhill to deliver more than 50000 connections to the networks. Franchisees pay an initial 19000 for their exclusive mobiles4business territory.

They receive a fully-kitted out four-wheeled mobile office (though they then pick up the leasing cost) laptop PDA data card phone comprehensive training and aftersales backup from Ternhills business team.

Crucially they also receive a thoroughly cleaned list of prospective clients who will receive mail shots and telesales calls the object of (Cont P2) which is to generate genuine sales calls for the franchisee.

A 50000 Web portal has also just made its debut.

This will enable online transactions and two-way customer communication. Ternhill plans to arrange local business breakfasts on the franchisees behalf.

By Summer m4b will have a full-time marketing manager and a field sales exec on board.

We started to develop m4b around a year ago because the networks were ramming it down the independents throats that they should concentrate on SME business.

We had already worked this out for ourselves. Though we were already primarily a business-focused company we decided to take the bull by the horns said Sandford (full story P24).

WAP Store boss Graham Cornhill said administrator Robson Rhodes which is currently handling the administration of Ora is expected to be appointed as administrative receiver.

The WAP Store still owes MoCo (Cell Link) around 400000 for the 20 MoCo stores it acquired two years ago.

We have still not received payment from The WAP Store. We were considering legal action but that will be pointless now. We have written the figure out of our business MoCo boss Maurice Whelan said.

Whelan believes ambitious plans to satisfy The City caused (Cont P2) The WAP Stores downfall.

I am surprised The WAP Store is in trouble. The 20 MoCO stores were profitable when we sold them to Cornhill. Maybe The WAP Stores City advisors were impatient for growth resulting in reduced cashflow. The use of the name WAP Store was a mistake. It tried to use a flavour-of-the-month name for its operation. But in this industry what is popular today will be history tomorrow.

Its also possible that Vodafones savagely-reduced commission packages caught them out. It was going to be a real blow at this the busiest time of the year.

We are sorry for the staff inherited from us. Many of them received letters saying they wouldnt be paid. We feel some responsibility towards them. There is a possibility we could re-train some of those staff and bring them back in to our business said Whelan.

Cornhill told Mobile News: There are one or two prospective buyers looking at the business. It hasnt been decided yet if the business will go into receivership or liquidation. The business may be sold as a going concern. There are a number of options available. I cant comment on the whys and wherefores until the dust has settled.

Ironically Cornhill suspected the networks changing strategies from pre-pay to contract would hurt the independent dealer channels.

He told Mobile News in the September 3 issue:

All networks are suffering cashflow problems. They have started to cut off retailers existing revenue streams to force them to swim in the direction they want. The flaw in this strategy is that they havent put alternative revenue streams in place to enable retailers to trade through the changeover period. Thats a mistake. Unless of course the networks are actually trying to burn retailers.

A lot of people dont realise how bad the situation is and the potentially fatal mess theyll find themselves in sooner rather than later. And its all because the networks have changed to a different agenda.

A source close to Yes Telecom alleges Jones departure was due to overspending on dealer commissions for poor quality connections and that he was unhappy at the introduction of a new business model.

Said the source:

Yes Telecom squandered cash last year on the aborted buyout of Phone People. It was also paying high commissions to dealers to quickly grow a base. But this resulted in poor-quality connections who never repaid handset subsidies. Freddie Fazelynia (Yes Telecom finance director and major investor) was (cont P2) unhappy and wont be injecting further cash in to the business said the trade source.

Curran denies this explaining:

Any service provider needs to grow the subscriber base in the first year. Freddie Fazelynia was well aware of how much we needed to invest and was happy to make the investment.

Yes Telecom started making profits within the year. It always planned to change the business plan to concentrate on value rather than connections once it had achieved this.

Colin left because he wanted to pursue other opportunities. These may be outside the industry. Ive known him for many years and I am disappointed that he has gone.

Its nonsense to suggest that no more cash will be injected into the business. It was only recently that another significant investment was made into the company.

In the summer we expect to raise further funding to increase the amount of quality connections we can take each month. Our customer ARPU levels are much higher than Vodafones threshold.

We pay our dealers higher commissions based on customers call spend. If a customer is spending 1000 per month there is nothing wrong with paying a dealer a commission in line with the true value of the subscriber. Obviously when paying high commissions there is a limit to the amount of connections we can take on each month. I wont take on connections if I cant guarantee the dealer his commission.

We are analysing the business model. If it proves to be sound we will raise further funding in the summer.

This will give us the cashflow to take on more quality connections Curran said.

Jones stated:

I left Yes Telecom because I have got a desire to run my own organisation. Within Yes I was running a company within a team of people. Ive left the company to do something else.

In his first no holds-barred interview in two years McComb exclusively told Mobile News:

If the networks have a problem they throw millions at it on marketing putting up more cell sites and building swanky offices. They are completely ignorant that the only thing a customer relates to are the people behind the counters of their shops.

These are the guys who represent the networks and who ought to be doing a job of selling. But they are not motivated or given the products to do so says McComb.

He also accuses One 2 One of being the worst of a bad bunch when it comes to retail (cont P2).

It bought the Pocket Phone Shop simply because there was nothing left for them to buy. It ended up owning a difficult animal which it didnt know and still doesnt know what to do with it.

It discovered the problems inherent in the business shortly after itbought it. But it doesnt seem to have done anything to address them. At least BTCellnet has made an effort by rebranding and rationalising McComb says.

One 2 One doesnt seem to have a presence at all. Changing the brand wont help. Neither will having a lot of shops in secondary locations. Changing the brand on a secondary location store doesnt spell success. Buying the stores was a knee-jerk reaction.

McComb bemoans a lack of training and incentivising of demotivated and bored retail staff as being to blame for poor retailing:

Senior network people may know their local store very well. But they dont look any further.

Area managers may go a little further a field. But the senior management team doesnt go to Widnes or Grimsby on a wet Tuesday afternoon when a phone hasnt been sold all day and the staff are all looking through the sits vac columns.

The senior network people responsible for retail policy never see how demotivated the majority of their retail staff are because they are never in contact with head office and dont know what the future holds for them (see full interview P18).

After spending a substantial amount commissioning website designers to build its website Mobileshop.com discovered rival website waptricks .co.uk had copied its homepage mobile phonemenu bar and images for use on on its own site.

Mobileshop chairman Grenville Reeves said: .

We spotted someone else with an identical design to ours. We checked the source code and found that it was exactly the same as ours. We wrote to waptricks.co.uk requesting it it to remove our designs.

An abusive and insulting email came back saying Dont fret shagger Ive only borrowed it and Im going to write my own We then issued high court proceedings and the judge ruled in our favour.

Waptricks eventually removed our work from its website. (cont P2)

Reeves warns that rival websites regularly use dirty tricks to try and gain customers.

Counsel told us this could be a landmark case. The thing is you have to prove in the minds of the public that using incorrect meta tags on your website creates confusion for consumers.

Metatags are an area causing concern. These contain keywords logged by the search engines.

A customer doing a Yahoo search would list any website that uses those keywords in the meta tags.

The law is not clear if that causes confusion to customers or not said Reeves.

Ora has been in adminstration since last November after being crippled by servicing high debt.

Oras administrator RSM Robson Rhodes confirmed the sale of Ora to Acson last Thursday morning.

Joint administrator Simon Bower told Mobile News:

We are delighted to confirm the sale of Ora to Acson for an undisclosed amount. The deal took longer to agree due to technical difficulties.

It was key that the business was sold as a going concern. All the jobs at Ora have been preserved. We wish Acson and the team all the best for the future said Bower.

Acson set up a UK sales office in 1999 and supplies accessories to Vodafone and One 2 One.

The company deals only with corporate accounts and does not sell direct to smaller dealers.

Acsons main activity is in Hong Kong and Singapore where it runs its own retail chain.

It manufactures and supplies branded and OEM accessories world-wide from its factory in China.

Ora hit difficulties last year when its profits were not enough to cover debt and interest payments to investors following a management buy-out three years ago.

(Full story next issue)

Last week the Kent companys website was still online but all its telephone lines were out of order.

An Orange spokesperson confirmed: Walk and Talk has gone into administration.

No-one at WNT was available for comment. The appointed liquidators are Ned Ailyan and David Hudson of Begbies Traynor which is also handling the administration of Celltalk.

Begbies Traynor stated:

WNT Communications was placed in to voluntary liquidation on March 11. The company has ceased trading and all employees have been laid off.

We have not had an opportunity to review in sufficient detail the cause for the companys failure. It is difficult to estimate the amount of debts owed at this time.

Interest has been expressed in the business but it is unlikely it will be resurrected.

Walk and Talks demise comes only weeks after Oranges leading mail order dealer Celltalk was placed into administration with debts of 3.2 million (see story P6). This latest casualty leaves Orange with only a few smaller direct mail order dealers left. There is concern over the future of these dealers.

Mail order dealers have a problem because they suffer a much higher rate of returns than (Cont P2) high street retailers said an industry source who declined to be named.

Orange charges an administration fee of more than seven per cent if handsets are returned.

But some mail order companies have had return rates as high as 15 per cent.

Its hard to see how they can survive in a shrinking market.

Begbies Traynor administrator Paul Stanley who is supervising Celltalks situation agreed that mobile resellers were running into severe difficulties because they increased their overheads as if the high-margin boom year of 1999 was never going to end.

Under the terms of the deal Kondor will manage all aspects of The Links mobile phone accessory supply and sales including the design and layout of store accessory displays and defining the accessory product range. Kondor staff will spend time at Dixons head offices and have remote access to its IT systems. All other accessory companies wishing to supply mobile accessories to The Link will now deal with Kondor.

Dixons says the decision to let Kondor manage its accessory business was taken to allow The Link to streamline its operations. It also wants to concentrate on offering an increased range of Max It Up mobile services which include mobile gaming sports alerts celebrity voicemail ringtones and graphics.

Kondor chief executive Malcolm Benson says the agreement (Cont P2) has given the company a timely boost as it looks to expand its operations.

Were delighted to be managing the accessories category for The Link and to be involved at strategic level with them. We have built up a good relationship with Dixons over the last six years. But the business had to be renewed on a yearly basis. This agreement effectively secures the business for us.

We are not just a one-customer company. We do substantial business with The Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone even though we are not their sole suppliers. I am now looking to secure another big contract. Dixons has been important to us. The deal gives us stability and it takes any nervousness away. But we cant get complacent. The work starts now because we will have to deliver Benson says.

Benson is bullish about Kondors prospects for this year.

We are a cost-conscious business. We wish to continue expanding the business in to Europe through partnerships and alliances. We pulled out from acquiring the German accessory company MORE because it wasnt right for us.

In the meantime Benson says Kondor has filled the vacancies in its management team following the departures of former managing director Keith Westcott to Phones International and ex-sales director John Farwell to rival accessories company Online.

Ex-Caudwell man Stephan Ziegler becomes the new sales director and Andrew Wood has been appointed finance director.

A series of high-profile adverts and posters will promote phrases such as TranceMoto GlitterMoto CupidMoto etc. Sponsorship in the music industry is aimed at increasing the desirability of Motorola phones .

Also Motorola is streamlining the range enhancing the existing line-up and introducing a new advertising campaign.

Motorolas UK consumer marketing manager Rick Williams said that research showed Motorola had a dull image in the minds (Cont P2) of young people.

When focus groups say your product is boring you know something has to be done quickly. Moto aims to make Motorola appear more fun and dynamic than it has been for many years. Moto isnt going to be a total rebranding of the handsets. The phones will still show the Motorola name and logo. But it is a way of selling phones to younger consumers and key markets that currently look elsewhere.

As part of a 5 million marketing budget Motorola will sponsor MTV from June. In London the Capital FM Superstar DJs programme on Friday nights will be sponsored by Moto (full story P18).