This follows pressure from Vodafone and Midlands distributor Project Telecom who convinced Customs that such a policy would have caused chaos in the industry.

It would have meant distributors paying VAT on handsets at full price even though they were given away and sold for nominal amounts.

We and other retailers would have had to pay VAT on income we never received. In some cases we would have had to pay VAT on double our turnover said Gael Clarke of Project Telecom in the Midlands.

Customs bosses had a draft document ready to go. Local VAT officers had already threatened mobile phone distributors with crippling assessments.

This was an industry issue. If Customs had brought in their new policy many smaller retailers would have gone out of business she said.

Backed by Vodafone Project Telecom and its accountants Deloitte & Touche met with senior Customs policy makers. Vodafone also wrote to the Treasury and Department of Trade and Industry.

Although they initially appeared to have made up their minds Customs have in this case demonstrated they were genuinely concerned with the commercial impact of their policy said Clarke.

In a recent VAT case against Thorn EMI Customs and Excise argued that free mobile phones provided by Radio Rentals should be treated as gifts. This would mean paying the full VAT on the original cost.

Customs & Excise lost the case. But they have been trying to assess dealers for the same amount of VAT by attributing a value on the action of the subscriber signing a contract and assessing this as the difference between the phones real cost and the price paid by the end-user.

Customs & Excise has now confirmed that the original interpretation of the Thorn case Judgement that free or discounted phones are not gifts would stand and that they would only seek to collect VAT on the actual selling price.

Judges so far include: Bill Mieran (Telecommunications Users Association) Gary Bridger (Airwaves Communications and winner of 1998 Best Small Dealer) Jeff Lucas (marketing consultant) Yow Moy Yap (Ebbe Fone Galleria and winner of 1997 Best Small Dealer Award) Tom Wills-Sandford (Federation of Electronics Industries) and James Malcolm (FCS).

Award winners will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner-dance to be held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday March 18 attended by 900-plus people.

Banners dealers are being given a CD offering internet access through a local number.

The company says this is the first time a UK distributor has teamed up with an ISP to target a specific sector.

Our research suggests that less than 10 per cent of mobile phone dealers have access to the internet* and we felt that with the launch of our new web site we should make a positive contribution to encouraging dealers to connect to the internet. said Banner Telecom sales and marketing director Stephen Hughes

A number of distributors have recently launched their own web sites.

But publicising the address without introducing a method of access is akin to supplying a new car without the keys.

*In a recent Mobile News readership survey nearly 90 per cent of the 549 respondents said they had internet access.

Mobile News has just launched its own internet web site found at www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk

The company has been without a financial director since it was bought out of administration and re-launched in April 2005. Rob Lees oversaw the role temporarily but Breare will now assume full control.

Breare qualified as a chartered accountant in 1997. He spent several years working in South Africa initially with Deloitte & Touche. This was followed by senior roles for global IT service provider CSC.

Breare decided to return to the UK in 2002 because of family considerations and the weakening rand.

We will be looking to him to inject fresh ideas into our financial systems said Unique chairman John McFarnon.

JM Comms owner Jon Morris (who writes the Sharp End column for this newspaper) was in Sweden on an assignment for Mobile News when he found he was unable to get access to his web site.

On his return to the UK he was told by service provider Demon that the site had been shut down because of objections by One 2 One about claims that JM Comms were no longer selling One 2 One phones because of alleged price fixing threats and supply problems.

One 2 One spokesman Ian Volans told Mobile News:

It came to our attention that on the web site there were some statements alleging we were involved in illegal activity such as price fixing. We didnt feel we could allow it to go unchallenged. We drew the fact that we considered these comments defamatory to the attention of Demon who were recently involved in a case where a judge (Cont P2) created a case law that internet service providers are potentially liable for information published via their systems. So all we did was write to them and say please note this site contains information we consider to be defamatory. That is far as we took it. Demon required it was taken off.

The allegations of price fixing dont stack up because we dont have a direct trading relationship with JM Comms. If Jon Morris wants to become a One 2 One dealer he only has to apply and we will assess him on the normal criteria we apply to any else which is he must have retail premises.

But Morris claims he has been certified by One 2 One as successfully completing the networks training course.

I attended a training course at the operations centre in Shenley in 1995. The woman holding the course told every one of us we had to sell at recommended retail price and that failure to do so resulted in lack of stock or us being struck -off. I asked her to put this in writing which of course she refused to do.

Volans admitted the training advisor may have made these remarks but that she was not officially sanctioned to do so and that she was severely reprimanded afterwards.

Anyone at One 2 One involved in threatening dealers with stock supplies and price cuts will be severely disciplined he said (see Sharp End)

A statement from the company said Mr. Mitchinsons resignation will take effect upon the identification of a suitable replacement.

Anders Torstensson president of Brightpoints Europe Middle East and Africa division added:

Mark has demonstrated a high level of professionalism and dedication in leading Brightpoint UK and Ireland. We believed that he would lead us into the next century.

Reliable trade sources hinted that Mitchinson had gone because of big losses suffered by Brightpoint in the first quarter.

His replacement is tipped to be Brightpoints chief in South Africa Bradley Turkington who is being brought in because of his experience in marketing pre-pay.

For some years Brightpoint has worked with South African network MTN in packaging all its pre-pay products.

Mitchinson is the second general manager to leave Brightpoint within the last six months. His predecessor Kevin Brummitt left acrimoniously last year and is taking legal action against Brightpoint over the terms of his departure.

Ironically Mitchinson was Brummitts protege. Brummitt brought him in to Brightpoint as his number two from Nokia.

Most of the 200 call centres staff will be offered other jobs within the Vodafone Group including relocation to other call centres at Banbury Hartlepool Birmingham and Croydon.

The new tariff a riposte to One 2 Ones 2p off-peak deal announced last month is the first to be promoted using the new BTCellnet branding.

Also customers who subscribe to Cellnet this month and next will have a chance to double their free inclusive calls for the first three months.

The promotion applies to customers who connect to the Occasional Caller Plus Regular Caller Plus Frequent Caller Plus and Coroprate Life plans.

*Meanwhile on the pre-pay front. Cellnet has signed a multi-million pound deal to sponsor the All Saints girl band to promote its U pre-pay brand.

The All Saints tour which kicks off at the end of this month will be called the U tour with branding on stage.

We were keen to tap into the youth market as we think its under exploited said Cellnet spokesperson Dave Massey.

We want to do something credible with the 16 to 24 age group. Its the first time weve been involved in music sponsorship.

Called the OnePhone the Ericsson handset is the culmination of more than two years work by Ericsson to produce a phone that can seamlessly switch from domestic or office cordless to full-blown GSM mobile.

BTCellnet is selling the product at 299. This will include a slave DECT handset to enable the DECT base station to be used when the primary dual-mode handset is at another location. The box will also include a BT Flex number which subscribers can use in addition to their fixed and mobile numbers. The only requirement is for the phone to be connected to a Cellnet contract tariff.

Its a very complex product. Its the first product which is DECT and GSM and it has taken a lot of development to get it right. We didnt want to launch it until we were absolutely certain it was right said OnePhone product manager John OBoyle.

Its being marketed as the home phone thats also a mobile. Were going to offer it for distribution to conventional mobile dealers as well as shops like department stores where you would find existing DECT handsets. OBoyle said OnePhone was the first in a range of products that will eventually lead to mobile convergence in a true sense.

Our hope is this will establish the category of fixed and mobile convergence. We will obviously be looking to the make product more widely available and more competitively priced.