Investec has informed us it was not engaged by 1st Line at any stage did not plan 1st Lines flotation and did not give any formal valuation of 1st Line.

Our statement that Investec was planning a stock market flotation was incorrect and we are pleased to set the record straight.

An Amstrad spokesperson admitted: we aimed for a date and missed it. We intended to go into production in the last quarter so there was only a small possibility that a few handsets may have ended up on the shelves this Christmas he said.

The delay has already meant a slump in Amstrads share price after Amstrads stockbrokers Beeson Gregory had slashed by half Amstrads 2001 profits forecast.

Amstrad was due to have commenced production this quarter It intended to supply handsets to a single operator in each country with an emphasis on operators own branding on the handsets. The handset has received type approval and is currently undergoing trials with operators worldwide.

He is understood to be actively looking for a senior post back within the mobile comms business. More departures are expected as morale within the company dips.

I feel I have contributed to my own redundancy as it was me who suggested that Panasonic should amalgamate the technical support engineers and the sales and marketing people. I think they have been careless in letting key people go. I dont think they have looked at the bigger picture Hore said.

Sources within the company admitted that morale within the company has slumped because of new management and the fact that handset sales had not quite reached expected levels due to Panasonics reluctance to meet network operators price points.

Panasonic officially maintains that Marsden and King have left on amicable terms. But the fact they are going to rival handset manufacturers must jar.

Said King :

I had a very positive experience both as account manager and then as marketing manager. I see in Alcatel an exciting challenge and I look forward to achieving success with upcoming product launches in the UK.

Marsden is business unit manager for Sony UK and Ireland and starts on December 4.

I had been at Panasonic for over 11 years and it was probably a bit too long. Im 38 years old. If I was ever to leave Panasonic it would be better to do so sooner rather than later he said

The timing is right because Panasonic is about to undergo some major structural changes and it raises doubts as to where I would fit in with those changes.

Panasonic is still in a good position for the future. Sony have some serious plans in regards to mobile. Until now Sony have only dabbled in mobile phones. But with new phones like the Z and J5 they have a real product to start targeting operators and retailers with.

They have the all important content that sets them apart from other manufacturers.

Content is the key to the short term as well as connectivity to other devices.

The fact that Sony has all these abilities in house helped persuade me that this was the right move Marsden told Mobile News.

The promotion was designed to incentivise more use of the phone and loyalty to the network.

Customers received 10 Air Miles on joining one Air Mile for every 10 spent on line rental and calls and a quarterly bonus of 10 Air Miles. Customers get a years worth of Air Miles based on a average call spend as a farewell gesture at the end of January.

An Air Miles spokeswoman said that Air Miles is in discussions with other network operators about starting up a new scheme and will imminently be making an announcement.

Air Miles has been around for 12 years and has accrued over six million collectors.

It is still offered by many organisations such as American Express and Sainsburys.

And the network has threatened similar action over the coming weeks with other dealers/distributors engaged in the practice. The network will not reveal the names of the companies it has black-listed.

The practice of distributors/dealers acquiring as much stock as possible before breaking it down to its constituent value parts and then shipping the handsets abroad is costing the network millions of pounds a month.

One 2 One sales and distribution director John Barton told Mobile News:

We will be doing all that is in our power legally to ensure that we do not suffer in this way. We put subsidy into the pre-pay box to have it connected to the UK network (Cont P2) not to have the thing disappear into thin air.

We will be withholding supply where the data we have available points to a disparity between the PCNs registered where IMEIs are not. We will simply stop supply. We are under no obligations to supply this product as long as we give good reason. I am happy to sell this sort of operator as many SIM packs as they would like said Barton.

What I will not do is sell them telephones which will not be connected to the One 2 One network. That is simply not the name of the game he added.

Dealer Channel management has issued termination notices to five or six organisations. I have no hesitation in backing them to the hilt as regards this action. The facts and the data we have access to speak for themselves. That deliberate box breakage is taking place is a matter of record. The evidence is incontrovertible Barton explained.

Statistics show massive discrepancy with some channel partners between the IMEI numbers sold and their appearance on the network. The rogue channel partners know whats going on.

This isnt about a proportion of phones being left turned off in glove boxes. Its far far bigger than that. Where we find cases of systematic box stripping and where we have the right to we will take action because we feel we are being abused.

We are not talking here about a mistake or one shipment thats gone wrong. We are talking about people who take me to be an idiot. Whilst on some occasions I may be foolish I dont want to be thought of as an idiot.

Barton denied that One 2 One had sacked retail account managers who were alleged to be knowingly supplying more product than was being connected.

Any rumours to the effect that One 2 One personnel have been sacked because of box-breaking activities are completely without foundation.

One individual who used to have dealings with The Carphone Warehouse resigned. But there is no suggestion at all that was anything to do with box breakage said Barton.

Another individual Steve Fraser who used to manage the dealer sales side has resigned from One 2 One and because he is moving to a competitor he left immediately.

What happens in situations like this is that a couple of people resign and the rumour mill goes into overdrive.

There are currently 99 Phones 4U shops in the UK. The expansion will create about 1000 new jobs.

New Zealander Edmonds joined Ora about two years ago from Nortel.

Said Hanson:

Under Ken Oracompleted a year of significant growth and development in which it has won some major contracts moved to larger premises improved its systems and completed the financial year with above target sales and profits. We remain very grateful for

Kens leadership during this period of change.

Edmonds departure came shortly after head of sales John McLuskie resigned after three months in the job (Mobile News May 3).

Some industry sources suggested that this was because of a personality clash between McLuskie and

Edmonds.

John left to go to an internet start-up. When we employed John that was in the background of his mind anyway. It was unfortunate timing said Hanson.

Over the last year there has been a 4m turnaround on profits. Weve been focussing on the industry and customers and listening a lot more.

The giant motor company has set up a new division called Onstar and hired former Orange head of strategy Lance Stevens as its marketing director.

The company which is due to launch next year is currently talking to at least two mobile phone networks about providing the infrastructure but the end user offer will carry GMs Onstar branding.

The GM mobile phone network will be one aspect of the Onstar proposition which will also offer internet mobility services accessible from a range of devices.

The move is seen as a logical extension of General Motors existing Onstar in-car communications service introduced six years ago in the USA and more recently in Germany.

An industry source told Mobile News:

GM is creating a service-based company for which a cellular network is just one part. Others are things like the internet. GM is currently in negotiations with at least two mobile phone networks to provide the infrastructure.

We expect the end user offering will carry just GM branding. It is also their intention to work with independent mobile dealers.

It will be a separate service which happens to be owned by General Motors.