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Kallasvuo announced last week that he is considering acquisitions and cooperation deals to strengthen the Finnish handset maker.
"In an increasingly complex business environment a pragmatic look at partnerships and acquisitions is essential" he said.
Nokia is also mourning the loss of board member Edouard Michelin who died in a boating accident in north west France. Ollila paid tribute to Michelin describing him as an "outstanding industrialist and a friend". He added: "He was widely liked and respected for his charismatic leadership which combined astute business mind with a genuine interest for people." There are no immediate plans to replace him on the board.
The handsets will be supplied through Emblaze subsidiary European Telecom and is an extension of an existing relationship which began last October. Emblaze will act as a virtual manufacturer for the range which is sourced from the Far East.
Virgin´s original Lobster supplier was Data Select which launched the 485 supplied by Korean manufacturer Bellwave in June 2005.
European Telecom MD John Drinkwater said: "We have invested significantly in streamlining our operations. This is testament to our achievement."
The news comes as Virgin announced the second Lobster the 575. The handset costs £89.99 on pre-pay and free on contract. The flip phone is available in black or hotter-than-hot´ pink. It includes a 1.3 megapixel camera and video recording.
This does not in any way refer to Unique Distribution as it currently operates today. Mobile News recognises that the holding company Daleri sold Unique´s assets including the trading name to Land Investments when it went into administration in March 2005.
The company resumed trading as Unique in the summer of last year. Unique continues to trade as a going concern under the new holding company.
Phonebox Direct managing director Simon Slater said: "We want to increase business by 20 to 30 per cent over the next six months growing from a mid-sized web dealership to a bigger web sales business. We are looking at new strategic markets and will use Paul´s knowledge to take us forward."
Smith left 4U Ltd early last year and Wright left in late 2004.
"It has nothing to do with the sale of the Caudwell Group" said a spokesman. "If the sale process was not going ahead we would have had to embark on this recovery process anyway. Any business that has been haemorrhaging money has to go into recovery mode. It has to return to profitability. The business was badly managed in the past and we are now in the process of recovering it."
The Caudwell Group said that underperforming staff will lose their jobs. Reports last week claimed that many workers had walked out already and that morale was low. The 4U Business call centre in Warrington is being shut down.
Staff that have consistently hit targets will be offered similar posts at the firm´s head office in Stoke-on-Trent transferred to local sales roles at Phones 4U or moved to new roles elsewhere in the group. More regional sales offices are expected to close. 4U Business IT legal finance audit and marketing teams will be integrated into Phones 4U.
A Caudwell Group statement said: "Over the past 12 months 4U Business has consistently underperformed predominantly due to lack of management discipline. At the same time the small business market has become increasingly competitive.
"Losses are now so significant that urgent action needs to be taken to restore 4U Business back to profitability. As a result certain departments will be integrated into Phones 4U to gain economies of scale."
The move follows the company´s appointment as a 5 Network distributor in April and a corporate restructure that recruited executives to handle fixed-line voice and broadband accounts.
"We can now offer our customers a diversity of products" he said.
"Having loved the challenge of growing a partner channel and shifting the mix from voice towards data at Cable and Wireless I was keen to replicate my success in the mobile world" said Mukherjee.
He added that his top priority was to make the most of the "huge opportunity" that wireless data presented to the Yes Business Partner and IT reseller community.
"I firmly believe that our future is not just in sales´" added Mukherjee. "It´s essential to deepen our relationships with those partners who share our vision and develop joint initiatives and propositions that add value to the customer."
The third annual Mobile Industry Customer Satisfaction (MICS) survey of over 3000 people puts O2 at the top both as a mobile phone network and retailer. But 3 suffered from tariff changes with customers reacting negatively to the curtailing of big discounts at the end of last year.
Aura senior account manager Roberto Batistoni said: "The crazy deals it gave away were not sustainable. It´s going to take some time for customers to get used to fewer deals from 3."
A 3 spokeswoman rebutted Aura´s findings. She said: "Any survey where 3 scores poorly for value must be flawed and lacks credibility in our opinion. 3 has forced competition into the UK market. Thanks to 3 UK mobile consumers enjoy on average 40 per cent better value than before we entered the market."
Phones 4U also came in last out of seven retailers down from fifth two years ago. The retailer was criticised for over-selling to customers.
"It rated poorly by people who felt too pressured for a sale" said Batistoni.
Phones 4U CEO Tim Whiting was also surprised and dismayed by the findings. He said: All other internal and external surveys continue to show we´ve made significant progress in this area."
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"Our poorest performing tariff this month has been the Orange Animal tariff" said Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove. "It just can´t compete with T-Mobile´s Flext 35 or 3´s VTT 1100."
Fone Logistics head of marketing Julian Parven agreed: "Orange has been struggling and it doesn´t appear in our top 10 this month. I think it´s because so many other tariffs are really strong at the moment."
Avenir marketing manager Andy Chilton noted: "Flext 35 is still leading the way as this is a good offering to both dealer and consumer alike. However we suspect this may change next month when Orange start to increase commissions."
And Nokia continued to dominate handset sales throughout May. Bob Sweetlove said: "The Nokia 6280 continues to sell well as it a good reliable handset." And Andy Chilton commented: "Getting hold of the 6280 really is down to availability. With the options that customers have at the moment this really is the best seller."
Last week Orange parent company France Telecom pulled together its mobile fixed-line and broadband businesses under the Orange brand.
Orange started taking pre-orders for Orange Broadband last week through its network of 300 stores as well as its web and telesales operations. It will start to connect customers from June 14. Connections go live two weeks later.
There are no plans yet to offer broadband services to customers via independent dealers. Orange director of convergence Nigel Hall said: "We will not rule it out indefinitely but at the moment there are no plans."
But the re-branding exercise has given Orange a brand new presence in independent retailers such as Argos Woolworths and Texaco which have sold Wanadoo until now.
Orange is extending its TRY initiative to these retailers giving customers a free 30-day trial of its £14.99 Orange Broadband starter package with access speeds of up to 1Mbit.
Customers who buy direct and sign up to a tariff worth more than £30 a month can opt in to a free broadband package worth £17.99 a month. It allows speeds of up to 8Mbit and includes free connection a free modem/router and free off-peak VoIP calls to UK landlines. For an extra £6 it covers all calls to landlines and other Orange mobiles.
Orange Business Services is the new name for all France Telecom´s business communications services which unites Equant Etrali and Orange´s own corporate sales.
Orange has also started to sell its Orange Landline for Business which provides business customers with a single customer service point and charges up to 20 per cent less than BT the network claims.
Orange also said that it would soon launch One Phone a service that lets customers use the same handset for both fixed and mobile calls via an Orange Livebox router.
"This logic is sound enough for the consumer and SME segments of the market but what about the corporates?" said Mike Cansfield head of telecoms strategy at analyst Ovum.
"Stability is highly prized in this segment corporates all remember the industry´s near meltdown of a few years ago. So changing brands is risky."