New Ofcom licences

Multiple licences were awarded to encourage competitive services.
Among the 12 winners BT bid £275112 Cable & Wireless bid £51002 Colt Mobile bid £1513218 O2 bid £209888 and Opal Telecom bid £155555.
The total amount of the licence fees paid was £3.8 million. Two bidders Orange and Zynetix were outbid at £50000 each.
Following payment of the full licence fees by the winning bidders the awards are effective immediately. The licences are technology neutral which means that the licencees have the freedom to use the spectrum how they wish within certain technical limits.
The licences are to be used on a low-power basis. Possible uses include private GSM mobile phone networks in office buildings or campuses.

5m ad push for LG Chocolate

Coleen McLoughlin has reportedly been paid £500000 to star in the campaign. It is the company´s biggest ever advertising campaign in the UK and kicks off in the middle of May when the consumer swell is expected to hit.
The Carphone Warehouse claims exclusivity on the KG800 until the middle of May after which O2 will also offer the phone. The rest of the channel can offer the product from the start of June when 20:20 Logistics and CPW´s distribution arms take stock.
The advertising campaign includes TV print and outdoor advertising. LG Mobile UK director John Barton said: "The TV ad has been shot. It´s very much about the design-led nature of the product and talks to people in their 20s and early 30s; people who go to clubs and dress stylishly and are genuinely interested in how they look as well as what they use. The advertising campaign is sexy like the product."
The outdoor campaign takes in billboard posters and bus shelters and will feature moving interactive graphics of the phone.
LG Mobile´s long-mooted shirt sponsorship deal now looks unlikely. Manchester United Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham have all been linked to the manufacturer but Barton said that a shirt sponsorship deal was out of the question for next season.
See feature
page 28

BT to retain Dabs phone supplier

The Dabs management team will be retained in the long term according to a BT spokesman. The team includes Dabs marketing director Jonathan Wall who will continue to manage the company´s partnership with online dealership Dial-a-Phone the firm that supplies pre-pay handsets. Dial-a-phone will continue to support Dabs mobile phone ranges and the BT spokesman said that the new owner has no plans to review this partnership.
"The relationship has been a successful one for Dabs and we expect it to continue" he said.
"BT also has a very strong partnership with Dial-a-phone which is active in consumer distribution of BT Fusion."
The spokesman confirmed that BT would market its MVNO offering through Dabs.
BT announced the acquisition of Dabs at the end of April for an estimated £30 million. Dabs was founded in 1990. It employs more than 200 people and has annual revenues of £180 million.

Price: Ill make Avenir top choice"

Avenir Telecom Group international director William Quillet said:
"Tanny has excellent ideas about how to grow and improve our UK business and at group level we intend to give her the budget to help realise these plans."
Avenir confirmed the appointment of Price formerly sales and marketing director as managing director following the departure of Ishai Novick last week.
Novick told Mobile News that he is reviewing his options but expects to remain in the mobile phone industry and quite possibly in distribution.
He said: "I was with Avenir for six years and it was time for a new challenge. I would be very hard for me to leave the industry but whether I find another position in distribution or in the broader industry remains to be seen."
Price is currently budgeting for an IT overhaul at Avenir starting July 1 which will enable it to take on more business and increase connections without the need to take on more staff.
Price has also appointed an operational management board comprising six other managers to democratise the decision-making process.
She said: "I want to ensure that I get the buy-in from my management team so they are aware of the impact of decisions we make and how they affect our customers."
As well as Price the operational board includes head of sales Anthony Serlin head of services Toby Wickendon head of marketing Andy Chilton logistics manager Mark Harris and IT manager Shola Fasina.
It also includes a new head of finance currently working out his notice elsewhere in the industry and therefore not yet named.
"There is huge potential for Avenir to grow and develop" Price added. "Our company stands out in the marketplace as one of the few truly independent financially stable UK distributors.
"My mandate is to make changes to our systems and operational processes to increase the efficiency of our business. I want Avenir to be the first choice distributor for independent dealers in the UK".
Avenir employs over 80 members of staff. It has an average growth in turnover of 30 per cent a year.

Dealers pushed out of pre-pay market

When they do the risk of clawback because customers don t properly activate their SIM cards is too great. Instead many independent dealers are buying up pre-pay stock from high street stores and selling it on with a 10 margin.
Pre-pay is dying a death among independent dealers because no distributors wants to sell it any more says Adrian Foot of The Phone Shop in Welling.
He added that it was important to be able to offer both pre-pay and contract. Not everyone wants to sign up to a contract. In our area about 60 per cent of customers want pre-pay said Foot.
Historically Foot has gone through Avenir Elite or Unique for T-Mobile and Orange pre-pay connections.
I need low-end stock but can t get it anymore he claimed.
Avenir never has any pre-pay stock and says it is pulling away from pre-pay connections. Hugh Symons wants the customer to top-up twice on Orange before it will pay commissions. It means I am paranoid about selling pre-pay for fear of clawback.
Foot said this was the reason entrepreneurial independent dealers were buying up pre-pay stock from Woolworths and Argos and selling it on for a small margin.
Another south-London dealer said: We haven t had any pre-pay stock in from any distributors since November and it has cost us trade. We have dealt with so many distributors Avenir Data Select and Hugh Symons and all of them seem to have pulled back.
He added: Most customers can switch on to contracts but not all of them. It is especially frustrating when The Carphone Warehouse over the road can offer everything on pre-pay. Even SIM cards have become more and more difficult to get hold of.
Faisal Sheikh of Fone Doctors said: It is simpler to go to Argos or The Carphone Warehouse for pre-pay stock than it is to go through the distributors. I used to buy from Unique and Hugh Symons but it is too complicated. It is impossible to guarantee that a customer will connect the phone which means you risk clawback.

Take That is backed for good by P4U

Phones 4U marketing insight manager Jon Fish said: "We are linking with the band for a raft of marketing activity including teaser TV commercials magazine advertising in-store POS consumer promotions and regional PR campaigns."
The sponsorship is targeted at 25- to 35-year-old women who were Take That´s original core fans in the early 1990s.
"The partnership with Take That reflects our strategy of widening the target audience" said Fish.
He added: "Through sponsoring Take That´s Ultimate tour we hope to raise our brand awareness and consideration among the yummy mummy´ audience."

Samsung appoints Fone Logistics as repair agent

A full compliance audit by Samsung adds its Samsung Level 2 Service Centre accreditation to Fone Logistics´ existing Nokia and Sony Ericsson accreditation.
"Working with Samsung will prove of significant benefit to our customers particularly given the impact the manufacturer has made in the market over the past 12 months" said Fone Logistics operations director Lynne Gillespie.
"I expect this announcement to be followed by other strategic relationships and service agreements."
Trained operatives within the Fone Logistics Service Centre will handle Samsung repairs and the company has undertaken a programme of continuous improvement and training to ensure the latest handsets are supported.

Orange axes more mis-selling dealers

Orange issued distributors with three separate do not deal notices a fortnight ago and another three last week.
Each do not deal notice relates to stockists that employ outbound call centres to sell Orange stock.
An Orange spokesperson said:
"Having received and reviewed a number of customer complaints we have ceased trading with six channel partners.
"The customer experience and care offered by their outbound call centres was unacceptable. As a consequence do not deal notices have been issued to our distribution channel. The review is ongoing."
Orange along with T-Mobile also set out strict guidelines for outbound call centres this week (see story page 2).
In an e-mail to its channel partners this week it said outbound call centres must record all calls so Orange can audit them. It also stated that scripts must be checked and approved by Orange and that call centres must identify themselves and state that they are not acting on behalf of Orange.
It also issued new guidelines for outbound texting. Outbound text messages must be approved by Orange and text messages must identify the third party and include a web address where full details of the offer can be found.
The e-mail stated: "Failure to comply with the procedures above will result in suspension and or termination of your Orange dealer code. All existing call centres must have their current scripts approved and with a change of campaign all new scripts must also be approved."

Virgin eyes on China

A source close to the company said that the group was hoping to enter the Chinese mobile market as early as this August and that the likely collaborator in the project is China Unicom which currently has 150 million customers.

Branson launches VM France

The operation is headed up by Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux who comes from Phone House the French arm of The Carphone Warehouse. It is funded through a joint-venture between Virgin Group and CPW.
Branson accused the country´s three existing mobile phone networks of ripping off 80 per cent of the French population.
Telephony services will be provided by Orange which came on board after the three existing French networks were fined for collusion by the EU.
The new MVNO offers unlimited texting 24 hours a day seven days a week.
"In France the existing operators defend their interests and consumers have lost confidence in them" said Branson. "We want an operator that doesn´t work against customers but with them."
Branson was unable to comment on whether the French text deal would be extended to UK customers.