They are 31E Cellular Euro Fonehouse Intek Communications JAG Communications (Plymouth) Microbar New World Communications Oasis Communications and Scancom Communications.

Orange aims to increase its network of business specialists throughout the country in phase two of the programme. The Orange Business Specialist programme was launched last year to help qualifying dealers sell to small businesses with less than 50 employees.

Dealers must have been established for a minimum of three years. They must have experience in selling to businesses and have a business sales force a dedicated customer service helpline and a telesales operation capable of generating business and handling leads generated by Orange.

The first 14 dealers were chosen by geographical location. Orange plans to run national advertising campaigns and direct marketing campaigns funnelling leads to the business specialists by postcode.

Chosen dealers get branded stationery point-of-sale material and sales brochures. Orange also gives the specialists access to a dedicated business customer service team based in

Darlington. Further benefits include access to data products at preferential rates from a nominated third-party supplier and customer training to help the specialists seize opportunities to sell new technologies.

Other benefits include better rates on commissions and the freedom to offer discounts on hardware without having to refer back to Orange.

Orange also provides special exhibition and seminar programmes where dealers can invite customers to view the latest data technologies. Its business customer service team also gives the appointed dealers sequential numbering for their customers.

Abrar Hussain (20) pleaded guilty to obtaining the phone by deception. He was ordered to pay 150 prosecution costs.

In another case a graphic designer accused of stealing more than 1000 worth of phones from the Orange Shop at Victoria Station London was remanded on unconditional bail until Wednesday (June 11).

Michael Wei Hung Fund (24) is charged with stealing five mobile phones worth 1043 from the shop in April. He is also charged with using criminal deception to obtain 220 in credit for mobile phone use and a further 130 of credit on December 5 last year.

The software is available to handset manufacturers and developers to aid them in creating improved interfaces. It accelerates standard Java games. Graphical manipulations and multi-layered graphics are supported.

There is no breaking news no press releases and we are not here to talk about the companys financials said Lauri Kivinen senior vice president corporate communications as he kicked off the two-day briefing.

What was on offer was confirmation of many of the key trends in the market. In particular the growth of non-voice messaging.

President of Nokia Pekka Ala-Pietila spoke about the future of the industry he says:

People have come to expect moblility in their lives. As a result whatever can be moved to mobile is and will be moved to mobile it really is as simple as that.

There has been a period of unprecedented growth in mobility and voice that has led to a new customer behaviour. This will continue with the explosive growth of messaging.

This growth according to Ala-Pietila will culminate in 35 per cent of ARPU coming in from non-voice revenue by 2006. In addition the improvement in the services that will be offered will help drive ARPU.

He says: In 1999 there were 46million text messages sent a day. Today the figure is at over 800million a day. This is phenomenal growth for such a basic service.

We expect to see growth continue over the next couple of years. In Japan last April ARPU was 11 per cent. By March this year it was at 20 per cent. The same thing will happen in Europe.

Ala-Pietila says that this non-voice revenue can be split into five key services: person to person infotainment business services advertising and transaction.

He says these services will create the growth and allow companies like Nokia to build packages for consumers. But the services must be compelling and must be easy to use he says.

There must also be attractive pricing models and a rich multi-media experience. Propelling this growth will be MMS and the JAVA object downloading. One of the reasons that GPRS hasnt taken off yet is that it hasnt had to applications to show off its capabilities. By August these applications will be available.

Nokia Networks president Sari Baldauf commented that the mobile services market is in transition at the moment.

Although the future is more complicated than before it brings greater benefits. She says:

It will be key enabling technologies that will drive future growth. We will see the mobile take the role of the centrepiece for personal content with calendar diary and address book all present. It will also interact with other services such as television and music systems to create added value while it will utilise PC and fixed line internet for complimentary tasks.

But within all this Ala-Pietila points out that three things must be in order to continue this growth: the end user acceptance a financially stable business model and technology.

In the past we only concentrated on technology. The entire industry was guilty of this.

Now there is the technology Ala-Pietila believes that there still needs to be investment in the industry in order to reap the rewards of MMS. Once the network and penetration starts there will be explosive growth. Unlike SMS where new behaviour and a new business model had to be created the business model is already there for MMS.

The success of MMS will then drive the penetration of 2.5G terminals which will prepare the way for 3G.

Heikki Norta vice president sales Europe and Africa says that these changes will bring a wealth of opportunities for the High Street dealer. But dealers have to be aware of these changes: There is fantastic opportunity for the high street retailer. But he must be aware of all the products out there. This year we have brought out a record number of terminals.

This is going to increase of the next couple of years as more and more technology. The dealer has to be ready for that. He needs to have the knowledge at his fingertips.

According to Norta Nokia is placing great emphasis on the training that will go along with its new products: It is vital that the dealers are aware of what the terminals can do and having training schemes in place is one way of ensuring this.

In addition to a greater proliferation of terminals Norta says that there will be an increase in accessories. As the handset market grows this will drive the number of peripherals.

Cellstars decision to close its

UK organisation makes it two distributors down in as many months.

While any industry has its casualties the demise of CellStar and European Telecom is significant for their size.

These werent tin-pot garden-shed organisations but multi-national players with vast turnovers.

So what is it about the distribution market that allows it to chew up and spit out such organisations?

Were these companies badly run? Or was it a result of supply and demand and poor control of bad debt?

In CellStars case it was unable as a US-centric company to localise itself enough to tap into the psyche of a UK industry peculiar for its in-breeding especially among the top levels of management who have all worked with each other in previous jobs.

Firms must now be leaner and more competitive to survive. While the job losses that follow closures are unfortunate the surviving distributors and dealers will become stronger.

CellStar probably wont be the last distributor to exit the market.

With MMS 3G and associated technologies ready for release the next explosion should soon follow. But even so distributors should not be complacent that they are immune from the afflictions that caused the collapse of CellStar UK and ET.

Registered visitors will be emailed a newsletter and offered exclusive deals and competitions such as the chance to win a new XDA PDA from O2.

The Link will be targeting early adopters with new-look point-of-sale materials including an evolved version of its Buyers Guide.

Starting with the XDA The Link plans to offer a preorder service on new products in-store and online on both thefuturelook.com and www.thelink.co.uk.

Joe Garner from The Link said:

Early adopters are a vital part of this market. They want to know whats coming next rather than whats available now.

We want visitors to bookmark this site as the most user-friendly place to find the latest developments in mobile technology. Early adopters are also distinguished by their dislike of overt branding and advertising methods.

Anglo provides airtime to business and government clients such as Humberside Probation service Old Mutual Securities and Ultra-tone. Recall acquired Anglo when it only had 5500 customers.

Our monthly revenues continue to show a net monthly increase said Recall managing director Mark Weir.

The network launched Business Services last week in an attempt to increase its share of the SoHo (small office home office) market. As well as banded price plans it offers a free 14-day trial of a Personal Assistant service 50 free text messages a month a priority line of a second mobile number for important contacts and a next-day phone replacement.

But Mike Bowyer of Yorkshire dealer Link Telecom says the only way he can achieve his customer value bonus is if he places his customer on a tariff plan not in line with the customers usage.

For example the Everyone 150 plan offers 150 free minutes for 75 a quarter. But for the connecting dealer to qualify for a bonus of 45 the customer has to spend more than 110 a quarter.

Bowyer says if a customer knows they are going to make 110 worth of calls they would be better off on a tariff with more free minutes. But this would deprive him of his customer value bonus.

My staff say they feel uncomfortable selling this new package said Bowyer.

We tell every customer we provide them with the right tariff. If they then use more than their free minutes they will think we dont know what were talking about. This latest plan seems a bit misconceived. It isnt doing us any favours.

The small office customer is going to be even more discerning than a normal user. They are looking for an even better level of service. If they see they are on the wrong tariff they will think we have given them bad advice.

A T-Mobile spokesperson explained:

Such analysis assumes the customer only wants to make voice calls and is only concerned with the voice allowance. But most customers use their mobile for more than just voice. All other elements such as roaming data text bundles MMS bundles and AllDay PA count towards the usage threshold. The intention of the customer value bonus and training is to focus the customer on additional services and features and get them on to the price plan best suited to their needs he said