The Earset is a clip-on accessory. Detachable and replaceable skins offer three designs and colours. It has a noise-concealing microphone and says Elite the sound quality is particularly crisp and clear.

The unit complies with the Bluetooth V1.1 standard. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery offering four hours of talktime and 72 hours standby. The Earset can operate up to 10 metres (from the host phone).

Autopower switches the unit off when it is inactive. There is automatic re-connection if the Bluetooth link is disrupted.

Other controls include a power button volume and two-colour LED indicator.

Said Elite marketing head Anique Grimbly:

We resisted the temptation simply to plunge in. Before we committed to the launch we insisted on the most exhaustive research and testing until we were satisfied that in the Earset we had a product that matches our established high quality design and manufacturing criteria.

The Earset is the first of a series of Bluetooth products well be launching over the next few months.

The service is available to any of Abbey Nationals 15 million customers who have an Orange Pay As You Go phone.

Top-ups are available in incremental 10 values up to 50 and will be applied to the phones in seconds.

The customer enters their PIN number selects the Mobile Top-Up option operator and value and types in their mobile phone number.

He replaces Bob Tomkis who returns to his position of analyst. Tomkis had taken the role of interim finance director stepping in after Ian Hodgson left the company in August this year.

Chandler was previously finance director at Equifax and has also worked for KPMG P&O European Ferries and brewery Marston Thompson & Evershed where he was group financial controller.

Steve brings considerable expertise and experience to the financial and business planning areas of our operation said Mainline managing director Andrew Boden.

I am confident he will be an exceptional addition to our team.

Anglos problems deepened when three of its larger VSPs including Telecom South Airphone and GCI COM did not pay on time.

Certain resellers used Anglo as a free banking facility and exploited every loop in their VSP agreement with Anglo to avoid paying their bills in full or on time said Anglo consultant Alan Barry.

Some VSPs let us down badly by using us as a bank. The finance team didnt put in enough measures to protect us. Airphone put in a massive claim for 2500 upgrades and anniversary payments.

We asked Airphone to supply a list of the 2500 upgraded mobile numbers and the upgraded IMEI numbers in order to validate its claim. It refused to give us that information.

We asked Airphone to supply copies of hardware invoices in the absence of that information but

Airphone refused to supply it claims Barry.

Im not saying Airphone is the only reason why Anglo went into receivership. However if Anglo had been able to collect the 300000 from Telecom South and the 500000 from Airphone we would still be here today. No company can sustain that sort of loss.

I do not have a vendetta against Airphone. But I do believe people should be accountable for the actions they have taken. Anglo has to be accountable for the fact it took on VSPs and paid the price.

The VSPs that didnt pay their bills on time and made spurious claims and carried out all sorts of delaying tactics should be held accountable as well. If that means another SP is not burned the way that Anglo was then so be it. Those who contributed to bringing Anglo down should be accountable.

We only really had one bad debt when we went under. That was Airphone. Unfortunately the powers above me did not back me 100 per cent to force Airphone to pay its bill by barring its customer base. That is why Anglo went under.

Airphone boss John Ford declined to comment.

The Kent company has been working as an O2 distributor to a select number of dealers on a limited basis since October 2000 but the signing of the agreement will see MoCo distribute handsets airtime and pre-pay options to dealers.

The agreement comes into effect from tomorrow (October 1).

It was the obvious step says managing director Ian Robinson. The agreement we signed with BTCellnet in 2000 allowed us to act as a distributor for 40 dealers. When BTCellnet became O2 it allowed us to keep that number but not expand it.

We then found ourselves being approached by a number of dealers who expressed an interest in working with us.

The new agreement allows us to aggressively go out and try to build our dealer base. We are looking at around 60 over the next couple of months.

The first step is obviously to go to those people who contacted us in the past.

We currently have 40 dealers. We are signing up another 12 next week and have a further eight interested.

We are looking for mainly post-pay and SME business dealers. At the moment we make around 2000 connections a month through our dealer channel.

Over the next 12 months we would hope to achieve 3000. I dont think that is too adventurous.

According to Robinson MoCo which is also a limited distributor for Orange will start a recruitment campaign in the middle of October and is negotiating with O2 to put together an introductory promotional package.

Robinson says the company is looking for dealers across the country and wasnt put off into moving further into distribution following the recent collapse of North East distributor Pointgold.

It is a tough market out there at the moment but we are confident that we have the right set-up to make a go of the new agreement says Robinson.

We have chosen to target a different market to Pointgold. The SME and post-pay business market has always been more robust than the consumer market.

Mobileshop was forced to take legal action for a second time after mistakenly serving a winding up order against Fonekit Ltd instead of Sell-line corporation trading as Fonekit (Mobile News September 2).

Mobileshop head of finance Gary Proctor issued a statement to Mobile News saying:

I can confirm a second set of proceedings were issued by Mobileshop against Sell-line Corporation trading as Fonekit.

This resulted in full payment of our outstanding account plus interest and costs.

Proctor disagreed with Sell-line financial controller Peter Scheldts claims that Fonekit Ltd and Sell-line were unrelated companies.

Mr Scheldts statement to Mobile News that Fonekit and Sell-Line Corporation Limited are not associated is frankly disingenuous. A simple search of Companies House Records reveals a Mr Hill as being a common director of both companies.

At the time of going to press Scheldt was unavailable for comment.

Cellstar UK managing director David Aitken and IT director Mike Hart were among the final members of staff to leave the company earlier this month.

Cellstar USA is chasing debts and trying to find a new tenant for the 17500-square-feet of office and warehouse space Cellstar UK leaves behind in Trafford Park Manchester.

The company has yet to be placed in formal liquidation but Cellstars European chief financial officer Micky Sandall says that there is no urgency in the matter.

At one point Cellstar had 60 staff but heavy losses and the parent companys decision to focus on Asia Mexico and the US led to the announcement it was pulling out of the UK.

The companys Vodafone dealer base was handed to Fone Logistics in June.

Falling margins and bad debts totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from defunct companies such as Odyssey and The WAP Store saw Cellstar UK fall into the red and forced Cellstar USA into action.

Executives also admitted that Cellstar had not been profitable in the UK because it couldnt compete with UK-based distribution.

Cellstar had not been without its troubles over the last few years especially when it fell victim in early 2000 to a large-scale fraud and theft which will cost the company millions of dollars depending on the outcome of insurance settlements. The US parent had to issue a profits warning.

Under the terms of the deal agreed at the beginning of last week Generation Telecom has acquired the corporate and SME customer base of Anglo and will manage the majority of Anglos O2 virtual service provider (VSP) customers.

Generation Telecom MD Keith Westcott told Mobile News:

We are now an O2 service provider. As part of that we have acquired the O2 customer base of Anglo communications. We saw an opportunity and this helps us grow the business.

Westcott would not be drawn on the future of former Anglo VSPs.

We are reviewing the management of the base to bring it in line with Generation Telecom strategy he said.

Generation Telecom launched at the beginning of this year with a focus on direct sales to corporate and small businesses (Mobile News January 21).

Phones International head of service provision Keith Westcott drafted in his former Ericsson colleague Barry Nash as sales and marketing director.

Generation acquired Global Crossings service provision business and customer base. Only a fortnight ago it purchased Anglos Vodafone customer base (Mobile News September 16).

He will assume responsibility for managing all aspects of the UK business.

Gavins promotion reflects his personal contribution to the continued success of Vodafone UK since joining in February 2001 and the groups confidence in his management team commented Peter Bamford Northern Europe Middle East and Africa chief executive.

Falling margins on paper vouchers are being blamed for the decision which will see the customer base transferred to Caudwell Group-owned 20:20 Solutions.

Project Telecom managing director Tim Radford said:

The margin in pre-pay vouchers has been disappearing for some time now and the market has been under increasing pressure for the last two years.

We got into pre-pay in 1998 and over the years have made a lot of money. It has helped us build our corporate business operations and this is where we are going to concentrate.

We decided to call it a day while we were ahead and while it was a profitable business.

In order to maintain continuity to our customers and ensure that lines dont go dead at the end of September we are transferring the business to 20:20 which will take over from October 1.

Project Telecom is keeping its electronic top-up and Sim-free businesses.

Although PT Distribution had a 250 million turnover it only generated a tenth of that in profit.

The PT Distribution management team is to be integrated into Project Telecom. Chris Tombs who ran the division for three years becomes managing director for the indirect channel.

PT Distribution had already been forced to make cuts in June this year when it made 50 staff redundancies. In March the operation had 146 people. Currently there is a workforce of around 75.

The 50 staff who retain their jobs will be moved across into Project Telecoms business operations or will work on the e-top-up and Sim-free businesses.

The company is also retaining PT Distributions buildings and assets.

Radford added: We are closing the operation ahead of transferring it to someone who can make a better go of it.

Our core business is corporate services. We have been thinking over this move for the past 18 months as the screw has been tightened and tightened.

The networks have changed the agenda. They have moved away from pre-pay and are now putting the emphasis on higher ARPU and retention and getting quality contracts.

We are a corporate business enterprise. Today we are a niche service provider with 175000 business customers. We are looking to get this number up to 500000 subscribers by 2005. We see this as an opportunity to own the business market as far as possible and be the centre of excellence.

Radford says now only a heavyweight firm can really extract benefits from voucher distribution.

If you have the scale like the Caudwell Group and you have a highly efficient and focused operation that has massive economies of scale then you can make money from the small margins. But it is extremely hard for anyone else.