Sadique said the constant uphill battlevagainst the networks has finally got the better of him. One customer told me how T-Mobile contacted him saying that if he upgraded the N95 in my store it would cost him £40 whilst if he went through them direct the deal would be free he said.

The direct deals theyre offering my customers are leaving me without a leg to stand on. Its hard to see a future in this business.

Sadique a regular at Hugh Symons dealer forums has been in the industry for eight years. He is moving into property.

20:20 has been given a special prize for its achievement of winning its Best Distributor in the Mobile News Awards for the 10th year in a row.

The company was given the special trophy in front of more than 1100 guests at the 13th Mobile News Awards held at the Hilton on Park Lane.

20:20 is only the second company in the history of the Mobile News Awards to win the trophy. The first went to The Carphone Warehouse three years ago. Carphones run as Best Large Retailer was broken last year by O2 but Carphone was back on track on Thursday night again claiming the Best Large Retailer title.

European Telecom (ET) chairman Nico Dervisaj last week invited rival distributors principally Data Select and Fone Logistics to merge with it to establish a UK force to compete in a pressurised market place.

Dervisaj told Mobile News the networks focus on quality has squeezed the distribution channel to the point where more than half of UK distributors face going out of business in the next 12 months.

ET will consider joint ventures with UK businesses of any size. But it is looking specifically to merge with one of its larger rivals.

Dervisaj said: We are not looking to be a super distributor necessarily but to be a much more significant player. The right size would be if ET combined with Data Select or Fone Logistics plus a smaller distributor.

That would be a good size in this market it would cover all aspects of trade and all channels to market. We are looking really for partners that are complementary to ET in their service offering.

Data Select and Fone Logistics said that no contact had been made.

Some distributors are in a difficult position and consolidation is inevitable in this market place said George McPherson managing director of Data Select parent company Phones International. There will be less distributors this time next year.

Fone Logistics managing director Ian Gillespie said: The market is going to consolidate and distributors have to either merge to get bigger or sell up and get out.

The networks are disrupting things and the market will consolidate further. The Brightpoint/Dangaard merger wont be the last.

The first to qualify for the new partner programme are WN1 Communications Olive Communications and BusinessMobiles.com. T-Mobile is to review and expand the program on a quarterly basis.

Meanwhile T-Mobile has struck a deal with Bedfordshire Police to deploy 1000 BlackBerry devices to 1000 officers by February 2008.

Alexander joins MoCo cofounders Maurice and Andrew Whelan and managing director Ian Robinson on the board.

MoCo has also announced two new additions to its team. Matthew Earl joins as internal dealer account manager for distribution. He has 12 years experience in the industry.

Hollie Charlton also joins from Carphone where she was sales consultant for three years and will support MoCos B2B division selling mobile data fixed line and IT packages.

TAP purchased the rights to the ET name last month and Brummitt joins the group with more than 20 years of industry experience. He has historic relationships with leading phone manufactures and was also a pioneer for service provision with his company Wavetech which was later sold to US distributor Brightpoint.

Brummitt is currently assembling a high level team to run European Telecom.

TAP group managing director Steve Isles Group said: These are exciting times for TAP and ET with Kevins track record we will reach even higher peaks.

Between September 1 and March 31 pre-pay customers will be able to make calls to friends and families in 16 countries for 5p per minute to landlines and 15p per minute to mobiles. Previously customers had been charged up to £1.49 per minute for calls to certain countries.

All pay as you go customers on Vodafones Anynet or Anytime price plans will be automatically switched to the new pricing which includes calls to China Croatia Czech Republic Hong Kong Hungary India Lithuania Latvia Nigeria Pakistan Poland Romania Russia Slovakia Thailand and Turkey.

Vodafone UK chief marketing officer Tim Yates said: This is a great value promotion for our customers. There are no catches customers will find it much easier to keep in touch with friends and family than dealing with the limitations of international calling cards.

Some customers will now save 96 per cent of their previous costs.

As it stands only networks and retailers are involved in the organisation. MICAF chairman Jack Wraith
said MICAF the Home Office and the police had all approached manufacturers to join the group but to no avail. Wraith said: It sends the wrong message to the industry. The issue of mobile phone crime starts with manufacturers.

Nokia Motorola and Sony Ericsson have all been MICAF members in the past but have all abandoned the cause.

They claim their focus is global not national said Wraith.

They claim if they supported a UK initiative they would be obliged to support other national initiatives in other markets. But they sell an awful lot of handsets in the UK and we were disappointed at their decisions to quit the organisation.

Mobile phone crime is an industry-wide problem and manufacturers have a role to play.

Wraith accepted manufacturers have made handsets more secure but said mobile phone theft was driven by handsets. Manufacturers need to get a better understanding of this problem in the UK he said.

Go Mobile has opened new stores in Matlock Derbyshire and Rugby Warwickshire. The Rugby store was formerly an EBS outlet.

It also opened its second and third franchise stores in Coalville Leicestershire and in Atherston Warwickshire. Another is set to open shortly.

Go Mobile chief Iain Humphrey said: Weve got a proposition where we can invite both existing dealers and new entrants to open franchises under the Go Mobile brand.

Go Mobile is the UKs fourth largest independent mobile retailer.

Dealers said the improved customer offer should boost sales but would likely reduce the value they deliver to Vodafone. One southern dealer said: Hopefully this will draw a bit of interest. But customers who needed a 5000- minute plan will now only need a 2000-minute one because of the free calls so we lose out there.

Intek MD Manny Hussain said: Anything that attracts more business is a good thing. But networks are always encouraging us to increase customer revenue and with all these free calls where is it supposed to come from? If the Vodafone proposition proves successful other networks will follow suit and that will hit the revenue dealers can deliver.

Average revenue per Orange business user is less than that per consumer due to the free calls on business tariffs added Hussain.