An independent panel of judges put 20:20 Logistics and The Carphone Warehouse at the top of their categories in the Mobile News Awards.

The Carphone Warehouse won Best Retailer for the 12th year having lost out to O2 in 2006. 20:20 Logistics picked up Best Distributor (Handsets) for the 10th year in a row.

The judges described 20:20s entry as undeniably world class 20:20 continues to set the standard. Another judge said the distributors statistics were so powerful there was no choice but to put it first.

O2 notched up its second win in the year as being the best network for customer service by achieving the highest score in Mobile Newss regular Mystery Caller audit of call centres.

HTC and Research In Motion picked up their first Mobile News Awards for respectively the P3330 PDA and BlackBerry Pearl.

This year also saw Dextra Solutions win its third award as Best Distributor (Accessories).

Azzurri picked up another two Awards for Best Customer Service and Best B2B Dealer after success in these categories in previous years.

Samsung also turned in a winning performance nabbing the Best Manufacturer Award for the sheer variety of its portfolio in 2006.

The judges reckoned Motorola would have had a better shot at the title if it had submitted actual handsets with its entry.

Carphone Warehouse continued to impress despite a tough year with its TalkTalk fixed-line business and the loss of its Vodafone contract business to Phones 4U.

The Sim4Travel network-independent prepay SIM won the Innovative Service Award. Judges said it was a fabulous money-saving device that avoided the con of network roaming charges.

London-based B2B service provider Alternative Networks has extended its service provider contract with O2 until July 2009.

Vodafone renewed its SP agreement with Alternative Networks at the end of last year.

Alternative CEO James Murray said: The renewal of our O2 licence is testament to the hard work of our mobile teams. Were always looking to build a very close relationship with O2 and Vodafone and work closely with them on the data aspect of mobile. Its also great news for our shareholders.

Alternative Networks has worked with O2 since 2002. O2 UK general manager of business sales Ben Dowd said: Its service-driven approach knowledge of converged products and ability to customise applications and services are critical in todays market.

The role was initially offered to Motorola UK boss JIM Michel before he reneged last month. Henrys appointment comes two months after he quit his post at Carphone.

Henry told Mobile News: I have seen every distributor up close and 20:20 is way way ahead of the competiton.

Henry will be discussing his new role on this weeks edition of the Mobile News podcast which is available from Wednesday.

LG Mobile is set to sign a shirt sponsorship deal with Premiership football side Fulham FC believed to be worth around £4 million over a three-year period.

The deal is expected to complete within the next fortnight Mobile News understands.

LG marketing manager John Bernard said: We are close to finalising a deal with a top Premiership club but cannot comment any further at this stage.

Fulhams shirt sponsorship deal with broadband company Pipex ends this year. LG is already a handset partner of Fulham.

Anglia Telecom has confirmed the departure of its chief executive Andy Smith.

Anglia said that Smith has left the business following a period of extended compassionate leave. Anglia sales director Dave McGinn has been appointed acting managing director of Redstone Mobile which incorporates Anglia and service provider Redstone Mobile.

Smith was unavailable for comment.

Martin Balaam CEO of Anglia parent company Redstone said:

Were really sorry to be losing Andrew as hes bought so much to the business. We wish him the very best for the future. Andrew has given us a clear insight of the industry having had vast experience with Vodafone as well as the independent and service provision channels and has helped Redstone in developing a complete communications package under one roof.

Smith joined Anglia in 2004. He has overseen two Anglia buy-outs first by Symphony Telecom and more recently by Redstone. Smith spent 19 years at Vodafone latterly as sales director before joining Anglia.

Ex-Vodafone director Ken McGeorge has teamed up with Geoff Walters and his sons Paul and Marc in a phone buy-back venture called Mobile Phone Xchange (MPX).

MPX will broker sales of obsolete UK handsets to emerging markets.
McGeorge who retired from Vodafone in 2005 after 20 years will be a non-executive director of MPX. At Vodafone he had been responsible for managing all of Vodafones indirect partners and oversaw many of Vodafone UKs major acquisitions over the years.

The three members of the Walters family were the original founders of Complete Mobile Communications (CMC) which later became known as Avenir Telecom UK after they sold the company to the French Telco in 2000. CMC was the first distributor to offer all five UK networks and was Vodafones largest distributor.

MPX will source used handsets from networks and retailers and re-distribute them to countries where they can still be utilised. The logistics side of the venture will be handled by Kuehne and Nagel one of the top three worldwide contract logistics players.

Second-hand phones still have a value Walters said. In this country handsets are heavily subsidised and given away so people assume they are worthless. But the emerging networks in India and the Far East are a generation behind us and the phones have value there.

MPX will work as a facilitator sourcing retailers and networks for supplies of older handsets that have been returned or upgraded. It will run a weekly price list based on availability and demand.

Walters said: Think how many people discard their phones after they have had their annual upgrade. Well take the phones pay for them send them to our logistics company for checking and boxing and then sell them on.

Walters said networks and retailers could motivate customers to return their old kit by offering them vouchers redeemable against further purchases or airtime. Cash should not be offered though as that would encourage phone theft he said.

HM Revenue & Customs said last week that the reverse charge mechanism which zero-rates VAT between mobile phone traders will be finally introduced on June 1 even though finance ministers from EU member states have yet to ratify the plan.

The reverse charge designed to eliminate carousel fraud from the supply chain transfers the obligation to pay VAT from traders to retailers.

But trading sources had doubted whether it would be introduced so soon after three failed attempts. France Germany and Austria have all voiced their opposition in the past.

One leading trader said: I do not believe Customs has secured backing. Why is there no mention of this on any of the EU web sites? One thing is for sure the industry badly needs some form of legal guidance at present as Customs is blatantly ignoring tried and tested legal procedures.

A Customs spokesperson insisted that there was now full agreement from all member states.

All EU nations have now agreed to the reverse charge and we dont expect any intervention said the spokesperson.

Paymaster-general Dawn Primarolo MP said: This is a proportionate step to safeguard taxpayers money and means businesses can trade in these goods without the risk of getting caught up in fraud.

Trade 24/7 managing director KC Cico said: It will see the illegal traders disappear. There should also be more competitive prices on handsets creating a more open market.

But Mike Cheetham of Bond House Systems said reverse charging would simply encourage new types of fraud.

What it does is shift the full collection of the VAT from one end of the chain of supply to the other he said. It will shift from the EU importer which is where missing traders currently insert themselves to the retailer.

He argued that fraudsters would set up VAT registered companies to buy VAT-free and sell direct to the public. They will use the VAT to undercut the legitimate retailers and then they will go missing. This is just like missing trader fraud but at the other end of the chain.

The difference he said was that this time the fraudster collects all of the VAT. It is going to have a serious effect on retailers who try to compete with Internet prices much lower than their cost price.

Though the fraud would not be able to generate carousels because the phones will be bought by end users he said fraud would occur at the fat end of the wedge and will be much harder to detect by all.

Traders could end up having their reverse charge zero rating disallowed and assessed for the VAT they should have charged for these new generation of missing traders.

What the UK is really doing is saying to the other 26 EU member states we cant sort this problem out so we are going to wash our hands of it and dump the problem on you he said. Worse than that they are going to accelerate the problem in our EU neighbours.

He added: The UK will become the feeding ground for fraud in every other member state. The goods will pass from a fraud in France to a fraud in Poland all UK VAT-free.

Goods dont even need to come to the UK he said.

They can simply hop across the border 10 times a day between France and Italy with the UK brokers handling the paperwork and money and it will all be fully compliant. The UK is therefore set to become the Dubai of tomorrow. Why send the goods on round trips to Dubai when they can do 10 frauds a day in every EC country other than the UK? said Cheetham.

Aerofones sale to Icelandic network operator Siminn for an undisclosed fee will give it the clout to lead service provision in the UK according to chairman and founder Jo Marks.

As a service provider you have got to lead the way and you have got to be able to offer a complete fully-converged solution said Marks.

Aerofone was not up for sale. It has done very well up to now as an independent but as a service provider we need all the right ingredients to remain at the forefront. This guarantees us the investment and resources to stay at the cutting edge.

Marks sold Bradford-based Aerofone to Stanhope Communications in 2001 before buying it back in 2003. She was the sole Aerofone shareholder and stays on as CEO under the new owners.

It is my dream deal she said. I sold because it was right for the company and right for the staff. The money is of no consequence.

Siminn bills 400000 customers a month in Iceland and employs 1900 people. Its range of converged services and solutions include mobile fixed-line broadband and Internet products as well as television and IT network solutions. It set up a subsidiary in London last year Siminn UK to serve Icelandic businesses abroad.

Marks claimed the sale had the full backing of Aerofone network partners O2 and Vodafone. Vodafone and O2 have been tremendous. They are really excited about this deal. As a service provider you have to be able to offer something that the networks cant match she said.
Marks founded Aerofone in 1986. It won Best Service Provider at the 2000 and 2001 Mobile News Awards.

The new Aerofone board consists of S¦var Freyr Thrainsson vice president of Siminn Corporate Th³r Jes Th³risson vice president of Siminn ICT Division and smundur Tryggvason from Siminn parent Exista.

Its headquarters will remain in Bradford. It employs 70 staff whose jobs are unaffected by the sale.

Sony Pictures Television International is to launch a big-budget animated sci-fi drama in May written and produced for mobile broadcast.

It is the first mobile video production to get the full backing of a major studio. Networks are currently in discussions with Sony Pictures about broadcast rights for the series called Afterworld.

Sony Pictures senior vice-president of mobile entertainment Jason Wells said: We have spent a significant amount of money on this from a mobile perspective we have invested much more than we have ever spent to develop a property or to acquire its rights before.

He stressed that the series would have high production values. This is a Hollywood-style project its not some garage production he said. It has involved a number of writers and a number of designers. This is one of the coolest things that weve ever got behind and mobile operators share our excitement.

Afterworld is a multi-platform series. The project consists of 130 two-minute episodes for distribution across mobile as well as via television and Internet outlets.

The series was conceived by television producer Stan Rogow who was behind the Fame TV series in the 1980s and content writer Brent Friedman who has worked for sci-for series including Enterprise and The Twilight Zone.

The story follows the journey of Russell Shoemaker from New York to Seattle in the wake of a huge electromagnetic pulse that wipes out technology and 99 per cent of the worlds population. Along the way he attempts to piece together the truth behind the event.

It is like a government experiment gone wrong said Wells. It will strike a chord with international audiences because it is a heros journey a voyage of discovery that has universal themes.

The two-minute episodes which are expected to launch on mobile in the UK in June are also likely to be broadcast across Sonys own TV networks while 13 half-hour episodes of the series are also to be made available to conventional broadcasters.

The online content still at an early stage will enable viewers to dig deeper into the storyline and characters according to Wells. Elements of the mobile version that go unexplored will be fleshed out online and there will also be user-generated content.

The series is split thematically so that the main protagonist visits a new US city every five episodes. Wells said the format lent itself to gaming. He said: Every five episodes work like a new game level. So gaming can be built around it very well.

These are early days for mobile TV content and Wells stressed the need for high quality programming to help the technology take off.

If it is low quality customers are going to be turned off and that could damage the market he said. It is also what the networks are looking for. They need to present high quality video content to their users to ensure wider take-up.

I expect it to have a snowball effect and for other big media companies to get on the bandwagon. I hope they do for the good of the industry and the users.

Sony Pictures is likely to hook up with its part-owned Sony Ericsson joint-venture on promotional material. Wells said: In a Sony United effort we are seeking joint opportunities with this franchise.

Meanwhile it is still considering delivery options for mobile including ad-supported free downloads pay-per view and a flat subscription fee for all 130 episodes.

Pilot episodes of Afterworld can be viewed on video sharing site YouTube.

Hugh Symons Communications has launched a scheme to help its Unity dealers manage their Orange marketing funds and keep within its guidelines on logo usage.

Orange pays dealers £15 per contract connection on a six-monthly basis.
Hugh Symons new Canvas scheme offers its top Unity dealers free marketing and point-of-sale material with pre-approved Orange branding.
Other Hugh Symons dealers will be offered reduced rates.

Hugh Symons is charging £50 for the design of a press ad compared with up to £300 from an agency.

All costs incurred using the Canvas service are redeemable against dealers Orange marketing funds.

Hugh Symons marketing manager Theresa Williams said: This leaves dealers more time and money to spend on increased marketing to drive Orange contract sales.