Dealers put through so few Orange connections that one leading distributor questioned whether any UK distributor was making the grade for the network.
He said: Volume is really bad. I would be surprised if any distributor is trading at the minimum distribution performance at the moment.
Another said: It has slowed down for everybody. Orange won t win any awards for volume.
Orange pulled money from its commission package at the start of December and has not reinstated it. Dealers also complained that they cannot match the offers available to customers on the high street.
One Blackburn-based dealer said: I can t offer a customer more than 400 minutes on a 12-month contract while Orange Retail can. I have to offer 18-month contracts and customers don t want them.
Orange s own retail stores matched last year s performance on pre-pay and trumped the figures for December 2005 on contract.
An Orange spokesman said: It was a really good Christmas for Orange Retail. Figures were up on contract because of the number of exclusive handsets we had.

The distributor has set up a team of six Unity account managers and will recruit a finance manager to deal with all credit control issues in the next three weeks.
Hugh Symons project development manager Sophie Vincent said: Its about surviving in the market. Its changing at such a rate. There is a lot of emphasis on customer lifetime value. We are ensuring that we have a business to build on for the future by looking at ways of innovating. We have introduced a dedicated account management team that can provide dealers with support from stock control to event management.

Large 3 dealers and distributors were stretched and angry last week as they attempted to meet the Friday (January 12) deadline for proofs. High-volume connectors such as EBS which connects more than 10000 customers to 3 each month via distance-sellers are most at risk from large clawbacks. European Telecom and Fone Logistics are also at risk.
3 has yet to state clearly the terms of clawback for failure to submit the correct proofs but issued a bulletin to its channel partners late on the afternoon of December 22.
Dealers were angry at the short notice with many of them shutting up shop in the few days before Christmas and not opening again until January 2.
One dealer said: It said that it will claw back any proofs that are not forthcoming whether or not the customer disconnects or not. It is horrendous.
Another dealer said: It is really bad news especially as Christmas wasn t great anyway. Dealers didn t get the notice until the last minute before closing for Christmas and many haven t opened up again until early January. It will be a massive amount of work to get it all in and many dealers won t be able to. There will be big losses.
Normally dealers get clawed back if a customer disconnects and they can t provide the right proofs on disconnection. In this instance dealers get penalised for not having correct proofs whether the customer disconnects or not.
3 said it was good business and a tactic to clamp down on fraud in the dealer channel.
A 3 spokesman said: We have said we will cease trading with dealers that consistently fail to abide by our terms and conditions and do not meet our requirements. This audit is all about combating fraud.

They pointed to the fact that it would not hit the UK until the Q4 Christmas pre-pay market and that it would command a premium price of over 300. They also claimed that their own devices would easily supersede it for functionality by the end of the year despite the clamour that greeted Apple chief Steve Jobs address at Macworld Expo last week.
Jobs claimed the device would change everything and included a widescreen iPod with touch controls a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet communications device in one package. It runs Mac OSX Safari and iTunes.
But many were not impressed. Nokia director of communications Mark Squires said: We are practically a year away from its UK launch and with products like the N95 coming out in the next few months it is not leading edge.
One manufacturer source said: It won t be available on pre-pay which is what the Q4 Christmas market is all about. You have to see it in the same category as the XDA and the MDA which aren t very popular as phones. It s the same with this. It s too big to be a straight mobile.
Another industry source agreed: Its problem is that it is launching here at Christmas which is all about pre-pay handsets. It will have a minimal impact this year. Apple is talking about shipping 10 million but those will go to the US. The second generation of iPhones will be more of a threat but they won t appear until halfway through 2008.
Questions were raised about its marketing strategy too.
Apple will impose stringent guidelines on its distribution partners. Motorola s Dolce & Gabanna (D&G) handset bombed because D&G put tough conditions on networks and retailers. It is the same kind of thing said a source.
But networks with an eye on data revenues welcomed the launch.
A 3 spokesman said: It s good to see Apple moving towards our vision for the market of one device that supports customers communications and entertainment needs it s a step in the right direction. We think this shows the market is converging on one device this is Apple understanding it needs to be in mobile.

Accountant Hacker Young was appointed as administrative receiver of Euro Cellular on November 1. Euro Cellular first went into administration in 2003.
Hacker Young is now chasing Customs for the refund most of which will go to the company s main backer a Mr D Goddard who is owed 3537672.
Euro Cellular started trading in 2003 but ran into problems a year later when a customer failed to pay for a shipment of handsets from mainland Europe that was subsequently stolen.
At the beginning of last year Euro Cellular attempted to sell corporate airtime contracts. But this failed when Customs failed to hand over the 4.2 million VAT refund. The company had no cashflow to promote itself in the contract market or to pay for the handsets it had ordered as part of the contract package.
Customs then applied an extended verification ruling as a ploy to withhold the VAT refund even though Euro Cellular was not involved in missing trader fraud and was constantly in contact with VAT inspectors.
The failure of the company is attributable to the non-repayment of the VAT by Customs said joint administrative receiver Andrew Andronikou.

Individual mobile phone traders have deposits that range from 10000 up to 10 million with the First Curacao International Bank (FCIB). But the money was frozen when the bank was placed into administration by the Central Bank in October.
The Central Bank informed traders before Christmas that it was going to repay 75 per cent of their funds by the end of the year providing they made a wire transfer for the full amount.
It then stated that the remaining 25 per cent would be paid when the winding down process had been completed.
So far however nothing has been repaid.
The Central Bank stated before Christmas: [We have] almost fully analysed the FCIB account holders database and solutions have been found for the majority of the problems encountered. Therefore the Bank now deems it highly probable that payments will be initiated before the end of the year .
It added: It is very obvious that payments cannot be made to account holders being subject to a criminal or civil embargo injunction .
Alias Dass partner at Birmingham-based Dass Solicitors said: No money has been paid to traders yet. If it doesn t pay in the next few weeks then we have a legal action against it.
But Dass added that major issues blocking repayments to traders had been cleared up.
Previously the Central Bank has placed all these conditions upon traders and made excuses that the Dutch authorities could bring a damages claim and that therefore it could not pay traders their funds he said.
It also said that it had to categorise all its accounts as telecoms and non telecoms . That is not happening now he said.
Courts in the Netherlands Antilles ruled on December 20 that the Central Bank should not impose conditions on the release of funds and that it should start to make payments.

This would change the way VAT is applied on cross-border transactions and help eliminate carousel fraud but the French are worried the tax change would move the VAT scamming problem to other EU nations.
The French decision has taken Chancellor Gordon Brown by surprise. Last month Brown said France had agreed to reverse charging after apparently receiving assurances from French finance minister Thierry Breton.
A Treasury spokesman told Accountancy Age magazine the French had raised technical issues that were not on the table when Brown told Parliament the French had agreed to the plan.
But one trader who has been following events closely said:
Brown announced to a parliamentary select committee he had secured the backing of the French finance minister. The French Government knew nothing of this. Today Brown has had to come clean and admit he doesn t have its backing.
All 27 EU member states must agree to reverse charging before the tax change can take effect.

Customers of Jamster and Jamba across Europe the Middle East and Africa will have access to 250000 full track downloads from the EMI catalogue. Headline acts include KT Tunstall Coldplay Depeche Mode Queen and Corinne Bailey Rae.
Jamster managing director Markus Berger-de Le³n said: Working with EMI means that we have joined forces with a very important major music label. We are extremely pleased to be able to present our customers an even more diverse selection of music ringtones and videos from great EMI artists.

Several larger independent dealership chains have been tipped to form a buying association in the coming months.

Daventry-based dealership Go Mobile Gwent-based dealership Get Connected and Paignton-based dealership Intek have held informal discussions about the possibility of uniting to secure better handset deals and network commercials claimed sources last week.
JAG headquartered in Cornwall has also been linked with a possible buying group. An association of all four would account for 175 retail sites stretching across southern England and the Midlands. (JAG has 81 stores Go Mobile has 35 Intek has 30 and Get Connected has 29.)
The larger dealers ones with more than 10 or 15 shops are constantly in talks about pooling their resources said a source. Because none of them are quite big enough on their own and they are struggling long-term to get the figures to stack up.
Another dealer source said: Most of those guys have talked about the possibility of combining in some fashion. Independent dealers are finding it really tough out there. They have to do something. The top guys run really good businesses and it makes sense for them to pool their resources.
One distributor who is familiar with their businesses said: It is quite a sensible thing to do. They are all good companies and it makes sense for them to get together in some fashion in a consolidating market.
No formal talks have been held at this stage but a buying association for SIM-free kit has in effect already been established through Go Mobile managing director Iain Humphrey s Sellfone 3G EPOS system which links with Humphrey s Shebang hardware distribution business.
Sellfone 3G is installed in around 450 independent retailers across the country including Get Connected and JAG. Shebang doubled its turnover to £10 million in three months at the end of last year following the launch of a web version of its Sellfone 3G software and the fulfilment deal with JAG.
Humphrey is on the verge of signing a similar fulfilment deal with Intek managing director Manny Hussain though Hussain was unavailable for comment.
Humphrey said: We are doing fulfilment for JAG and may sign a deal with Intek too. I am happy to work with John and Manny as customers. But I have never held formal talks about this kind of thing. Rumours have occurred because our relationship is so good.
However George said: It wouldn t be viable.

It has also launched a recruitment web site and will advertise career opportunities in store and in targeted trade campaigns.
Phones 4U operations director Tom Shorten said: We want to bring more quality to quality teams. Traditionally the application process for retail is poor applicants drop their CV in-store and wait around to hear. Its not spot on. We want to make it easier for applicants.
So far it has appointed eight staff to its recruitment team. The remaining positions will be filled in the next two or three weeks.