Alexander is replaced as head of MoCo Business by Mark Elliot previously at John Caudwell s old fixed-line business Homecall.
Elliot and Bill Wilson head of MoCo Distribution will report in to Alexander.
MoCo has also drafted in Jonathan Ricketts from Midland as new dealer account managers. The appointments are part of a wide-ranging expansion. It s interviewing three to four people per day and will look to recruit top-quality B2B dealers in the New Year.
MoCo managing director Ian Robinson said: Harvey is MoCo s main point of contact for the networks manufacturers and other suppliers.

Vodafone searches for new way
Business in new territories was doing well for Vodafone but revenue in the UK was at 2.54 billion for the period marginally down on the same period last year. Profit metrics for the UK were also flat.
At a briefing last Tuesday group CEO Arun Sarin highlighted the ways in which costs were being cut including an IT outsourcing deal to IBM and EDS expected to deliver 25-30 per cent of unit cost savings in three to five years. He was also proud to announce an advertising revenue deal with Yahoo! to introduce advertising on Vodafone customers mobiles if they wish.
Sarin said: Over the last few months all the trials we ve been conducting suggest to us that our customers were willing to accept mobile advertising with a couple of conditions: that it would be on an opt-in basis and that we share the economic benefits that we get from advertisers. You ll see the first adverts going out in the April May June timeframe.
In line with other mobile players such as Orange and The Carphone Warehouse Vodafone has launched a fixed broadband proposition across Europe. The network hopes to launch a DSL service in the UK by early January 2007. Given the highly publicised teething problems some rivals have had rolling out their DSL propositions Sarin is understandably cautious about how Vodafone extends this service.
He said: The DSL proposition in each country will be different because the economics of each country is different and we are watching these economics. We will stay with wholesale relationships. We are a new entrant into this market.
Another technology that the Vodafone s board directors are pushing for next year is mobile broadband. The network is currently rolling the capability out across all territories.
Andy Halford group chief financial officer: We are on track to getting 60 per cent coverage by the end of March for 3G networks and by March around 60 per cent of our 3G cell sites will also be running HSDPA.
O2: Christmas and beyond
O2 also filed performance figures for its third quarter last week. O2 is no longer a listed company in the UK so it only gave a snapshot of its performance. However in that period net service revenues grow by 15 per cent in the UK. O2 CEO Peter Erskine was cheerful about the network s performance but was much more circumspect about the introduction of sophisticated non-voice services.
he said: 3G will take off when the handsets get as good as 2G and that s happening around about now. I don t think it s going to be an enormous 3G Christmas but its starting to take off.
As far as a fixed DSL service is concerned Erskine was also much more hands-off than Sarin. O2 purchased DSL operator be in June this year but has not yet rolled out a broadband service. Nor will it for the foreseeable future. Erskine said: We ll launch when the customer experience is good and the one bill proposition works. At the moment too many people are being frustrated by the experience of signing up broadband and mobile bundles.
The prospect of advertising did not seem to pique Erskine s interest either.
As I speak we are conducting trials on mobile advertising he said: We are interested in that space but it s absolutely critical we get the customer experience right. I think if you do nothing but just pump adverts at people unless we can get revenue streams on the ads it s just an excuse to give away free minutes.
In contrast O2 is looking at smaller scale perhaps less ambitious non-voice services to complement established voice and SMS revenues. One of these is My Blue Book which is a hosted service allowing customers to centrally store pictures and addresses so that they can be synched with files on their PCs or blog sites on the Internet.

Mainstays remain
Clearly both networks haven t lost sight of the fact that voice revenues are still the mainstay of financial performance although Sarin admitted that prices across the group are decreasing by 15 per cent year on year.
Erskine on the other hand took the positive tip. Voice minutes are growing he said: The only reason people take on a fixed line these days is to get DSL so it s no surprise O2 is still interested in voice.
Core business aside the two biggest networks with over 30 million customers between them will definitely both be pushing non-voice services in 2007.

Varty and co-founders Sacha Visram Sally Chatrejee have set up the Com Mobi Group to target distinct mobile segment groups defined by ethnicity or sexual orientation.
The Com Mobi Group is currently in discussions with potential host networks with a view to a mid-2007 launch of Desi Mobi the first spin-off. A full branding billing and support service will be offered to subscribers.
Desi is a term used within the Asian community to refer to people of South Asian origin. Visram said: It s designed by UK Asians for UK Asians sold by UK Asians and to UK Asians .

Vodafone also announced an exclusive three-year deal with remote access provider Fiberlink last week to give enterprise customers in the field secure access to office applications.
Vodafone s Kyle Whitehill director of its enterprise business unit said the two service providers would be run as autonomous business units in the same way that wholly-owned Manchester service provider Yes Telecom operates.
Vodafone has taken on all of Isis s 90 staff based in Ealing and all Aspective s 120 staff based in Staines.
Said Whitehill: We like what both Isis and Aspective are doing and want them to continue to do it. But at the same time both would have struggled with resources to expand their businesses. We have acquired both but we want them to remain as they are because we want a nimble and flexible service to our customers. Just like we acquired Yes Telecom but kept the operation as it was because we have enormous respect for [Yes Telecom managing director] Keith Curran so we ve taken on these businesses.
Isis gives Vodafone better service capability in fleet management and billing according to Whitehill. Isis is considered to be strong in the financial services sector with most of its business concentrated in the City of London.
Isis managing director Peter Johnston said: The services offered by Isis are unique and complement Vodafone s offerings. We look forwards to making our services available to a wider range of Vodafone customers.
Aspective is the market leader in mobilising office applications according to Whitehill.
He said: Aspective does all the work. Vodafone has always been able to go in and talk about it and to take a chunk of revenue but we weren t able to offer a real consultancy service and integrate services fully. We ve acquired those CRM applications with the acquisition of Aspective and brought that skill-set in-house.
The Fibrelink deal will enable Vodafone dealers to provide corporate customers with mobile access to office IT programmes.
Fibrelink provides an access screen which can be Vodafone-branded or issued as a white-label interface that automatically selects for the best connectivity method whether that s via 3G Wi-FI or broadband.

He joined MPRC formerly part of the Caudwell Group in 1990 from Granada and intends to retire from full-time work.
I intended retiring at the end of 2007. Caudwell s departure meant the changes have allowed me to exit earlier he said.

Blackman joined Mobile News as reporter in February 2004 after a two-year stint in Mexico running a regional listings magazine.

The Emblaze Touch 7 has a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash Bluetooth MP3 and MPEG-4 video playback and an expandable memory. It is available in pink or black and has a slider with a depth of 16mm.
Laurence Alexander CEO and president of Emblaze says: We re delighted to launch the Emblaze Touch 7 through Currys. The handset is part of our strategy to make Emblaze Mobile become a brand name in its own right in the consumer handset market.
Jon Lyngra head of trading
and communications at Currys and DSG international added: Working with Emblaze Mobile has enabled us to add depth and choice to the range of consumer handsets we can offer our customers.
DSGi is currently in a transitional period assisting O2 in managing the sale of The Link stores anticipated to continue until March 2007. The process is being led by Nick Wood as managing director of the Group Communications Division.

Cave has spent 18 months in the strategy department running the Experience O2 programme. Prior to that she was head of sales within O2 retail.
One of the challenges she faces is successfully integrating staff from The Link within the O2 operation. Understandably she told Mobile News people are going to be feeling a bit unsettled but that s to be expected with any major change.
Cave said: It s the spirit that underpins the whole experience that makes a retailer stand out from the crowd.
O2 has also appointed Cheryl Black as customer service director. Black is responsible for all O2 s call centre staff which number around 7000.

LG Mobile has struck a deal with fashion brand Prada. It will launch its first handset in collaboration with Prada in March and promises it will look like no other handset on the market.

The Prada phone follows other fashion-led LG handsets including its Chocolate phone which has sold more than six million outside of its home market South Korea and its Shine handset which launches in the UK in the first quarter.

LG Mobile marketing manager John Bernard said: The design of this handset will be revolutionary in the same way that the design of the Chocolate was a first. It will look like no other handset on the market. In the same way that the Chocolate was utterly unique in its design because of its heat sensitive keypad the Prada phone will also be unique in its design.

Bernard said that no exclusive deals had yet been struck with either retailers or networks but that one of each should get a limited exclusivity period on the device. It just depends on who is hungriest he said.