Year we go again

JANUARY
Computer chip trader Bond House Systems, concludes a three-year battle for a £13 million VAT repayment and has the industry eyeing mass pay-outs on withheld VAT.
Meanwhile, Orange sets the tone by cutting off great swathes of distance sellers after a review to identify low-value connectors.
Samsung ‘s Mark Mitchinson and Virgin Mobile ‘s Graeme Hutchinson, meanwhile, predict a grim year for dealers as networks continue to muscle in on the high street and the web.
All news is overshadowed, mid-month, by the tragic death of Dextra executive Craig Abraham on a Nokia skiing trip. Former Dextra chief Mark Ormerod pays tribute: Craig was one of the nicest guys you could ever have hoped to work with.
Vodafone takes another step away from independent consumer retail by blocking commission for early consumer upgrades. The network also appoints Chris Huggett as director of enterprise sales from Cisco EMEA.
Phil Sambrook appointed head of trade sales for Carphone ‘s SIM-free distribution arm Mobile Phone Express, following the resignation of Keith Bennett.
Phones 4U has £100,000 in SIM-free stock, plus the weekends ‘ takings, stolen from a branch in Aberdeen by a store manager. A crooked staffer for rival multiple Carphone steals thousands, but escapes jail.

FEBRUARY
Peter Jones ‘s Phones International bags tens of millions from investment bank Credit Suisse in return for a 25 per cent chunk of the business. Jones talks about acquisitions.
Hugh Symons, fresh from takeover and acting like a superpower distributor, secures airtime distribution with Virgin Mobile. It is the first distributor to boast a roster of six.
Dealers grumble about Orange ‘s decision to slash commissions on 12-month loyalty upgrades. All networks embark on a mass cull of distance sellers.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile introduces Flext. Dealers love it and the cash registers ring.
Hugh Symons starts a long, ugly slide with the networks under the stewardship of Carphone ‘s Steve Fraser. Commission on O2 and Vodafone consumer connections jumps as it leverages its Carphone privileges. Fraser pitches Vanilla to Hugh Symons dealers.
Chitter Chatter splits from T-Mobile to sell all networks through Carphone ‘s Vanilla.
Also this month, 3 starts to glue SIM cards to pre-pay phones in an attempt to stop box-breaking. Our Mystery Shopper shows up the high street multiples for failing to back the government ‘s Immobilise crime prevention drive.
And proof comes in that HM Revenue and Customs had strong-armed UK banks to suspend banking services to traders.

MARCH
Samsung axes Data Select. Dealers shrug and scratch their heads at Orange ‘s new animal tariffs. They ‘re not aggressive enough, they say, and there are complaints that they pigeonhole the punter.
The Accessory People offers £100,000 for information on four men in balaclavas and boiler suits who ram-raided its warehouse in Chessington and beat up director Les St George.
Freight forwarders warn that raids and hijacks of mobile phone stock around Heathrow have spiralled dramatically in the past two months. As much as £40 million has been lost in the past six.
Vodafone falls out with Carphone over the management of the network ‘s contract base  churn is too high.
Hugh Symons tells dealers they ‘ll be able to take advantage of Carphone ‘s product set and economies of scale by July.
In another early shot across the bows, Nokia audits leading distributors including Dextra and Data Select for counterfeit accessories.
Orange launches its new dealer federation in Birmingham, which replaces its OBS scheme and cuts membership to just 16.

APRIL
There is virtually no stock left of T-Mobile ‘s MDA Vario e-mail device in any distribution channel in the country. Both direct and indirect channels complain that they don ‘t know when the next shipment ‘s due.
South-west dealer chain Intek opens more stores, taking its retail footprint to a whacking 30  huge in independent terms. Anglia parent company Symphony Telecom seeks 60 dealers to bolster its base over the next 12 months.
Distributors worry that new warranty rules from Nokia will prevent them dabbling in the ܘgrey ‘ market, and sourcing handsets abroad.
3, looking more and more like an established old toad every day, says it will open 60 stand-alone stores by Christmas. Dealers curse.

MAY
Their dismay switches from 3 to T-Mobile after it cuts 20 per cent from its Business 1 plan. This is just the start. T-Mobile also warns dealers that it will terminate their accounts if they use outbound call centres to target customers.
Then Orange embarks on phase two of its dealer cull to root out bad apples. Six are reported, but it is suspected this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Nokia ‘s audit of Dextra finds counterfeit accessories and it terminates Dextra ‘s accessories contract. Dextra managing director Mark Ormerod falls on his sword. 20:20 Mobile managing director Mark Ryan assumes control.
Welsh distributor Vanguard is on the
verge of being acquired by a
new owner after going into administration.
Suspended Carphone director of indirect distribution Steve Fraser faces a disciplinary hearing following an investigation into his management style and conduct.
Midlands-based Go Mobile purchases all 10 retail outlets from Derbyshire dealership A1 Comms for an undisclosed fee, taking its store portfolio to 35. So much for a year of consolidation, Mr Humphreys.

JUNE
Vodafone enterprise customer management director Chris Tombs announces his shock departure from Newbury. It comes on the heels of a spate of high-level departures and rumours of a management rift.
Two weeks later, Vodafone enterprise business sales director Chris Hugget leaves and Mark Bond takes the hotseat. This coincides with Vodafone ‘s acquisition of Yes Telecom.
Ex-Vodafone corporate affairs director Mike Caldwell dies on June 6 in the Royal Marsden Hospital after losing his battle against cancer at the age of 53.
T-Mobile sales director Simon Ainslie replaces Mats Wolontis as Nokia UK managing director. T-Mobile chief of direct sales Gordon Ballantyne assumes the role of sales director for both direct and indirect channels.
Dealers threaten to boycott networks over unethical behaviour. Hundreds throw their weight behind a new dealer association.
Distributors urge Vodafone to concentrate on gaining business acquisitions through indirect channels in response to the company ‘s record £20 billion losses. Vodafone axes 6,000, including 400 from its Newbury headquarters.
Carphone staff are put under increased pressure to reach targets or face disciplinary action. This is the result of the appointment of former Phones 4U boss Anthony Catterson as managing director of retail in April.
The European Commission backs Customs ‘ application for a reverse-charge mechanism on VAT payments on mobile phones and computer chips in the UK. Experts warn that this could create increased fraud in the channel.

JULY
Vodafone CEO Nick Read warns old-guard staffers to embrace the new corporate culture or look for a new job. Tim Sherwood, Vodafone ‘s business development director, takes voluntary retirement after 13 years with the company. Distributor channel manager Keith Varty leaves the company.
Carphone confirms the appointment of former Orange UK sales director Stuart Henry as managing director of indirect distribution.
EasyMobile announces plans to launch 3G handsets.
Distributors worry that Orange head of sales for independent retail Chris Hough will apply for voluntary redundancy  the first time Orange makes such an option available in its history. Sure enough, he does. He joins Staffordshire distributor Mainline Digital Communications.
T-Mobile connections drop 70 per cent and are set to fall further on the back of commission cuts of 25 per cent. Many dealers remove T-Mobile point-of-sale material from their stores altogether. T-Mobile says there ‘ll be no more money until after Christmas.
Insurance investigator Royston Ford tells 200 people at a Mobile News crime conference that at least six people have been murdered because of VAT fraud in the past four years.
Vodafone Business dealers complain they ‘ve lost business because connections are taking up to four days with its new fulfilment system.
Orange withdraws the Nokia N91 from its handset portfolio because of technical issues.
Dextra airtime appoints Chris Jones as MD.

AUGUST
Vodafone exits The Link before The Link exits the high street forever.
Dealers experience massive delays in connecting customers to Orange because its Enable system crashes repeatedly.
The Caudwell Group is sold for £1.46 billion. Equity firm Doughty Hanson takes 20:20 Logistics and Dextra Solutions. Providence takes Phones 4U ‘s 350-store chain.
Daventry-based distributor Shebang secures airtime distribution with 3.
Thousands of mobile phone and CPU traders are informed that their bank accounts will be closed because of pressure from Customs on the First Curacao International Bank in the Dutch Antilles.
Nokia clamps down on box-breaking by introducing tougher security software on low-end handsets.

SEPTEMBER
Carphone ‘s Stuart Henry moves its Mobile Phone Express handset distribution arm to Crewe, the home of rival distribution business 20:20 Logistics.
Virgin Mobile counts itself out of the running for the remaining Link stores up for grabs. 3 takes 95, Orange takes 50-odd and T-Mobile and Phones 4U pick up a handful each.
NEC pulls out of the UK and European handset markets because of high production costs and competition.
Data Select jumps on the bandwagon and terminates a handful of dealers afters 3 clawed back money for fraudulent connections.
LG brings Steve Fraser in from the cold to head up its open market programme and boost sales through retailer and distributor channels. Gary Venn joins as marketing chief from The Link.

OCTOBER
The FCIB says it can ‘t  and won ‘t  pay traders money that is frozen in its accounts. It has £75 million tied up. Customs ‘ own freezing orders are expected in the next fortnight
T-Mobile signs up its millionth customer to Flext, just seven months after launch.
Daventry dealership Go Mobile opens up two more stores, taking its total retail footprint to 37 stores. It also opens its first franchise store, in Alton, Buckinghamshire.
O2 overhauls its channel partner services teams to provide dealers and distributors a better quality of customer care.
A former PNC Telecom director repays in full money taken from the business on his resignation in 2004, according to founder Joe Case.
Network operators and handset distributors are left in the dark over the future of BenQ Mobile ‘s UK operation, after the German operation is shut down by its Taiwanese parents with losses of around £570 million. Managing director Philip
Rambech places the UK business in administration too. Around 30 lose their jobs.
Nokia is set to reinstate Dextra as an official Nokia accessories distributor, after terminating its distribution contract in April.
Vodafone pulls its contract deal with Carphone. Phones 4U gets the gig. It signs up for 12 months and guarantees Vodafone sales of around 35,000 per month. O2 and Orange make public statements to the effect that they will, also look to review their terms with Carphone.
Having said it wouldn ‘t, T-Mobile hikes commissions to stop the rot. It puts in another £80 per box, regardless of whether targets are met or not.
Orange confirms its broadband service will be available to dealers before the end of the year. Commissions will be payable to selected dealers and distributors for connections. It has since put that back to early next year.

NOVEMBER
European Telecom absorbs the staff and business contracts of troubled Essex B2B dealer Business Comms, and moves the business to its Waltham Abbey headquarters.
Vodafone follows the sacking of Carphone by cutting ties with Fone Logistics after 10 years. The axe is poised over Hugh Symons and MoCo Distribution. Only Avenir, Anglia and Yes will remain unaffected by the review.
Former 20:20 Logistics purchasing manager Roy Taylor joins Data Select as director of purchasing.
Connections at Carphone stores in the south of England are just 85 per cent of targets and staff are unhappy selling TalkTalk Broadband because of poor customer experience.
Orange starts to turn away new dealer account applications for the first time ever. The move comes just as the number of applications for dealer codes has doubled on the back of swathes of dealer cuts by the networks.
3 launches its X-Series mobile Internet service, priced at either £5 or £10 per month. Subscribers can make unlimited VoIP calls, watch television and access their home PCs from their mobile phone.

DECEMBER
Orange retail staff look set to strike on bonus clawbacks after staff pay plummets by £300 per month, while managers ‘ bonuses increase three-fold. Staff face bonus claw-backs if they don ‘t maintain sales month-on-month
Meanwhile, Carphone is in danger of being left off the Sunday Times ‘ list of the top 20 big companies to work in the UK, having been sixth-placed last year. Carphone chief executive Andrew Harrison urges staff to respond.
The 20:20 Mobile Group has re-appointed James Browning as managing director of Dextra Solutions, following the departures of former 20:20 Logistics managing director Rod Millar and Dextra managing director Chris Jones.
Traders win a potential high court victory to force Customs to release VAT refunds withheld during extended verification. It is believed Customs is keeping around £1 billion of input tax claims from around 300 traders.
Data Select appoints Jason Kemp, formerly of 20:20 Logistics, as its new head of marketing.