THE TRUTH OF MOBILE PHONE CONTRACTS NEW

							WITHOUT PREJUDICE. 1 June 2012



                       THE TRUTH OF MOBILE PHONE CONTRACTS


In the beginning in 1984 where       Vodafone and Cellnet on GSM 900 MHz and in 1990 1800 MHz
with Orange and One 2 one.

As any new industry, it was all go for growth, so individuals set up

Companies selling airtime and installing handsfree phones. Now there are more mobiles than people

in the UK, with millions of old mobiles in people’s drawers at work and at home.

RULE 1: There are no new customers; Corporate i.e. over 200 mobiles/Small
Business and Individuals
RULE 2: The Networks after 25 years of using Dealers/Business Partners to get new customers – to
make profit – to push up share price – to cash in Directors share options – now they want to take all
customers direct. This for individuals is via:

    1. Network owned Retail Shops
    2. Their own web site

RULE 3: All Networks fall down badly at looking after the Small Business Customers who have
between 5-100 mobiles. Their version of customer service is a phone call every 12 months to say
hello and then a sales call at month 23/24 when the original contract is due for renewal.

RULE 4: If you are a small business and want somebody who takes the time to understand your
business, can recommend the right airtime package and equipment to suit your needs, who has a
personal long term interest in getting it right first time and will carry out 3 month billing reviews,
make recommendations, come and say hello every 3 months and be contactable by e-mail, fax and
old fashioned landline = you could do worse then give us a call 01935 815303.

RULE 5: Vodafone have their Business Partners (independently owned Companies) divided into
Platinum, Gold and Silver Partners. The Platinum Partners as logic would dictate, are based in large
cities and Silver Partners in the country (its all about connection levels – churn rate etc.)

O2 has centre of excellent partners and then large companies, Daisy Distribution, Avenir Telecom
who act on behalf of O2 and look after smaller partners.

Orange – Orange are now owners of T-Mobile with a very strange overall marketing plan or possibly
no plan at all. Everything-Everywhere, a name which says nothing and means nothing. They appear
to be on a Group cost cutting drive and using T-Mobile at present to offer all you can eat deals, but
at the same time merging transmitter sites (to save millions in running costs) great idea but how
about some new sites to give better coverage in the South W but still a good Network but could be
so much more. Orange killed the Independent Dealers by taking all individuals customers on direct
via web or Retail shops. How? They all but stopped paying dealers to sign up and look after
customers about 4/5 years ago so everyone went direct.



They have tried for the last 10 years to poach Business Customers from Dealers by lots of very
underhand means (i.e. direct calling, offering better tariffs than in their Pay Plan or on web site,
saying come direct for better service, don’t deal with dealers as they will rip you off! Etc. etc. Have
heard it all and had lots of discussions with Orange Directors, but who am I! Just the person that
connected 6000 new numbers for them and tried to build a business by being loyal – (what a fool I
was).

RULE 6: All Networks are sub divided into distinct groups.

For Vodafone read:

Web Site/Direct Individual Sales/Direct Small Business/Corporate Sales/Business Partners.

None of the above are related to the other, none of any offers apply outside each individual
department – the only thing that is common is the Network (can be very confusing for people).

O2: Again as Vodafone, but working on a complicated Revenue/share/commission based structure,
where they want everyone including Partners to bring in high ARPU per month i.e. £30 per person
per mobile per month.

So, if you get your Business Plan correct on minutes used/texts/data usage and get your average per
month between £20-£25 per user (applies to 5-100 accounts) O2 say this is too low ARPU, so when
upgrades due in 24 months they pay very low commission. My job is to get your mobile bill as low as
possible, not inflate it for benefit of O2 profit – so a Catch 22 situation that has to be balanced with
regard to customer Network choice, choice of handset, choice of Tariff.

ORANGE: Again divided into separate and distinct departments. Retail Shop/Online Shop/Direct
Individual Sales/Direct Small Business Department (over 10 mobiles) – Direct Corporate Sales and
then Business Partners looked after by Mainline (30% owned by Orange) Daisy telecom and Avenir
Telecom. An offer by one Department is different to offer by another Department and causes great
confusion for the general public. There are very very different commercials given to each
Department so you can find Orange on line often cheaper than Retail Shops (i.e. no
rent/rates/wages etc).

Orange has a large base of Small Business customers, there are looked after by Independent
Partners and Orange Direct but it seems Call Centres are able to find out contract end dates and
drive customers mad with incessant sales calls, trying to take customers from the Independent
Dealer . Why deal with someone 200 miles or more away with Orange in Darlington when you have
a Dealer local to you. Let him sort out any problems on your account and supply new mobiles etc.
Why go elsewhere?!
             THE WAY FORWARD – SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS


All Small Businesses relay on other local businesses for their trade, be it Printers/Garage for
servicing/ IT Company/Stationery etc. so why go direct to a Network. If everyone’s customers went
direct to a large supplier, via the Internet, they would have no business. By supporting a local
Business we all put monies back into our local area and the more successful we become, we employ
more people, so more money back into our community. The only real option now the Banking
Industry has put UK PLC into Bankruptcy.



VODAFONE PARTNER SERVICES (www.partnerservices.co.uk)

The only true Network and Independent Partner programme. This gives full Account Management
/Sim swaps in 10 secs/3 monthly billing reviews inc data usage/able to speak on your behalf and
carry out tariff changes.One net- linking your landlines to mobiles with no cost.

ORANGE.

BUSINESS MOBILE gives us the abilty to speak to orange on your behalf and special deals for new
connections and regular network updates.

O2 network

Approved by o2 for new connections and upgrades.



ALL THE ABOVE AND CONTENT ON THIS WEB SITE IS MY OWN OPTIONS.OTHER PEOPLE MAY
DISAGREE AND THAT IS THERE RIGHT.

I HAVE WRITTEN THIS IN GOOD FAITH TO TRY AND CLEAR UP MANY POINTS THAT CAN CAUSE
CONFUSION TO CUSTOMERS.