Carphone loses another Voda Contract

This time it is in the wholesale business arm - Hugh Symons. Although, the wholesale business is not significant in the overall scale of the CPW empire, it will cause some pain and is an indicator how ruthless the networks in general and Voda specifically are becoming with their indirect distribution.

Mobile Today also contains a excellent comment piece from the head of Avenir Telecom, Tanny Price, who is one of the largest UK distributors advising her customers not to panic but prepare for the storm.

I don't think I've ever known a year when people are more anxious about their survival than 2007. There is lots of euphemistic talk of 'consolidation'. The brutal truth is that the volume game for indies is up, and the operators want their own shops to dominate consumer business.

There are also rumours of something happening which will do wonders for the networks churn figures, but will strike fear into any dealer:

An extra present is also being planned for customers – two-year contracts. As if 18 months was not long enough. It's hard to see this is a response to overwhelming customer demand. Again, networks are flexing their muscles because they sense they have the whip hand.

Currently, 2007 looks as if it is going to be a really, really tough year for the independents. However, we have been here several times before and then at the beginning of March, one of the networks breaks ranks with the realisation that their customer numbers are looking really, really bad.

Game on…