From December 1 it will be illegal to hold a mobile phone while driving. The phone must be fixed to a holder on the dashboard or otherwise securely fixed and talking must be handsfree.

The RAC estimates that as many as a third of all motorists may break the law – unwittingly or not.

RACs research shows a fifth of the motorists who were aware of the change in the law were wrong in their knowledge of what the new law would involve.

Some thought that using a hand-held mobile would still be legal. Others believed that cradling the phone between shoulder and ear would be legal.

Some believed using an ear-piece and wire attached to the phone would be acceptable. In fact none of these will be allowed.

Fourteen per cent of motorists thought that an outright ban of mobile phone use behind the wheel was due to be introduced.

Twenty per cent said that the change in the law would stop them using their phone entirely.

Five per cent said they would continue to use their mobile phone illegally risking a fixed penalty of 30 or a fine on conviction of up to 1000 for hardcore offenders.

Sixteen per cent intended to buy an earpiece and wire device not realising that this will also be illegal as they would need to handle the phone in the car to operate it.

Sixty-two per cent were planning to invest in a Bluetooth kit or a cradle-mounted handsfree kit.

Our research suggests that further explicit guidance is required to ensure that motorists know what they will face when the law changes in December commented RAC spokesperson Rebecca Bell.

Its estimated that 500000 motorists are on the phone in their cars at any one time. As many as a third will deliberately or inadvertently continue to break the law when the use of handheld phones is prohibited (see White Lines P48).

Meanwhile phone kit installer Toad Group said it installed 10 times as many handsfree kits than usual last summer in the run-up to the December 1 deadline.

The fleet industry has always put drivers first when it comes to safety said Toad director of sales and technical services Paul Hughes.

The rush to beat the legal deadline shows that companies are bringing forward planned installations. Company car drivers need to be contactable and the use of plug-in earpieces is no longer a satisfactory measure especially when a high-quality low-cost solution can so easily facilitate urgent messages that just cannot wait.

The two shareholders were set for an embarrassing High Court appearance following KPNs refusal to contribute a 150 million shareholder loan to help fund the operation.

A last-minute settlement has avoided this with KPN Mobile receiving 60 million now and 30 million over the next three years.

KPN argued that the March 2003 request was purely voluntary and that it was under no legal obligation under the shareholder agreement with Hutchison Whampoa to contribute.

KPN issued a statement in September 2002 announcing it would make no further investments in Hutchison 3G unless required to do so by the shareholder agreement.

Both companies said they were happy to put the dispute behind them.

It can store up to 100 photos or 10 Java games and will cost 169.99 on pre-pay or come free on O2 contract.

O2 has also revealed its long awaited replacement for the xda the xda II which will be available on November 1.

The new PDA-based smartphone has a 128Mb memory a faster 400MHz Intel PXA processor and Microsoft Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system.

The biggest change is the addition of an integrated 640×480 pixel camera and 65000-colour display with MMS capabilities. The unit is tri-band and Bluetooth-enabled.

O2 chief marketing and data officer Kent Thexton said the networks strategy was to work exclusively with manufacturers to fill gaps in the market. It had an exclusive arrangement with HTC to produce the xda although HTC has built similar devices for other operators.

O2 claimed to have sold 79000 units of the original xda in the UK Germany Ireland and Asia. According to the network xda users use around 4Mb of GPRS data per month – three times more data than the average Nokia 6310i user. Xda users generate 35 per cent more revenue than the average O2 post-pay customer the network said.

Cerm Urmen (21) of Pasture Road Catford was remanded on unconditional bail until November 17 at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court last Tuesday. His lawyers are to consult the Crown Prosecution Service with a view to having the case dealt with by a caution.

He is charged with stealing a 177 Sony Ericsson T610 at the Orange Shop at Whiteleys shopping centre in Queensway between June 22 and June 28.

He is also charged that between June 17 and November 1 he dishonestly obtained a telecoms service from Orange making calls costing 123.36 with intent to avoid payment.

Vodafone Germany has one million live! users followed by the UK with 710000 users.

The network is now rolling out its service under licence to partner networks in which it doesnt have a controlling interest such as SFR in France and Swisscom in Switzerland.

Vodafone live! was launched on October 24 last year with the aim of promoting services rather than technology. Vodafone live! integrates WAP MMS and GPRS technologies with no intervention required from the user.

Live! customers have downloaded some three million games and more than 10 million polyphonic ringtones.

Live! launched with a multi-million pound advertising campaign on TV radio and billboards which depicted sporting icons David Beckham and Michael Schumacher using Vodafone live! to play games and send picture messages.

Nokia recently drew puzzled looks when it unveiled its teardrop-shaped 7600 3G phone.

The 7700 suggests the companys desire for innovative handset design shows no sign of abating (see White Lines P48).

The 7700 uses the Nokia Series 90 user interface. It has 64Mb of internal memory and an expansion slot for additional memory. Users can store content such as music and video files as well as back up data.

The 7700 can be synchronised with a PC using Nokia software and also supports Bluetooth audio.

The 7700 seems to be Nokias answer to Sony Ericssons P900 and even ventures into traditional PDA territory. It lets users view web pages with a full Internet browser.

It also comes with a 65000-colour touch screen video playback and streaming an integrated VGA camera FM radio and multimedia messaging as well as standard diary and address book features. The unit supports GSM/GPRS and EDGE. Shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2004.

Nokias senior vice-president for entertainment and media Ilkka Raiskinen said the 7700 gave users instant access to media channels while on the move.

In another development Nokia has applied to de-list its shares from the London Stock Exchange.

Less than one per cent of the total global trading of Nokia shares takes place in London. Most trading occurs in New York and Helsinki where 25 and 60 per cent of trading volume takes place respectively.

Nokia expects the de-listing to take place around the end of November 2003.

The phone will first go to major retailers such as Carphone Warehouse. It will become available to independent dealers by the middle of the month.

I can see this being a huge seller for Christmas said Ian Robinson of MoCo Cell Link. Camera phones are really starting to take off and if you can offer one for less than 100 theyll fly off the shelves.

T-Mobile denies it is suffering handset shortages on a scale larger than Orange despite reports from dealers suggesting otherwise.

One dealer who talked on condition of anonymity said out of T-Mobiles 24 available handsets only six were available and all of them were on allocation.

Another said he was told there were no contractable phones whatsoever available.

The situation is absolutely appalling – it is probably worse than 3 which is saying something he said.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said that high numbers of connections might be a reason for any handset shortages.

The men are accused of robbing Graham Phillips of a Nokia in Notting Hill London on October 20.

They are trainee accountant Shofiqur Rhman (20) sales assistant Raju Ullah (19) student Neizam Uddin (22) and two 17-year-olds who cannot be named for legal reasons.

This is a good set of figures for Caudwell Group in another tough year for the mobile telecoms sector said CEO John Caudwell. We substantially grew volume turnover and profit – but pressure on margin remained a constant factor.

Phone Fix was the brand name for Service Xpress the repair company that Phones International bought from European Telecom in May last year.

Phone Fix was recently shut down and its outstanding business transferred to Total Repair Solutions.

Barry Jenkins of Jersey dealer Photo Sound says he was alerted to a problem when some handsets had still not returned from Phone Fix three months after they had been sent away for repair.

They should have come back in four weeks.

He says he chased Phone Fix without success but received a letter from TRS saying it had taken over Phone Fixs repair business. TRS says it cannot locate any of the missing handsets.

He claims he has had to replace the handsets or refund customers money.

This is not a satisfactory situation. TRS says some of the handsets are not on its system. Its a shambles said Jenkins.

We have had to replace three handsets for customers This has cost us 600.

The letter from TRS said we would experience a better service. It has actually got worse. We have been left in a difficult situation.

Phones International says it wrote to Phone Fix customers stating that the business was being transferred to TRS.

Phones International claimed it was forced to jettison Phone Fix after a change in Nokias repair payment policy and because of its inability to achieve accreditation with other manufacturers. The decision cost 12 jobs.

We are concerned that customers are reporting problems said Phones International Group marketing director Eric White.

I am happy to look into individual cases. We are still in a transition phase transferring the business to TRS.

White commented that the market for service and repair has been a challenging one.

We chose TRS on the basis of who could best serve needs of customers and support us as a group he said.