Virgin and Tesco are part of SpectrumCo a consortium formed by the Virgin group along with with Nextel Sonera EMI and private equity funds.

Other entrants to the auction apart from the four existing UK networks are 3G (owned by Irish telcom Eilrcom) Crescent Wireless (owned by shareholders with significant interests in Global Crossing which bought Racal Telecom) Epsilon Tele.Com (a subsidiary of Japanese finance house Nomura) NTL Mobile (jointly owned by NTL and France Telecom) One Tel Global Wireless (Australian-based telco) TIW UMTS (a subsidiary of Canadian telco TIW which also owns the UK TETRA operator Dolphin) Telefonica (Spanish and Latin American network operator) and WorldCom Wireless (a subsidiary of global telco MCI Worldcom).

The licences are expected to be awarded to the highest bidders in March. The final list of applicants who will qualify to take part in the auction will be confirmed in February following the completion of checks on applications.

The Government will auction five licences for blocks of spectrum for 3G services. The licence with the largest amount of spectrum is reserved for a new entrant to the UK mobile telecoms market. The minimum bid for the the five licences totals 500 million.

The main auction will take place over a number of rounds possibly lasting several weeks in total. Information on the progress of the auction including the most recent bids made by each bidder and the licence it is bidding for will be published on the auction website (http://www.spectrumauctions.gov.uk) shortly after the end of each round.

Out goes current managing director Tim Samples to be temporarily replaced by Kai-Uwe Ricke currently MD of Deutsche Tele-koms T-Mobile subsidiary.

Samples leaves One 2 One at the end of the month. Ricke (38) will have his seat while a permanent successor is sought

Ricke has headed T-Mobile since 1998 and has narrowed the market share differential with rival D2 Mannesmann. T-Mobile had 9.1 million customers at the end of last year making it one of Europes biggest mobile operators.

One 2 One is one of the most essential elements in Deutsche Tele-koms international strategy. I am looking forward to setting the direction for the business as part of the overall T-Mobile International venture and directing One 2 Ones continued aggressive growth in the UK said Ricke.

He pleaded guilty to obtaining a 20 phone from Selfridges by deception and also admitted stealing a Samsung phone.

Burke insisted that 600 of pre-pay vouchers which the Prosecution claimed had not been found were actually in his jacket pocket when he was searched after his arrest and had been retrieved.

I very much hope you have enjoyed the experience and are satisfied with the whole concept and service.

As sods law (sic) would have it three weeks after launching we experienced a couple of problems and Im writing to apologise if this has affected you.

Some of you had difficulty getting your phone up and running due to a set up issue with the network.

This has resulted in excess calls to our call centre which has meant that a number of you will have had difficulty getting through.

I realise this is enormously frustrating. Furthermore One 2 One have been carrying out some upgrade work on the network itself at the end of last week and the beginning of this week (ie January 12 which has affected voicemail and made outgoing calls difficult at times – not as great a start as we would have liked.

Most of these problems have been resolved but for the next couple of weeks you may well still find the call centre rather busy. By the way the quieter times to get through are generally weekday mornings.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience we may have caused you.

Meanwhile Virgin Mobiles Trowbridge-based call centre has recruited an extra 150 staff and is recruiting people to fill positions at all levels. Two more recruitment drives are planned before the end of the year (See P26 and White Lines).

The first version will be available this Autumn for connection to a GSM phone using GPRS high-speed data technology.

Future versions will incorporate mobile GPRS handset technology in to the palm-top device as a one-piece off-the-shelf handheld multimedia access.

The product will be a personal organiser with a full-colour touch screen and video camera as well as stereo audio and video capability. Users will be able to send and receive pictures listen to audio clips of sports events and hear music downloaded from the internet and play video clips.

Our aim is to become the worlds leading mobile multimedia operator and our agreement with Casio marks another significant step towards achieving this goal said VodafoneAirtouch chief executive Chris Gent.

To access the internet people will simply touch a pre-installed icon on the colour screen. This will immediately connect with VodafoneAirTouchs global internet portal. From there customers use the palm-tops colour display to browse internet content as from a fixed PC.

He allegedly claimed his previous employer Skipton dealer Mobile Telecom had gone out of business. The case has been adjourned.

The brand name of Eazypay is e-Vita and centres around the terminal which has been designed by an American company where it is used for pre-paid fixed line calling.

European Telecom has distribution rights for Europe the Middle East and Africa. The company estimates Eazypay will lose 500000 in its current financial year.

European Telecom recently raised another 2.61 million by placing another 900000 shares at 2.90 each. Around 88553 of these shares were bought by chairman and chief executive Warren Hardy.

Most of the money raised is being invested as working capital in Global Telematics European Telecoms joint venture with Racal Electronics. European Telecoms share of losses from the joint venture are expected to increase to around 1.3 million.

Hardy told Mobile News

I havent sold any shares. I have bought shares. It used to grate on me that when you do a placing the institutions tend to take that placing and get a good discount. The night before this placing saw the biggest falls in the US stock market for a long period. Yet these shares were snapped up at only a 2p to 3p discount to the closing price before the placement. That says something about the appetite and confidence the City has about our direction.

At the time of writing European Telecoms shares were trading at an all-time high of 4.97. They originally floated at 1.15.

The multi-million-pound deal could be the UKs largest ever sponsorship deal with the worlds most popular football team.

It would coincide with VodafoneAirtouchs acquisition of Mannesman expected to be concluded today (February 7).

Vodafone already has a rolling three-year agreement to sponsor English cricket and has been the patron of the Derby for the last five years. A deal with Manchester United is likely to be of similar length.

Manchester United was widely thought to have accepted the Emirates Airline as its new sponsor taking over from Sharp. Emirates was bidding 30 million for the contract. So Vodafones bid is likely to be far in excess of that.

Sponsorship of Manchester United would be a perfect strategy for Vodafone. Manchester Uniteds millions of supporters around the world are hot prospects for all of Vodafones products and services; from pre-pay phones and short messaging to internet access and e-commerce through its soon-to-be launched Casio-made mobile internet terminals (see story this page).

Manchester United has its own digital TV channel and web site which only last week was hosting a VodafoneAirtouch banner. So the symbiosis for both organisations is immense.

Both are now global brands recognised throughout the world. It would make insignificant BTCellnets sponsorship of Middlesbrough and One 2 Ones sponsorship of Everton.

At the time of going to press Vodafone was not making any comment.

Meanwhile BTCellnet and Halifax have partnered to provide on-line banking by the summer with SMS text messaging and WAP banking followed by GPRS high-speed data services in the Autumn.

Other Natwest services will include the ability to look at the 12 most recent transactions and via the Short Message Service (SMS) be alerted to things such as when their balances reach a certain limit or that their credit card payment is due.

The service has been developed with Orange. NatWest says more than 100000 people have signed up to its Internet banking service since its introduction in November. An average of more than 1700 a day have joined since the beginning of this year.

BTCellnet will supply Halifax with mobile services.

The face of banking is rapidly changing and is being driven by technology and mobile communications said BTCellnet MD Peter Erskine.

Asecurity guard who stole a mobile phone from the place he was supposed to be guarding was fined 200 after pleading guilty to stealing the Nokia phone from the offices in Grosvenor Place.

James Wallace was arrested at the building on January 31 and the stolen phone was found when the police searched his house.

He admitted stealing the phone from a fourth floor office while patrolling the building.

The court was told the companys security manager called in the police after the phone went missing.

His solicitor said he had been tempted in a moment of weakness and had considered returning the phone.

The quantities of kit to be ordered are expected to dwarf the inventories of the major distributors such as 20:20 Logistics and European Telecom.

The partnership will be effective from early April and is expected to account for 14 per cent of total market share of pre-pay mobile communication.

We are all constantly looking at ways we can put the customer first. As the mobile communications market develops and new technology and services become available it is essential that we retain our competitive edge in order to provide the best possible service said Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone.

This agreement will allow us to continue to provide the (cont P2) best packages for our customers while accessing the latest developments in the industry especially in relation to pre-pay mobile phones.

Woolworths managing director Leo McKee said:

We will be exploring a number of options including accessing Carphone Warehouses expertise via concessions in selected Woolworths sites.