The technology is being supplied by the Sema Groups SemaVision software.

Vodafone chose the system because it says it is easy to use and that information can be quickly updated with data from partner organisations such as the Automobile Association.

Its integration with our other systems means that in a few months we will be in a position to offer a range of commercially-viable services said Tony Riley sales and marketing director of Vodafone Added and Data Services.

The freebies contain a tiny deckchair stand for the phone sunglasses disposable camera sun block and a transparent phone case.

The promotion is being support by a national press and ad campaign.

Connection to the customers bank is over Vodafones GSM network. An authorisation time of beweteen 13 and 15 seconds is being claimed.

The idea of the devices is to enable businesses to process electronic transactions wherever the customer is such as an exhibition sporting event or in the home (eg delivery services).

This waiver comes at a critical time for Iridium said John Richardson CEO of Iridium LLC.

With our lower and simplified prices taking effect in July we now have the time to implement our refocused marketing strategy.

Iridiums new strategy announced June 21 (Mobile News June 28) includes airtime price reductions of up to 65 per cent a flat per-minute rate for international calls and a greater emphasis on creating a value proposition for industrial customers .

The companys two product manufacturers Motorola and Kyocera are significantly slashing the wholesale prices of their satellite phones and other subscriber equipment.

Iridium is negotiating with bank creditors to restructure the capitalisation of the company and intends to use the next six weeks to work with representatives of all of its creditors to reach an agreement in principle on financial restructuring.

The concept for the Iridium system was originally proposed by in 1987 by Motorola engineers Ray Leopold Ken Peterson and Barry Bertiger who envisioned a constellation of low orbiting satellites.

The problem was that they and the other American executives at Motorola never envisioned that there would be a pan-World terrestrial digital system called GSM that would enable people to use their mobile phones in practically all the worlds populated areas.

Iridium also faces competition from Globalstar which starts its own satellite phone service later this year.

Globalstar is a consortium of the worlds top telecoms service providers and equipment manufacturers such as Qualcom Alcatel France Telecom Hyundai and VodafoneAirTouch.

It has just released details of an Ericsson-made phone that is half the weight and size of the current range of Motorola and Kyocera Iridium handsets and which can also be used on GSM terrestrial networks as well as satellite.

An automatic phone message alerts users when their paid-for airtime is about to run out.

When their credit runs low they get an automatic top-up from a pre-set amount taken from their bank accounts by direct debit.

PreTalk combines the budgetary benefits of prep-aid telephony with the ease of postpaid services said Advanced managing director Gary Sheppard.

Advanced will handle all the laborious re-crediting. All customers have to do is tell us how much they want to top-up. Or they can wait until their credit runs out and top-up themselves.

Advanced supplies the PreTalk package for 79.99 based around the Siemens S8 handset.

Advanced will sell PreTalk through High-Street stores across the country.

The calls demonstrated the working of WCDMA prototype equipment during trials to investigate the characteristics of the WCDMA system.

Ericsson built a WCDMA test bed at its Guildford centre this year and has been carrying out live demonstrations of multimedia calls including mobile video test calls.

The Ericsson test facility has already been used by One 2 One to demonstrate real-time video conferencing involving two-way video calls between an office and a moving vehicle. The data speed achieved was around 50 times faster than current GSM mobile data rates.

Handover of the video call between different radio cells were made without any degradation of picture quality says One 2 One.

The service is expected to be available commercially in two years.

The network has linked up with Olympic WorldLink which develops business inf9ormation systems based on palmtop computers. The system will use high-speed GPRS technology to flash instant financial information such as real-time prices on 10000 contracts from 28 stock exchanges around the world to the palmtop computers.

The system uses the Microsoft CE operating system.

First year turnover of 250000 has risen to 3.5 million today according to figures released by the organisation.

The Mobile Phone Repair Company says it now handles around 23000 phones a month and says it is now the UKs largest mobile phone repair organisation.

We promise to repair phones to the highest standard and deliver it back in full working order within agreed time scales. For personal callers we offer a 30-minute service said the companys managing director Steve Cuthbert.

The GD30 has 50 phonebook memories 10 pre-defined SMS messages and 20 ringer tones. The GD50 is targeted at the business user and offers desktop handsfree speech and a multi-call function allowing up to five other callers to share a conversation.

The GD90 is Panasonics pitch at the smallest lightest claim and is certainly the companys smallest handset yet. It weighs 96gm (about a third of the weight of this copy of Mobile News). Phonebook numbers can be tagged to activate either a green or amber backlight when they are received as an incoming call.

Panasonic says it is working hard exploring W-CDMA applications to currently include photographic image transmission video images high speed data (music delivery video magazines) and automobile information.

Panasonic has been developing a Browser phone which uses the WAP protocol to allow users to send and retrieve emails access the internet directly as well as a host of additional applications.

Panasonic became a board member of the WAP Forum in June 1998 and has taken an active role in developing the new strategies and standards for web based communications of the future.

The store which opened last Saturday (June 19) is at the Freeport Outlet Mall and will offer phones and communications devices at a 30 per cent discount off recommended retail prices.

The first 100 customers were each given a free mobile phone as part of the opening day celebrations and promotions.

The store is the 83rd outlet to open since the launch of The Mobile Phone Stores in 1993. Another 60 stores are planned to be opened in the companys next financial year.

The Mobile Phone Store is 40 per cent owned by BTCellnet.