NEC has sponsored Harlequins for the last three years.

Our relationship with NEC harlequins has made a valuable contribution to the profile of NEC since the sponsorship began said NEC Mobile Phones commercial manager Andy Press.

NEC last month launched its first phones for the One 2 One network. The DB500 and DB2000 phones were adapted to support One 2 One customer service features.

The two organisations marked their alliance by releasing 10000 balloons. The finder of the balloon which travelled furthest in the country from its launch site at Borehamwood won a new NEC One 2 One phone and 50 of free calls.

Part of the change to the stores is an extension of the communications centres to provide more space for selling phones from all four networks. Tandy was acquired by The Carphone Warehouse earlier this year.

This is part of our plan to drive business forward as we reposition ourselves said Tandy marketing controller Harminder Sidhu.

We have changed our in-store layout to provide customers with a more user-friendly experience and greater choice.

The moves are part of a new marketing strategy and follow staff cuts intended to reduce costs.

Iridium which offers mobile phone satellite services has signed up only 15000 subscribers a disaster compared with its goal of a half-million subscribers by the end of the year.

The price cuts from next month include a new international flat rate of about $3 a minute (down from $7 a minute). Calls within Europe or the United States and Canada will cost less than $2.50 a minute.

Motorola and Kyocera will begin selling Iridium phones for less than $1000 down from more than $3000 in some markets. Motorola owns 18 percent of Iridium.

Motorola is introducing new pricing on the entire portfolio of Satellite Series handsets pagers and select accessories. Kyocera plans to reduce the price of its satellite voice handset.

Earlier this month Iridium fired 15 percent of its 550 employees including most of its marketing executives.

Iridium will also shift the emphasis from business travellers to the boating and agriculture industries and government agencies.

To reach these markets weve got to have a simpler pricing structure that does not leave our customers vulnerable to high per-minute charges said Iridium chief executive John Richardson.

Feedback from the market provided two essential messages lower and simplify the pricing and focus on the customers who have the greatest need for the service.

We have responded with price reductions that will allow our service providers to offer service price reductions of up to 65 per cent of the original price. We have also simplified pricing so each customer will enjoy a flat per minute rate for international calls.

In doing so we have repositioned Iridium as a competitively-priced telecommunications solution for our customers whether they are industrial users in mining maritime oil and gas or individual users on business travel or vacation – any customer that has a need to communicate from remote locations.

The initial marketing strategy targeted high-end business users but was flawed Richardson admitted.

A lot of very bright scientists got together and produced something that had immense commercial application . But they didnt really give much thought as to how they were going to sell it he said.

These reductions have a short-term impact on our bottom line. Attractive pricing and customer-driven service will help us to load the customers we need.

Advanced now handles all C.F. Roberts telecoms traffic and sends them a single bill for both fixed and mobile services. The order came after the company tried out Advanceds fixed-line service called Freetalk Business and realised it could save up to 35 per cent on its total call costs.

Unemployed Shantel Pilgrim (19) had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to stealing a phone case and cover worth 34.98 from The Link last November. Her friend sales assistant Patrician Korneh (21) admitted dishonestly handling the cover.

They also admitted stealing a 19.99 scarf from JD Sports in Kensington High Street.

E-pay is a new venture set up by Banner Telecoms John Gardiner to provide electronic distribution of pre-pay vouchers (see story P16 ).

Since the sale of MPC to Vodafone Connect two years ago Althasen has continued to run the franchise element of the business from MPCs head office in Southend.

John Gardiner and I have known each other for many years and both of us have similar ideas concerning the future of the pre-pay market said Althasen.

The market is ready for our e-pay solution and we have laid down plans to develop the business in the UK and then overseas.

Our solution solves most of the current distribution theft and fraud problems currently experienced in the industry.

The potential is tremendous he added.

It now calls itself ServiceXpress and aims to process repairs within 24 hours.

ServiceXpress is the perfect name for our business since it communicates our core service messages as well as the ability to carry out repairs within 24 hours. The name is also more user friendly which is critical to our long-term strategy of promoting our services to the wider telecoms industry said ServiceXpress general manager Joel Gomm.

There is a sizeable market among the UKs 14.5 million mobile owners. We will be working with Kondor and Pama to establish nation-wide distribution of our headsets to meet demand said Plantronics retail sales manager Chris Wall.

Pay & Go is a mass-market package for regular users who will be able to make free calls to a single landline number at any time.

Business Pay & Go is designed for the small business market.

BTCellnet has signed more than a million pre-pay customers in a year. It expects to reach two million customers soon.

Sainsburys will be selling the Maxon MN1 package at 69.99 from free-standing display racks as well as 5 and 10 top-up cards.

This brings to 2000 the number of supermarkets now selling Vodafone Pay As You Talk which is also sold by Tesco Somerfield and Spar.

Supermarkets account for nearly 10 per cent of pre-pay sales in the UK. Vodafone reckons this will increase over the next year to 20 per cent of the total market for pre-pay phones and top-up vouchers.

Sainsburys Savacentre was the first multiple retailer to launch digital Pay As You Talk phones and we are delighted to build on this success with the national roll-out to 400 Sainsburys stores nation-wide said Vodafone Connect managing director David Jones.

The attraction and convenience of buying phones from supermarkets has been clearly reflected in our sales with around 50 per cent of Vodafones customers on Pay As You Talk being women Jones added.