Digifone announced it is also reducing the weekly Speakeasy peak tariff rate to 50p per minute (from 75p) and its off peak tariff rate to 15p per minute (from 20p).

The newly-reduced tariff rates will be available on the two pre-paid options (Early Bird and Night Owl). Digifone also plans to introduce Speakeasy WAP handsets to the market in the coming weeks.

Digifone has also introduced a new Timeshare tariff option for the small to medium sized business user.

A new umbrella pricing structure called Timeshare will allow individual businesses and companies to choose packages of 1000 2500 or 5000 bundled minutes per month which can be shared by all users within a company.

Digifone has introduced a mobile handset upgrade programme which is directly linked to customer spend and length of time connected to the network.

There are four tiers to the new loyalty scheme. Gold Platinum and Diamond.

They all relate to customer spend. But the Silver programme relates to the length of time a that a customer has been with the network.

Esat Digifone chief executive officer Barry Maloney said:

These are aggressive steps confirming our commitment to provide customers with the best value for money in the mobile market while also rewarding their loyalty to the Digifone network.

These announcements for pre-paid and small business mobile users follow the introduction of the Select tariffs last November which delivered significant savings for contract customers.

Todays announcement reaffirms Digifones commitment to delivering the best value proposition to the Irish marketplace and to further increase the better value gap between all our competitors and ourselves Maloney added.

The idea is that companies and organisations can immediately offer their services and information to large numbers of mobile phone users in an easy manner.

Consumers would click the Nokia Activ button on a web site and type in their mobile phone number. The settings of the service are sent over-the-air to the customers WAP phone as a text message.

The Nokia WAP Server connects WAP-enabled mobile handsets to content and services hosted by Web servers or any other internet or Intranet server.

While wireless internet is extending into everyday life ease-of-use of the services is obviously a key driver to encourage both customer take-up and customer loyalty said Pertti Lounama vice president at Nokia Internet.

Communications

This will be followed in the summer by a further three store openings completing phase four of Vodafones expansion programme in Scotland.

By July 2000 Vodafone will have one store or more in all of the main towns in Scotland including five in Glasgow three in Edinburgh and two in Dundee Stirling and Paisley ensuring that twice as many Scottish customers have direct access to Vodafone and the expert advice offered by staff.

WAP has been criticised and labelled an interim technology. WAP will develop into something greater than it is now said Tim Sheedy senior research analyst with IDCs European Wireless and Mobile Communications program.

But at the moment it is the only option available to deliver web or interactive content to mobile phones so it cannot be ignored or dismissed.

IDC expects SMS revenue to decline as improved data applications begin to offer similar services.

Operators will attempt to protect this important revenue stream and will introduce new pricing schemes to maintain SMS usage says Sheedy.

Domain Dynamics has licenced e-commerce internet company Earthport to enable users to access their Earthport account through a WAP phone using their voice as a security measure.

A Vodafone handset roaming on the Libertel network accessed WAP services from Vodafone Interactive which offers internet services including e-mail and personal customised news weather and sports information.

The Dutch mobile roamed onto the UK GPRS network to access Dutch WAP services (Libertel Open) and the intranet.

Vodafone Value Added & Data Services MD Richard Jarvis commented:

MP3 is a technology that allows CD quality music to be compressed into a file which is small enough to download easily from the internet to a PC. It can then be played on a computer with special software or a dedicated MP3 player.

The Virgin-branded Samsung SGH M100 combined mobile and MP3 player will retail at around 300 when it launches to the public later this summer.

It will be sold with the usual Virgin Mobile tariff package.

In-bound calls automatically pause the music until the user hangs-up at the end of their conversation. The MP3 mobile will be available from Virgin Mobile direct Virgin Megastores or over the internet

This mobile marks the beginning of a new period in music retailing and distribution and it is the epitome of modern mobile technology said Virgin Group head Sir Richard Branson.

Virgin has been at the forefront of the music industry. In the new media world we aim to continue that tradition. With the record companies and artists making moves to sell their music over the internet we see a great future for digital music download technology.

We have plans to let people buy music and have it downloaded straight to their phone in our stores. And in the future it will be possible to buy and download music over the air using the mobile network itself.

Virgin customers will be able to download up to an albums worth of music from the internet or from a CD onto their Virgin Mobile Samsung MP3 phone via their computer.

The Samsung phone comes with 32Mb of memory and software allowing customers to digitally store and file their private CD collection or web-sourced MP3 music then download it onto their MP3 phone. It takes approximately 30 seconds to transfer a three-minute track from PC to the phone.

The launch will be backed by a heavy advertising campaign targeting a core audience of 18-35 year olds.

The Licence for 3G services in Ireland will be offered by the end of February 2001. A decision has not yet been made on the competition format or the number of licences to be awarded. A total of 155 MHz of radio spectrum is available for 3G mobile services in Ireland.

Addressing the workshop the Irish telecoms regulator Etain Doyle said:

3G mobile brings together the two fastest growing market sectors mobile and the internet. It represents a major evolution in mobile communications bringing together the full power of the internet with high quality audio video and graphics to people on the move.

Rage the developer and publisher of computer games is to provide Orange with a range of interactive games which can be accessed and played through WAP-enabled mobile phones.

The first game to be made available to Oranges WAP subscribers will be a graphic and text based adventure.

Paul Finnegan who is the chief executive officer of Rage commented:

The explosive growth in internet gaming through fixed and wireless devices provides us with a huge number of opportunities on which we intend to capitalise.

To have the Rage brand associated with a company of Oranges stature is a great endorsement of our products and capabilities and we are looking forward to working with them to provide increasingly innovative and value added services to their subscribers.