m dealfinder will offer price and product information across a range of focused consumer categories each featuring goods from leading online and offline vendors.

The service will search in real-time for best prices best delivery times and stock availability from thousands of items that are on sale on the High Street and the web. Both parties will take a share of revenue generated from sales through the product.

Customers will be able to use m dealfinder to search compare and purchase goods across the digitalRUM network of vendors. Initially this will consist of over 20 categories including camcorders TVs VCRs minidisc players MP3 players Walkmans music systems and household goods such as fridges freezers washing machines vacuum cleaners and microwaves.

Johan van de Steen CEO of digitalRUM said:

A customer searching for the latest DVD player may be looking at a particular model in a High Street shop. mVivas m dealfinder will enable users to quickly check details such as prices and product information from the leading online and offline retailers. This service will provide the assurance that the customer has found the best possible deal and allows them to purchase securely via their WAP phone.

Users can either type in the barcode of the particular item they are interested in or search by the type of product they are looking for. Quoted prices include delivery and VAT and via a My Account service customers can track their order on their WAP phone and see at a glance the status of previous orders and vendors contact details. mViva MD Max Alexander said

This relationship with DigitalRUM is consistent with mVivas commitment to bringing the best mobile services to our users phones. m dealfinder is an easy-to-use feature with a clear benefit for shoppers whether they are browsing in the High Street or online.

The website will provide a range of information and services relating to the sport of rowing and the relatively new sport of super-sprint rowing.

Redgrave is considering retiring from world rowing after securing a fifth gold in Sydney. He plans to invest some of his time working with breathe to build a thriving online rowing community.

His relationship with breathe is through his involvement with a new health & wellbeing portal www.FeelGreatOnline.com of which he is a director and in which breathe are strategic partners.

Support and interest in rowing has grown over recent years. I believe this website will provide an entry point for rowing enthusiasts and newcomers to the sport to a vast online and mobile rowing resource. breathes interest has been most satisfying not just with the portal but we hope also in Rowings future comments Redgrave. breathe is also building a website for fellow Olympian rower Matthew Pinsent www.matthewpinsent.co.uk also involved with www.FeelGreatOnline.com.

This will also launch later this year.

We have been supporting Steve and Matt towards this goal in the run up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

This is an opportunity for us to help Steve bring his passion for rowing and fitness to the wider online audience as well as breathes mobile communities in sport and the new portal in health and wellbeing that will be launched later this year says breathe chief executive Sean Gardner.

Breathe founder Martin Dawes an individual investor in the site hopes the site will become the central online hub for super-sprint and rowing information and services.

Dawes says: Steve and Matthews expertise and devotion to the sport of rowing coupled with breathes legacy in creating a successful portal makes for a formidable team. I am very proud to be associated with their websites.

Francis joins from hi-tech metals group Flexonics where he was chief executive.

A US chartered accountant he is also a member of MENSA the society for people with above-average IQs.

In another move Michael

Norton has been appointed managing director of 20:20 Solutions part of the 500 million Caudwell kit distribution subsidiary 20:20 Logistics

Norton will be in charge of 20:20s facilities business.

We plan to become the retailers choice for mobile telecoms. We also plan to develop new routes to market. The non-specialist sector is expanding rapidly with everyone from supermarkets to catalogues now selling mobile phones. Our aim is to be the preferred supplier to this growing market said Norton (41) who has been in the food and service industries since he was 19 years old.

The campaignruns across radio national press and television listings press as well as window displays and point of sale promotional material.

The range of pantomime-themed ads will promote WAP phones. Vodafone promises to exchange any phone bought as as a gift up to Christmas and to hold connection so customers dont pay for it until after December 25.

Customers going into Vodafone stores during November and

December will be eligible for a promotion which offers them the chance to claim one of 10 top-selling CD titles from Sony as well as the chance to win a table at the 2001 Brit Awards with all expenses paid for up to five people.

Our Christmas campaign will have various characters and scenarios which customers will recognise. But weve given everything a modern mobile phone twist said Vodafone Retail sales director Ken Trowbridge.

The company sold 20.5 million worth of mobile phone insurance policies in the half year to September compared with 10.4 million the same interim period in 1999

Underlying margins are improving as we secure scale economies. These trends will continue as our store portfolio matures said Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone.

Blythe is the holding company currently providing services for Transworld Telecom (airtime fixed line and airtime provider) Online Bills Ltd (real-time billing platform) and Airtime and Cellular Logistics Ltd (hardware and facilities provider) (Mobile News October 30).

Reavley has been involved with the cellular industry for 10 years spending five and a half of them with Cellnet. In 1996 he founded Trojan Consultants. Reavley was voted 1995 Personality of the Year at the Mobile News Awards.

Tom Adams Blythe Holdings managing director Tom Adams said:

David has always been passionate about delivering results allied to personal growth and development of the management around him. This along with his hands-on style of management is the perfect foil for the ongoing growth of Blythe Holdings. It is also very pleasing for me to have the opportunity to work with David again.

Blythe Holdings is close to announcing the appointment of a group managing director. Suggestions are that a very well known industry personality is poised to take on the task.

Group marketing manager Darren Kearns is set to leave the company and return to consulting.

Says Adams:

When we appointed Kearns we took him on to bring the company to a certain level in a certain period of time. Hes done that job quite well but now feels his personal skill set and experience are better suited to another industry. He had no telecom experience. His area of expertise is in sales and marketing and he feels best able to go forward if he takes these skills into a different sector.

The GSM Association says monthly global SMS volumes were around the 25 billion mark by the end of this year and over 200 billion in total for 2001. In the UK customers generated 756 million text messages in December 2000 representing a growth close to 300 percent on December 1999 figures. German GSM user sent 1.8 billion SMS messages during the month.

Asia Pacific is experiencing rapid growth of SMS China Singapore Hong Kong and Australia says the GSM Association. Free text messaging services in the Philippines within the monthly subscription fee created over 18 million messages a day.

The average SMS traffic per GSM customer has grown from 0.4 in 1995 to an average 35 messages per GSM customer per month by end December 2000.

So says Ericsson and e-commerce ad agency Mediatude following a trials with more than 5000 users in Sweden who received over 100000 ad messages to their phones over a six-week period.

Users were given the option of receiving free short message service (SMS) text messaging to their mobile phones if they were willing to accept short text advertising messages attached to subscribed content and if they completed a profile based on demographic information and interests.

The trial matched advertisers with targeted profiles and transmitted delivered advertising relevant and targeted to individual users interests.

The trial indicated that not only did consumers accept the idea of receiving targeted advertising information along with wirelessinternet content but also they noticed and remembered advertising messages.

They also responded to the ads by pursuing additional information or calling phone numbers delivered in the advertising messages.

More than 60 percent of the trial users said they liked receiving advertising messages targeted to their profile. Nearly 40 percent found the advertising delivered to their mobile phones to be compelling while almost 20 percent sought more information after seeing the SMS advertisements.

Users said they found the ad messages to their mobile phones were less intrusive and more practical than TV or radio commercials.

Advertisers are crying out for more targeted marketing. This trial demonstrates that the wireless channel is a forum that people do respond to said Christopher Dennis Mediatude CEO.

Location-based services will enhance profiled messaging by providing personalized information where it is most relevant such as announcing that particular types of restaurants in the immediate area.

The corporate group diary provides a centralised electronic diary which can be shared with other users. Diaries can be updated and altered centrally from a WAP phone or PC.

The directory service provides a central database of staff details which can be searched. This too is administered centrally.

These new calendar and directory services will perhaps be the first encounter businesses have with WAP. They will soon become as indispensable as e-mails providing staff with up-to-date company information for people on the move said Project Telecom chief executive Tim Radford.

Project Telecom claims to be one of the UKs leading independent telecoms brokers. It offers phone rental paging services fixed line business numbers and mobile applications to corporate users such as Cathay Pacific and Channel Four.

Amstrads last foray into handset manufacture ended in April 1997 when it sold Dancall Telecom to Bosch for 92 million.

Ironically Bosch quit the mobile market in May this year when it sold all its mobile phone interests to Siemens.

At the time of the Dancall deal Amstrad signed an undertaking not to compete with Bosch for three years and this has now expired.

The company claims to have developed a feature-packed GSM mobile phone at a very competitive price. Volume production is scheduled to commence imminently. Amstrad hopes to extend the range later on depending on market demands Handsets will be produced by a manufacturing partner in China.

Amstrad believes that being a low cost producer with a low overhead base will give it a fundamental competitive advantage because network operators want cheaper handsets to reduce their subsidy costs.

Amstrad also believes its product will give operators a unique selling point because it plans to offer own brand exclusivity to one network operator in every geographic market. Handsets wont be sold to consumers under the Amstrad brand name.

The company is in discussions with a number of Western and Central European network operators and hopes to announce some deals soon.