Staff Reporter

Listeners will be able to respond to ads they hear on-air using their mobile phones and access information about songs being played on-air schedules and playlists as well as being able to play online interactive games that match their musical knowledge against the Virgin Radio computer.

There will be six months of on- air support plus advertorials outlining the benefits of the internet and WAP technology services as well as a mobile fun promotion during the popular early evening Pete and

Geoff show.

Weve been hearing a lot about WAP over the past six months and the size of this deal reflects the importance it is going to play in peoples lives said Steve Taylor group enterprises director at Virgin Radio owners Ginger Media part of Scottish Media Group.

We know our listeners are always on the move and need access to information and entertainment whilst they are out and about and iobox provide the most advanced suite of services which let them interact whilst on the go.

Virgin Radio offered a consumer WAP service in March. By registering on the iobox.com website for the Icon Maker or Tone Composer mobile users will be able design a picture or compose a song that can then be used to personalise their phone. iobox users can surf any WAP site even without a WAP-enabled phone by using the iobox Surfer to see all the WAP sites available.

The first stage will be a $7 million agreement to develop a high-speed radio card and a dual-mode HSCSD/GPRS wireless modem for mobile data rates more than five times faster than existing mobile data speeds.

Other products planned include a range of clip-on modem devices for personal digital assistants and telemetry modules for applications from the automotive to the medical world.

The UbiNetics partnership will ensure that Orange customers do not have to concern themselves with the different available technologies but rather they will simply choose an application and the device will transparently select the best platform for that particular operation said Bob Fuller chief operating officer of Orange

UbiNetics was set up last year to produce 3G and 2G kit such as GSM PC cards test and measurement equipment and test reference designs.

The idea is to be able to let Tiny users access the internet direct from their free WAP handset. Also thrown in is free connection to the Vodafone network and off peak calls from just 1.7p per minute

We are delighted that we are able to offer Tiny Computers customers a useful and highly desirable package. WAP technology is the latest development in the mobile phone industry and this offer means that Tinys customers will be able to join this technological revolution enjoying the benefits of whats on offer now ultimately making their working and their social lives easier said Vodafone Connect managing director David Jones.

The service is called Vodafone Corporate Online. Future facilities are planned such as on-line bill analysis billing via email and electronic bill viewing will follow later in the year.

Vodafone Corporate Online users also get instant access to Vodafone Corporates back-office systems on entry.

Customers get a security pass which provides them with an ever-changing security code required to log-in.

Once in they can view the phones specific to their contract related discounted prices and availability status.

The phones are shown as pictures rather than part numbers with links to additional technical information.

To make a purchase the user selects a handset and follows prompts for accessories service requirements billing and delivery information.

Billing fields are completed with existing information from Vodafone Corporates systems where known and postcode search engines are provided to speed up the data entry process. Orders are acknowledged on screen and also via e-mail.

Other services include the facility to order car kit installations handset upgrades or replacements track of orders and access to a fault recovery service that provides technical information to help diagnose a fault with a handset and arrange recovery.

The network will provide Internet video-conferencing and multimedia services.

Ericsson and Vodafone have together been trialing 3G multimedia services for practical experience in the deployment of 3G networks.

Vodafone is the first UK operator to select Ericssons 3G WCDMA system. Ericsson has worked with Vodafone as a network infrastructure supplier since 1985.

Ericsson has been a strategic partner of Vodafone for many years and we are delighted to further strengthen this relationship by working together on the speedy rollout of our UK 3G network said Vodafone chief executive

Peter Bamford.

WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is one of the third generation systems to support high-speed multimedia services. Multiple calls of diffeent types can be simultaneously made.

The package comes from financial software Staines company Dataflow and a WAP phone to be used to check on customer credit details cash received payments made sales information and stock availability even while at a clients location.

WAP phones will soon become the norm for business users and we felt it was important to provide our customers with the ability to take immediate advantage of this new technology said Dataflow sales and marketing director Paul Gibson.

With more people working on the move there are many advantages in providing direct access at anytime to important financial data that is usually only available to the accounts department.

The network is already planning to give the police high-speed GPRS services to enable them to download data to their handsets.

David Henson business unit director of One 2 One said:

Each Force has its own policy around the issue of phones to officers and employees.

But as existing contracts are up for annual renewal the force will be able to take existing numbers and port them on to the One 2 One service.

The police are dependent on excellent communications and we believe that this agreement underlines the strength of our service.

We look forward to working with the individual forces to ensure they maximise our network and the products and services on offer Henson added.

He takes over from South African Michael Stocks of operator MTN. Healy is an ex-vice president of engineering and operations at McCaw Cellular Communications Wireless Data Division.

He began his career in sales and marketing positions at New York Telephone.

North Americas GSM service now serves more than 6 million customers in more than 4600 cities in 47 American states and five Canadian provinces in a coverage area populated by more than 180 million people.

SmartPrepay says its electronic top-up service complies with the security used by all major payment and credit card schemes.

To use the service subscribers need a smart card (e-purse) and a PC card reader containing electronic cash. The chip on the smart card is debited or credited over a PC card reader when the user logs into his/her merchant or bank web site.

SmartPrepay intends to offer UK users free cards and a secure on-line service that allows them to withdraw cash from their bank account and load it onto their card.

In effect it is like using a virtual ATM machine.

Despite the proliferation of mobile phones and accessories sold on-line there has been no risk-free and cost-effective way to provide top-up facilities over the web until now said SmartPrepay technical director Dan Isaaman.

The e-purse reduces the threat of fraud for both the consumer and vendor as well as protecting vendors against unscrupulous transactions.

With the UK pre-pay market set to double this year alone to 23 million units and internet penetration set to rise by 2.5 million to 13.7 million users the e-purse is the perfect payment solution for providing airtime and other digital content on the web said Isaaman.

This approach also has the benefit of anonymity. Anyone with a bank account can own an e-purse card allowing people without credit cards as well as the under-18s to top up on-line.

Steve Pardoe found that his credit card had been fraudulently used to top up a BTCellnet phone. He was so furious with the dismissive response from BTCellnets customer services he decided to set up his own web site at www.pardoes.com/cellnet/index.html to log similar complaints.

BTCellnet allow anyone to use anyone elses debit or credit card numbers to top up a pre-pay phone with complete impunity. BTCellnet simply take the money from the victims bank or credit card account without any authorisation and with absolutely no identity check says Pardoe.

As a result BTCellnet have been stealing money from thousands of peoples bank and credit card accounts then cynically fobbing off their victims and refusing point blank to compensate them for their loss and inconvenience.

They also refuse to cooperate with victims or the Police in tracing the fraudulent phone user leaving people exposed to repeated theft. BTCellnet prefer instead to protect their dishonest customer.

BTCellnet have been aware of this problem for more than a year now and could have stopped this scam at any time. But they alone among cellular providers persist in running an automated credit-card top-up system which they know to be insecure. Theyve now stolen money four times from me and my company prompting this internet campaign to assist other victims and draw media attention to BTCellnets disgraceful behaviour.

Our web site has had 10s of thousands of visitors from all over the world including government bodies communications companies and the media.

Pardoe recently appeared on BBCs Hard Cash programme about the BTCellnet pre-pay problem.