Staff Reporter

Dextra reckons it now has a 25 per cent share of the UK original accessory market which it values at 90 million up from three per cent share in January 1996 when it was set up as a specialist accessory division within the Caudwell Group.

The company says it has also seen a 256 per cent increase in sales orders in the past year and now delivers an average of 1000 orders a day and up to 500000 accessories a month.

The next millennium will see Dextra become a global specialist in accessory distribution said Dextra managing director Richard Slee.

Dextra is also now Vodafones main accessory supplier sending more than 40000 accessories into 245 Vodafone stores and recently won a three-year contract with BT Retail as the sole supplier of accessories into 120 stores.

Dextra has spent 250000 this year in information technology systems to improve service delivery.

Dextra says it is now the UKs largest accessory distributor for Nokia Ericsson and Motorola. It has also set up new partnerships with Samsung and Maxons accessory divisions as well as Psion Dacom and BT EasyReach the consumer paging service.

Vodafone now has five stores operational across the province.

The new Coleraine store was opened with music from DJs at local radio station Q102.9FM in a live-three-hour link-up giveaways and competitions. As a special promotional offer the Coleraine store was selling the Alcatel One Touch Easy for 99.99 with 12 months line rental 30 minutes airtime a month itemised billing leather case and in-car charger.

Also in June the store was offering free connection with 100 free off-peak minutes with any Motorola phone bought on a 12-month contract.

Vodafone (NI) is the Northern Ireland subsidiary of Vodafone Group.

This new store in Coleraine highlights our commitment to making Vodafone more accessible to our customers said Vodafone (NI) general manager Byron Bramwell.

With our latest store opening more customers in Northern Ireland particularly in the north and west of the province will have direct access to Vodafone and advice offered by our staff.

Cleartone makes radio comms equipment primarily for the emergency services.

Dolphin (which is a subsidiary of global wireless operator TIW) recently announced plans for a release of its ExpressNet service which offers integrated voice and data mobile communications over a seamless network to cover the UK France and Germany by the end of next year.

UbiNetics says the more important issue is achieving interoperability between standards and that there is already enough similarity between digital standards to do this.

Suddenly the harmonisation issue is less relevant says UbiNetics president Ali Pourtaheri.

Conway was formerly head of global business development for Motorolas International Network Ventures Group and was general counsel for Motorolas Subscriber Terminals Group.

Conway previously held key executive positions within the international cellular operations of Motorola where he served as a CEO vice chairman of the Board and has chaired steering committees to launch major wireless joint ventures world-wide.

He will be based at the GSM Associations headquarters in Dublin.

Robs role is fundamental to ensuring that we continue to develop and grow the range and depth of support services for our members in order to maintain future leadership of the ever evolving GSM standard said the GSM Associations chairman Michael Stocks.

The GSM Association is responsible for the development deployment and evolution of the GSM standard. It represents the interests of 347 GSM Satellite and 3rd Generation network operators regulators and administrative bodies from 133 countries of the world.

The Association also recently announced the launch of a new Associate Membership category for manufacturers and suppliers to further cement industry wide partnerships.

Vodafone says it will be organising further similar seminars for corporates and utilities to drive the growth of managed solutions that deliver real benefits.

The other shareholders are Samar Telecommunications (an Arab group of investors) and Societe Nationale dInvestissement the Moroccan holding company.

The Government of Morocco has the option to buy up to eight per cent of the companys equity.

The bid if successful is expected to create thousands of much-needed new jobs in Morocco.

The Moroccan market is ready for a new kind of mobile phone operator given that telecoms penetration in the country is so low this is an ideal opportunity to make the Orange concept of a wirefree future a reality said Colin Tucker Oranges chief operating officer for international activities.

Morocco is in an excellent strategic geographic position and will serve as a hub for investment in the whole area.

The system will handle all dealings with customers. It captures and retains information and triggers marketing and sales incentives.

The company also made a gross profit of 3.11 million up from 880000 for the comparative period in 1998.

Around 95000 connections were logged up from 34000 a year ago and the number of call minutes doubled to 120 million.

The company is positioning itself as one the UKs leading switchless resellers of voice and data calls. It started as a distributor of personal telephone numbers and has now diversified to a broader business adding internet-related services.

Recent stock market listings in the UK have demonstrated the potential value of small and medium sized telecoms companies of which PNC Tele.com is a prime example said chief executive Geremy Thomas.