Staff Reporter

Richardson was marketing director of BTs UK business division from 1995 to 1996. Since 1997 he has been a director of BT Mobile (now BTCellnet Corporate). He will be responsible for overall marketing in the UK including WAP and GPRS programmes.

He is American Rick Darnaby who joined Motorola in October of 1996 in charge of brand management.

Darnaby tales over from Frank Lloyd who moves to a division looking at acquisitions. Darnaby who used to work for Nutrasweet will be based in Basingstoke.

After handing over the money for the top-up to the retailer the card is swiped through the e-pay terminal for an instant top-up registered to the users account. A self-vending version of e-pay will also be available for customers who wish to serve themselves.

The market for e-pay is expected to be in multiple retailers mobile phone outlets supermarkets convenience stores off-licences and garage forecourts.

The old voucher system was cumbersome and inefficient for such a large market said John Gardiner managing director of e-pay.

e-pay has been one of the pioneers of the technology behind e-top ups and after successful trials with leading retailers we are delighted to have been rewarded with this commitment from One2One. The e-pay technology is already fully operational in Asia.

In the UK the pre-pay mobile phone voucher market is estimated at between 2 and 3 billion a year and is growing rapidly.

The e-pay system vastly improves not only the customer experience but adds efficiencies into the sales process said Gardiner.

Voucher stock will become a thing of the past. Customers will prefer electronic top-ups as the retailer will never be out of stock of a particular denomination of voucher.

The e-pay vending kiosk will enable stores to advertise on screen and will direct customers through a simple top-up process.

Customers will be able to use e-pays terminals to prepay for other services.

3a Telecom has more than 25000 customers connected to the Vodafone network.

The business which is based in Manchester also operates four retail stores in the area and was last year voted Best Small Retailer in the Mobile News Awards.

Vodafone has had a successful relationship with 3a Telecom for many years and the acquisition represents an important addition to Vodafones UK business commented Vodafones UK chief executive Peter Bamford.

It is expected that 3as identity will vanish and be supplanted with VodafoneAirtouchs branding.

The shops are to be relaunched as Talk 4 All shops to emulate the One 2 One logo and are part of Cityphones plan to build a retail chain of more than 40 shops throughout the country.

One 2 One is able to take a mature enough view that demand encompasses all four networks. So there will be occasions where people want specific networks said Cityphone marketing manager Julian Parven.

We need to be able to offer the facility to support all four networks. This will be a separate retail chain based on the TCL shops and will expand our geographical areas of operation.

The new Talk 4 All shops will be situated in areas that include Dartford Deal Dover Epsom Herne Bay Leek Melton Mowbray Stowbridge Wallsal Folkestone Widnes Winsford and Camberwell.

The deal is subject to contracts which are yet to be finalised and signed.

As well as the more own label the company also markets the THB and Chatman brands of hands-free kits. It is located in Troisdorf between Cologne and Bonn and supplies distributors throughout Germany.

Fone Range managing director Jay Pau said that his company had known and admired more for several years.

It is the best accessories company in Germany with an excellent reputation throughout the country.

Their product quality and customer service are of a similar high standard to our own. Like us their objective is to remain at the forefront of new product technology and design. Our two ranges are entirely complementary and they will now be able to offer customers our 3500 products as well as their own.

It as vitally important for us to expand in all sectors of Europe. However Germany is at the hub of Europe with an accessories market estimated to be worth DM700 million. This partnership will help our growth significantly. We already own companies in Spain and Ireland where like Germany the market is expanding rapidly. Many of the major UK retailers have also recognised the potential and opened in Germany and other parts of the Continent and we regard it as important to be able to support them in their expansion plans from both a fulfilment and logistics solution.

Mobilfunkzubehoer MD Robert Penin added: We have a great deal in common in particular our business philosophy and the way we operate. It will also help us to open many new sales channels.

We are looking forward to a long and successful partnership to the benefit both of our two companies and our customers.

West was responsible for developing and launching Sky Digital and helped set up Sky Digitals interactive TV service Open. He is also vice chairman of Intertrust Europe a leading digital rights management company.

West has brought with him a team of ex-Sky Digital executives. Max Alexander who was previously involved with Skys internet strategy will be managing director of the new Carphone Warehouse division. Deputy MD is ex-Sky Digital customer marketing director David Thatcher.

Chief financial officer is Amy Stirling who was previously with Rank and accountants Arthur Anderson.

The Carphone Warehouse has earmarked $50 million for The Wireless Internet Portfolio (WIP) fund which provides capital to early stage start-up internet ventures. Two investments have already been made with Wildfire the voice activated integrated messaging service implemented by Orange and the first pan-European WAP portal Wap

World.Net.

These appointments are central to our business strategy to take advantage of our existing reputation in the communications market place and to become a major player in the European wireless internet market. In 10 years we have grown to be a major European force and our customer focussed approach has proved a winning formula across a number of markets in Europe said David Ross chief operating officer of The Carphone WarehouseSaid Ian West:

We are delighted to join The Carphone Warehouse to develop its wireless internet strategies. The Carphone Warehouse is in a unique position with its distribution strength as Europes largest independent communications retailer to bring together an excellent group of wireless internet partners.

The market is developing very fast and we expect to announce a number of new initiatives over the coming months.

In addition two new group directors have joined the board of Carphone Warehouses holding company Worldwide Telecom.

Ex-BBD Stoy Hayward partner Roger Taylor has been hired as as group financial director and Susan Anderson has left Blockbuster Entertainment to join the company as group human resources director.

Adam Phones will continue operating under its own name. However all the hire kits invoices business cards etc will be dual branded for all Carphone Warehouse customers who hire out mobile phones.

This merger will enable The Carphone Warehouse to continue to provide the best customer service advice and choice of handsets to our hire customers said Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone.

For the last year Donovan has been working for Cable & Wireless as chief commercial officer for C&Ws Australian network Optus.

Donovan (41) takes up his new position on October 1 reporting to Vodafone UK chief executive Peter Bamford and will be responsible for commercial strategy and marketing for the company.

He will bring extensive consumer marketing and mobile telephony experience to Vodafone UK and will perform a critical role for the future as one of my senior team said Peter Bamford.

Donovan replaces Mike Webb who left Vodafone in June

He is the second One 2 One executive to find a senior role within Vodafone.

Alan Harper who is now managing director of Vodafone Ltd (the network) was poached from One 2 One where he was strategy director.