Staff Reporter

But Orange claimed that the technology was not available to it when the 3G data card went into production.

Dilithium sales and marketing VP Lee Ellison commented:

3G data cards are an excellent service to business executives but Orange is missing a trick by not offering video-calling. Our VT Phone technology would enable these customers to trial video services on their laptop and would add no more than two per cent of the cost of the data card. This could boost revenues and increase the number of video-enabled terminals.

Orange responded by saying:

It is not a critical issue. We are looking at video options but we cant confirm whether VT Phone is one of the technologies. There will be a market for video services on 3G. We already looking to adapt a version of the 3G data card to address this market.

Lord joins the network from a similar position at ITV. He has also been a legal adviser to Cable & Wireless.

3 has a fantastic opportunity to challenge the established practices in the UK mobile market said Lord.

Chief commercial officer Nick Read will run the Consumer Business unit and business segment director Ken McGeorge will lead the Enterprise unit until he takes early retirement at the end of the year.

Vodafone Ireland marketing director Tim Yates comes back to the UK as chief marketing officer in September. Yates will handle consumer segment marketing and keep a strategic eye on the Enterprise units marketing team.

Vodafones current marketing director Lance Batchelor will move to a new director-level position though it has yet to be announced.

Called OYBike the service was founded by former mobile solutions provider Bernie Hanning. Cyclists can pick up a bike from any of the rental stations by phoning an OYBike call centre for a release code which is tapped into a keypad to unlock the bike. OYBike sends the customer an SMS message to confirm the release code and to provide a keypad code to lock the bike again on its return. Customers open an OYBike account for 10 and are charged for the total time that the bike is away from a rental station. OYBike charges 30p for 15 minutes 80p for half an hour 2 for an hour and 8 between one and eight hours.

Ursula Hauptmann-Smith claimed she had been fired after threatening to blow the whistle on the accounting practices of the company run by former DX Communications owner Richard Emmanuel.

But the employment tribunal has dismissed her initial attempts to pursue a case against the firm. Hauptmann-Smith has said she will pursue the action later in the year but TRS doesnt believe this is likely.

Hauptmann-Smith claimed that during her 10 months at the company some revenue had been allowed to accrue to Orange and that TRS had wrongly billed the company UTL for some Austrian units instead of billing NEC.

She alleged she had discovered boxes of phones sent for repair by Orange had been sent back to the company unrepaired – and that Orange had still been billed for repair work.

Another claim she made was that TRS head Sergio Tansini had lost his temper with her and later that week dismissed her. But the tribunal failed to rule in the former financial controllers favour.

Tansini told the tribunal I resent the allegation of fraud very strongly.

A spokesman for Total Repair Solutions said:

We expected this outcome. TRS staff have worked hard over the years to build an enviable record of honesty and efficiency in a very competitive market.

Mobile phone users looked at a daily average of 47 million WAP pages. This was more than double the daily average of 22.5 million WAP pages viewed during the same period last year.

The MDA forecasts that WAP page impressions will reach a total of 13 billion for 2004.

Volunteer visitors must complete endurance challenges using the dust splash and shock-proof Siemens M65.

The M65 Climate Chamber is part of a pan-European tour which will visit 20 European cities over the next six months.

At the end of the tour in November the fastest challengers from across Europe will win the opportunity to join the Siemens Mobile Experience Tour in Peru where they will be able to explore the stunning scenery and extraordinary diversity of climates by mountain bike raft and jeep.

The M65 is available now on O2 and free on contract.

I have another job but I cant say where yet. I have very much enjoyed my time at LG but an opportunity has arisen that I cannot pass up.

Last year was the initial start to the business so we dont want to overstretch ourselves.

3G is the future but we cant ignore the fact that 2.5G still has huge appeal.

3G is still inits infancy- there is still a long way to go in terms of uptake and market appeal.

There is interest in 3G but there are still a lot of people who are not ready for it yet.

The C1200 has a burgundy finish features GPRS JAVA and WAP 2.0. It has 200-hour battery stand-by and five hours of talk time.

The C1100 clamshell phone is a featherweight 80.5g. It has MMS WAP 2.0 and JAVA.

From August 1 users just have to respond to a message with the word Stop to terminate unwanted message services.

Mobile Data Association Chairman Mike Short said: This scheme could stimulate demand for premium services as there is a clearly defined method to stop the services/payments when the customer wants.

Mobile Republic sells SIM cards and promises customers cash back to repay the line rental using the network commission it receives.

The petition was originally due to be heard on June 23 and was reheard last week. At the time of going to press the outcome was not known.

Consumers on web forums are now sharing stories about problems with Mobile Republic saying they are being tied to contracts.

Leicester businessman Andreas Komninos said he bought a Vodafone and a T-Mobile SIM card from Mobile Republic.

The T-Mobile contract was for 13.99 a month and the Vodafone contract was for 29.99. He was to pay the line rental but Mobile Republic would credit his account every month. However he didnt receive the promised cash back.

They said the arrangement would take a while to set up. But no money at all had been credited he said. Komninos was unable to contact Mobile Republic.

People are being tied to expensive contracts that they would never have taken out had Mobile Republic not promised to pay for the line rental he said.

Komninos has been able to cancel both contracts but says he is out of pocket because he paid for four months line rental for SIM cards that he never used.

But Mobile Republic managing director Andrew Amankwah said his company is being unfairly criticised.

A Safer Place To Buy says we owe it over 100000 but it is just 3500 he said. We tried to explain that there was something wrong with their invoices. It didnt want to know. We tried to contest the winding up petition but our legal advice was to let it go through.

Amankwa says customer dissatisfaction was unavoidable because of the court action.

Before the court action we launched a cashback offer and signed 200 customers. Then A Safer Place To Buy lodged its petition. Our assets were frozen. We had money and there was cash owed to us from distributors but we havent been able to access our funds. So we have not been able to keep up our cashback promise. All the accounts have been frozen.

Amankwa also denied rumours he was running another company SMTL Marketing. I did some web consultancy for them. People were saying Id set up a new company.

Amankwah says he will now quit the mobile industry.

The mobile industry is one-sided. In no other industry would you make sales for T-Mobile that they have up to six months to claw back. It is virtually impossible to run a business because the networks have you over a barrel.