The mobile network is offering a free pilot service until June as it installs more base stations along the route between London Victoria and Brighton rail stations. The service is available on six daily services from launch. At present 38 WiFi base stations have been installed with that figure set to rise to 60 by June.

Upload speeds currently hover at around 256K and download speeds at 2Mbit. T-Mobile said it would upgrade its connection speeds in time for launch.

From June charging will be introduced in line with T-Mobiles national HotSpot prices.

T-Mobile manager for WiFi Jay Saw said: We are the only operator that has placed GPRS 3G and WiFi at the centre of its strategy. That differentiates us from the competition. Were the worlds largest network – by our own definition.

Over the 10 days from April 1 T-Mobile logged 75 users the vast majority of whom were morning commuters. All of them had been alerted to the service by stickers in the carriage windows.

The Brighton Express has four million regular commuters. Were the first to install broadband on a train said Saw.

It is better than we can claim for our phone coverage or any network can for that matter because coverage (in the Brighton area) is patchy. People are already beginning to notice that were offering WiFi on trains and thats just by putting stickers in the carriage windows.

He added: Southern along with our own research and feedback tells us that theres a lot of demand. And the feedback from the early users so far has been very positive. We are trying to maximise the value of dead time for commuters.

The service is part of a 1 billion improvement project for Southern Rail which also includes refurbishment of the carriages and improved safety and security measures. The service will be rolled out on 14 trains mainly on the Brighton to London Victoria route.

Southern managing director Charles Horton said: Customers have so far enjoyed the experience and we have hardly advertised it yet. As people use Southern more with the improvements that are being made more and more people will use the service.

Details of the revenue share were not available.

Nomad Digital executive chairman Nigel Wallbridge whose company is responsible for the build and operation of the WiFi network said:

We are hoping to see this rolled out on railways across the world.

It uses a world-leading technology from Canada. In my business life I have rarely had a better experience than working with T-Mobile and Southern and the railways rarely get good press in Britain.

Saw added: We are at the testing phase as to what capacity is preferable. We are in discussion with other train operators. It is a developing stage. If others come into the field we will look at it.

It was unclear whether train staff would sell HotSpot passes.

The Brighton Express is the latest addition to T-Mobiles list of HotSpots in the UK which now number over 700.

The mobile division and home/ office applications division (CPE) have been set up as standalone businesses with more autonomy.

The restructuring programme is probably the best it could do said Henning Dransfelt research director at London-based analyst Ovum.

A sale now looks unlikely but a joint-venture with another manufacturer remains a distinct possibility according to analysts.

Siemens vice-president for northern Europe Jonathan Bate said: The main benefit will be the speed of decision-making. As a standalone business it will have its own management team which is wholly responsible for it and lives and dies by its decisions.

It gives the division a far greater degree of autonomy. The Siemens Group is a huge organisation and the decision-making for mobile has taken too long up to now.

The mobile business is so much different from other sectors in which the organisation operates. Our time to market was far too slow and inefficient.

We have made fantastic inroads in cost reduction already. We have made local cuts in the UK and reduced unnecessary expenditure and some headcount. Its now more efficient and will bear fruit in the second half of the year.

Siemens Mobile will develop a broader portfolio this year with more emphasis on high-end devices like the SK65 and the recently launched SF65 said Bate. It has already announced 15 new handsets for 2005 including two 3G devices.

Bate added: There has been so much speculation but were here to stay. We have taken the decision to fix it. We have done the cost-cutting and were now going to launch new more sexy products.

We need to be lean and mean and win back customers. This is the next stage of Siemens Mobiles recovery.

As part of its Energise MD programme Siemens wants to cut e400 million ( 272 million) in costs from mobile this year and at the same time increase productivity by e560 million.

It makes the mobile division more attractive by bundling it with CPE which is profitable and well-established in Germany and the UK. CPE is responsible for Siemens popular DECT phones which will help it retain brand equity commented Dransfelt.

He added: It keeps alive the possibility that Siemens will partner with another manufacturer.

It is in discussions with Nortel Networks and Acer and I would guess others too. Siemens said that it wants to keep the majority in any joint-venture but also that it would make concessions to be the minor partner if necessary. It needs to bring a strong partner and it knows that.

However results published last week showed that its mobile division had faltered for a third consecutive quarter.

Siemens shipped just 9.3 million handsets in the three months to March down 25 per cent on the same period a year ago. It has dropped to sixth place among mobile vendors.

Virgin Mobile Pay Monthly is available exclusively through The Carphone Warehouse until the end of July. Customers can either reduce their monthly charge or renew and upgrade their handset when their 12- or 18-month contract expires.

Investment bankers Morgan Stanley said Virgin Mobiles pricing for the initial contract period looked high. The new Mobile 100 tariff at 24 is expensive compared to 3s Videotalk 500 tariff which offers 500 minutes for 25.

At 24p per minute it is at the higher end of other operators entry-level tariffs too which range from 14p to 25p.

Mid-range tariffs follow a similar pattern said Morgan Stanley. The advantage is in the price reduction that becomes available when the contract expires.

The standard tariffs start looking attractive if the subscriber opts for the discount after 12 months it said.

Telecoms analyst Ovum also thought the tariffs were high:

Virgin has an innovative twist on standard contract tariffs but they are perhaps too complex. The airtime bundles of 60 100 and 200 minutes are more expensive than other operators tariffs. The tariff is reduced after the 12- or 18-month contract period but this will put some consumers off when comparing tariffs in the shop.

Ovum predicted that the move would improve Virgins ARPU:

Virgins annual ARPU has been decreasing said Ovum. These contract tariffs should help stabilise and grow ARPU.

Matt Chambers of The Phone Chamber in Edenbridge said:

Virgin could do a lot of business with this offer. It has good coverage because its using the T-Mobile network.

Its a good deal and if it comes to the independent channel we would be able to sell it hand over fist. It would be nice if it did upgrades through the shops. If it plays the long game on this it will do very well.

Virgin Mobile sales and marketing director Graeme Hutchinson said: Our value for money has always been about a better-rounded proposition – something consumers can trust and rely on.

Granada will supply around 60 video clips to 3 across the eight-week series. Clips will be charged at 50p each or included within add-on packages.

The deal will also offer customers access to backstage outakes from the programme.

Stars of the Saturday-night show include former tennis player Annabel Croft pin-up Leilani Dowding ex- Miss Sweden Victoria Silvstedt and Big Brother winner Kate Lawler.

The youth went on a robbery spree attacking passengers on trains throughout Surrey. Jack Girvan (18) of Ashtead is charged with conspiring with others to rob people between February 11 and April 7 at Tattenham Corner Leatherhead and elsewhere.

He is also charged with robbing passenger Anthony Acton of a Nokia phone on February 12 and passenger George Hareley of a Nokia 6820.

On April 5 he stole a Nokia 6600 from passenger Jamie Finch and took a Sagem mobile from passenger Samuel Bell on April 6. l In another case a jobless Romanian man has been charged with dishonestly handing a stolen Samsung mobile. Valer Varga (36) of Canning Crescent in Wood Green north London allegedly stole the phone from Katie Fleming at Wood Green market last November 28.

He was remanded on unconditional bail until June 2.

ROK will bundle airtime and Emblaze handsets together with pre-loaded MMC cards containing music video games and animations.

The MVNO will be branded under the name of a partner as yet unconfirmed and initially sold online with roll-out to high street retailers scheduled for 2006.

ROK marketing director Bruce Renny said:

The Emblaze handsets will carry the MVNO brand name. We will also bundle ROK mobile content on to MMC cards to be sold with the handsets.

The phone becomes not just a music player but a portable DVD player. We will be very competitive in terms of pricing. It will start as an online proposition with online top-ups and roll out more widely next year. It is about fun performance and affordability.

Renny reckons that up to 14 hours of music and video content can be stored on a 1GB MMC card.

ROK is aiming for an estimated 250000 customer base within 12 months and a million within three years.

Emblaze Mobile CEO Laurence Alexander said: We are excited to be working with such a forward-thinking and energetic company as ROK. We work with our customers to develop devices that will actually make people want to use the phone for more than just calls and SMS.

Emblaze last week announced a six-fold increase in revenues in 2004 compared with 2003 and extimated that it would double revenues in 2005 to $120 million ( 63.4 million) largely on the back of the consumer launch of its mobile proposition.

An Emblaze Mobile spokesperson said: We will be producing more and selling more into operators. A consumer launch will happen in July. It will be a big push for us.

Emblaze has expanded its international position with headquarters in London incorporating marketing sales and management.

The design and manufacturing house in Korea provides volume manufacturing while Israel handles software R&D and application and content development.

The network is slashing the price to send images to 20p launching a new online imaging site and exclusively offering the two megapixel Sony Ericsson D750i. The price cut will run throughout the summer and applies to messages sent both here and abroad.

T-Mobile has also teamed up with Kodak to launch the T-Mobile Kodak Mobile service where customers can store edit share and print their photographs.

First time users of the T-Mobile Kodak Mobile service will receive unlimited storage 10 free prints and two free wallpapers. T-Mobile customers can simply send an MMS to 777 to upload their pictures and get started on the service.

And in a triple whammy the network is exclusively offering the Sony Ericsson D750i two megapixel camera phone in its shops from June 1st.

They claim the handset is the lightest 2-mega pixel camera phone to hit the market and offers the largest memory thanks to its 38MB internal memory and the 64MB Memory Stick Pro.

The D750i comes equipped with technical features common in stand-alone digital cameras such as auto focus 4x digital zoom preflash with red-eye reduction intuitive digital still camera user interface and accessories such as a camera flash plus an MP3 player and FM radio.

The usage of mobiles for imaging is really building up said Deborah Porton picture messaging proposition manager for T-Mobile.

Most phones that people buy are cameraphones – what we are doing here is a case of putting all the elements together to make imaging easy for our customers.

Phil Chapman Director of Marketing T-Mobile UK added:

T-Mobile is unleashing the full capabilities of the picture-message experience by making the service in-expensive improving the quality of pictures by launching our first 2- mega pixel phone and by providing our customers with the ability to store edit share and print their photographs.

Previously O2s regional sales manager for the north-east Jackson will be responsible for the development of Airphones sales operation which encompasses mobile fixed-line and data with a focus primarily on the small and medium-sized business market.

Airphones total communications capability coupled with a fantastic customer service support operation particularly excites me said Jackson.

Our smaller business customers are able to benefit from the expertise we have gained from managing our larger customers such as Powergen Adidas and Virgin Atlantic.

Jacksons earlier experience includes two years managing key independents as senior business development manager with the Caudwell Group and five years as field sales manager with Orange.

Airphone Group managing director John Forde said that the appointment is part of a major expansion drive by Airphone Telecom that will see the sales division being built up.

Phil brings an invaluable first-class range of knowledge and experience he says. The small to medium corporate sector is a rapidly growing part of our business and Phil is already recruiting additional sales team members.

The facility which will open in the autumn will be based in Glasgows Skypark business complex at Finnieston creating 1500 jobs for local people.

O2 says it will invest the cash over the next two years.

In addition the Scottish Executive has announced that it will further support the project with an offer of Regional Selective Assistance worth around 7m.

Francesca Rea general manager Customer Service for O2 UK said:

This is a major vote of confidence in our business and the UK market. This is now the most competitive mobile phone market in Europe.

That means great value for consumers and huge choice.

We believe we can have more customers choosing O2 by investing in the people and resources to deliver an overall experience that customers will find superior.

Welcoming the announcement deputy first minister Jim Wallace said: This is a significant announcement for Scotland and a ringing endorsement of what we can offer to companies across the world.

Scotland is a first class location to do business with a reputation for offering a skilled and motivated workforce.

The new Customer Service centre and 1500 new jobs are part of O2s wider plans to strengthen customer loyalty. O2 has already announced that it will be hiring an additional 500 people as it expands its base of UK retail stores.

The company has 26 retail stores in Scotland which will increase to 30 over the next six months. Recruitment for the new customer service centre will start within the next few weeks.

Brewer is said to have decided to call it a day when Harris Jones Cable and Wirelesss head of internationaloperations appointed ex-Phones 4U marketing manager Paul Hamburger as commercial director for the Caribbean and made him Brewers boss. Hamburger is now based in Miami.

Brewer is believed to be remaining in his Barbados home on gardening leave for the next six months.

Brewer knew Hamburger when he was running Vodafones sales and distribution. Phones4U was one of Vodafones biggest customers.

Shortly after Brewer arrived in the Caribbean just over a year ago the region was hit by the biggest hurricane in years which decimated the region.

Brewers task was then to oversee the rebuilding of the shattered network infrastructure.