Vodafone already has one language facility at its store in Oxford Street which is equipped with service desks and touch-screen computers that offer information in 24 different languages.

The company recently won a Retail Week Award for the service.

The Mobile Phone Shop North West took the action on March 10 for alleged non-payment of commission.

Mobile Phone Shop company executive Peter Tomlinson who represented his own firm during the court case said:

We began dealing with Phone Direct last May. We did five O2 contracts for them and then requested payment.

However Phone Direct declined to pay us because it claimed we were in breach of our trading agreement with it. The company alleged that we had not sent the contracts and correct proofs of identity within the 14-day period.

Tomlinson claims that he spoke to Phone Direct manager Duncan Ashgrove about the situation.

I told Mr Ashgrove wed sent all the paperwork and that we had proof that we had adhered to the terms and conditions he said.

Tomlinson alleges that Phone Direct declined to pay.

We had no choice but to take legal action. We are a small dealership. We couldnt afford to write the payment off.

We felt we were owed that money and needed payment.

In court Tomlinson produced documents proving the paperwork had been sent within the 14-day period.

Deputy district judge Dowding found in his favour. The judge ordered Phone Direct to pay 1169.13 plus interest and costs within 14 days.

Ashgrove told Mobile News:

As far as we were concerned the contracts didnt have the correct proofs initially and were received outside of the14-day period which was a breach of our terms and conditions with the Mobile Phone Shop North West so we refused to pay.

I never spoke to anyone from that company regarding this matter until the litigation started. I wasnt even aware that there was a problem until it dropped on my desk in the form of a court summons.

We asked for paperwork supporting their claims. I wrote five letters to them which went unanswered until I received proofs from Royal Mail – which showed the contracts had been received here during the 14-day period – the day before the court case.

It was only then that it became apparent that we had made a clerical error regarding the input of this data on our systems which in turn led to us believing it had been received late.

Mobile Phone Shop didnt help us at all and have in fact cost us a lot of time and effort.

Had they sent us the documents they would have been paid. For the sake of just under 1100 we have put our reputation on the line and our relationship with dealers when this could have all been avoided.

MoCo Cell Link launched its branding programme in Autumn last year saying it would provide independent dealers with extra support and the ability to compete better with larger high street multiples.

The 10 new MoCo branded dealerships are Advance Business Mobile Newtownards; Fonepoint Bangor; Global Communications Bangor; JMC Mobile Newry; Phones Direct Co. Armagh; Phonestore Belfast; Phonestore Lurgan; Straight Talk Belfast; Talk Mobile Solutions Downpatrick and The Phone Box Ballyclare. Moco also expects a further four stores to be rebranded in April.

These are MoCo Corporate Communications Galasheils Scotland; Fax Warehouse Letchworth and Intouch International Birmingham.

MoCo managing director Ian Robinson says the distributor is looking for a total of 35 to 40 dealers to come under the MoCo brand and reckons the deal is good for both the distributor and dealers.

Two weeks ago T-Mobile suspended some of its e-mail services. But according to a Southampton-based T-Mobile dealer some customers complained they could longer use their T-Mobile handsets for e-mail. The dealer said he rang T-Mobile and was told that the T-email server had been turned off.

The adviser said that unless you had T-email set up on your phone before March 1 you couldnt have it at all.

I had complaints from several other customers with the same difficulties.

No one at T-Mobile could tell me what had happened or why. I still havent had an explanation.

In a statement T-Mobile said:

We became aware of a problem with T-email on March 8 following reports that users could not access the service via the Internet. The problem only affected users over GPRS.

The loss of this functionality was not intentional and was treated as a high priority fault. This fault was rectified on March 15. T-email is now functioning normally again on T-Mobile handsets.

Orange commissions the first hydrogen fuel cell base station in the UK enabling coverage in remote areas where there is no power supply

Sendo has previously shied away from public branding as it has been an OEM handset supplier.

Sendo is looking for ways to enhance its image as Britains number one handset manufacturer. We spent months putting the right criteria down for the deal and looked at all the options said Sendo spokesman Kevin Lawless.

We dont do things in increments we get it right first time around. This is a big step no doubt about it. The decision was made because of the exposure it offers and the popularity of the sport. We are easily outbid in bigger sporting events like football – Superbikes has guaranteed advantages.

The Brands Hatch event is said to be the biggest spectator event in Britains sporting calendar.

The championship should give Sendo brand exposure on Sky Sports the BBC Eurosport and on highlights shows in Asia and the US.

The TV value is very significant to Sendo. But there is also the opportunity to explore a range of world options with a wild-card entry to the world championship and a high degree of exclusivity for us added Lawless.

Virgin Mobile which sponsors the Yamaha team at the British Superbike Championships (see picture) said it welcomed Sendos involvement in the sport.

It will be interesting to see what Sendo does. Its good to see other manufacturers in the field and superbikes could be the perfect match for the telecoms industry said a Virgin spokesperson.

There are three routers. If capacity on one is very high it switches to another said O2 spokesman Dave Massey. That didnt happen. Were trying to work out why. But the problem itself is now fixed.

Several thousand of O2s 8.5 million pre-pay customers were affected by the delay.

Phone numbers themselves are assigned to specific routers. Numbers affected came from a group of O2 customers whose top-up requests were processed by a single failed router during a four-hour time slot on Sunday morning March 14.

This is the first time this has happened. There are three routers to provide resilience when there is high capacity but the switch from one failed. Were happy thats now fixed. Theres no longer any top-up delay but well continue to carry out tests said Massey.

(See Mystery Caller P32).

Van driver Kevin Moran 46 of Rochdale was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving in November at Liverpool Crown Court.

Moran hit motorcyclist Gary Smith after making an illegal right turn while talking on his mobile phone to his wife. The motorcyclist died later in hospital.

In a keynote speech to the industry Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin told the 3GSM World Congress:

I would dispute that handsets are available today. They are bulky they get hot and they dont have battery life. The experience today is unacceptable to our customers.

He went on: In 1992 we built a GSM system in Germany D2 and sat on the network for 12 months waiting for handsets. Twelve years later things havent changed a lot. We are still waiting for handsets having deployed our network.

The congress heard from all sides that mobile broadband would not become widely available until Q4. The delay was laid firmly at the feet of the handset manufacturers.

T-Mobile chief executive Renee Obermann who joined Sarin on stage agreed: Our networks are up and running in the UK Germany and Austria but we still dont have the devices at hand. We didnt want to launch on the basis of a card service only.

In response to the exasperation of the networks Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila referred to it as a chicken and egg situation.

In 1991 and 1992 when we launched GSM and a few years ago when we were launching GPRS we had the same kind of comments from our friends the operators so there must be something generic here.

Ollila said that the wait for handsets was reasonable considering the complexity of the development in technology with 3G.

Where Arun was absolutely correct was about the consumer perspective because consumers are demanding said Ollila. What they want is experience. Size and technical performance need to be better than the phones that are available now.

Ollila suggested that Nokias UMTS handsets were likely to be available in the second half of 2004.

Software company Iceberg Systems has developed technology it says will create a wireless privacy zone which temporarily disables the cameras in mobile handsets.

Iceberg Systems managing director Patrick Snow said the system would be ideal for places like courtrooms research centres and production houses or any other area where secrecy or privacy is important.

It allegedly works by the installation of software into a handset that would then receive a signal when the user enters a privacy zone. On receiving the signal the handset would turn off the camera while other functions would continue to work.

But major manufacturers have expressed doubt about the idea.

It sounds a bit fanciful said Sony Ericsson marketing manager Peter Marsden.

I cant see how it is possible to turn off the camera when it is not connected to the network. All it would take to blow the system would be for one manufacturer not to sign up to the scheme.

Samsung head of distribution and retail Simon Walsh said:

Its not something Ive heard about. But I can see many problems with it. Manufacturers would be nervous about anything that claimed to do something temporarily.

If this thing turns a function off temporarily the danger is that it wont turn the function back on straight away. That would then cause all sorts of warranty issues and repair problems. Im not sure networks would like it either as it would mean they would lose revenue while the function is disabled.

Nokia business development manager Ray Haddow said Iceberg had not spoken to Nokia about the idea.

It is an interesting idea but I would have to know more about it he said.

Despite the fact that key manufacturers had not heard of the idea Snow said Iceberg was in discussion with the major manufacturers and networks and that these talks had been very positive.

Snow said Iceberg would approach networks manufacturers and governments.

Our system helps networks make money he claimed. When large companies ban their employees from taking their camera phones into the office networks cant make any money out of these customers for the entire working day. Privacy zones will let users make calls and send messages. As for not being able to turn the camera function back this has never been a problem in tests. We are definitely able to control the camera functionality of mobile phones and PDAs over the air. You would be surprised how many of the functions of a phone can be controlled remotely.

Snow said he had been in conversation with the Korean government which is concerned about issues of privacy surrounding camera phones.

Earlier this year Samsungs security was compromised by someone using a camera phone to take pictures in its research and development factory.

In England camera phones are banned near courts including streets nearby because of the risk of identification of key witnesses and police.

Recently a man was arrested and fined 250 for taking a picture of a defendant at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court south Wales using a mobile phone. The man had reportedly pointed the phone towards the dock when a defendant was present.