A jury heard last month that the Irish Phone Company in County Meath in Eire realised it was being set up for a sting and helped police set a trap. A decoy box containing pieces of wood instead of phones was delivered to the gang who were arrested by waiting police.

At Londons Southwark Crown Court Mohammed Faruk (25) Shah Alam (21) and Shabir Mohammed (25) denied conspiracy to obtain property by deception. A fourth man Mohammed Aqeel (23) has admitted attempting to handle stolen goods.

The fraud was attempted last October when the Irish Phone Company received a call from an Asian-sounding man calling himself Robert Price saying his company was Telecommunications in Harrow Middlesex.

Prosecutor Jason (Cont P38)

Dunshaw said the Harrow company did actually exist but that the gang used genuine Telecommunications stationary to place their credit order. However the phone and fax details had been changed.

But the Irish Phone Company had been similarly defrauded before in another scam and had supplied equipment on credit without receiving payment. They checked the company out and contacted the police. It was decided to lay a trap by filling the phone boxes with wood and arresting the men when they took delivery.

Faruk and Alam claimed to gave been visiting a cousin when they signed for the parcel not knowing who it was for. The trial continues.

The Ericsson-supplied system for One 2 One is based on the new General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology announced at the GSM World Congress in February. It is part of a 45 million investment programme .

GPRS will soon offer data transfer speeds of 384000 bps. This is 40 times faster than current GSM data transfer rates of 9600 bps.

The new technology will allow customers to remain permanently connected to the internet as they will only be charged for the amount of data sent rather than the length of time connected.

The two networks will also have to stop charging for unanswered calls.

This follows the recommendations of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission following its investigation made at the request of Oftel into the price of calls to mobiles.

Consumers have been paying too much too long for calling mobile phones said Oftel director general David Edmunds.

I am pleased that consumers calling Vodafone and (Cont P38)

Cellnet will soon be paying much less. I look forward to Orange and One 2 One reducing their charges as well so that consumers will also get a fair deal when ringing handsets on their network.

Oftel referred the cost of mobiles calling fixed phones to the MMC a year ago. Orange and One 2 One escaped the investigation because their rates have been regarded as lower than Cellnet and Vodafones and as later entrants their market position was perceived differently.

The boundaries between local and national calls have been scrapped. The only exception is for pre-pay customers who decline to take the new daily charge option. They will still pay 40p a minute.

All customers will be able to make calls for no more than 10p a minute to any fixed line anywhere in the UK during the day and 2p a minute evenings and weekends.

The new post-pay tariffs are One 2 Anytime ( 15 a month) One 2 Anytime 60 ( 18 a month inclusive of 60 minutes) and One 2 Anytime 1200 ( 25 a month inclusive of 1200 off peak minutes).

The pre-pay variations are Up 2 You Anytime Daily (50p a day) Up 2 You Anytime Daily 2 (60p a day and two free minutes) and Up 2 You Anytime Daily 40 (83p a day and 40 off-peak minutes).

Orange points out that it can match the One 2 One offerings under its Orange Value Promise Scheme but reckons its Everyday 20 tariff of 20 minutes a day for 50p is a better offer.

One 2 One has designed the 2p a minute tariff on pre-pay to appeal to people who wont sign a contract and who are fearful of high pre-pay call charges.

One 2 Ones research indicates this is a sizeable market that will be attracted to a service which combines the opportunity to pay up front and make calls at attractive post-pay customer rates.

The network will offer three different ways of running a phone. Post-pay will have calls paid for monthly in arrears.

Pre-pay can be bought with a daily charge credited in advance with calls then charged at the (Cont P19) new low rates. Voicemail continues to be free across all the tariffs.

The current 40p a minute pre-pay option is still available for Up 2 You customers who dont want to incur a standing daily charge.

Our mission is to provide a service that allows people to use their phones the way they want pay in a way that suits their lifestyle simplifies the cost per call and provides great value so people need not be concerned about being hit with huge call costs.

This breakthrough in tariffing provides customers with greater choice and for the first time calling from as little as 2p a minute on a pre-payment basis. said One 2 One managing director Tim Samples.

The new tarifffs have generally been welcomed by dealers.

The simplicity of the message is what impresses me most about the new tariffs said Tony Raynor of Abbey Telecom in Blackburn.

These tariffs are excellent. They do two things; bring the cost of using a mobile phone into the same realm as that of a fixed phone and also push the industry another step forward remarked John Abbot of ECT in South Woodford.

Amanda Ridgway of Manchesters AAA Telecom commented:

The 60 tariff is blinding and the Precept tariffs are fantastic but I cant see a market for the 1200 tariff at the moment.

Sales people will sell the simplest thing that there is to sell. Without doubt the 10p/2p aspect is simple but some of the tariffs have an underlying complexity which might be difficult to get across (full dealer reaction P12).

Thats the theory being put forward by leading industry commentators who expect BT will bid for a UMTS licence which will see BT finish up with a fixed/mobile portfolio which will become completely transparent to the customer.

Id assume that as BT has taken Cellnet as a part of its name this is a prelude to the disappearance of the Cellnet name completely to leave us with the mobile division of BT said CellLink/MoCo boss Maurice Whelan.

DX Communications Richard Emanuel reckoned:

It is possible that in the long term the Cellnet logo might disappear especially in the light of new networks being introduced.

Cellnets official explanation is that it wants to highlight its close association with BT which is said to be the UKs most recognised brand name.

Now is the right time to make our association with BT explicit said Cellnet marketing director Kent Thexton.

BT Cellnet is a powerful brand name which demonstrates to consumers that we can deliver new and innovative mobile communications solutions.

The new brand will provide us with a significant (Cont P19) competitive edge. We expect it to enhance our position in the corporate market. The new brand will be promoted through a big ad campaign from next month.

Also Cellnet has announced it is recruiting 1500 more people over the next year to work in its Leeds customer care marketing and technology centres.

I have been given the task of taking JWE to a brand-leading position he said.

I want all our competitors to see us as the benchmark to aim for and our customers business partners and shareholders to know they are with a winner.

Added JWE chief executive Tony Farmer:

Jeff has a proven track record in our industry. His skills and depth of knowledge will be of considerable benefit.

A Vodafone spokesperson said:

We never comment on speculation and rumour. (Cont P19)

The same sources say that ex-Martin Dawes national sales director Stevan Hoyle who has joined Vodafone could be in line for a top job at UniqueAir if such a deal was to materialise.

UniqueAir is currently run by Peter Edwards ex-managing director of Talkland and Vodafone Retail.

Edwards left that job a year ago saying he was not suited to work within a sprawling corporate structure. So if Vodafone succeeded in buying UniqueAir Edwards would be unlikely to stay.

Also gone from Martin Dawes is projects manager John Cocozza national accounts manager Rory Maher and regional sales manager Paul Campion.

They are believed to have resigned after failing to share in the proceeds of the 130 million paid to founder Martin Dawes by new owners Cellnet. Dawes is understood to have retained 75 million with his ex-wife and family benefiting from the rest.

From now on you can reach us on :

(Tel) 0171 704 7440

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This follows the decision by Vodafone managing director David Channing-Williams to retire and relinquish the role of chief executive of Vodafone AirTouch in this country.

The development is a huge result for Bamford who had up to now been left out of the new Vodafone AirTouch board.

Bamford joined Vodafone in 1997 from W.H. Smith to work on the re-organisation of the Vodafone Group into the Retail Connect Corporate Value Added Services and Distribution sub-divisions.

Channing-Williams current role as managing director of the UK network company will be taken by Alan Harper who is currently Vodafone Group commercial director. Harper joined Vodafone three years ago from One 2 One where he was director of strategy. (Cont P2)

Channing-Williams has been at Vodafone for 14 years in roles that have included running Vodapage and Vodata as they were once called.

Having considered my future plans I have decided to retire early in order to spend more time with my family.

I intend to be involved in some new activities but in a non-executive capacity.

I will remain very close to Vodafone and I have agreed to work on a part-time advisory basis for the next two years.

A Vodafone insider scotched rumours that Channing-Williams had been pushed.

Thats nonsense. Chris (Gent) asked David to make a commitment to the job for five years.

David decided he didnt want to work 14-hour days for that length of time. Hes got 3.5 million worth of share options so who can blame him?

The dealers from London Bradford Reading Liverpool and Croydon are the latest named traders to receive notice that they in breach of the rules of the FCS (Cont P19)