Eircell chief Stephen Brewer said:

Our new services will move the mobile phone from being a simple auditory device to being the customers personal assistant with relevant data services from traffic reports to up to the minute news and sports.

WAP services will be offered free of any content charge for the initial period with only the data call to the server billed under the existing Eirtime rates. Received SMS messages will be charged on receipt at 10p plus VAT.

Ericsson will provide branding across all areas to the site with links to view and win Ericsson products such as the MC218 palmtop and latest T28 phone.

Ericsson is no stranger to rugby sponsorship and is now one year into a three-year sponsorship of Premier League side Wasps the Tetleys Bitter Cup Champions.

The new store is at Drake House Retail Park in Sheffield.

The store opened on Saturday (October 2) with a champagne launch and opening offer giving customers a free Nokia 5110 free connection and free colour cover.

The Mobile Phone Store which is 40 per cent owned by BTCellnet is planning to open a further 14 Northern Electric concessions to add to its 98 stores.

Also there will be a need to replace handsets in many cases for full WAP services functionality. The introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) means users will have to decide between buying a GPRS-enabled handset or the WAP-enabled handset.

The move to price calls from time used to the amount of data sent will slow the growth of WAP as many operators may need to upgrade to change their billing systems.

There is likely to be little content initially and the need for new services on the network may slow the uptake of WAP services as network providers may have technical issues when they implement the solutions on their network.

Some of these factors will also drive WAP use says IDC.

As more mobile phone owners use SMS services they are beginning to view their mobile handset and service more and more as a communication and information device as opposed to a simple voice telephone.

There is no doubting the benefits that wireless application protocol can bring to mobile phone users particularly business users but in many resp

Ericsson has already launched its new T28 phone with a Lithium Polymer power source.

The credit card sized batteries give up to 3 hours talk time or up to six days standby time. Nokias first ultra-thin (7.8 millimetre) Lithium Polymer battery will be compatible with the Nokia 5100 Nokia 6100 and Nokia 7100 series digital phones. It weighs just 32 grams.

Li-Polymer has been around since the mid-1990s and has been of specific interest to mobile phone manufacturers as it allows for even smaller and lighter handsets.

The Li-Polymer battery cell doesnt need a hard metal casing. Instead the electrodes are covered with a flexible plastic or aluminum laminate foil. The battery contains no liquid as do traditional batteries.

The electrolyte is polymerised into a gel-like form. This allows for batteries to be designed in a variety of sizes and shapes that would be impossible using conventional battery cells.

The third-generation mobile phone system which is now in the process of standardisation aims to achieve data transmission speeds from 30 to 100 times higher than current rates.

Ultra-high voice clarity and mobile multimedia applications including video large-capacity data and internet access should be possible through this system. The W-CDMA system also utilises frequencies efficiently allowing more subscribers to share the system.

NECs prototype W-CDMA based mobile phone handset is a compact and lightweight (130g) foldable design. The viewer comprises a small camera microphone and 2-inch colour TFT-LCD screen.

The hands-free function enables users to converse whilst watching the screen. To enable wireless connection between the phone handset and the viewer screen.

NEC is using Bluetooth short-distance radio communications to separate the viewer from the mobile phone to make the phone highly portable and without connection cables or directional infra-red connection. The video phone will be demonstrated at Telecom 99 next week.

Goldie is believed to have been rewarded with several million pounds from the company.

Martin and I established a number of companies before BTCellnet made their investment in Martin Dawes Communications.

The one Ill be putting most of my time and effort into is Martin Dawes Business Communications based around the fixed wire industry. We have a couple of switches and an engineering team that is developing added value fixed wire telecoms.

Martin Dawes Telecommunications will derive very little benefit from Martin Dawes Business Communications in terms of convergence. The two companies are and will continue to be completely separate entities. Its an amicable parting.

My service contract with BTCellnet from the very beginning made it clear that I didn t see my role within Martin Dawes Telecommunications as being a long term one but that I was happy to help them for six months from acquisition.

The network signed 923000 new customers up 301 per cent on the same period a year ago. Vodafone managed 701000 which was double last year. Practically all Vodafone subscribers (689000) joined Pay As You Talk bringing to more than 3190000 the number of people on Vodafone pre-pay.

BTCellnet said it led the market from contract services adding 74000 contract customers to bring the total to 2.83 million. The remaining 2.1 million users are on pre-pay.

Orange added a record 520000 net new UK customers to give a customer base approaching 3.5 million. More than half of new customers joined on contract tariffs. The network says churn fell 0.6 per cent during Q3 to 21.0 per cent giving overall churn of 18.8 per cent.

Quarter Three growth for Orange was more than double the growth during the same period last year. There were 125000 net new customers on Everyday 50 the daily bundle offering off peak national calls at 1p per minute.

The Everyday 50 customer base now stands at 256000 and an increasing number of customers have recognised the attraction and value of using the tariff.

The market continues to grow faster than previously forecast and is building up to a record breaking fourth quarter for Orange. We look forward to further strong growth in all our markets in the fourth quarter commented Graham Howe Orange deputy CEO and group finance director.

One 2 One notched up a 500 per cent increase in net customer additions putting on 604000 between July and September compared with 127000 a year ago.

The 120 per cent growth in customer base took the network to 3254000 customers compared with 1482000 in 1998.

One 2 One said its business customer base has doubled in six months with 660000 business customers now registered with One 2 One. Pre-pay revenues of 16.08 per month are claimed to be the industrys highest. Contract revenues were stable at 40.00 per month said the network with annualised churn rate 21 per cent

One 2 One has delivered extremely high levels of growth this quarter and is well-placed to capture a growing share of mobile sales this Christmas said managing director Tim Samples.

We have increased our product range and broken down barriers to ownership and usage through the introduction of 10p and 2p rates for both contract and prepayment services.

The expansion will create 1000 new jobs and take employment at the plant to more than 4000 people. This makes Motorola one of the largest employers in Scotland.

Motorola has had a presence in Scotland for 30 years. It also has factories at South Queensferry and East Kilbride.