Vodafone and Orange have been given up to 36 weeks to pay depending on when Orange is sold saving them around 50 million interest.

BT wants the Government to make all licensees pay within a similar timescale to avoid giving advantage to any particular bidder.

A BT spokesman said: BT is delighted to have won a 3G licence and will of course meet its obligations under the rules.

The sums of money involved are considerable. The interest on the 10 billion which Vodafone and Orange owe for their licences is around 2 million a day. This could lead to them saving close to 500 million over a 36-week payment holiday. It is only fair that all bidders should pay at the same time.

BT has demanded an early hearing. Discussions continue with the Government however in an attempt to seek a resolution.

Whiteley village is the fourth MPSstore to open within a designer outlet village.

The company currently employes around 300 people. It was voted BTCellnets Retailer of the Year last year based on the number of connections it had achieved for the network.

J.D. Power found that three per cent of consumers already access the internet through their mobile and that 35 per cent want to.

Also 45 per cent of consumers want to replace their home phone with their mobile.

The report also found that 74 per cent of consumers agreed that service providers are lowering costs. Also 75 per cent of pre-pay consumers use their phone for personal reasons only.

Under the experiment 10 Ernst & Young partners and staff from each country (UK US and the Netherlands) have been equipped with WAP phones to access WAP information from the Ernst & Young data network giving them access to their office Lotus Notes and personal calendar address and e-mail functions.

Requests are forwarded via a Vodafone AirTouch WAP gateway over the internet to the Ernst & Young content server. This returns WAP compatible content back over the internet and via the Vodafone Airtouch WAP gateway to the users WAP handset.

This trial is a very significant step towards the implementation of our global account strategy enabling our multinational customers to work with Vodafone AirTouch on a world-wide level with local account and customer service support in each country commented Vodafone AirTouch Global commercial director Jeremy Forword .

This is the worlds first global WAP service and marks another significant step towards Vodafone

AirTouchs aim of becoming the worlds leading mobile multimedia company.

Ernst & Youngs head of global telephony services

Bill Egan commented:

The ability to remotely and simply access our office systems is a crucial requirement for many of our staff and with this pilot we will now be able to test this using the WAP handsets which could eventually enable us to provide an even better service for our customers.

Two other companies are involved in the pilot. Coheris Atix a French provider of WAP middleware is software which connect the handset users to Ernst & Youngs WAP content.

Lyrix an American based provider of CT solutions is working with Vodafone Airtouch to integrate the GSM network with Ernst & Youngs global voicemail network to enable Ernst & Young mobile users to use global voicemail without the need for a local switchboard

The company has also signed deals with a string of vendor and operator deals to bring multi-player wireless gaming to the masses.

Games include HangMan Tic-Tac-Toe and Fours. A total of 40 games are planned. A Casino Channel will include traditional gambling-style games such as Poker Craps Roulette and Fruit Machines.

Using virtual tokens people will be able to invest and win cash prizes through sponsored events. Horse Racing with full tote and race information will enable users to have a virtual bet.

A Kids Channel will be aimed at the 12 and under. A Boys Toys area offer pub quizzes football management games and more grown-up titles.

KG Telecom and Nokia started the construction of KG Telecoms GPRS network in late 1999. The complete network will be continuously updated throughout this year.

AnywhereYouGo.com is also launching Web-based testing tools that allow developers to test WAP applications on-line. Said James Pearce UK Director of AnywhereYouGo.com:

There are 27 WAP phones and more than a half a dozen gateways in use today. Each product has unique characteristics. So every combination of device and gateway can cause unpredictable results and wildly differing application performance.

This initiative will help accelerate the development and deployment of wireless applications. Both services provide developers and IT management with assurance that their applications will deliver on their promises which in turn directly contributes to the success of WAP and the wireless industry as a whole.

This follows Vodafones announcement last month that it is partnering with Casio for the development of mobile internet-enabled personal comms devices.

Trials will be held here from June to show how the mobile phone works with Panasonics new personal stereo which uses Secure Digital Memory Card technology.

Other developments will include lightweight colour-screen palmtop devices and handheld mobile units equipped with email internet camera and personal organisers.

This agreement is a key part of BTs mobile internet strategy to meet customer needs for personalised communications information and e-commerce anywhere and at anytime said BT director of mobility Sohail Qadri.

Matsushita director of multi-media communications Eiichiroh Murata added:

We are excited to be collaborating with BT on mobile multi-media as part of our plan to develop third generation infrastructure.

Data Select will distributing vouchers beyond Virgins current 10000 national multiples such as Sainsbury Texaco and BP to include thousands of independent corner shops and petrol stations.

Data Select claims it is one of the fastest-growing companies in the country and predicts revenues in excess of 100m in its third year of business.

Virgin Mobile has only been in the industry for six months yet has accomplished a great deal. It is the ideal partnership: two like-minded organisations operating benchmark companies at world leve. We expect huge growth for Virgin Mobile. To be part of this is strategically key and very exciting for our organisation said Data Select founder and chief executive Peter Jones.

Around 20 Motolec staff mainly engineers have now gone to work for DVH. Motolecs former director of operations David Arnold has now become head of service and installation at DVH. DVH and Motolec say that both sets of clients will benefit from increased capacity and better IT systems.