It is the 180th Carphone Warehouse outlet in the UK.

The store cost 250000 to fit out and opened last Tuesday (March 16).

Customers can leave their mobile phones to be repaired whle they do the rest of their shopping. They are loaned a pager which alerts them when their phone is ready for collection.

Vodafone distributor Realmgate went into receivership last month (Mobile News March 8).

At present we are unable to indicate whether there will eventually be a surplus available for ordinary creditors said Ernst and Young.

We shall be preparing a report on the receivership within three months of our appointment in accordance with Section 48 of the Insolvency Act (1986).

Ernst and Young are believed to be looking for buyers for Realmgates chain of half a dozen shops.

Ex-Realmgate director Ian Wright is now with Vanguard while Realmgate boss Bob Billingham is talking to JWE Telecom.

Vodafone was apparently investigating Realmgate just before the plug was pulled.

This was one of the conclusions of the ERMES MoU Association which met last month for the first of a series of brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for the future direction of the paging industry.

E-mail forwarding was also cited as a strong potential growth area as well as the provision of value-added services.

It was agreed that the image of paging needs to be modernised and that support is needed from manufacturers to produce terminals which reflect todays design trend.

The Group Vision meeting was very productive. I hope that it has provided very tangible results for our members in the form of new ideas and focuses in order to help develop their businesses said ERMES Marketing Working Group chairman Ivan Nedvidek.

It is crucial the paging industry reviews its current position in the telecommunications market and assess areas which have the potential to develop.

We plan to hold further sessions throughout the year.

The promotion takes place until April 13. It is open to people who call in at any one of 240 Vodafone stores where they can enter the competition to win the party by ranking the features of the Nokia 9110 in order of importance.

Winners can spend up to 40000 on a party at any time during next year with the help of professional party organisers.

Ten runners up will receive a digital camera and another 200 entrants will get a bottle of champagne.

Vodafone employees are not allowed to enter.

The accessories company was formed in October 1997.

The award given by trade journal Telefonica y Comunicaciones was presented to managing director Shini Oberoi last week.

The two companies have now agreed to settle their disputes world-wide and have agreed to work together to support a single CDMA standard with three optional modes.

Under the terms of the agreement Ericsson is buying Qualcomms terrestrial CDMA infrastructure business based in San Diego and Boulder Colorado.

Qualcomm gets the rights to sublicense Ericsson patents. The two organisations have also promised the International Telecommunications Union and other standards bodies they will license their CDMA patents to the rest of the industry without discrimination.

The GSM Association which represents operators regulators and administrations from 129 countries welcomed Ericsson and Qualcomm making peace.

The agreement enables 3rd generation standards developments to proceed at full pace said GSM Association chairman Richard Midgett.

Under the terms of an $800 million secured credit facility Iridium has to have minimum cash revenues of $4 million cumulative accrued revenues of $30 million 27000 Iridium World Satellite Service customers and 52000 total customers.

The organisation has been given a 60-day breathing space by its lenders but has to meet these customer levels and revenues by the end of May.

Iridium is blaming its failure to meet the minimum customer and revenue targets on its problems with availability of handsets and lack of properly-trained service providers and sales people.

Iridiums 100 or so cellular network partners throughout the world are also being blamed for not putting enough marketing muscle behind Iridium.

Iridium has told its bank lenders it is now revising its revenue and customer forecasts in light of these delays and will request the banks to modify their minimum requirements.

Meanwhile ex-Motorola general manager Don Burns has been put in charge of Iridium Germany (see story P6).

Motorola has guaranteed to back Iridium through its financial problems and has said there is no question of Iridium going under.

Cable & Wireless and MediaOne have both stated they are now looking to cash in on One 2 One which could be sold for as much as $11 billion. They both have 50 per cent joint ownership of One 2 One.

The decision to sell follows MediaOnes merger with Comcast the third largest cable operator in the USA. MediaOne (which was previously known as US West) also has stakes in mobile operators in Poland Czech Republic Slovak Republic and Hungary.

Dolphins TETRA network will provide services in the second quarter of this year. This will provide voice and data services such as packet data near instant call set-up PSTN access internet access and virtual private networking.

Dolphin is part of Dolphin Telecom the largest public mobile radio operator in Europe and which is in turn a subsidiary of global wireless operator Telesystem International Wireless.

It is important to our business to recruit committed service providers to sell and support our products said Dolphins marketing director Mark Riley.

Added TW Telecom managing director Harry Thompson:

A TETRA-based network is the way forward for mobile users who are currently employing more than one communications technology.

As part of this re-organisation Tandy has appointed a new merchandise controller. He is Paul Haylock who was previously a senior buyer and business analyst for Office World.

Haylocks job will be to manage and oversee the merchandise team.

This is an exciting time with product ranges being revised as the millennium approaches demonstrating the companys continuing commitment to position itself as a strong retail force for the future.