The ISDN service will be offered in the UK by BT. The new service was unveiled at CeBIT a fortnight ago.

The company blames difficulties in getting enough product to supply the Asia Pacific region as well as price cutting from distributors selling phones into China at a cheaper price creating price instability.

The Brazilian currency crisis also hit Brightpoint hard as nearly all its transactions are based on the Brazilian Real which was devalued.

Brightpoint also admits that it has been unable to replace earnings derived from its UK trading division which was shut down late last year.

More grief has come from the prolonged introduction of the Iridium mobile phone satellite system as well as the severe shortages of Iridium handsets from Kyocera.

Because of this anticipated revenue and income expected to be generated by supplying Iridium phones was not forthcoming.

We are very disappointed in the outlook for our first quarter said Brightpoint chairman and chief executive officer Robert Laikin.

However we remain committed to our business strategies and to the key markets around the world in which we operate.

We view our success in North America as validation of the business model that we are deploying in all of our regions.

We continue to view our goal as generating long-term shareholder value through profitable controlled growth and prudent balance sheet management Laikin explained.

He is Richard Brennan who originally joined Orange in 1993 as group IT and operations manager in charge of setting up IT systems.

Brennan now reports to UK chief operating officer Bob Fuller and will be in charge of marketing communicaitons and services brand management new product development and IT and systems development. Brennan spent the early part of his career with Hutchison Whampoa in Hong Kong.

Axby who has been a senior consultant at telecoms consultancy AXA since 1993 will work on a wide range of mobile phone issues including the review of mobile competition call charges and indirect access from networks.

She will also be involved in planning for the licensing of spectrum for 3rd generation multi-media services and integration of fixed and mobile services.

Axby was Cellnets GSM marketing manager between 1990 and 1993. Before that she held marketing and business development positions at BT Mobile.

She has also acted as project manager at Schema for mobile and fixed wire clients in Europe.

Mobile communications is one of the fastest-growing areas in telecommunications. Elaine Axby has a tremendous wealth of experience and knowledge of the mobile communications market that will be invaluable to Oftel said Oftel director general David Edmonds.

The planned joint venture will be in full operation this year and will develop common FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) products for UMTS base stations network controllers and operation and maintenance centres.

FDD and TDD are optional modes of operation for the CDMA system expected to be the single standard for UMTS.

The International Telecommunications Union and other standards bodies are all pushing for CDMA to be the common system.

Both companies will use their muscle towards developing a common global standard for third generation networks.

NEC is already involved in UMTS development. It is a 60 per cent shareholder of Telecom Modus which was specifically set up to supply UMTS infrastructure and is currently working with BT on trials using the W-CDMA standard expected to be widely used by the third generation systems.

NEC also last week announced that it was finalising designs for a satellite phone for the ICO global mobile satellite service to launch sometime next year.

NEC already has a contract to supply part of the ground systems for the ICO satellite phone system.

NECs strategy on phones is to not produce dedicated satellite phones. Rather NEC has separated the necessary hardware and antenna into a separate unit. When the user wants to make a satellite call he/she just slides a regular NEC GSM phone into the satellite pack.

All NEC top-line phones will be equipped with the necessary software to make the connection to the satellite pack. The Japanese manufacturer has also promised two new phones for Christmas the DB4000 and DB4500.

In the meantime it has launched the DB500 a dual-band model with interchangeable coloured front covers. The DB500 was scheduled for an earlier launch but NEC says it had to use manufacturing capacity for the DB2000 which it says is breaking all sales targets. NEC estimates a total of nearly 1.8 million handsets will be sold in the UK this year from all manufacturers.

Angus has also worked for blue-chip companies such as Mars and Walt Disney.

Were delighted to have Lesley on board. Her appointment reflects the importance of a strategic marketing role for the two companies said Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone.

Lesley will bring a fresh approach which combined with her brand credentials will help us cope with our rapid growth and ambitious plans.

Returned handset will be check and repaired in a new service facility staffed by 20 new employees at JWEs Pocklington site. The City liked the news enough to mark JWEs shares up 35p to 1.77.

The considerable increase in size of the contract recognises Cellnets confidence in our ability to repair handsets quickly and efficiently said JWE chief executive Tony Farmer.

Mainline was recently appointed as the first national distributor for Business Mobile.

Mainline is promising dealers margins of at least 80 when they sell the package which offers 60 180 or 600 minutes of calls each month for 15 30 and 60.

There is also a volume-accelerator bonus and funding for approved marketing activity.

The tariffs are designed for customers who use their mobile phones between 7am and 7pm.

Not all dealers have the customer profile needed to make the most of Business Mobile. It is a tremendous opportunity for dealers with the right customers to secure a share of the lucrative commercial market said Mainline business development manager Kevin Fox.

Mainline was last year ranked as Oranges biggest distributor to independent dealers. But it is looking further afield than its current dealer base for candidates to sell Business Mobile.