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?

It was clear from Oftels analysis that BT was charging customers an excessive amount for calls to pagers said Oftel director general David Edmonds.

Oftel has been in discussion with BT since last July over the subject of pager calls.

We made clear to BT we wanted to see a substantial cut in prices of calls to pagers but until now they failed to do so. I was prepared to issue a provisional order under section 16 of the Telecommunications Act to order BT to reduce its prices Edmonds added.

Before Siemens Ward was national sales manager for Securicor Cellular Services for 10 years and then moved to Martin Dawes as divisional general manager when Dawes took over Securicors corporate base.

He reports to Orange group director of sales Gareth Jones.

Ericsson is continuing its fascination with the lifestyles of the young by agreeing to sponsor a dance music event to be called Ericsson@ homelands to be held on May 29 at Matterley estate near Winchester.

Around 40000 people are expected to attend the dance festival.

The company will use the dance event to launch its new A1018s dual-band phone aimed at first-time buyers.

The sponsorship package includes branding on all promotion al literature flyers posters and advertising in lifestyle and music magazines as well as sponsorship of the arena. Ericsson is also setting up an Ericsson Zone. This is a communications centre featuring its latest mobile and internet access technology.

Around 40000 people are expected to attend the planned dance festival.

The company will use the dance event to launch its new A1018s dual-band phone which is aimed at first-time buyers.

The sponsorship package includes branding on all promotion al literature flyers posters and advertising in lifestyle and music magazines as well as sponsorship of the arena. Ericsson is also setting up an Ericsson Zone.

This is a communications centre featuring its latest mobile and internet access technology.

Called the SGH-500 the unit is claimed to be at 119g one of the lightest phones on the market.

The SGH-500 follows the recent launch of Samsungs voice-activated SGH-600 which is currently being advertised on television.

Samsung says it is the worlds third largest electronics company and has a majority share of CDMA digital phones sold in the world.

Price of the SGH-500 is 70 (with contract).

Cellnet has destined Genie Internet to work as easily from a mobile phone as a fixed line. The service will initially be distributed on CD-ROMs bundled with purchases of U pre-pay phones (see story page 3) .

The network is planning a range of services including e-mails which can be read back over the subscribers mobile and the ability to tap into Genies entire content from a handset.

The new Internet operation will be headed by Cellnet general manager Brian Greasley.

We are already working with a number of manufacturers to build Genie applications for the next generation of mobile phones he said.

Added Cellnet managing director Peter Erskine:

The business opportunity offered by the convergence of mobile and Internet technology is immense. Cellnet will be able to create a profitable ISP (Internet Service Provider) in its own right. The wireless Internet is set to create killer applications which will take global communication onto a new level.

Cellnet currently has about 100000 users of its Genie information service which was launched 18 months ago.

Information such as share price movements job alerts and the latest sport news to be sent direct from the Genie web site.

Sofien Zamouri 23 had been threatened with jail at an earlier hearing when he was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports. He had been searched in a routine police operation when he arrived at London s Victoria coach station from Scotland and found to be carrying a small amount of cannabis the court heard.
A search of his luggage revealed the stolen phones for which he said he had paid 200 to an unidentified man in Scotland and had intended to give away to friends in France.
Zamouri who had been living in Kingsland Road Hackney pleaded guilty to dishonestly handling the phones valued at 989.83 and to cannabis possession. He was ordered to do 60 hours community service and pay 20 costs.

The new standard involves a next generation speech coding standard which will shortly undergo final testing in an exercise mainly paid for by the GSM Association.

The new Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) standard codec is a development on the near fixed-line quality of the standard introduced last year.

The GSM MoU says it will offer customers exceptional voice quality in a wider-range of radio conditions with the added benefit of giving increased capacity for operators.

The AMR speech codec standard takes GSM speech quality much closer to that of fixed networks and places the system in a good position to meet the demands of customers and next generation mobile services in the 21st century said GSM Association chairman Richard Midgett.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institutes Special Mobile Group (ETSI SMG) recently selected a proposal from a consortium of manufacturers including Ericsson Nokia and Siemens as the preferred AMR codec solution.

The final testing will provide performance data of a wide range of operating scenarios assisting GSM operators in understanding the best way to introduce AMR into their networks added Midgett.

EFR was launched in the UK last year by One 2 One and Orange and is now being rolled out by Vodafone and Cellnet. It offers improved aural performance providing the user has an EFR-enabled handset.

Our established relationship with Vodafone our dedicated network carrier remains intact. The new agreement with Cellnet means that we can offer choice to potential corporate customers requiring complete management of their mobile communications needs.

It is expected that Cellnet will view its licensing agreement with Global Telematics as an enhancement of its own corporate customer services. Chris Andrews Head of Sales for Cellnets Wholesale Division commented We are delighted to extend our own portfolio of products to include one of the leading players in the UK telematics market. Global Telematics has within a short space of time built up a significant market position and we are pleased to welcome them as a full Cellnet Service Provider.

PocketPhone Shop marketing director Mark Hodgson confirmed rumours that Briggs wants to go his own way.

Andrew is exploring ways of realising his assets. He has other business ventures he would like to explore. But hasnt left and currently isnt leaving and is a significant shareholder in the business.

He also confirmed some of the companys key personnel are leaving.

They are group sales manager Warren Bellinger customer care manager Sharon Carlisle stock control manager Paul Coughlan marketing manager Christine Shead and area manager Alex Foreman

Hodgson explained Bellinger had offered his resignation because of his sons serious illness (see White Lines).

Sharon Carlisle has left for her own reasons in that the travelling from London to Slough got too much for her. Paul Coughlan wishes to spend more time with his new baby and his wife.

Alex Foreman knew he would probably not be with us for much longer anyway. Christine Shead did resign for personal reasons and is currently working her notice he said.

PocketPhone Shop employs more than 500 people.