The merger of Vodafone with AirTouch will create the worlds largest mobile comms company operating through 23 countries with more than 29 million customers.

Vodafone has also received clearance from the European Commission for the merger and has promised to sell its interest German network E-Plus. This is because Air Touch already has a share in rival German operator D2.

Vodafone has emerged as the UKs most-loved company during the first quarter of this year according to the latest PressWatch survey of corporate reputations.

PressWatch is an independent media analysis service that monitors and scores media comment on companies in the UK national press.

The Newbury network came top of the league beating the Prudential Tesco Dixons and BT in the top five places.

For the same period last year Vodafone was in 1443rd place.

Orange was another climber finishing third in the telecoms sector and 16th in the main PressWatch table (See White Lines).

Irish network operator Eircell has also launched a web site selling its Ready To Go pre-pay package off the internet.

The Scottish Telecom site will sell a range of pre-pay phones top-up vouchers pagers and accessories.

It uses an on-line soap opera format based around the diaries of six young fictional characters.

A number of mobile phone retailers already sell their products on the web but we wanted to take the traditional approach one step further and offer a lifestyle solution to our internet marketing said Scottish Telecom internet services director David Furniss.

We want to give our on-line brand some personality while also building brand loyalty.

Visitors can determine plot lines and character developments and can write to the actors.

The battery which comes foil wrapped can be kept in reserve by the user for emergency use.

A look and do addition to the Orange web site will allow customers secure access to their account and the ability to view and pay their bills change tariffs and set diverts send text messages and edit their on-line phone books which can then be transmitted to their phone. Future services will allow customers to download bill information to financial software packages for desktop analysis and top-up their pre-pay.

The cellular market in Europe is maturing rapidly said Giulia Rancati Research Manager for European Wireless and Mobile Communications research.

The increasing shift of voice traffic from fixed networks to cellular networks along with increased revenues generated by data services and value-added services is one of the main reasons behind the growth of the market value.

IDC forecasts that around two per cent of the total GSM subscriber base is currently using data services and this percentage will increase to 12 per cent by the end of the forecast period. The convergence of mobile communication with internet service and the launch of high speed data services such as GPRS in the most developed GSM markets will be the main drivers behind market growth in 2001.

The growth of GSM in all markets of the world continues to rise at a remarkable pace. This is clearly reflected in the latest figures from North America where growth continues to be driven by customer confidence in the superiority of GSM said Michael Stocks new chairman of the GSM Association.

Seventeen GSM network operators in North America now offer commercial services in approximately 3500 cities in 45 U.S. states the District of Columbia and four Canadian provinces.

In the United States seven of the top 10 PCS carriers provide GSM service.

Commercial GSM service soon will be available in the top 10 wireless markets with eight markets already in service. GSM coverage now reaches 176 million of the people in North America – covering more than 52 percent of the Canadian population and nearly 62 percent of the United States population.

GSM networks have installed more than 11500 cell sites.

In comparison it took the entire USA cellular industry 10 years to reach that mark.

The global GSM customer total for early end April 1999 is more than 160 million – equal to 45 percent of the entire world wireless market or 65 percent of the global digital market.

The GSM Association today represents the interests of 347 GSM satellite and network operators regulators and administrative bodies from 133 countries and areas of the world.

The company says it receives all its information directly from suppliers who pay them a commission to run their service on the web site.

The free on-line mobile phone calculator allows anyone with internet access to identify the best deal by entering their expected call minutes per month whether they expect to make calls at peak or off-peak and whether their calls will be local or national.

The calculator makes buying a mobile phone and netting the best possible deal a piece of cake claims buy.co.uks managing director David Graham.

Graham also runs an independent business purchasing consultancy called The Cost Reduction Partnership which does work for companies that include Securicor Fortnum and Mason ASDA ITN and Sothebys.

Oberthur is to develop systems for MasterCard Credit and Debit Maestro Mondex and M/Chip MasterCards chip-based card.

The move follows MasterCards formation last November of its Global Mobile Commerce Team to focus on the convergence of the card payments and mobile telephony industries.

Oberthur will designate MasterCard as its preferred payment brand for mobile commerce transactions in its ad campaigns.

MasterCard has 23000 member financial institutions serving consumers in 220 countries and territories.

Nearly 700 million MasterCard Maestro Cirrus and Mondex cards are in circulation.

Creating a spectrum market would help make spectrum available more quickly for new services as business could bypass spectrum shortage bottlenecks said DTI telecoms minister Michael Wills.

Our aim is to create a strong and competitive market that provides access to radio spectrum for a broad diversity of radio users and enhances the long-term contribution of radio to competitiveness enterprise and the knowledge-driven economy.

Radio spectrum is an essential raw material for building the UKs knowledge driven economy but it is a finite resource subject to increasing and competing demands.

This growth is expected to continue at a rate of 40 to 50 per cent this year.

The introduction of high speed data and General Packet Radio Services later this year is expected to contribute massively towards this growth in text messaging.

The GSM Association has formed a Data Task Force to share operator experiences on GSM data and text services and develop standards to promote more interoperability and data roaming.