The 12-month packages start at 149.99 and go up depending on the choice of handset such as the Motorola d520 Sony Z1 Plus Ericsson GH688 Nokia 5110 or Bosch Com608.

The service offers customers a next-day delivery on most items and four-day delivery on other stock.

Vodafone Retail has also been selling accessories pagers and Pay-As-You-Talk top-up cards over the Internet.

Vodafone is always looking to broaden the on-line customers shopping experience. Offering the opportunity to buy 12-month packages is a new service and one which we are sure will be a success said Vodafone Retail marketing director Helen Keays.

This follows meetings with manufacturers licencees and suppliers who were worried that the previous closure date of December 31 2001 might not allow enough time for users to change to the new PMR 446 service.

PMR 446 is a licence exempt short range voice comms system aimed at providing basic radio service for business and non-business users ideally over short distances within buildings factories and sites.

The Agency will now issue SRBR licenses until September 30 next year to give suppliers the chance to sell remaining stocks of SRBR radios. It will also wave the SRBR fee once the new PMR 446 service is introduced at the end of next February to bring SRBR into line with the new licence exempt service.

The GSM Association was set up in 1987 and oversees the running of mobile services around the world through meetings between its 600 members.

GSM Association members include network operators regulators administrative bodies and various manufacturers and suppliers.

The booth will be staffed between 6am and 7pm seven days a week by 12 Vodafone representatives. They will advise on general enquiries offer a battery charging facility for the 15 most popular mobile phones answer roaming questions explain how to use voicemail text messaging and shortcodes and manually switch networks when abroad offer automatic addition of international phone number-storing prefixes to Sims and demonstrate internet access using GPRS via a laptop and a PDA.

Vodafone says it is the first zone of its kind within an airport. The idea could be followed by similar projects in other

European airports.

The zone is located airside opposite the BA executive lounge.

Over 14 million individuals pass through Heathrows Terminal 1 each year. It is a vitally important gateway to the rest of Europe and a highly effective platform for us to reach international travellers with timely advice on how to make best use of their mobile phones abroad said Vodafone UK chief operating officer Gavin Darby.

Through the Vodafone Experience we aim to provide the education that ensures the potential for our customers is maximised Darby added.

Forty-four per cent of respondents worldwide said they would use such mobile cash capabilities if they could.

Intentions to use m-commerce were highest in Japan (50 per cent) followed by 46 per cent in Europe 43 per cent in the rest of Asia and 38 per cent in the US.

However only two per cent of mobile phone users worldwide reported having used m-commerce.

The study of 5600 mobile phone users on four continents also revealed that SMS is being used at least once a month by 80 per cent of mobile phone users in some

European countries.

The study also found that a third of respondents worldwide had an internet-enabled phone. However most users had never used the wireless internet capability.

The mobile portal market is going through a tough time now. But new technologies will help portals to become profitable.

Mobile operators and internet service providers should use their market position to improve and facilitate the take-up of mobile portal services instead of inhibiting the development of a new start-up Secchi says.

Mobile portals will account for over 55 million users by 2005 IDC Research claims.

IDC says advertising and entertainment services will play a big role in the future success of mobile portals as long as campaigns are targeted personalised and provide value to customers.

The centres will be situated in Basildon Lewisham Hammersmith and Oxford Street and will join existing centres in Liverpool Manchester Leeds and Birmingham.

According to The Link there will be 14 centres by the middle of the year.

The centres are designed to attract and look after small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). In each centre there will be at least two business advisers trained to evaluate the particular needs of small-business customers.

The growth of the business centres follows the acquisition by the Dixons Group of specialist SME service provider Genesis Communications in May last year.

According to The Link it can save the average small business customer up to 20 per cent off the cost of mobile phone bills. It also offers customers a loan phone delivery service and access to mobile tracking software.

There is space for a serious High Street business offering in the mobile sector particularly one which is network-independent said The Link managing director Nick Wood.

Siemens C45 owner Geoff Woodhall from

Lancashire wins the prize draw for a brand new Mini Cooper in a joint promotion between The Carphone Warehouse and Siemens.

Jones (32) who the court heard is an ex-Army sniper bought thousands of mobile phones through his Hallberg company from EU countries that do not impose VAT and sold them in Britain with VAT charged at 17.5 per cent.

Hallberg had sold 19 million in phones which should have resulted in VAT payments of around 3.325 million. However the companys VAT declaration was just 5221.

A Customs and Excise spokesman commented that several similar cases were before the court and said that more prosecutions would take place. It is estimated that mobile phone VAT fraud cost the Government up to 2.75 billion in unpaid tax last year.

Jones was arrested last July in Operation Divert a Customs and Excise swoop on VAT scammers in Stoke Manchester and Sheffield. Around 20 people were arrested.

Meanwhile Staffordshire newspaper The Sentinal said Stoke was becoming the mobile phone fraud capital of Britain. The paper quoted Mark Powell Customs and Excise spokesman for the West Midlands who said:

Stoke is the centre of Britains mobile phone fraud. There are a lot of people in the area who are experts in the mobile phone industry and a small percentage might want to use that knowledge for fraud.

Hatton Garden is the centre of Britains legitimate gemstone business and is also the centre of the countrys criminal gemstone business. Similarly Stoke-on-Trent is the centre of the legitimate mobile phone business and the illegal mobile phone business.

It is the taxpayer who suffers in the end. A lot of money has been made from the mobile phone industry in Stoke-on-Trent.

People working in the business have seen a gap in the market and gone on their own. Some have recognised opportunities for crime. You do not have to be a genius to be a company director.

All you need is the capital to get the stuff in the first place and once you have done that you are away. We have a team of investigators in Birmingham who spend their whole time in the Stoke-on-Trent area. We have had cases of people from Stoke-on-Trent who have fiddled up to 40 million in VAT.

The injunctions prevent the individuals from disclosing commercial information or dealing with CellStar suppliers or customers while they work at Caudwell group.

CellStar launched legal action against the individuals earlier this month saying the manner of their departure was unacceptable because taking up employment at the Caudwell group broke clauses in their CellStar employment contracts that prohibited this.

CellStar MD David Aitken explained that the defectors will still be allowed to work at Caudwell pending a court hearing due the next month. He told Mobile News:

We have obtained temporary injunctions against some individuals pending the full hearing. It is a complex situation. They are allowed to continue working for Caudwell group but they are restricted from doing business with any of our customers or suppliers and are prevented from disclosing any commercially sensitive information.

Aitken also revealed that high-level talks have taken place between CellStar and Caudwell senior management to stem the growing stream of employees moving between the two companies. But he agrees the close proximity of the businesses to one another is an issue.

We have had a chat to resolve how we can work as competitors going forward. We dont actively recruit from Caudwell group. We are looking to discuss similar moves from their point of view.