Its assets were subsequently bought by Far East accessory firm Acson as a going concern.

An application to take the company into liquidation was made in March by creditor Equator (AG) for 83412. The courts granted the order and subsequently the company went into liquidation.

It is now understood that the liquidated company doesnt have any valuable assets and that it is unlikely that any of the unsecured creditors will get any dividends.

Should any assets become available then dividends will be paid to Oras 164 creditors.

The insolvency agency now has to carry out an investigation into the trading of Ora. This includes checking to see that accounts and records were properly maintained. After that the agency will apply to the Secretary of State to release it as liquidators.

Acson has a relatively low profile in the UK in the three years it has been established here. It was set up as a subsidiary of the Singapore-based holding company which has been going for nine years.

Acson has two factories in Singapore and a retail chain of 50 stores throughout Asia.

Over 2500 respondents interviewed. Respondents were aged 18-45 BC1 reflecting a range of attitude and aptitude relating to the use of wireless communications technology

The 200000 Detica research project which costs 395 to buy was undertaken with consumers over 12 months. It included mock-up applications for the financial services entertainment and travel sectors using demonstration 3G devices.

Over 77 per cent of those surveyed found the individual services either appealing or highly appealing. More than 70 per cent claim that they are likely to use similar services when they become generally

The research shows consumers are willing to ditch existing relationships if their preferred brands do not offer 3G services.

In the case of Financial Services 82 per cent of people polled said they expected these services to be offered by their bank.

After companies were burned by the failure of WAP to achieve widespread adoption many are playing a waiting game to watch what happens to those who go first with 3G said Detica head of research Jeremy Braune.

Barriers to 3G adoption concerning 3G devices themselves. Users are concerned with worries cost battery capacity handset fragility speed security the user interface.

Consumers were concerned that when buying services they could not feel sure that their instructions had been received or actioned appropriately.

The key to maximising acquisition and retention will be to adopt a similarly segment-specific approach to the development of individual services and the sales marketing and support infrastructures that underpin them.

A one size fits all approach will not be capable of maximising market potential said Braune.

In Germany 150000 people bought live! handsets while 60000 Italians connected to the service

We are on track to achieve our target of a million sales to customers by the end of March said Vodafone Group chief executive Chris Gent.

In a press release commenting on the substantial completion of its general overall restructuring programme the company announced plans to reduce its workforce by approximately an additional 7000 positions worldwide.

According to the release the job losses will impact all business segments and corporate headquarters. The biggest job losses are said to come in the US while the worst hit sector is said to be the cellular networks were there will be 3000 losses. The redundancies started last week and will continue until the end of the year.

At present Motorola employs over 5000 staff in the UK with 16 facilities. Around 1400 staff are employed at the companys cellular network operations in Swindon while another 1100 are employed in its two offices in Basingstoke. Its largest operation is in East Kilbride where 1600 are employed at its semi-conductor manufacturing plant.

Under the scheme customers will be able to buy top-up vouchers in over 250000 shops across Europe. Countries included in the scheme include Germany Greece Ireland Italy Portugal Spain and the UK.

The top-up system is the same across all countries with customers buying vouchers and then dialling the same top-up number they would at home.

Orange said:

Orange.Net was set up with customers receiving Orange.net services at no cost.

Users of Orange.net are not necessarily Orange customers and able to use many valuable services free of charge. We wish to continue to offer this service. To do sowe must recoup costs in some way. Customers are able to report complaints by email.

Keiron Price (29) pleaded guilty at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court earlier this month to stealing the Nokia handset from a member of staff at Selfridges in Oxford Street on June 12.

Price was followed and detained by store detectives who saw him taking the phone from the side of a cash register.

Consumers text a code number printed inside the chocolate produict wrapper which replies with a Win or Lose message.

Prizes include 5000 cash holidays Microsoft Xboxes tickets to the Commonwealth Games and 100 50 and 25 All:Sports vouchers.

So says a survey on mobile phone theft from CMG the IT solutions company which specialises in mobile business and advanced security.

A third of respondents said that they would be willing to pay a one-off fee of up to 20 for extra security that would make their phone useless to thieves and help to cut the mobile crime rate. Three per cent even said that they would be willing to pay up to 100.

A quarter of respondents said that they had been put off from using their phone in a public place because of the potential for theft.

However 45 per cent said they didnt have any form of security on their mobile phone at all.

Less than half of all respondents had PIN-protected their Sim card.

Only 34 per cent had registered their phones serial number with a network operator which would enable the latter to disable the phone in the event of a theft.

Most respondents (69 per cent) believed that it was the role of the operators rather than the customers to register the phones serial numbers.

But 82 per cent went on to say they believed that operators handset manufacturers retailers the police and the Government had a responsibility to work together to reduce mobile phone theft.

Around 67 per cent of the UKs population currently owns at least one mobile phone said Peter Maathuis director of corporate communications at CMG.

But while the issue of theft is clearly documented the solutions are less well recognised.

We need proactive effort by all the interested parties be they manufacturers or retailers into making the safety of the customer a priority.

There are security solutions already available in the market; we need to communicate these to the customer so that theyre aware of all the options available to them.

Vodafones new Watford concept store was the first to offer Intecs on-site repair service. Customers can bring in faulty handsets for a wait-and-collect service.

We have been planning to move our repair service directly into the consumer arena for some time said Intec business development director Charlo Carabott.

Vodafones new concept stores have provided us with just the retail environment we were seeking. Its customers will be offered a fast turnaround on most repairs often while they wait.

Our accreditation with 16 handset manufacturers enables us to carry parts provide repairs and honour warranties on most popular makes of phone.

Our scanning technology means that we can quickly identify circuit water damage and provide certification for insurance claims adds Carabott.