Sales director Gareth Limpenny UK sales manager John Whitlock and export manager Rob Beard have all handed in their notice and will leave European Telecom next month to pursue careers outside the company.

Said European Telecom group managing director David McKinney:

We are informing those affected by the changes and have moved quickly to ensure that there is no negative impact on our ability to service our customers and on our relationships with them.

Gareth and Rob will continue to support ET until they leave in late September. We are currently recruiting for these roles. We would like to thank Gareth John and Rob for their contributions to ET and to wish them well for the future added McKinney.

Limpenny has been with European Telecom for six years. Whitlock departs after five years with the company and Beard has seven years service with ET.

Panasonic originally announced it would launch its top of the range GPRS handset the GD95 at the end of Q2 this year.

Panasonic head of UK business systems Bob Tate says:

Without a firm and finished specification we have been unable to bring the product to market in the timescale we originally planned. It is inconclusive from operators consumers and the market in general as to their view of GPRS in the short term.

Theres no-one to blame in particular. There is a combination of factors. Its not clear if the market is ready willing or able to take on GPRS handsets services and new ways of billing.

Panasonic is not happy with the GPRS specification because it is incomplete. There are risks in trying to manufacture a product when you feel insecure about the specification. Other manufacturers have taken a different view. We are concerned that the product has to perform for customers and offer real benefits.

Adds Tate: As a company we tend to be a little more conservative rather than taking risks. Until we are happy with the final specification for GPRS we wont start manufacturing. There is some way to go before we launch GPRS.

On February 5 Tate told Mobile News that Panasonics poor market share performance to date was partly due to a delay in manufacturing WAP handsets. He says that the situation regarding GPRS is different.

With WAP we clearly werent in a position to manufacture. We could manufacture GPRS handsets today but we wont until we are happy the specification is right.

Tate admits Panasonic has a poor position in the market but is confident the delay to GPRS will not be a major blow to sales. We enjoyed a small peak in June. But its nothing Im going to rave about. We are not losing or gaining market share at the moment. We would have liked to launch our entry-level product the GD35 earlier than we did. Market conditions prevented that. Operators had large amounts of stock on their hands that they needed to clear which dictated our ability to get GD35 out.

Our performance might have been better had we been able to get the product out to market earlier. The GD95 has been well received by operators.

We intend to launch it without GPRS. It wont send our market share into double digits but I believe we will register some forward movement over the next couple of quarters. We are short on our targets but our strategy hasnt changed.

These 22 companies have seen sales decline nearly 20 per cent on average over the last year. Around 68 per cent of them are now at high financial risk according to Plimsoll and all of these companies are loss-making.

They tended to be the smaller companies and are seemingly getting left out of an otherwise healthy market. Current market growth for the industry is a robust 25 per cent says Plimsoll.

Plimsoll reckons 16 per cent of the industry is losing market and profitability. These companies are finding the market tight and highly competitive says Plimsoll.

Forty-four per cent are showing no signs of recession at all.

Seven per cent are adopting a steady approach to profits and in most cases are using these profits to pay off debts.

Thirty-two per cent are striving for as much market as they can get. Currently though these companies are showing poor returns for their efforts Plimsoll adds.

The Finnish manufacturer has agreed with Twentieth Century Fox International to promote the remake of the 1968 film over mobile phones in Europe.

The agreement offers Nokia owners in Germany Italy and the UK screensavers and logos of the film on their mobile phones via the Club Nokia website.

More than than 20 characters and distinctive graphical images from Planet of the Apes can be downloaded in the form of SMS and WAP logos picture messages and animated screensavers.

At the time of going to press MobileWorld Expo exhibitors such as Pama were unaware the show had been canned.

The event will now be a show within a show at the National Exhibition Centre Birmingham next February where it will be co-located with two other telecoms and IT dealer exhibitions.

MobileWorld Expo managing director Tony Higgin blamed the September shows closure on the current climate in the communications market and the apparent unwillingness in the mobile market to commit to a one-dimensional event.

The demise of MobileWorldExpo this year now leaves Reed Exhibitions long-running Mobilexpo show as the only stand-alone trade exhibition for the UK mobile industry. Mobilexpo which has been held annually since 1995 takes place at the NEC next May.

The company spent a year putting in place auditing and monitoring procedures to achieve the ISO benchmark.

Fone Logistics says it was carrying out around 200 to 300 installations a month two years ago. This has now risen to 3000 jobs a month according to the companys managing director Ian Gillespie.

At current growth rates China is expected to take the number one position by the middle of next year says the Forum.

The reports estimates the number of subscribers in China to rise to 111 million by the end of this year representing year-on-year growth of some 42 million users.

The Chinese market is certainly awakening says Graham Brown executive partner at Wireless World Forum.

The market far from being saturated – will only just touch nine per cent compared to 50-70 per cent across most of Western Europe.

The introduction of pre-pay lack of fixed-line deployment and massive infrastructure investment by both Chinese and foreign telecommunications companies are all factors conducive to the creation of one of the most important wireless markets in the world within three to five years says Brown.

What China represents is a huge opportunity for mobile data services.

Take SMS for example. In the UK we hit one billion messages last month. Now imagine the potential in a country which is 20 times the size adds Brown.

The Wireless World Forum aims to provide market intelligence for the wireless industry.

It runs a subscription-based membership service offering information for wireless Bluetooth SMS WAP iMode and 3G.

An inquest into the death of Angela Khanna (26) on December 23 last year ascertained she had dropped her phone on to the tracks at Turnham Green station.

Hammersmith Coroners Court heard that she died as a rescue team battled to free her from the weight of the District Line London Underground tube train.

Pathologist Barbara Borek gave the cause of death as severe chest injuries.

Driver John Floyd said he was approaching Turnham Green station at around 35mph. He said he was aware that someone was on the tracks and trying to climb back onto the platform.

I felt that possibly she had gone to retrieve her mobile phone of which part was nearby her and part was on the platform he told the Court.

Floyd slammed on his emergency brakes but the momentum of the train carried it forward and pinned the woman against the platform.

The emergency services were called but Miss Khanna lost consciousness as the train was lifted using air bags to release her body. She was taken to Charing Cross hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The Court heard her Nokia 3210 was about a metre from her body but without its back cover and battery.

Station supervisor Alix Bushness said it looked like she had thrown the Nokia in front of her.

Reporting to fellow American One 2 One MD Harris Jones Richardson will have responsibility for all aspects of sales marketing and customer equipment.

Richardson moves into the spot vacated by commercial director Richard Shearer last year.

Joint administrator Andrew Hosking from HLB Kidsons told Mobile News:

We are very optimistic. A number of major parties are still demanding more information including square footage details for every shop from us but we believe this matter will be concluded by the end of the week.

Hosking confirmed he was looking at a number of options. Some parties are interested only in buying a few of the shops from 10 to 60. We continue to work towards our goal which is the disposal of the business as a going concern.

We have had offers from businesses working across a variety of industries which are interested in The Phone Peoples property portfolio but I would think the chain is likely to remain within the mobile phone industry.

Adds Hosking We have had a lot of good support from Orange One 2 One and Vodafone for which we are grateful. Landlords are continuing to support us the staff has been paid and we continue to trade. So its not a question of our being quietly optimistic we are very optimistic that there will be a sale of either all or a significant part of the companys property portfolio.

We are now looking at making an announcement in a matter of days rather than weeks.

Phone People went into administration last month after an equity-swap deal with Manchester service provider Yes Telecom collapsed.

Yes had tried to keep the company going for a month.