The study confirms that mobile operators can expect future revenue growth from m-commerce.

The study conducted by independent market research agency MORI found that roughly eight-times as many people would use m-commerce as compared to the number of people actually using eCommerce today.

The study also showed that nearly 90 per cent of people interested in using m-commerce services will also be willing to pay extra for the convenience of making purchases with m-commerce.

MORI interviewed over 11000 people in six markets from October 2000 to January in Great Britain South Korea Italy USA Brazil and Finland

The study revealed that mobile-phone users view m-commerce as complementary to alternative remote-commerce channels such as the Internet.

Most are willing to pay extra for m-commerce services. This suggests that consumers see real value and benefit in using their mobile phones as tools for shopping.

The study demonstrated that convenience and control will play a pivot role in acceptance of m-commerce.

Participants saw m-commerce as a way of avoiding carrying cash or waiting in queues as well as a way to grain greater control over expenditures and enjoy unlimited purchasing possibilities.

The agreement is claimed to be one of the largest of its kind in

Nationwide League Division One and represents the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the clubs history.

Digital Phone Company says it is s the largest independent mobile phone retailer in East Anglia.

As well as being Vodafones main business partner in the region the company is also Oranges main regional partner and has strong ties with One 2 One.

Digital Phone Company will produce Norwich City-branded mobile phones and accessories and plans to introduce a special tariff and SMS SMS service for supporters.

So says the Association of Communications Services Providers (ACSP) which represents the interests of providers of communication services. The ACSP commissioned an outside specialist to analyse the current state of the market.

It concluded neither 3G nor a fifth network operator will have an impact on the effectiveness of competition in the mobile market.

The report says four mobile networks is not sufficient to encourage price competition and that prices are higher than they need to be particularly for mobile to mobile off-net calls and for international roaming.

There is no choice of supplier for text messaging and the price per message remains inordinately high. There is potential for leverage of market power by the operators into new retail services such as mobile internet portals says the ACSP.

Competition with better deals for consumers will only come if independent service providers were also allowed to buy wholesale unbundled airtime from the network operators in order to offer their own retail tariffs.

There is continuing concern that anti-competitive behaviour by the regulated operators has and continues to take place despite investigations by Oftel concluding otherwise. Oftel asks is there effective competition and are consumers getting a good deal? We say no to both questions says the ACSP.

The vouchers can be used across any mobile network using all WAP enabled devices such as mobile phones and PDAs.

Vodafone won prizes for Most Informative Content for its Careers site and Best Recruitment Website for its Graduate site as well as being a finalist in the Best Usability and Use of Functionality category for the careers site.

There were over 100 entrants and Vodafone competed against other large UK companies.

Nigel Brocklehurst Vodafone human resources director said:

Almost 100 per cent of our graduate recruitment is achieved through the website and in some other parts of the business over 20 per cent of recruits come to us through the website.

Vodafones career website has a search engine to pull up jobs applicable to the candidate. If no relevant jobs are available the candidates details are stored and they are automatically contacted when an opportunity arises.

This means a total of 3.5 billion text messages were sent in the first four months of 2001 which equates to three million messages a day.

This will provide South African AA members with ways to reduce the threat of vehicle theft or hijack by providing realtime tracking capabilities that improve the chance of recovering a stolen vehicle. Orchid will enable the AA to offer its members navigational assistance emergency support in an accident and a breakdown location facility

Hijackings and vehicle crime in our country is on an upwards spiral said Barney Mostert group managing director of the AA in South Africa.

By offering realtime vehicle location to our members we are providing them with extra peace of mind against vehicle crime.

Added Global Telematics CEO Edward Belgeonne:

Weve had a number of recent successes in locating stolen vehicles in the UK with police working with Global Telematics to find the vehicles and recovering them in as little as 20 minutes.

With the escalating levels of vehicle theft and hijack in South Africa this kind of service has the potential to prove even more beneficial than it currently is in the UK.

In January RSL COM UK sold the 70 per cent of its consumer mobile base to BT Cellnet. The funds will be reinvested in RSL COMs UK national network and the rollout of new business services including GPRS. RSL COM will now concentrate on supplying fixed voice mobile data Internet and network services to the UK business market.

Barry Mowbray managing director of RSL COM UK said:

With the sale we can now focus on developing and marketing a stream of IP-based services.

RSL COM claims total revenues of over 200 million in 2000 and says it is the largest independent supplier of mobile telephony to the UK. It was placed in administration following financial problems which hit its parent US company.

Mowbray is currently engineering a management buy-out of the business.

Samsung executive director Ali Demin told Mobile News:

We are sorry he is leaving but we have a very strong team here and life has to go on. He has made a strong contribution to Samsung but he leaves behind a very strong team.

The experience he gained with products like our MP3 phones will help because Siemens has an MP3 product now.

Demin said Samsung has plans to be even more aggressive than we have been.

We intend to be a much bigger player than we are now and hopefully we shall start to see that reflected very soon.

We are intending to grow rapidly this year by doubling our sales. We do not feel that we have reached a market share figure that we deserve but we will make big improvements. Unlike our competitors we have a business thats spread over other areas not just mobile phones. It is a good time to take market share from our competitors who are not doing so well.

The network will be targeting all its registered pre-pay customers and encouraging them to switch to the new pay monthly deal.

One 2 One is taking all free call vouchers out of pre-pay boxes. Instead a 5 credit will be given on handset registration.

This will expire after 30 days if the phone is not registered. In addition customers will have to make a qualifying call within six months to avoid disconnection.