Judge Anthony Ensor told him there had been a real possibility that the British Airways flight from Madrid to Manchester last September which had 91 people on board could have been at risk.

The court had heard that Whitehouse an oil worker repeatedly refused to switch off his phone after being spotted with it on the Boeing 737.

Although he made no airborne calls experts said interference from the phone could have sparked an explosion or affected the aeroplanes navigational systems as it flew at 31000 feet.

Whitehouse was first asked by cabin crew to turn the mobile off after he was spotted typing I love you onto the text face.

When told it might interfere with navigation he replied: Why? Are we going to get lost?

Sentencing him Judge Ensor said:

You had no regard for the alarm that would be caused to passengers by your stubborn and ignorant behaviour.

The Judge said Whitehouse had treated the aircrafts pilot David Travis with arrogance and disdain when he refused to hand over his phone.

Any sentence must not only punish you but act as a warning to others who might be inclined to behave similarly he said urging the Civil Aviation Authority to conclude investigations into legislation specifically banning mobile phones on planes in line with laws in the United States and Germany.

Proliferation of ownership of mobile phones and an increasing number of reports from pilots of electro-magnetic interference makes this a priority he said.

Whitehouse is the first passenger to be prosecuted under the 1995 Air Navigation Order (see phones on planes Feature).

This puts the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer ahead of Mercedes (12) Nescafe (13) and Gillette (15) and other household names such as Sony Kodak and Nike.

Coca-Cola is the top band followed by Microsoft and IBM.

Nokias rivals Motorola and Ericsson do not feature at all in Interbrands league table.

Five years ago it would have been almost unimaginable for Nokia to be sitting alongside such long-time established global players as McDonalds and Mercedes Benz said Nokias UK and Ireland head of marketing Alison Brolls.

For the last few months BTCellnet has been re-evaluating its involvement with the Scheme and was apparently on the verge of pulling its support and 200000 or so of funding.

The FCS receives support including financial support from all sectors of the industry. But the lions share of the money required to keep the inspectors on the road and the level of criminality at a (sometimes barely) manageable level comes from Vodafone Cellnet One 2 One and Orange.

The Scheme is paid for by contributions from all the networks and cant work without the involvement of all four. If BTCellnet had chosen not to continue supporting the Scheme it could not have been anywhere near as effective say industry insiders.

Im extremely pleased the uncertainty has ended said FCS chairman Jonathan Clark.

I had heard they (BTCellnet) wanted the Scheme to be extended to be more involved in fraud and that pleases me. The Scheme is run by the industry which sets the rules.

This is an industry-wide Scheme and it can only work by everyone working together.

Clark paid tribute to the Crime Prevention Inspectorate staff who kept on with their jobs and brought in even more spectacular results through a period of uncertainty.

In May BTCellnet said it had been reluctant to commit significant additional resources to the FCS without having a stronger understanding about how the FCS would structure itself and deliver the objectives that would inevitably accompany increased resources.

The improvements take effect on 1 September and are the second major change announced so far this year. The changes contain a combination of more bundled minutes reduced call rates and lower monthly line rental. Medium to heavy users will receive increases in inclusive minutes each month varying from an extra 45 minutes on Vodafone 120 to an extra 2500 minutes on Vodafone 7500.

The most significant price cut will be enjoyed by customers on Vodafone 120 (formerly Vodafone 75) who will see a reduction in the price of peak calls from 28p a minute to 25p a min as well as 60 per cent more inclusive minutes. Customers on Vodafone 3500 and Vodafone 7500 will benefit from monthly line rental reductions of 11.50 and 39.38 respectively.

Vodafone will also now align its Group Saver Tariffs with the standard tariffs so that the bundled minutes are the same for both. Customers on Group Saver 60 and Group Saver 120 will receive twice as many inclusive minutes as at present.

Vodafones Group Saver range of tariffs enable customers to connect additional handsets for 15 and benefit from cheap local calls and calls to other Vodafone mobiles. Vodafone Business Tariff customers get a reduction in the peak calling rate from 16p to 15p from 1 September 1999.

Unused minutes from month one are available in month two. If still not used up roll forward to month three. If at the end of month three the minutes originating in month one remain unused they are subsequently lost.

The Bundle Rollover product will only be made available through service providers who undertake to register for the programme.

Fifty eight dealers were reported for serious breaches of the rules 20 notices of breach were issued and 39 arrests were made.

More than 100 intelligence bulletins were issued saving companies hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Scheme has been successful in its own right but more importantly in the part it is increasingly playing in uncovering large scale and organised crime in the industry said FCS chairman Jonathan Clark at the FCSs AGM last week.

The operation of the Scheme is proving to be an essential framework for detecting and preventing a range of criminal activities detrimental to all careful and honest businesses in the industry (see Crime Prevention Feature).

Unveiling its six-month interim results last week Orange claimed it was now winning 46.6 per cent of contract customer growth and had achieved the lowest churn in the industry of 18.7 per cent. However as the proportion of pre-pay customers increased average revenue across the base fell 39 to 424.

Orange now has 2.96 million customers at the end of the period up from 2.16 million at the end of last year.

Overall market share increased from 16.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent. Contract market share increased 1.9 per cent to 18.4 per cent

Turnover at Orange UK increased 63 per cent to 645.5 million with network revenue up 62 per cent to 512.7 million. Operating performance pushed profit up 40.7 million to 46.2 million.

Orange has achieved record growth in customers and record growth in value. We added 800000 customers in the first half three times more than for the same period last year. This growth has continued in July and Oranges customer base is now 3.14 million said Orange CEO Hans Snook.

Everyday 50 has provided a major stimulus to the consumer contract market and today we have 173000 customers on this tariff.

The growth has fed through to our financials with Group operating profit up from 2 million to 36.9 million.

Loss before tax was reduced 65 per cent to 17.1 million or by 35 per cent to 32.2 million before allowing for an exceptional item.

We have maintained our network lead increasing our core base station sites to more than 5800. This gives us a 28 per cent lead over our nearest competitor and a 75 per cent lead over our weakest competitor.

Snook said Orange will also launch High Speed Circuit Switch Data technology which will increase data speeds from 9.6 kbits/s to 28.8 kbits/s equivalent to todays fixed line data rates and using advanced compression techniques take speeds up to ISDN levels.

Orange will sell wirefree radio cards which can be inserted into computers.

The network will also become an internet service provider. Its third-generation UMTS services will not become commercially available until 2003.

Orange also last week launched the Orange Developers Forum to gather experts to develop integrated wirefree products and services using data and messaging.

Dealers are being absolutely slaughtered by the Tescos and Asdas of this world who are just using a pre-pay phone as a sprat to catch a mackeral said JWE Telecom chairman John Weatherill.

I appreciate that it is difficult for the networks to intervene. But they ought to make it a bit more difficult for them to slash prices and use phones as a loss leader. Supermarkets are using mobiles as pawns in their own market share wars.

Unfortunately the whole mobile comms industry is going to have to suffer because of this. This latest development will be a killer for a lot of dealers unless the networks do something about it. It is in the networks interests to do something. If they dont the whole thing will back fire because at the end of the day the supermarkets dont give a damn. The networks have to look after the dealers today because dealers will be looking after the customers two and three years down the line when the supermarkets have lost interest.

We spend half our time answering questions from people who have bought phones in Asda and who cant or wont read the instruction book. Its costing us money and Im tempted to put the phone down on these people. So its costing us in profit terms and in time spent when we could be doing other things

The Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone was dismissive of the supermarkets abilities to properly sell mobiles.

Its essential that customers are given independent and impartial advise. This is something supermarkets will never be able to offer. There are over 20 pre-pay packages alone.

Ahmed Rashid from Fones Etc in Ilford East London said:

They are selling the phones at much the same price as we are buying them. Either they are not making any profit on them or are buying them at much lower prices than us. We are prepared to price match if a customer tells us that he has heard of the offer. There must be a downside to the deal somewhere.

Either they have bought a load of old stock. Or they are selling a model is not very popular and that we would have trouble selling ourselves even if we could offer it at the same price or cheaper. Most pre-pay handsets are pretty ugly. People are prepared to pay a little more for a decent handset. Supermarkets cant offer a choice of pre-pay handsets and any advice on which is the best model.

Adrian Foot branch manager at Talkworld Bexleyheath added:

Im not surprised at all by this. Over the last few months the supermarkets have been jostling for position in this market and this was inevitable. They are potentially opening a can of worms here because they are taking on a product that is troublesome and that requires customer service that they are not geared up for.

How are they going to deal with phone returns warranty claims handset faults and most importantly give advice on a customers needs? I know local garage owners that have stopped selling pre-pay simply because they are fed up with all the hassle they get on a product which yields very low profit margins.

The networks talk about reducing churn but this price war will increase churn from contract to prepay and ultimately back onto contract again as customers become dissatisfied with a cheap handset and expensive call charges.

Steve Bellamy from Fleet Communications also believes that the pre-pay war will have a detrimental effect on contract sales:

The networks are creating their own churn by doing this and we feel that they are forgetting their existing contract customers in the process.

Its bad news for us because we cant match those prices but it gives us even more incentive to highlight the better value of contract deals and push much harder the contract side of our business. We will try to highlight our superior service and also match the right product to a customers needs. But if at the end of the day they only want to pay 39.99 or 49.99 for pre-pay phones then we are going to have to tell them where they can go and get it. I dont believe the claims that we are all buying this stock at the same prices although the networks say we are.

Vodafone spokesperson Corrinne Norris said:

Increasing distribution and outlets was always part of our strategy for prepay. Supermarkets are prepared to work on tighter margins. Multiples account for 60 per cent of the pre-pay market and more than 10 per cent of these are through supermarkets. We can cope with growth.

Oranges group sales director Gareth Jones told Mobile News:

No one can stop this happening It is inevitable. We cant influence the retail price. Our main interest is still focusing on getting the value sector of the market which we will continue to do. I dont believe the retail price point will impact our ability to do that. The value of the market will still come from the dealer channel. Thats why we always try and focus on that channel as much as we can. What will happen with pre-pay is you will see low-end handsets sold at those prices but better quality handsets at higher prices.

Dealers will continue to focus on the higher-tier handsets in the pre-pay range. You will get basic products in the self service environment such as supermarkets. But more sophisticated products will continue to be sold in the dealer channel Jones said.

Brilaw was presented with bills by network operators for 12 mobile phones which had been delivered to private addresses in the South.

Our high credit rating makes us a prime target for this type of fraud. However we have clear pre-set guidelines on purchasing which mean we can prove none of our staff ordered the phones said Brilaw marketing director Brian Pennington.

Until now independent service providers have been able only to .distribute BT Cellnets own pre-pay brands U Easylife Pay and Go and Business Pay and Go. Independent service providers have been unable to provide their own separate pre-pay packages to customers using BT Cellnets network.

Oftel launched an initial investigation in October 1998. It also received a complaint from an independent service provider in May that BT Cellnet was not willing to supply wholesale pre-pay services. Oftels investigation confirmed this. Following Oftel intervention BT Cellnet has now agreed to supply the necessary services to independent service providers so that they are able to offer pre-pay packages to their own customers.

Pre-pay has been the primary source of the recent enormous growth experienced in the mobile telecommunications sector. It is vital that service providers can acquire services from BT Cellnet in order for them to market their own retail products. This should boost competition increase choice and drive down prices said Oftel director general David

The deal involves purchase of the companys 140 stores and 50 concessions in Powerhouse stores.

BTCellnet director of sales and service and managing director of Martin Dawes Telecommunications Hugh Logan will assume overall responsibility of DX.

DX founder Richard Emanuel told Mobile News:

Im very happy. It was a very good deal for all parties involved. Were pleased with whats happened and we are looking forward to the future.There is no truth at all to the rumours that DX were heavily in debt to BTCellnet. We have positive trading relationships with all four networks.

DX is split into several divisions. The one that BTCellnet has bought is the key retail business which includes the DX stores and the infrastructure in Glasgow. Several other parts of DX remain. I will want to spend some time with the companies that remain in the future because they are growing rapidly and represent tremendous opportunities with European goals to attain.

For the time being Im remaining with DX as MD working closely of course with Hugh Logan. He and his team are very focussed. Well review the situation at the end of this calendar year when were in a better position to see the way forward though I believe very much that the DX brand will remain a retail force.

I would envisage DX continuing to work with all four networks for the foreseeable future though ultimately Hugh Logan is better placed perhaps to tell you about the long term strategy.

I think its true to suggest that the buyout has been on the cards for the greater part of 1999. The initial 26 per cent investment by BT set the scene but I dont think it was part of a bigger picture two and a half years ago when the investment was made. At the time Cellnet were trying to secure some routes to market.

Over the past nine months or so BTCellnet seems to have got more of a strategy together and has become more open as an organisation both with the investment in DX and Dawes together with investment in some of their other routes to market said Emanuel.

Ive invested a lot of my working life in DX. Im very keen to see the business go forward and it has in place a very solid stable management team to make sure that it does. The days when everything to do with the company rested on my shoulders are long gone. The team that is in place are very well able to take the business on and into its next chapter. I cant see any significant management changes taking place See Dx Communications Feature.