The cartridge reads and stores the phones credit and SIM card info. When the phones credit runs out the phone is switched off. The cartridge is reinserted and the credit is back on the phone.

The cartridges are being sold for 100 each dropping to 50 each for orders over 10. Unblocker Software and leads for both c12 and Diga are being sold for 500

The web site states:

We are well aware that you may consider this to be a scam due to all the recent scams concerning mobile phones and sky hacks Our only answer is If you were thinking this way Dont jump in with both feet buy one cartridge to test (cont P2) the water. At least this way you can test us with minimum risk If you like what you get then deal with us If not then Im sure well be flamed on the newsgroups and this site will fall into oblivion.

The sellers of the device say:

If the phone becomes blocked by your service provider its not a problem just place the cartridge in the base of the phone power up the phone (with full battery) and press hot key 9 at the same time and wait for 20 seconds

This will allow the cartridge to do its job and hey presto your back on line with the same number and credit. If you wish to put extra credit on the phone this can be done as well.

Warning! each cartridge is unique to the first phone its introduced to so if you try to put the cartridge in another phone it will display contact your dealer. This is unrecoverable

The phones with their cartridges have even sent some abroad to India Pakistan Germany France and Tenerife.

All phones worked fine say the cartridge sellers.

We could make calls back to the UK but could not make Internal calls in the countries we tried. Except of course the UK where you can make as many calls to who ever and where ever you like.

Vodafone has launched a 1.5 million advertising campaign at Heathrow Airport.

It includes exterior poster sites escalator panels and sites above shops in the main buildings.

An estimated 61.5m visitors pass through Heathrow Airport each year.

The campaign features Nervous System depicting a human body.

The second advertisement Vodafone Spoken Here majors on the fact that Vodafone claims to have the most roaming agreements world-wide and claims that no mobile phone network covers more countries.

Anthony Ledwith of Sprint in Greenford Middlesex was alone in the shop when a coloured man dressed in puffer jacket trainers and jeans came in and asked to look at a phone.

He then jumped over (cont P2)the counter and threatened Ledwith with the screwdriver before stealing 500 of pre-pay vouchers and five Bosch and Ericsson phones.

The assailant told Ledwith Im here to rob you and ordered him to stay in the back room.

Without notice Cellnet issued a notice demanding a commission clawback of 500000 in October 1999 (cont P2).

The clawback pertains to Line Advance contracts where TCL sold the wrong handsets to customers. BT Cellnets Line Advance package comes with the option of specific handset models.

BTCellnet said:

All retailers were made aware of these terms. TCL were given a significant period of time in which to dispute or negotiate a settlement. They chose to do the latter. The three Line Advance packages included the Ericsson GA628 Ericsson S868 and the Nokia 5110 handset. In November 1999 this changed to two handsets the same Nokia and the Ericsson A1018s.

The network says it had no notification from TCL that it wasnt selling the specified handsets.

Commission said BTCellnet was based on agreed target levels for sales of specified products and packages.

If the specified packages arent sold then commission isnt appropriate. If a customer requests a non approved handset this then means it is no longer a BTCellnet Advance package and could not be sold on that basis.

Dealers and retailers do of course have the right to sell their own packages. But they cannot describe them as an advertised BTCellnet package.

TCL was connecting between 1000 and 15000 phones a month with most of the business going to Securicor Cellular Services.

After BTCellnet invoked its clawback the company found there was a shortfall of 150000 in cashflow. The bank turned them down for finance. A purchaser is now being sought for the 41 retail shops.

Virgin and Tesco are part of SpectrumCo a consortium formed by the Virgin group along with with Nextel Sonera EMI and private equity funds.

Other entrants to the auction apart from the four existing UK networks are 3G (owned by Irish telcom Eilrcom) Crescent Wireless (owned by shareholders with significant interests in Global Crossing which bought Racal Telecom) Epsilon Tele.Com (a subsidiary of Japanese finance house Nomura) NTL Mobile (jointly owned by NTL and France Telecom) One Tel Global Wireless (Australian-based telco) TIW UMTS (a subsidiary of Canadian telco TIW which also owns the UK TETRA operator Dolphin) Telefonica (Spanish and Latin American network operator) and WorldCom Wireless (a subsidiary of global telco MCI Worldcom).

The licences are expected to be awarded to the highest bidders in March. The final list of applicants who will qualify to take part in the auction will be confirmed in February following the completion of checks on applications.

The Government will auction five licences for blocks of spectrum for 3G services. The licence with the largest amount of spectrum is reserved for a new entrant to the UK mobile telecoms market. The minimum bid for the the five licences totals 500 million.

The main auction will take place over a number of rounds possibly lasting several weeks in total. Information on the progress of the auction including the most recent bids made by each bidder and the licence it is bidding for will be published on the auction website (http://www.spectrumauctions.gov.uk) shortly after the end of each round.

Out goes current managing director Tim Samples to be temporarily replaced by Kai-Uwe Ricke currently MD of Deutsche Tele-koms T-Mobile subsidiary.

Samples leaves One 2 One at the end of the month. Ricke (38) will have his seat while a permanent successor is sought

Ricke has headed T-Mobile since 1998 and has narrowed the market share differential with rival D2 Mannesmann. T-Mobile had 9.1 million customers at the end of last year making it one of Europes biggest mobile operators.

One 2 One is one of the most essential elements in Deutsche Tele-koms international strategy. I am looking forward to setting the direction for the business as part of the overall T-Mobile International venture and directing One 2 Ones continued aggressive growth in the UK said Ricke.

He pleaded guilty to obtaining a 20 phone from Selfridges by deception and also admitted stealing a Samsung phone.

Burke insisted that 600 of pre-pay vouchers which the Prosecution claimed had not been found were actually in his jacket pocket when he was searched after his arrest and had been retrieved.

I very much hope you have enjoyed the experience and are satisfied with the whole concept and service.

As sods law (sic) would have it three weeks after launching we experienced a couple of problems and Im writing to apologise if this has affected you.

Some of you had difficulty getting your phone up and running due to a set up issue with the network.

This has resulted in excess calls to our call centre which has meant that a number of you will have had difficulty getting through.

I realise this is enormously frustrating. Furthermore One 2 One have been carrying out some upgrade work on the network itself at the end of last week and the beginning of this week (ie January 12 which has affected voicemail and made outgoing calls difficult at times – not as great a start as we would have liked.

Most of these problems have been resolved but for the next couple of weeks you may well still find the call centre rather busy. By the way the quieter times to get through are generally weekday mornings.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience we may have caused you.

Meanwhile Virgin Mobiles Trowbridge-based call centre has recruited an extra 150 staff and is recruiting people to fill positions at all levels. Two more recruitment drives are planned before the end of the year (See P26 and White Lines).

The first version will be available this Autumn for connection to a GSM phone using GPRS high-speed data technology.

Future versions will incorporate mobile GPRS handset technology in to the palm-top device as a one-piece off-the-shelf handheld multimedia access.

The product will be a personal organiser with a full-colour touch screen and video camera as well as stereo audio and video capability. Users will be able to send and receive pictures listen to audio clips of sports events and hear music downloaded from the internet and play video clips.

Our aim is to become the worlds leading mobile multimedia operator and our agreement with Casio marks another significant step towards achieving this goal said VodafoneAirtouch chief executive Chris Gent.

To access the internet people will simply touch a pre-installed icon on the colour screen. This will immediately connect with VodafoneAirTouchs global internet portal. From there customers use the palm-tops colour display to browse internet content as from a fixed PC.

He allegedly claimed his previous employer Skipton dealer Mobile Telecom had gone out of business. The case has been adjourned.

The brand name of Eazypay is e-Vita and centres around the terminal which has been designed by an American company where it is used for pre-paid fixed line calling.

European Telecom has distribution rights for Europe the Middle East and Africa. The company estimates Eazypay will lose 500000 in its current financial year.

European Telecom recently raised another 2.61 million by placing another 900000 shares at 2.90 each. Around 88553 of these shares were bought by chairman and chief executive Warren Hardy.

Most of the money raised is being invested as working capital in Global Telematics European Telecoms joint venture with Racal Electronics. European Telecoms share of losses from the joint venture are expected to increase to around 1.3 million.

Hardy told Mobile News

I havent sold any shares. I have bought shares. It used to grate on me that when you do a placing the institutions tend to take that placing and get a good discount. The night before this placing saw the biggest falls in the US stock market for a long period. Yet these shares were snapped up at only a 2p to 3p discount to the closing price before the placement. That says something about the appetite and confidence the City has about our direction.

At the time of writing European Telecoms shares were trading at an all-time high of 4.97. They originally floated at 1.15.