This is the amount needed to finance the companys immediate cash needs.

The letters were reported to the bankruptcy court in Delaware on October 18

ICO says there is reasonable assurance that the company can meet its financing requirements to begin global mobile satellite services currently expected to start in April 2001.

ICO chief executive Richard Greco said:

I am very pleased with the support shown by strategic investors to our new business plan and financing plan. By aggressively reducing costs we have cut our financing requirements by almost 30 per cent to $1.2 billion which is the amount needed to begin our global mobile satellite service. We have started to turn the corner with the new ICO and are pressing onward to emerge from Chapter 11 complete our system and start service.

Digifone has decided to name its contract offerings to popularise the cost advantages over pre-pay.

The generic name is Select with Select 1 Select 2 and Select 3 catering for the light medium and heavy user.

Three add-on options called Weekender Plus World Plus and Message Plus can supplement the basic offering for an additional charge.

Select 1 replaces DigiLite and adds an inclusive call value of IR 3.75 for a monthly charge of IR 10.00.

Select 2 at a IR 20.00 monthly replaces DigiFlex and provides IR 7.50 of inclusive calls.

Select 3 is for high volume users and costs IR 30 per month with a IR 15.00 inclusive call value. Peak rate calls are on a sliding scale ranging from 12.5p to 17.5p depending on the total monthly duration. The Plus options allow customers to make additional savings and can be added in any combination at IR 5 each per month or IR 10 for all three.

Weekender Plus permits a headline rate of 2p per min for all same network and national calls during the weekend period.

World Plus is for business travellers and offers half price international calls.

Digifone CEO Barry Maloney said the discounts would only apply to calls made within Digifones network. International calls made to Digifone roamers or calls made on foreign networks would be excluded. Maloney said the new offering would make Digifone up to 15 per cent more competitive against rival Eircell. Digifone now has 460000 customers and a 41 per cent share of the total mobile market with 49 per cent of the GSM market.

Irish mobile penetration has now reached 30 per cent ahead of the UK and European average.

Average call durations are almost double those in other countries Maloney said.

By creating partnerships such as this we will be able to develop wireless and multimedia applications. These services represent an enormous market opportunity and should develop rapdly to meet demands of mobile customers said VodafoneAirtouch CEO Chris Gent.

As of mid-October production of the T28 was at the targeted rate.

But capacity to fulfill customer demand will not be achieved until the first quarter of next year.

For the full year Ericsson previously estimated a total market volume of 240 to 260 million phones at the upper end of the range.

Ericssons plan was to capture a 15 per cent unit volume market share. This plan required Ericsson to produce 32 to 39 million units in 1999 to give it a market share of 12 to 13 percent for the full year.

Falling margins on consumer handsets caused Ericssons overall gross profit margin to dip two per cent in the last quarter. But net sales were up 14 percent compared with the third quarter of last year.

Operating expenses for the nine months were up 21 percent over last year or 33 percent of sales. R&D costs so far this year have been 16 per cent of sales for increased research into 3G mobile systems datacom technologies (IP and ATM) and new mobile phones.

The amount of phones produced by Ericsson was up 29 percent over last year to 21 million units. But the company agrees the ramp-up of production for the new product range has been slower than planned especially for the high-volume units like A1018 and T10.

This has affected sales and profitability negatively even though Ericsson says customer demand for the new models is very strong. The company expects a recovery in production capacity in time for the segment to meet fourth quarter targets.

Ericsson says it remains optimistic of the future of the business. It has increased its forecast for the number of mobile subscribers to more than one billion worldwide by year-end 2003.

Ericsson also expects that there will be almost 400 million mobile Internet users at the end of 2004. Some 120 million of these users are expected to be served by 3G technologies.

The new unit will combine Nokias expertise in Wireless Local Area Networks Internet Protocol and digital broadcasting.

In the future IP based applications and terminals will work seamlessly among all three environments said Nokia president Pekka Ala-Pietila.

The global market for Home Environment related products will develop in a very positive and fascinating way in the future. Bringing broadband access to the home opens up new opportunities for operators and service providers enabling them to provide internet related and other new services to consumers.

It will mean world-wide compatibility of handsets which will eliminate roaming incompatibilities with the USA and Canada and rest of the world. The GSM Association and UWCC will first focus on a common TDMA and GSM handset and network interoperability scheduled for production next year.

Michael Stocks chairman of the GSM Association stated: Common subscriber equipment and user interfaces will provide economies of scale and lead to lower cost more simplified offerings for consumers.

UWCC president Sheila Mickool said: This historic agreement will provide a cost-effective pathway to serve wireless customers and operators while creating a wireless world with an integrated set of networks providing voice and data services.

We look forward to leveraging the global footprint of GSM and TDMA to eliminate boundaries in the wireless offerings of today and the future.

Robert Conway chief executive officer of the GSM Association added: Both organisations want to create global interoperability for voice and data for subscribers around the world.

The processor can fit all standards such as CDMA GSM and TDMA and satellite phones. It has been designed to quickly process WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) applications that use the Java internet language and will be able to make use of new high-speed data standards such as GPRS.

Our performance in the third quarter gives us every reason to be satisfied said Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila.

The very strong sales reflects our increased market share and the further consolidation of our number one position in mobile handsets.

Our ambition is to grow faster than the market. Based on the strong Q3 we feel confident that our full year 1999 sales growth will exceed 40 per cent said Ollila.

LCR is now adding a product called Freedom Mobile which allows dealers to sell highly-competitive tariffs at volume-related discounts. It is now looking to expand its dealer network.and fin ddealers to take on the new service

Dealers are playing an increasingly important role in LCRs growth said LCR chief operating officer Mel Wheeler.

The company currently routes more than 35 million calls a month with 18 million in the UK. Its systems monitors 10000 tariffs each day patching its customers through the lowest-cost routes.