At the time of going to press Virgin Mobile had not released its plans.

But a handset price of 90 with calls at 15p a minute all the time were being predicted.

Virgins new logistics system designed by Strategix Solutions will process online orders and handle stock control warehouse returns. and accounts.

The mobile phone industry has a reputation for poor customer service. We are going to change all that said Virgin Mobile director Andrew Ralston.

With Virgin Mobile customers will get clear information quality products and top customer service.

The network says its Carry Over service is the longest period offered by any network for rollover minutes.

Many customers usage varies from month to month. Carry Over means that customers will always get the most out of their inclusive minutes said Vodafone managing director Alan Harper.

The first Carry Over minutes will be usable next month.

The magazine said: Orange was easily the best all round. It consistently came first or very near the top for both the quality of its network and customer service. Orange was significantly better for network coverage had better call clarity fewer dropped calls and fewer problems connecting to the network.

Over 80 per cent of Orange customers surveyed thought that Orange had good or excellent coverage A further 71 per cent of Orange customers rated the Orange service as having few connection problems.

Around 78 per cent of Orange customers surveyed said they were satisfied with reception quality significantly higher than customers of other mobile networks. Sixty-eight per cent of Orange customers surveyed rated the Orange network as good or excellent for the number of dropped calls.

The survey was conducted in June this year from 4650 replies from 25000 questionnaires

BTCellnets head of corporate communications William Ostrom said:

Despite Orange getting gongs for this and other surveys customers seem to be making up their own minds about our colourful competitor. Orange is getting the fewest number of new customers pushed into last place by One2One.

BTCellnet came a consistent strong second for every customer satisfaction measure with very competitive results in the tariff analysis. Factually Orange coverage is markedly inferior to both BTCellnet and Vodafone; maybe their customers are more tolerant of no network messages.

Two schoolboys aged 13 and 14 had a phone and 20 cash snatched from them after being threatened with a Swiss army knife by a gang of seven teenagers near Piccadilly Circus.

The gang including two girls pounced on the schoolboys in Rupert Street Soho.

The previous day a young woman was pushed kicked and had her mobile stolen by two men in the Charing Cross Road.

A barman who went to her aid was shortly afterwards himself attacked by two men who smashed a bottle in his face and tried to steal his wrist watch. In Fulham West London two women had their handbags containing phones snatched.

The GPRS technology will be rolled out in the first half of next year and will be able to dramatically speed up mobile data applications such as news share prices and full e-mail transmissions to mobile phones. Speeds of up to 10 times those currently possible are expected.

GPRS allows users to be continually connected to the internet. Instead of sending a continuous stream of data over a permanent connection data is only sent when the network senses data is actually transmitted.

Within two years BTCellnet expects all new mobie phones and other mobile deices to be enbaled for instant internet access.

The mobile internet revolution will be the main business driver in the years ahead. This first call is a milestone in the run-up to the delivery of our GPRS services. These services will make a genuine difference to the mobile worker enabling them to send and receive information quickly and cost-effecitvley while on the move said BTCellnet managing director Peter Erskine.

Michael Stocks chairman of the GSM Association added:

GPRS development is moving very quickly. Each day we are a step closer to a new era of high speed wireless internet access and faster data speeds for millions of GSM customers. We are delighted by news of the first successful GPRS call on a live GSM network in the UK and are confident it will be the first of manymore announcements in the coming months.

GPRS trials are at key stages of development in Hong Kong Singapore Czech Republic France Germany Poland Sweden Denmark Belgium Austria and the UK.

The customer is Pocklington haulage company JCI International who will use the system to track drivers and cargo using GPS satellites as well as communicating with individuals and groups of drivers.

JWE has been dealing with JCI since 1983 and it was one of JWEs first ever customers.

Dolphin Telecoms ExpressNet combines digital radio cellular telephony and data.

The company is forecasting that it will be processing an additional 3000 handsets a month following its accreditation with Sagem – the French pre-pay handset manufacturer. Intec has accreditation with 16 handset manufacturers claimed by MD Harry Ramis to be the largest accreditation held by any service centre

Ramis says Intec expects next year to repair 20 per cent more phones a month with anticipated monthly turnaround projections of 30000 in the early part of 2000.

The company also made a gross profit of 3.11 million up from 880000 for the comparative period in 1998.

Around 95000 connections were logged up from 34000 a year ago and the number of call minutes doubled to 120 million.

The company is positioning itself as one the UKs leading switchless resellers of voice and data calls. It started as a distributor of personal telephone numbers and has now diversified to a broader business adding internet-related services.

Recent stock market listings in the UK have demonstrated the potential value of small and medium sized telecoms companies of which PNC Tele.com is a prime example said chief executive Geremy Thomas.

The system will handle all dealings with customers. It captures and retains information and triggers marketing and sales incentives.