The statistic comes from interviews with 150 people in mobile phone outlets nation-wide.

At least 76 per cent of people interviewed said they only visited one shop before making their purchase decision.

However although sales people influence a third of all purchases they could influence far more as half of consumers questioned said they didnt have a brand in mind when they went into the store.

This says EMS Chiara suggests that they believed the sales staff would help them make their decision.

Out of the 33 per cent respondents who said they were influenced by sales staff only 27 per cent were women. Other factors that affect sales are advertising (six per cent) promotional deals (16 per cent) friends recommendations (10 per cent) low price (16 per cent) ergonomics (13 per cent) and other reason (six per cent).

The research has also identified that 43 per cent of people bought a mobile phone because its the norm to have one. And 56 per cent of females are still buying their first phone compared to 33 per cent of males.

Also 52 per cent of males will change their phone to keep up with technology compared with 16 per cent of females.

These figures highlight the necessity for technology retailers to tap into and capitalise on their most valuable asset their sales team said EMS Chiara chairman Richard Thompson.

Sales staff are the direct link to the shoppers and therefore their attitude and product knowledge is crucial. Advertising will draw people in-store but essentially it is the sales team that are able to make or break a sale. Retail managers should consider investing more in sales training.

Messages can also be redirected to any fax machine to obtain hard copy.

E-mails of up to 160 characters (the maximum length of an SMS) can be received with no need for a data card or modem. If the message is longer additional parts of the e-mail can be requested.

Customers need to register for the BulletIN service but there is no monthly subscription fee. The cost of originating or receiving an e-mail is 20p to forward an e-mail to a fax machine costs 50p. However until the end of September the service is available at half price.

Worth more than 1 million a year the contract makes One 2 One the main supplier of mobile phones to the Central Buying Consortium.

The Consortium was formed eight years ago and is the largest local authority purchasing group in the UK.

We chose One 2 One primarily because of its innovative approach to structuring the deal said Paul Raimbach senior contracts manager for Buckinghamshire County Council the main authority in the Consortium.

As well as offering unbeatable value for money it was immediately clear that One 2 One was easily capable of meeting the range of strict network and customer support quality guidelines we laid down in the tender process.

Customers are charged 10p (plus VAT) to send a message to a subscription pager and 20p to send to a caller-party-pays Zap! pager.

After composing the message users key in the pager number instead of the mobile number.

The Dumers Lane call centre will at first employ 250 people when it opens next month. The rest of the vacancies will be filled by Autumn.

Most jobs are full-time contracts for customer care operators.

BTCellnet is working with Bolton and Bury Chamber of Commerce and recruitment agents to find people to fill the jobs.

Bury is a great choice for the location of the new call centre. Weve had tremendous support from Bury Metro Council and Bury Chamber in pulling the deal together said BTCellnet director of sales and service Hugh Logan.

George Steaur previously in charge of Olivettis Dutch Benelux and Northern European operations has been appointed general manager of the operation in Holland.

Eircell head of retail sales Stephen Mackarel is now The Carphone Warehouses general manager in Ireland and John Grummitt leaves Smith Kline Beecham to become European commercial director in charge of financial and strategic development of the European business.

These top quality people will bring invaluable business and operational experience to our European network said Carphone Warehouse chief operating officer David Ross.

The Carphone Warehouse runs 140 shops in France Sweden Spain Holland Germany Ireland and Belgium.

Most of these outlets run under The Phone House brand.

Meanwhile a reorganisation of The Phone House Germany is also underway and the previous general manager Howard Gleave is being replaced.

The technology is being supplied by the Sema Groups SemaVision software.

Vodafone chose the system because it says it is easy to use and that information can be quickly updated with data from partner organisations such as the Automobile Association.

Its integration with our other systems means that in a few months we will be in a position to offer a range of commercially-viable services said Tony Riley sales and marketing director of Vodafone Added and Data Services.

The freebies contain a tiny deckchair stand for the phone sunglasses disposable camera sun block and a transparent phone case.

The promotion is being support by a national press and ad campaign.

Connection to the customers bank is over Vodafones GSM network. An authorisation time of beweteen 13 and 15 seconds is being claimed.

The idea of the devices is to enable businesses to process electronic transactions wherever the customer is such as an exhibition sporting event or in the home (eg delivery services).

This waiver comes at a critical time for Iridium said John Richardson CEO of Iridium LLC.

With our lower and simplified prices taking effect in July we now have the time to implement our refocused marketing strategy.

Iridiums new strategy announced June 21 (Mobile News June 28) includes airtime price reductions of up to 65 per cent a flat per-minute rate for international calls and a greater emphasis on creating a value proposition for industrial customers .

The companys two product manufacturers Motorola and Kyocera are significantly slashing the wholesale prices of their satellite phones and other subscriber equipment.

Iridium is negotiating with bank creditors to restructure the capitalisation of the company and intends to use the next six weeks to work with representatives of all of its creditors to reach an agreement in principle on financial restructuring.

The concept for the Iridium system was originally proposed by in 1987 by Motorola engineers Ray Leopold Ken Peterson and Barry Bertiger who envisioned a constellation of low orbiting satellites.

The problem was that they and the other American executives at Motorola never envisioned that there would be a pan-World terrestrial digital system called GSM that would enable people to use their mobile phones in practically all the worlds populated areas.

Iridium also faces competition from Globalstar which starts its own satellite phone service later this year.

Globalstar is a consortium of the worlds top telecoms service providers and equipment manufacturers such as Qualcom Alcatel France Telecom Hyundai and VodafoneAirTouch.

It has just released details of an Ericsson-made phone that is half the weight and size of the current range of Motorola and Kyocera Iridium handsets and which can also be used on GSM terrestrial networks as well as satellite.