David Moore who has been recruited from Project Telecom where he was a corporate account manager will says Advanced double the current sales force with a goal of establishing Advanced as the premier supplier of mobile and fixed-line telecom services in the area.

Moore opened Project Telecoms Birmingham office and won a telecoms contract to supply Miller Construction with more than 300 mobile phones.

My initial goal is to make sure that the Birmingham office is recognised not just as a branch but as a headquarters for that region. I plan to develop and retain a strong client-base of corporate customers Moore said.

Advanced Communications managing director Gary Sheppard commented:

As well as Davids knowledge of the telecoms industry his ability to build manage and motivate staff will be of great value to Advanced.

A cinema advertising campaign will run for six weeks and be linked to the screening of the new Star Wars movie which opens later this month.

Wildfire is a a voice-activated personal assistant produced by the American-based Wildfire Corporation. It can take messages place calls and store contact details by responding to voice commands.

Wildfire becomes familiar with users personal requirements the more they use it. It keeps a personal list of names and numbers. All a user has to say for example is Wildfire… call Jane… at work and the call will be placed. Wildfire will also sort and prioritise incoming messages allowing users to listen to messages and return calls without having to hang up or redial.

Many services will be operated by spoken commands and keypad entry will seem old-fashioned and cumbersome. Wildfire is yet another step on the road to Oranges vision of a wirefree future and is central to Oranges plans to eventually offer a single speech-activated interface covering voice telephony voicemail fax and other future data services. said Bob Fuller chief operating officer of Orange.

Wildfire has a one-off connection charge of 10. Calls are charged at normal Orange Answer Phone rates (currently 9p minute inc. VAT). Outgoing calls made using Wildfire are charged at normal service plan rates.

The service will evolve to offer different voice profiles links to the internet and information services and e-commerce services.

Also on sale is a 2300 AST handset for use on the Inmarsat system. The phones are stocked at The Carphone Warehouses Harrods store and can be ordered from any of the other 180 Carphone Warehouse outlets.

Iridium has been beleaguered by problems since launch last November with sales and revenues falling well short of targets. It announced a net loss of $505 million for the quarter ending in March. As of March 31 there were approximately 10294 customers on the Iridium system including 7188 satellite-homed voice customers 1031 cellular-homed voice customers and 2075 satellite paging customers.

The company recently won a 30-day extension on its debt repayment deadline and plans to restructure the capitalisation of the company and make changes in its marketing and distribution strategy to improve sales.

Iridium got some useful publicity last month when Mexican mountaineer Karla Wheelock became the first person in the world to make a call using a wireless phone from the top of Mt. Everest using an Iridium satellite phone.

Next month the first 52 of the 270 Tandy stores will be converted to the new communications format selling mobile phones accessories personal organisers digital TVs PCs DECT phones and internet solutions.

People trust The Carphone Warehouse to provide simple and impartial advice. The new format will take the best of both companies and provide a high-street outlet that provides expert advice on the latest in digital and communications technology said Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone.

As technologies become more complex and interconnected these benefits will become increasingly important. Our approach will bring a radical change to how customers understand choose and buy hi-tech products.

The announcement follows The Carphone Warehouses launch as a free internet service provider.

From next month The Carphone Warehouse will also start selling products on Open a new interactive television service.

Snook said the networks intention was to be a central portal for individuals and businesses with all the convenience of mobility wirefree high speed access to the internet and the opening up of wirefree e-commerce.

Much of what we are doing and planning is typically more associated with third generation UMTS mobile technology which will not be commercially available until around 2003.

The fact that Orange will deliver third generation style services on our second generation network will create substantial competitive advantage for Orange said Snook.

This follows an agreement between site developer Cellstructures and Eurotunnel to develop antenna sites in the area. Six sites will provide cover for travellers coming out of the Tunnel and moving on to the motorway and railway links.

We will be providing fully-rigged sites designed for multiple sharing by a number of operators said Cellstructures MD Robin Ford.

The area affected by the eclipse has been boosted by coverage from 16 temporary transmitters to handle the expected surge in calls.

We have committed a significant amount of money and resources to ensure our network is operating to its full potential said BTCellnet technology director Mike Tiplady.

The last total eclipse visible in the UK was in 1927 when three million people travelled by public transport into northern England Tiplady added.

BTCellnet says surveys indicate that up to two million visitors may visit the South West in the eclipse week. Extra traffic from as far north as Birmingham is expected to clog the roads in the area of totality in Cornwall and Devon.

As well as the deployment of temporary transmitters BTCellnet has also increased network capacity and completed new permanent transmitters in the area.

The Ultimate Fone box was launched in the UK at the beginning of this years Grand Prix season in partnership with BTCellnet and F1 Racing magazine.

The same package will now be replicated in Ireland but will be based on Eircells Ready-to-Go pre-pay tariff and instead of a Philips Diga will comprise a Siemens C10 handset and 30 of call-time credit along with a range of Formula One merchandise.

This includes a free Grand Prix video Grid 99 a limited edition key-ring and discounted subscription to F1 Racing.

With the Football Phone KIT and The Ultimate Fone we have two strong pre-pay propositions said European Telecom business development director Peter Cox.

This partnership (with Eircell) demonstrates our ability to bring these products to the wider markets and is an initiative we are seeking to emulate throughout Europe the Middle East and Africa.

Formula One is popular in Ireland. For the last three years Eircell has sponsored RTEs F1 television coverage.

The Ultimate Fone package is now in stores in Ireland retailing at IR 89. Eircell is spending IR 70000 on an ad campaign on television and in the national press and will receive further coverage from its sponsorship of television coverage of the F1 Championship.

The tests are designed to further establishing WAP as a global standard for mobile data communication. The tests will ascertain how Ericsson and Nokia WAP phones can exchange information. Nokia and Ericsson are two of the four co-founders of the WAP Forum and have introduced WAP services for wireless digital markets.

The batteries are made by Electric Fuel Company. Banner expects to sell a million of them by its third year of distribution.

Fone Range a few months ago announced it had the exclusive agreement to distribute the foil-wrapped batteries. A Fone Range spokesperson said:

After futher testing the product did not meet all of our requirements. Also the range of models available was insufficient and inconsistent with the companys policy of offering acessories for as many of the handsets available in the UK as possible. Fone Range was only offered a limited range.

Banner Telecom says it will provide the batteries initially for the Nokia 5100 6100 and 7100 series as well as the Ericsson 800 and 100 and Motorola MicroTAC series.