Digifone has already invested 20 million in mobile data services to date. Digifone plans to have the product commercially available by the end of the year.

Esat has rejected the HSCSD system embraced by Orange calling it a technological cul-de-sac becoming redundant within months of being introduced.

This is Digifones most significant single investment in data technology to date and builds on our extremely effective data strategy Esat Digifone CEO Barry Maloney said.

I saw lots of C12s being sold at car boot sales and thought there must be a market for people to use them on Vodafone. This does not allow free calls. It only unlocks the phone from BTCellnet. He claimed he had had around 300 hits to the website for two weeks but not all of these translated into sales.

The Federation of Communications Services Crime Prevention Inspectorate (CPI) was in danger of being shut down through lack of network funding … Brightpoints UK general manager Mark Mitchinson resigned to pursue other business interests… Vodafone won its 18-month battle to build a new international headquarters outside Newbury…

JWE was hit by ram-raiders who smashed through a steel barrier to steal 12000 worth of phones … Martin Dawes Telecommunications took over Cellphones Direct … European Telecom launched its own accessories company TAG after an unsuccessful attempt to buy ORA Electronics … Motorola produced a cheaper version of the StarTAC (the StarTAC 70) …

WaveTech became a service provider for Orange … Jan Peters became managing director of One 2 One … Amstrad said it would invest 5 million into Dancall … Vodafone launched its 15 million ad campaign starring Hollywood actor Kyle Twin Peaks McLachlan …

Calibar Connections employee

Kamaljit Bains was freed after a jury failed to agree whether or not she had been guilty of conspiring to re-chip stolen phones (her co-defendant boyfriend had done the gallant thing and skipped the country) … Cellnet announced it would be investing 3 million to brand itself at the Rugby World Cup … retired Vodafone chief executive Gerry Whent collected a knighthood from Buckingham Palace … Orange said it would roll out its network to 90 per cent coverage …

West Midlands police said theft of phones had been cut by 50 per cent in the last 12 months … Cellnet business director Martin Stiven joined BT Mobile … a Lancashire entrepreneur tried to charge users 18 a year to Join the Organisation of Mobile Phone Users …

Virgin Atlantic marketing chief Chris Moss joined Hutchison to work on the launch of Orange … thieves stole 25000 worth of phones from Astec …

NEC confirmed a shortage of its P3 phone … Isto Pankakoski became MD of Nokia Mobile Phones.

Speaking at the opening day of the Associations 43rd Plenary meeting in Santiago Chile outgoing chairman Michael Stocks said that if current growth rates are sustained there should be between 700 million and one billion GSM customers world-wide by 2005.

This figure is predicted to rise to one person in 12 in the world having a GSM phone just over a year from now. At the end of March 2000 GSM boasted a total of 285 million subscribers. This was up by 125 million on the March 99 figure. It gives GSM a 55 per cent share of the worlds wireless market making it the worlds leading wireless system.

The figures confirm that a landmark 300 million GSM customer total will be reached in early May 2000. The phenomenal 77 per cent growth of GSM over the last year can be put in perspective when it is compared to the PC market which grew 22 percent in 1999 said Stocks.

This significant comparison illustrates the dramatic potential of high speed wireless data and internet access services in the next few years.

GSM has not only firmly established itself as todays dominant global wireless system with more customers than all other wireless standards combined but also as one of the worlds healthiest and fastest growing industries.

Customers will continue to benefit from the incredible volume value and variety of wireless services on offer. We are confidently predicting half a billion subscribers by mid-2001.

China is the largest single GSM market in the world. Market penetration is reaching 70 per cent in many GSM markets with Finland and Italy expecting to be the first countries to reach 100 per cent.