This is an increase of 381000 subscribers in one year (66 per cent increase on last years figures). Eircell now ranks in the top quarter of European operators in terms of national penetration. Almost one third of the Irish population is connected to the Eircell network.

In 1995 only three per cent of the Irish population had a mobile phone. This figure now stands at 43 per cent with over one million of these people having an Eircell phone said Eircell chief executive Stephen Brewer.

We are continuing to invest in the ongoing expansion and upgrading of our network. Major investments are being made in the network to ensure the delivery of high-speed data services to our customers as soon as possible. An unprecedented number of daily calls is being carried on the network with a record 6.5 million calls carried on New Years Day. Huge growth has also been experienced in the use of the SMS service Brewer added.

The two companies will develop and market telematics services for commercial vehicles based on Global Telematics Orchid fleet management system and Clarions Road Explorer navigation systems.

Features will include real-time traffic information routing instructions full messaging and integration of WAP-enabled devices.

French English Spanish Italian and German.

The site can be accessed either through Alcatel.com or through the main European countries web addresses. Replies are made in the same language within 48 hours.

Prices are automatically given either in the currency of the country where the query is made for 17 European countries or in US Dollars for the rest of the world.

The price includes shipment costs. Payment is by credit card. Orders are delivered by UPS within 48 hours in Europe and 72 hours in the rest of the world. Shoppers can track down their order at any time with their reference number and e-mail address.

Impulse consumer decisions such as going to a nightclub or a restaurant as well as convenience services for business people will be made via a mobile phone. Vodafone customers will have access to information about hundreds of events and venues across the UK anytime anywhere.

This new development will benefit Vodafone customers and the UK leisure industry said ticketingsolutions.com managing director Matthew Hare.

It opens up a whole new mobile sales channel for our venue and event customers and enables Vodafone customers the choice of thousands of different venues without needing a relationship with each individual business. This saves everybody time and money. WAP technology will rapidly start to change the way we organise our business and social lives added Hare.

Eventually our customers will be able to update event information with their calendars held on Vodafone Interactive. Customers might choose to receive an alert on their phone to remind them of the time of an event they have booked.

We will have more time to go out for dinner watch football matches and take a weekend break and ticketingsolutions.com is there to ensure that it can be arranged at the touch of a button.

Vodafone commercial and marketing director Paul Donovan said:

The addition of ticketingsolutions.com to our Vodafone Interactive service will let our customers book services when and wherever they want. It is essential we can provide rich local content.

To support GPRS Orange will launch handsets with larger screens and data cards which plug directly into laptops. Customers will not have to choose between HSCSD and GPRS. They will simply choose an application which will select the best system for that particular operation.

HSCSD will be available in the next few months and GPRS will be available at the end of the year.

The new GPRS service will be complementary to Oranges Nokia-supplied HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit Switched Data) infrastructure to be released within the next few months.

Nokia will be supplying upgrades to the existing radio and switching network infrastructure covering nearly 7000 sites.

The new deal with Ericsson complements the existing Nokia supplied systems.

GPRSs data rates are variable and dependent upon the levels of network traffic and distance of the user from a cell site.

As a result Orange says the technology is not as effective as HSCSD for supporting real-time applications and that HSCSD provides the customer with a dedicated circuit or circuits providing a predictable data rate of speeds of up to 28.8k with the potential next year to increase the speed to 43k.

Orange thinks GPRS will suit those customers who do not require time-critical services or who wish to send and receive small amounts of data.

ETSI director general Karl Heinz Rosenbrock said:

The Institutes experience with fixed network standardisation makes it an ideal forum for consolidating the broad spectrum of interests associated with mobile commerce. We want to develop a world-wide Mobile Commerce initiative.

Several co-operation agreements have been signed with the UMTS Forum the WAP Forum the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the IPv6 Forum.

ETSI chairman Francisco Da Silva added:

The deployment of Mobile Commerce will be outstanding. Applications will emerge in various areas such as banking financial services security services shopping advertising entertainment customer care information provisioning.

ETSI has 773 members from 52 countries. ETSI produces the telecommunications standards that will be used in Europe and beyond.

The Ready to Go Nokia 7110 will be available from leading stores Lets Talk Phones Person 2 Person Talk To Me Western Cellular Eircom and The Carphone Warehouse.

The retail price of 349 includes the phone charger hands-free kit earpiece and 50 call credit.

Users can scroll and navigate their way through internet style text pages checking out latest movies books share prices news headlines weather reports and even horoscopes.

Eircells mobile internet partners includes Rondomondo Easons ElectricNews.Net Trintech Irish Life & Permanent The Event Guide Esearch Xtravision RTE and NCB and watch out for more in the coming months.

Ireland is a world-leader in terms of WAP development outside of Scandinavia and Japan said Eircell chief executive Stephen Brewer.

This significant development copper fastens Eircells global positioning in terms of mobile internet innovation and reaffirms our commitment to providing both our pre-paid and post-paid customers with the very best of mobile communications services.

From today mobile internet phones will become widely available and even more affordable and Ireland is truly Ready to Go with WAP he added.

Around 750 independent dealers have been invited to attend a full days free product training.

Called the Exchange programme it is designed provide a forum for dealers to express their business demands and issues.

The course covers handsets a market overview demonstrations of product features multimedia and accessories

The promotion which will form a central part of Qualcasts 2 million marketing promotion is being run through BTCellnet and DX Communications.

It includes a phone handsfree kit in-car charger leather case free connection up to 500 minutes of free off-peak calls a month (with other calls from 2p a minute) in return for a 14.99 monthly tariff.

Customers redeem the offer by contacting a BTCellnet call centre. The phone is delivered within two working days.

Around two thirds of the population dont yet own a mobile phone. The package will generate sales across the whole Qualcast brand said Qualcast marketing manager Gary King. Qualcasts lawnmowers cost from 45 to 470.

There are no external operator controls. The radio which can have its transmissions encrypted works from a touch-operated control unit held in the palm of the hand.

A special vehicle adapter means the radio can be hidden in cars and motorcycles where it can eavesdrop in on passengers conversations.