The planned joint venture will be in full operation this year and will develop common FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) products for UMTS base stations network controllers and operation and maintenance centres.

FDD and TDD are optional modes of operation for the CDMA system expected to be the single standard for UMTS.

The International Telecommunications Union and other standards bodies are all pushing for CDMA to be the common system.

Both companies will use their muscle towards developing a common global standard for third generation networks.

NEC is already involved in UMTS development. It is a 60 per cent shareholder of Telecom Modus which was specifically set up to supply UMTS infrastructure and is currently working with BT on trials using the W-CDMA standard expected to be widely used by the third generation systems.

NEC also last week announced that it was finalising designs for a satellite phone for the ICO global mobile satellite service to launch sometime next year.

NEC already has a contract to supply part of the ground systems for the ICO satellite phone system.

NECs strategy on phones is to not produce dedicated satellite phones. Rather NEC has separated the necessary hardware and antenna into a separate unit. When the user wants to make a satellite call he/she just slides a regular NEC GSM phone into the satellite pack.

All NEC top-line phones will be equipped with the necessary software to make the connection to the satellite pack. The Japanese manufacturer has also promised two new phones for Christmas the DB4000 and DB4500.

In the meantime it has launched the DB500 a dual-band model with interchangeable coloured front covers. The DB500 was scheduled for an earlier launch but NEC says it had to use manufacturing capacity for the DB2000 which it says is breaking all sales targets. NEC estimates a total of nearly 1.8 million handsets will be sold in the UK this year from all manufacturers.

Angus has also worked for blue-chip companies such as Mars and Walt Disney.

Were delighted to have Lesley on board. Her appointment reflects the importance of a strategic marketing role for the two companies said Carphone Warehouse managing director Charles Dunstone.

Lesley will bring a fresh approach which combined with her brand credentials will help us cope with our rapid growth and ambitious plans.

Returned handset will be check and repaired in a new service facility staffed by 20 new employees at JWEs Pocklington site. The City liked the news enough to mark JWEs shares up 35p to 1.77.

The considerable increase in size of the contract recognises Cellnets confidence in our ability to repair handsets quickly and efficiently said JWE chief executive Tony Farmer.

Mainline was recently appointed as the first national distributor for Business Mobile.

Mainline is promising dealers margins of at least 80 when they sell the package which offers 60 180 or 600 minutes of calls each month for 15 30 and 60.

There is also a volume-accelerator bonus and funding for approved marketing activity.

The tariffs are designed for customers who use their mobile phones between 7am and 7pm.

Not all dealers have the customer profile needed to make the most of Business Mobile. It is a tremendous opportunity for dealers with the right customers to secure a share of the lucrative commercial market said Mainline business development manager Kevin Fox.

Mainline was last year ranked as Oranges biggest distributor to independent dealers. But it is looking further afield than its current dealer base for candidates to sell Business Mobile.

This follows the decision by Vodafone managing director David Channing-Williams to retire and relinquish the role of chief executive of Vodafone AirTouch in this country.

The development is a huge result for Bamford who had up to now been left out of the new Vodafone AirTouch board.

Bamford joined Vodafone in 1997 from W.H. Smith to work on the re-organisation of the Vodafone Group into the Retail Connect Corporate Value Added Services and Distribution sub-divisions.

Channing-Williams current role as managing director of the UK network company will be taken by Alan Harper who is currently Vodafone Group commercial director. Harper joined Vodafone three years ago from One 2 One where he was director of strategy. (Cont P2)

Channing-Williams has been at Vodafone for 14 years in roles that have included running Vodapage and Vodata as they were once called.

Having considered my future plans I have decided to retire early in order to spend more time with my family.

I intend to be involved in some new activities but in a non-executive capacity.

I will remain very close to Vodafone and I have agreed to work on a part-time advisory basis for the next two years.

A Vodafone insider scotched rumours that Channing-Williams had been pushed.

Thats nonsense. Chris (Gent) asked David to make a commitment to the job for five years.

David decided he didnt want to work 14-hour days for that length of time. Hes got 3.5 million worth of share options so who can blame him?

It was clear from Oftels analysis that BT was charging customers an excessive amount for calls to pagers said Oftel director general David Edmonds.

Oftel has been in discussion with BT since last July over the subject of pager calls.

We made clear to BT we wanted to see a substantial cut in prices of calls to pagers but until now they failed to do so. I was prepared to issue a provisional order under section 16 of the Telecommunications Act to order BT to reduce its prices Edmonds added.

Before Siemens Ward was national sales manager for Securicor Cellular Services for 10 years and then moved to Martin Dawes as divisional general manager when Dawes took over Securicors corporate base.

He reports to Orange group director of sales Gareth Jones.

Ericsson is continuing its fascination with the lifestyles of the young by agreeing to sponsor a dance music event to be called Ericsson@ homelands to be held on May 29 at Matterley estate near Winchester.

Around 40000 people are expected to attend the dance festival.

The company will use the dance event to launch its new A1018s dual-band phone aimed at first-time buyers.

The sponsorship package includes branding on all promotion al literature flyers posters and advertising in lifestyle and music magazines as well as sponsorship of the arena. Ericsson is also setting up an Ericsson Zone. This is a communications centre featuring its latest mobile and internet access technology.

Around 40000 people are expected to attend the planned dance festival.

The company will use the dance event to launch its new A1018s dual-band phone which is aimed at first-time buyers.

The sponsorship package includes branding on all promotion al literature flyers posters and advertising in lifestyle and music magazines as well as sponsorship of the arena. Ericsson is also setting up an Ericsson Zone.

This is a communications centre featuring its latest mobile and internet access technology.

Called the SGH-500 the unit is claimed to be at 119g one of the lightest phones on the market.

The SGH-500 follows the recent launch of Samsungs voice-activated SGH-600 which is currently being advertised on television.

Samsung says it is the worlds third largest electronics company and has a majority share of CDMA digital phones sold in the world.

Price of the SGH-500 is 70 (with contract).

Cellnet has destined Genie Internet to work as easily from a mobile phone as a fixed line. The service will initially be distributed on CD-ROMs bundled with purchases of U pre-pay phones (see story page 3) .

The network is planning a range of services including e-mails which can be read back over the subscribers mobile and the ability to tap into Genies entire content from a handset.

The new Internet operation will be headed by Cellnet general manager Brian Greasley.

We are already working with a number of manufacturers to build Genie applications for the next generation of mobile phones he said.

Added Cellnet managing director Peter Erskine:

The business opportunity offered by the convergence of mobile and Internet technology is immense. Cellnet will be able to create a profitable ISP (Internet Service Provider) in its own right. The wireless Internet is set to create killer applications which will take global communication onto a new level.

Cellnet currently has about 100000 users of its Genie information service which was launched 18 months ago.

Information such as share price movements job alerts and the latest sport news to be sent direct from the Genie web site.