Sofien Zamouri 23 had been threatened with jail at an earlier hearing when he was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports. He had been searched in a routine police operation when he arrived at London s Victoria coach station from Scotland and found to be carrying a small amount of cannabis the court heard.
A search of his luggage revealed the stolen phones for which he said he had paid 200 to an unidentified man in Scotland and had intended to give away to friends in France.
Zamouri who had been living in Kingsland Road Hackney pleaded guilty to dishonestly handling the phones valued at 989.83 and to cannabis possession. He was ordered to do 60 hours community service and pay 20 costs.

The new standard involves a next generation speech coding standard which will shortly undergo final testing in an exercise mainly paid for by the GSM Association.

The new Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) standard codec is a development on the near fixed-line quality of the standard introduced last year.

The GSM MoU says it will offer customers exceptional voice quality in a wider-range of radio conditions with the added benefit of giving increased capacity for operators.

The AMR speech codec standard takes GSM speech quality much closer to that of fixed networks and places the system in a good position to meet the demands of customers and next generation mobile services in the 21st century said GSM Association chairman Richard Midgett.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institutes Special Mobile Group (ETSI SMG) recently selected a proposal from a consortium of manufacturers including Ericsson Nokia and Siemens as the preferred AMR codec solution.

The final testing will provide performance data of a wide range of operating scenarios assisting GSM operators in understanding the best way to introduce AMR into their networks added Midgett.

EFR was launched in the UK last year by One 2 One and Orange and is now being rolled out by Vodafone and Cellnet. It offers improved aural performance providing the user has an EFR-enabled handset.

Our established relationship with Vodafone our dedicated network carrier remains intact. The new agreement with Cellnet means that we can offer choice to potential corporate customers requiring complete management of their mobile communications needs.

It is expected that Cellnet will view its licensing agreement with Global Telematics as an enhancement of its own corporate customer services. Chris Andrews Head of Sales for Cellnets Wholesale Division commented We are delighted to extend our own portfolio of products to include one of the leading players in the UK telematics market. Global Telematics has within a short space of time built up a significant market position and we are pleased to welcome them as a full Cellnet Service Provider.

PocketPhone Shop marketing director Mark Hodgson confirmed rumours that Briggs wants to go his own way.

Andrew is exploring ways of realising his assets. He has other business ventures he would like to explore. But hasnt left and currently isnt leaving and is a significant shareholder in the business.

He also confirmed some of the companys key personnel are leaving.

They are group sales manager Warren Bellinger customer care manager Sharon Carlisle stock control manager Paul Coughlan marketing manager Christine Shead and area manager Alex Foreman

Hodgson explained Bellinger had offered his resignation because of his sons serious illness (see White Lines).

Sharon Carlisle has left for her own reasons in that the travelling from London to Slough got too much for her. Paul Coughlan wishes to spend more time with his new baby and his wife.

Alex Foreman knew he would probably not be with us for much longer anyway. Christine Shead did resign for personal reasons and is currently working her notice he said.

PocketPhone Shop employs more than 500 people.

This is because of delays with service rollout compounded by seven failed satellites and serious handset shortages caused by software glitches in Kyocera-made handsets.

Iridium says the level of demand for its handheld satellite phones is still as strong as ever and that its problems have been caused by kit shortages.

Vodafone Paging will now run six support teams responsible for account management and services and be responsible for its own group of customers.

A business development advisor will also be on hand to each team depending on the expertise needed.

By merging these key functions we will be able to offer a depth of service no other UK paging operator can offer claims Vodafone Paging managing director John Smith.

Customers will find the cost of admin will be reduced due to faster liaison between sales and service support.

The restructure comes after extensive talks with Vodafone Pagings customers and its research into corporate requirements.

The survey is to be carried out by the Digital World Research Centre part of the School of Human Sciences at the University of Surrey. The three-year study will look at and predict the sociological consequences of mobile phone usage.

Other funding has from from the Department of Trade and Industry.

According to Vodafone managing director David Channing-Williams the programme will be the most comprehensive and long-term research study into mobile telephony ever.

We look forward to working with the DWRC and other sponsors to arrive at informed insights as to what customers expect of any new multimedia services. how they might be used and the value they would attach to them he added.

Wildfire can store up to 150 contacts with up to six numbers for each. All a user has to do is command the system to dial the person at their appropriate location (ie home work mobile etc).

Orange CEO Hans Snook says the Wildfire system could lead to Orange marketing a handset with no keypad at all.

The free calls offer lasts until the end of March and is additional to the 10 of call time U and Easylife users are already entitled to when they buy the 99 box.

The free 50 pre-pay promotion will be advertised throughout March by a national radio and TV campaign.

Cellnet will also be giving U customers free Internet access over its Genie Internet. This will be distributed through a CD ROM included in the U packaging.

The first service available from Genie Internet will be U Genie with content aimed at people in the 16 to 24 age group.

Calls on the U tariff currently cost 35p a minute with a minimum top-up requirement of 10 every 90 days. Easylife calls are more expensive at 49p a minute but only require a minimum top-up of 20 once a year.

RSL COM snatched Motorola Telco out from under the grasp of Martin Dawes Telecommunications last year which was poised to buy the service provision operation.

RSL COM now says it has 900000 customers throughout the world. In the UK it is poised to scrap the Motorola name and association for its SP business.