Cellnet last month notched up its millionth pre-pay user after being last to market with a pre-pay offering.

Although Vodafone originally launched pre-pay in November 1987 it did not really take off until a year ago when it was relaunched as a more simplified offering and sold through non-specialist High Street outlets.

Vodafone has added a new premium handset to its Pay As You Talk boxes with the voice-activated Samsung which will be supplied with personal hands free kit. The phone joins the other eight Pay As You Talk handsets.

Vodafone has revolutionised the consumer market for mobile phones with Pay As You Talk. We are delighted to have achieved this major milestone (of two million customers) said Alan Harper managing director of Vodafone Limited.

The facility comes in three parts: a $4 billion revolving loan facility a one year $3 billion term loan and a revolving five-year $3.5 billion loan.

The banks involved are Bank of America Banque Nationale de Paris HSBC Barclays Capital Citibank Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs Greenwich Natwest ING Barings National Australia Bank and Westdeutsche Landesbank.

Realmgate went bust earlier this year. Now GMC has added Realmgates stores in Birmingham Burton upon Trent Solihull Walsall and Warwick to its existing MPC Mobile Phone Centre stores across east Anglia and the Midlands.

We had been talking to (Realmgate boss) Robert Billingham about the purchase of his MPC-Mobile Phone Centre Stores before the receiver walked in but were unable to put the deal together in time said GMC sales and marketing director Stuart Wright.

We continued negotiations with the Ernst & Young receiver which has now culminated in the addition of the stores.

Our policy in view of the current market place with diminishing returns and the networks route to market moving away from traditional dealers is primarily low-cost acquisition and avoiding the lemming approach to opening new stores in over-crowded high rent towns.

We have already seen some recognised companies go to the wall and we are aware of a number of others in significant trouble Wright added.

J.D.Power said that Oranges customer satisfaction score was 16 per cent above the industry average and was 17 per cent higher than its weakest.

The survey also found that 60 per cent of mobile users would use their phone from home if rates were comparable to fixed telephony. More than half of those surveyed said they would replace their fix-line entirely if the price was right.

The survey was based on interviews with 1800 households questioned on call quality coverage image corporate capabilities customer service handset capabilities price pans and billing.

People said that call quality and coverage was the most important facet of a network.

Compared to the 1998 survey the report said Orange showed the greatest improvement in this area.

J.D. Powers findings on fixed line phone displacement corresponds with our views said Orange chief executive Hans Snook.

That is why we have majored on network coverage and quality as well as services such as Everyday 20. Well continue to build on our strengths to accelerate delivery of the wirefree future Snook added.

The J.D. Power and Associates survey is one of the most authoritative there is. To come top two years running is a great achievement and a great fifth birthday present. It is a powerful reassurance for our 2.6 million customers.

Orange also recently won an Oftel best-network performance survey.

Almost half the jobs will be at One 2 Ones fourth call centre in Greenock set to open by the end of December.

Another 500 vacancies will be created at the existing One 2 One call centre in the Dearne Valley enterprise zone in South Yorkshire.

Three hundred jobs will be for Doxford International call centre in Sunderland.

The network says it will be investing more than 50 million in customer services over the next three years.

We need to ensure that the service we offer our customers remains second to none said One 2 One managing director Tim Samples.

Eight different sites in the UK were considered before Greenock was chosen for the new call centre.

Recruitment for the new vacancies is due to start now. One 2 One expects to be providing service from Greenock by early August from a temporary call centre.

More GSM data and text services interoperability better data customer services and more data roaming

Newly-elected GSM Association Chairman Michael Stocks said:

GSM roaming customers expect full contactability. We see little reason for this to be limited to voice only. We are on the cusp of moving from an audio to a visual world of mobile communications where text and graphics can be expected as much on a GSM terminal as they are on a PC at home.

The Task Force was formed so that we can do more to enhance the profile and encouragement of better customer usage of current and planned GSM data services.

The GSM Association today represents the interests of 347 GSM Satellite and 3G network operators regulators and administrative bodies from 133 countries and areas of the world.

The new call rate is estimated to cost Eircell I10m but the 10p rate only applies when the subscribers inclusive Eirtime talk time has been used up. Once the appropriate Eirtime is used the 10p rate will then only apply to Eircell to Eircell mobile calls. playback message retrieval and weekend calls to National rated numbers.

Eircell also confirmed that they would allow contract subscribers to carry forward unused minutes to the following month providing the total credit did not exceed twice the monthly Eirtime. An additional tariff Eirtime 500 for the business market was also announced.

Digifone MD Barry Maloney dismissed Eircells new 10p tariff as a marketing ploy that would not fool anyone.

A Dublin mobile phone retailer claimed the new moves would simply make consumers even more confused than they were already and force many to switch to the lowestEirtime plans in the mistaken belief they were getting a bargain.

Its just more smoke and mirrors they should have concentrated on reducing the Ready to Go (pre-pay) calling rates which is of greater relevance he said.

The service is now available at all 462 Bank of Ireland ATM machines nation-wide from the first week in May. Ready to Go customers with Bank of Ireland accounts will be able to use their PASS cards to gain access to special Ready to Go screens on the ATM to add call credit to their mobile phones which will then be topped up within 30 minutes.

Jeroen Visser director of Ready to Go at Eircell said:

One in 10 Irish people now own a Ready to Go phone. Flexibility is the key to remaining mobile and our customers have told us that they want a variety of payment methods to suit their busy lifestyles.

We are delighted to be able to bring cutting edge technology in a very simple form on Bank of Ireland PASS machines.

Pat OShea Bank of Ireland principal business consultant payment and electronic banking services added:

ATMs and mobile phones are essentials of the modern age and this new service marries the latest technology in ATMs and mobile telecommunications.

Meteor Communications which had originally won the right to commence operations using both GSM 900 and 1800 bands last year has yet to be advised of the result of the Orange High Court appeal.

The action challenged the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulations (ODTR) decision to award the dual-band licence to Meteor. Orange The result of the Orange court action is expected at the end of May.

Hoyle who left Dawes after it was sold to Cellnet will be in charge of account management of the Cable and Wireless service provider bought two weeks ago by Vodafone for 22 million.

For the last 10 years Hoyle has held account management and sales positions with Martin Dawes including national sales manger and sales director.