The PocketPhone Shop has 100 stores and plans to increase the store portfolio by a further 50 stores within the first three months of this year according to managing director Simon Jordan.

Id like to thank everyone who has bought a phone from The PocketPhone Shop. We couldnt have done it without you said Jordan.

Ollila also told 300 telecoms analysts in London that Nokia expects profitability to be above industry average.

We have become one of the established players an industry leader by most measures. What this means is that the key strategic objective we identified in 1992 to focus on the fastest-growing sectors in telecommunications are no longer enough. Our intent is to achieve industry leadership in the most attractive global communications segments.

Ollila said Nokia has now made 100 million phones in total. The milestone phone a Nokia 9110 Communicator will be put on display at Nokias HQ in Espoo Finland.

Nokia said its global production of phones surpassed a million a week for several weeks in the Autumn.

The companys largest manufacturing site is at Fort Worth in the USA.

Proceedings are to be taken in the High Court in Dublin challenging the decision of the Irish telecoms regulator Ms. Etain Doyle who awarded the GSM 1800 licence to Meteor a consortium of US firms Western Wireless and Walter Group and the Irish RF Communications company.

A spokesman for Orange claimed the Meteor decision will disadvantage Irish consumers. Orange has maintained it would provide a state-of-the-art service to Irish customers which would offer better value for money service and coverage than Meteor.

That has been our position from the initial application for the licence and it is still our position.

It was thought that Oranges promise to unify Irish and British tariffs would have been a winning factor in it gaining the licence as it would have meant big savings for customers who would normally face a roaming charge when making or receiving calls to or from Ireland while in the UK.

The court action by Orange is unlikely to be heard until early next year.

But Orange has already won a small victory as its legal challenge has already delayed the issuing of the licence to Meteor and held up the unveiling of the newcomers GSM 1800 network.

A Meteor spokesperson said the conflict was a matter to be settled between Orange and the Regulator adding we have every confidence in the Regulators decision.

Equifax which maintains a database of nearly five million mobile phone accounts has recorded a slight rise in on-time payments by users and drop in long-term arrears. It says 89.6 per cent of accounts are actually paid on time an improvement of 0.8 per cent over the first half of this year.

Perhaps the best news for the industry is the decrease in the number of accounts in long-term arrears ie debts over three months old which fell by one per cent to 5.7 per cent says Equifax.

Said Equifax sales director Noor Hussain:

The mobile phone industry remains very focused on customer acquisition. The latest sales figures indicate sales more than doubled in the the third quarter. Even in the midst of the fastest period of growth the industry has ever witnessed more attention is being paid to credit management. A fall in long-term arrears and a rise in on-time payment performance is remarkable during such an incredible period of customer acquisition.

However one in 10 consumers remain in arrears. As the prices charged for airtime continue to fall profit margins are likely to be tighter meaning greater attention will have to be paid to consumer credit management Hussain added.

The deal believed to be worth 100000 is the largest in the Hull Sharks 132-year history. The JWE logo will appear on the black-and-white team shirts.

JWE expects to get national TV coverage on satellite and terrestrial television for the 30-fixtures expected to attract thousands of potential mobile phone customers.

We are delighted at becoming the official club sponsor of a local team and look forward to building a happy and productive relationship.

This sponsorship will assist greatly in building increased awareness of JWE as we continue our expansion said JWE Telecoms chairman and joint managing director John Weatherill.

JWE has a habit of backing winners and I wish the team all the very best for the 1999.

The Super League teams roster includes Wigan Warriors London Broncos Bradford Bulls Sheffield Eagles Huddersfield Giants Leeds Rhinos St Helens Wakefield Trinity Warrington Wolves Halifax Blue Sox Gateshead Thunder Castelford Tigers and Salford Reds.

The Vodafone demo was run in tandem with Nokia and Ericsson who supplied servers and handset simulation software to access Reuters news and sport information sites.

This is a significant first for Vodafone. The Wireless Application Protocol will be one of the key enablers for delivering customised information to mobile phones. Vodafone intends to be at the leading edge of this new technology said Vodafone managing director David Channing-Williams.

Vodafone expects to launch the first WAP-driven commercial services over its network by the second half of the year.

Further information on WAP and how it works can be found at www.wapforum.org.

The company announced a pre-tax profit of 2.5 million on annual turnover of 11.85 million. This is an increase of 100 per cent on its previous year.

Genesis specialises in the business sector and claims to have 25000 subscribers mainly around the North West and Midlands.

It notches up about 2000 connections a month according to managing director Ian Blackhurst.

Ball will become a senior member of telcos management team. The appointment follows Telcos acquisition by global telecoms company RSL Communications.

Time Computers claims to be the UKs leading PC supplier.

We chose Time Computers because they share many of our brand values said PocketPhone Shop managing director Simon Jordan.

With the growing convergence between PC technology and telephony it is a natural alliance. Working together will enable The PocketPhone Shop to reach a larger customer base. There is tremendous potential for us to work together to offer our customers a wider range of packages and cross-deals.