Lets Talk Phones managing director Don Maher was presented with a specially commissioned bronze sculpture plus 2500 in cash by celebrity female impersonator Lily Savage at the awards bash held at Dublins Four Seasons Hotel.

The judging panel agreed that Lets Talk Phones excelled in the areas of product range value-added services to customers staff training aftersales support and training community services and point-of-sale.

The winners in the other nine categories were: Kerry Phone Centres Killarney Co. Kerry (Business-to-Business Achievement) The Carphone Warehouse (Innovative Use of Technology) Talk To Me Mobile Phones (Excellence in Customer Service) Talking Point Communications Nenagh Co. Tipperary (Best Shop Front – small retailer) Lets Talk Phones (Best Shop Front – large retailer) Nokia 6210m (Best Handset) Kerry Phone Centres (Best Local Marketing/Ad Campaign) Person 2 Person (Best National Marketing/Advertising Campaign) Maureen OFlaherty Person 2 Person Glasnevin Dublin and Joseph Cullen Phone Stores Wexford (Best Salespersons).

The phone was launched at Nokias International Mobile Internet Conference held last week at the Catalonia Palace of Congresses in Barcelona (see full report next issue).

The 7650 includes a photo album for storing pictures GPRS an advanced user interface joystick navigation and a colour display that covers most of the phones top surface.

The keypad stored underneath ejects at the push of a button.

Bluetooth and Infrared are supported allowing connectivity to PCs and other terminals.

There is 4Mb of integrated user memory for user-downloaded applications messages and phonebook entries and stored images. The 7650 supports GPRS and HSCSD with data speeds of up to 43.2Kb/s (HSCSD) and 40.2Kb/s (GPRS) depending on the network configuration. The unit weighs 154g and measures 114x56x26 mm. The standard Li-Ion battery gives four hours of talk time and standby time of up to 10 days.

Also launched was the Nokia 5210 and 6510. The 5210 adds stopwatch countdown timer and thermometer to the usual features.

This is up 55 million on Novembers figure representing an 18 per cent growth for the last quarter of 2002 and showing that many mobile customers are now making daily use of WAP.

The MDA forecasts that annual WAP page impressions will reach eight billion in 2003.

Student Ashley Theophane is accused of the snatch theft of the phone from a man in Westbourne Road Paddington West London on September 27.

He has elected for jury trial.

Mobile News will not be published on Christmas Eve. Our next issue will be out on January 7 2002. We wish all our readers and advertisers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

BTCellnet has joined with US data specialist Novatel Wireless to offer the 249 Merlin card.

It is initially being targeted at business customers who have the BTCellnet GPRS service and want secure access to their own intranet or corporate email.

A future version will allow internet access for Web based email or Web applications.

They were stolen from an air freight shipment in transit from its suppliers in Hong Kong last week. Police are carrying out enquiries as one of the units has been used on BTCellnets network in the Heathrow area.

BTCellnet is warning dealers and distributors not to purchase the units if they are offered for sale but to call its security team.

The development units are not yet configured to function on BTCellnets GPRS service and it is understood that the device software has not yet been tested. The XDA is a combined phone/PDA with full colour screen MP3 player and GPRS capabilities using Microsofts PocketPC 2002 operating system. The production version of the phone is not due for launch until next year.

The message was first sent at the 3GSM Congress in Cannes by Gerry McKenna CEO of Logica Mobile Networks to Johannesburg from the groups exhibition stand.

Logica in Johannesburg forwarded the message to its counterpart in Sao Paolo from where it travelled to San Francisco Sydney Australia and Hong Kong before arriving back in Cannes 197.53 seconds later.

At each stage of the journey the country sending the message on the next leg added its initials.

Intec will sell Fresh handsets for 14.99. Users pay for airtime by paying a fixed monthly amount by credit card or direct debit thus combining the advantages of pre-pay without being tied to a contract.

We can either pre-package with our current handset range or as a basic sell-on to dealers for bundling with a customers own choice of handset said Intec business development director Charlo Carabott.

Fresh will be making a big impact on the New Year market as subscribers seek greater control over airtime costs added Carabott.

It also puts Intec ahead of our competitors in the independent distribution sector and demonstrates our determination to offer dealers the ability to offer customers a keenly priced range of handsets and after-sales services while still achieving generous profit margins.

Key qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Young.

In 1987 he moved first to Grand Metropolitan Foods Europe and then on to Coca-Cola and Kingfisher in various financial management roles.

Key has worked for Vodafone UK for the past three years holding a number of financial director positions with the company.