Using the site customers of Your Communications can check their billing history up to a month back access on-line help and track spend on individual handsets.

A Tech Spec section contains news of latest comms developments and runs tips for users including the latest security advice.

Weve listened to our customers. The new website enables customers to take more control of their spend on mobile communications as well as giving them access to interesting information and advice said Paul Lawton Your Communications director of mobile services.

Your Communications is the new name for the Norweb Telecom Group which is made up of Norweb Telecom Intercell and Netforce. Norweb started in 1994.

Its parent company is the FTSE 100 company United Utilities.

Just over a year ago Your Communications was the victim of a SIM card fraud whereby thousands of SIMs were sold to two Nottingham service providers but not activated.

Nokia already supplies GSM and GPRS to Orange Switzerland and will supply Orange Switzerlands 3G network. Nokia is supplying MMS equipment to around 40 networks.

M-fusion has teamed with mobile content developer Mad Box Media to produce MTV-branded polyphonic ringtones screen logos and games on branded MTV 2Go cards which will be sold in 20000 retailers by the end of the year.

M-Fusion beat off competition from three other unnamed distributors to sign one of the biggest content deals in the industry.

The card which started shipping last week will be supported by a multi-million pound advertising campaign and offer exclusive products.

This follows its decision to sell its products exclusively in The Link until the end of the year.

One.Tel head of mobile Asif Aziz told Mobile News last week that One. Tel aims to emulate Virgin Mobile by having a strong high-street presence.

We are looking at independent dealers and other distributors said Aziz. We chose Dixons group to get things rolling. They were keen to work with us and The Link (Cont P2) matches well with the One.Tel brand. Virgin Mobile has been very successful because it is now available in some 6000 outlets in the UK. Thats the business model we wish to follow he continued.

One.Tel is a subsidiary of Centrica group.

It launched in July this year saying it would look to off-the-page advertising and sales to existing Centrica customers.

The company offers a single tariff with a line rental of 4.99 per month with no bundled minutes and call charges to landlines of 15p per minute peak and 5p off peak. Off-net calls are charged at 40p peak and 30p off-peak.

One.Tel offers a choice of eight handsets starting at 39.99 for a Nokia 3410 or Siemens A50 at the low-end rising to 249.99 for the Samsung T100.

Earlier this year Microsoft promised it would offer Bluetooth support in its PC Windows XP operating system.

TDK will ship its own Bluetooth software as well as Microsofts version because Microsofts software is designed for connecting PC peripheral devices such as Bluetooth keyboards mice and gaming devices.

TDKs Bluetooth software is designed for connecting mobile computers mobile phones and desktop computers. TDK is also about to release an update to its Bluetooth software that will allow picture messages to be sent to and from Bluetooth MMS handsets such as Nokias 7650 and Ericsson T68i.

TDKs MD Nick Hunn says Microsofts endorsement of Bluetooth will increase the development and use of wireless technologies.

Hunn reckons the deal will give TDK a sales edge over its rivals:

Our products have Microsofts seal of approval and have passed the necessary tests. We should be able to offer these products faster than other manufacturers.

TDKs go blue range of Bluetooth products (USB and PC Card Bluetooth adapters) are distributed by Hugh Symons and Data Select.

Mloop liquidator Jonathan Sinclair of Sinclair Harris has forwarded his report into mloops demise to the DTI. Sinclair chaired the creditors meeting on July 25 and gave a full statement of the defunct companys affairs.

Mloop went bust in May owing 1.38 million. Its seed capital ran out and its planned flotation was abandoned. It was unable to raise any further private finance. Founder CEO Byron Rose was the main investor. He and his company Fonexco lost 1.5 million. Other backers included Carphone Warehouse chairman Charles Dunstone and part of the Tibbet and Britten logistics company International Supply Chain Limited which lost around 500000.

Sinclairs report centres on the conduct of the directors. Sinclair interviewed various former officers of mloop including Rose as well as a number of creditors.

The decision of whether Roses behaviour as a director deserves prosecution now lies with the DTI. If it chose to prosecute and Rose is found guilty he could be banned from being a director of a company for a number of years.

In fact the new Nokia THR850 handset weighs 196 grams which is almost twice as much as the average GSM handset.

Dolphins service differs from GSM because it offers instant walkie-talkie style communications between one or many corporate users as well as text and standard voice calls.

Dolphin CEO Tony Greaves claims the new handsets are crucial to the ongoing development of Dolphins proposition.

Dolphins loyal customer base has waited patiently for second-generation handsets to see we really mean business.

We had been telling the networks for a long time we couldnt understand why they sold SIM-only packs as we suspected they caused crime said Carphone Warehouse chairman Charles Dunstone.

If you couldnt buy a SIM card there wouldnt be much point in stealing a phone. But blacklisting phones is never going to stop criminals robbing shops.

The people who do armed robberies are not worried about IMEI chipping and exporting the phones they steal he said.

The IMEI blacklisting stops casual crime and playground theft. The fact that stolen phones are being blocked on all networks has filtered down to the thieves.

The people they sell the stolen phones to arent stupid and wont buy them anymore.

The Carphone Warehouses stance on crime was let down earlier this month by an embarrassing incident when some renegade staff agreed to buy stolen phones from a Sunday Mirror journalist posing as a customer.

The employees involved were immediately suspended.

(See full interview with Charles Dunstone P16).

The billionth subscriber was signed up during the second quarter of this year. The total at the end of June was 1.03 billion subscribers up 22.23 per cent from 846 million global users a year earlier.

Eastern Europe was the fastest-growing market. Its annual growth of 62 per cent annual meant it achieved 59.78 million subscribers by the end of June.

The report said that four of the worlds six fastest-growing markets are all in eastern Europe. These are Russia Ukraine Bulgaria and Lithuania. Russia saw more than 100 per cent growth and it is now both the largest market and one of the fastest-growing in the region.

For sheer numbers the strongest growth is in Asia-Pacific and China.

The Asia-Pacific market had 379.94 million subscribers at the end of June of which 176.17 million were in China.

The country added nearly 15 million users in the second quarter while annual growth was more than 40 per cent. Penetration is still only around 15 per cent.

Over the first six months of the year China added more than 31 million subscribers equivalent to more than 60 per cent of the Asia-Pacific regions total net additions and almost 35 per cent of total global net additions. Three of the worlds five largest markets by net additions are China Japan and Thailand.

Western Europe had 290.35 million customers at the end of June but had lost ground to Asia-Pacific over the previous 18 months.

At the end of 2000 western Europe was the largest market in the world with 243.61 million subscribers compared with 236.8 million in Asia. By the end of June 2001 Asia had taken the lead and the difference has now grown to almost 90 million users.

Mohammed Abdi Yasin of Caroline Street Hammersmith pleaded guilty to obtaining two Nokia 8310 phones by deception from Orange Shops in the Hammersmith and

Victoria areas of London.

The court heard that Yasin successfully bought two phones from the Hammersmith store on June 3 but he was caught when he tried to buy a further two in the Victoria Orange Shop later that day.

An Orange Shop assistant queried the stolen credit card and called the police. Yasin was arrested and the two Nokia phones he had already bought were found by police after they searched his house.

Yasins defence lawyer told the court that Yasin hadnt stolen the credit card but had been given it by a person who was probably involved in organised crime. Yasin had been instructed to buy handsets in return for a small amount of drugs.

His defence lawyer said Yasin had a drug habit but it was only a slight problem.