The 10 Orange voucher has been discontinued in line with the growing popularity of alternative methods such as swipe card top-ups which account for over 40 per cent of Orange UKs monthly top-up volume a spokesman for the network said.

Orange will continue its 20 and 50 vouchers and 10 vouchers in circulation will still be valid.

Orange is committed to supporting alternative top-up methods such as swipe card top-up which offers an improved retailer and customer experience eliminating stock issues and reducing the risk of fraud.

Meanwhile Virgin Mobile is to send out electronic top-up swipe cards to its 1.8 million customers. The cards will be accepted at Alphyras 15000 Payzone terminals throughout the country.

The Mobile Takeback Forum (MTF) will address proposed EC recycling legislation which will affect mobile phone manufacturers retailers distributors and repair companies. This follows a proposed EC Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) for tackling Europes unwanted electrical and electronic equipment.

Under the Directive mobile phones and other electrical products will require recycling at the end of their lives.

The MTF will provide a meeting place for industry members to exchange non-competitive information and practices on handset disposal.

The MTF aims to be an effective point of contact with the UK Government technical centre offering recycling guidance and advice to all industry sectors including manufacturers retailers and those associated with waste recovery.

3 would not comment on the role the 700-plus newly acquired Superdrug stores will play in the forthcoming roll-out of its 3G services.

3 says it is still on course for an Autumn roll-out of services. But time looks to be running out for the new network to establish a retail presence. The Caudwell Group refuted the suggestion it was selling the Phones 4U chain to the operator. But the purchase of Superdrug could allow the company to make an immediate High Street impact nationwide.

It is still unknown whether 3 will create a number of store-in-store units to sell its services within the chain or whether certain Superdrug stores will become 3 stores.

If 3 established a series of store-in-store concessionaires the retail operation would be similar to that of Virgin Mobile which sells a quarter of its phones through Virgin Megastore entertainment stores.

Virgin Mobile corporate affairs director Steven Day said: Superdrug has a significant footfall but it depends how they approach the selling of phones. I know Boots did pre-pay a couple of years back and they were successful selling to women but I dont know how you would make 3G phones relevant to women shopping for cosmetics.

When we first said we were going to sell phones in record stores people laughed at us. But doing it in the right way is the subtle difference. We havent opened a designated mobile phone store yet our Virgin Megastores are the fifth most successful retail outlets for mobile phones.

But Virgin had a strong brand name where 3s brand recognition is almost non-existent.

The Link managing director Nick Wood said he would be surprised if the purchase of Superdrug was to play any part in the establishment of 3s High Street presence.

Hutchison Whampoa is a huge retailer around the world and I see the purchase of the Superdrug store as part of a general retail plan and nothing to do with the roll-out of 3.

A person going into a drug store is not in the right mindset to buy a mobile phone. I have little doubt that there will be 3 phone stores quite apart from Superdrug.

British networks are awaiting the result of Oftels investigation into the price they charge consumers for cross network calls.

Last year Oftel announced its intention to reduce call prices by a control of the retail price index minus 12 per cent for the next four years. The proposal was rejected by the networks led by Vodafone forcing Oftel to refer the matter to the Competition Commission.

The Commission returned its report to Oftel last week and Oftel is expected to announce its decision before the end of January.

James Honnah had pleaded guilty to snatching the Nokia 5210 from a member of the public in

Edgware Road Paddington West London on May 14.

Honnah described as a crack and cocaine user was chased and arrested by Police officers who spotted the phone being snatched from its owner in mid-conversation.

Telecom South went into receivership on July 18 owing more than 500000 (Mobile News July 22).

The creditors meeting is set for this Thursday at BTA Turnaround Associates Woking offices.

Bowell is expected to reveal further details on the state of Telecom Souths finances and answer questions on his association with Telecom South managing director Clive Thomas.

Creditor Mike Wilcox of Telstar Systems in Weybridge has questioned the validity of Bowells appointment. He claims the appointment may be flawed because some creditors votes were invalid.

Bowell will be asked to explain how and why Telecom South was allegedly able to transfer some assets to other companies.

Wilcox wrote to Bowell on August 17 asking him to reveal the number of votes he received to enable him to be appointed liquidator and who the votes came from.

He is also demanding to know why Bowell declined to appoint liquidator Eric Diamond who has no previous association with Telecom South MD Clive Thomas.

Diamond attended the first creditors meeting at the behest of Telecom South creditor Avenir Telecom. Avenir and other creditors hoped to appoint Diamond because he had no past links with Thomas.

In his letter Wilcox pointed out that Bowells election as Telecom South liquidator may have been flawed as it may have contained invalid proxy votes from Nu-Communications and Anglo Communications.

Wilcox alleges both these companies received Telecom South assets before it went into liquidation and should have been treated as preferred creditors which would disqualify them from electing Bowell as a liquidator.

Greenway gave this advice in a note called Death bell tolls -3G RIP.

But former Ericsson director Krylander says Greenways advice is damaging wrong and a cheap shot from someone who demonstrates little understanding of the industry.

The fact is this technology is here to stay whether we like it or not. To call on network operators to abandon their licence obligations is an over-reaction. for

Global Telecom is the company set up by ex-European Telecom sales director John Drinkwater and financial director Jim Mann who bought the rights to use the European Telecom name.

Global Digital Telecoms and Global Telecom Distribution are both backed by parent company Mobi-shop Asia.

GDTs seven staff have now moved to European Telecom offices in Waltham Abbey.

GDT managing director Ian Chitty becomes director of sales and purchasing at European Telecom.

European Telecom managing director John Drinkwater said:

It made much more sense to pull the two companies together and run them as one. In the current saturated market it makes sense.

We get a larger customer base the chance to cross-sell to new markets and enjoy economies of scale regarding overheads.

The Manchester-based company which was once Oranges largest direct dealer went into administration in February with debts of 3.2 million.

A deal was offered to creditors in April that allowed the company to come out of administration and continue trading while still acting under the protection of the administrators.

That protection is now lifted after a successful application to discharge the administration was lodged.

Insolvency firm Begbies Traynor helped to slash Celltalks monthly overheads by half cut office space by 75 per cent and reduce staff from 120 to 40.

Celltalk also put together a plan that would see the company continue to trade as long as it paid 10000 a month every month for two years to meet its debts as well as half of any profit made above its 10000 monthly payment.

As part of the deal the directors who were owed 700000 and the holding company which was owed 1.2 million agreed to defer claims until after the two-year period.

On lifting the administrative order it emerged the amount of surplus money available for unsecured creditors had fallen by 20000 from 100000 to 80000 as a result of extraordinary costs such as unpaid rent customer refunds and higher purchase payments on a random dialling machine.

With the company being allowed two free months a year where it does not have to pay off its debt the likely total amount available for unsecured creditors over the two years is around 280000.

At the height of its powers in 2000 Celltalk had a turnover of 24 million and employed over 200 people.

Begbies Traynor administrator Paul Stanley said:

It has been a massive success. The contention was always that there was a viable business in there and that it just grew too quickly and became overstaffed in an industry that then found itself saturated very quickly. The company just needed trimming down.

The system developed by Transaction Network Services (TNS) is similar to the dial-up/authorisation system used in most High Street stores. It uses GSM mobile technology to authorise payments by credit card and pays the fare into a nominated bank account.

Following a successfully pilot scheme carried out earlier this year up to 5000 taxis could be fitted with the service over the next year.

Cabbies that use the service pay no charge or line rental with the passenger paying an 11.5 per cent fee to cover the cost. The transaction typically takes 15 seconds to authorise.

This is an exciting and innovative application of wireless technology and paves the way for a host of mobile payments to be enabled said TNS vice-president for sales Alan Stephenson-Brown.