Dolphins growth has been slower than expected but the network reckons it had 50000 digital subscribers at the end of last year using a national digital network of approximately 950 sites.

Dolphin put on 20000 net new customers in the last quarter of 2000 and intends to grow its digital customer base to 150000 subscribers in the U.K. by the end of this year. Growth is expected from better coverage in major cities and the second generation of handsets in the second quarter and from the targeting of specific industry segments.

According to figures received from the four UK network operators the number of chargeable person to person messages sent last month was 673 million compared to 171 million in November 1999.

Mike Short Chairman of the MDA said:

The Mobile Data Association is celebrating its first truly SMS Christmas. We look forward to continued growth in SMS next year and serving our customers with a much broader range of mobile data and text services in 2001.

The MDA was established in 1994 to increase awareness of mobile data amongst users and their advisers. It also provides a forum for its members to communicate with Government bodies including the DTI the Radiocommunications Agency and Oftel.

ET blames losses at its electronic top-up operation Eazypay and a 300000 loss from its Global Telematics joint venture. It also expects its African subsidiary to make a loss rather a than an expected pre-tax profit of 800000. Its UK accessories division TAG is also performing below budget.

Ora managing director Ken Jacobson said heads of agreement had been signed.

That takes us through to the next phase. We havent yet entered the phase of due diligence. I feel confident a deal will be concluded by the end of Q1.

We have a number of choices we can take but no plan has been finalised as yet. Our priority is to keep our existing customers happy.

Kondor MD Mickey Priman said he expected a merged company to hold on to both brand names for the short to medium term.

Daniel Akwagbe (18) tried to obtain two mobile phones by deception from Odyssey manager Matthew Stephens. Akwagbe used a BT phone bill for ID. But the suspicious manager called BT who said they did not have a customer of that name. Stephens called police and the man was arrested.

Vodafone announced a new Europe-wide tariff called Eurocall which offers roaming customers flat rate charges while making and receiving calls in Europe with greater savings for using a Vodafone partner network.

Outside of UK shores Vodafone customers who subscribe to the 2.50 per month tariff will be charged 60p a minute (at current Euro exchange rates) for an outgoing call on any European Vodafone partner network such as SFR (France) D2 Vodafone (Germany) Libertel Vodafone (Netherlands) Europolitan Vodafone (Sweden) Telecel Vodafone (Portugal) Airtel (Spain) Panafon Vodafone (Greece) Omnitel Vodafone (Italy) Proximus (Belgium) Tele.ring (Austria).

Unlike BTCellnets OneRate European service Vodafone customers can use any roaming compatible handset and still benefit from their existing UK tariff and call charges. BTCellnets OneRate service offers slightly lower roaming call charges.

But customers have to buy a specially adapted Nokia 6150 handset and pay 50.25 per month inclusive of 300 minutes call time.

BTCellnets service has been criticised because the phone only logged onto specially-selected partner networks abroad reducing available coverage. Vodafone Eurocall customers can use any network where a Vodafone partner network is unavailable. This is charged at a flat rate of 70p to make a call. Received calls will be charged at 30p regardless of network. Eurocall will be offered to Vodafone customers in all European countries.

Orange says there is world-wide demand for cheaper and easier to understand roaming charges. It has now split the world into five zones and introduced flat rate charges for each. The five zones are Republic of Ireland Europe North America. Australia & New Zealand and rest of the world.

One 2 One said it had no plans to reduce international call rates in response.

Cheap roaming is already available from Mint Telecom a virtual network operation which offers global pre-paid roaming at flat rates of 85p per minute outbound and 42.5 pence per minute inbound regardless of the country you are in or calling.

We dont know if we should be flattered or cautious said Mint MD Adrian Wood.

We understand that the Vodafone rate is billed per minute followed by increments of 30 seconds. So their call charges are effectively higher than advertised to account for unused time. Per minute billing is a big trap

The contrast between us and the others is that we are a pre-paid service with a single rate and available to customers that dont have an account. We have a new hub in Iceland coming on which will allow us to attack the pricing. We may have some announcements in a few days he added.

Yes which is currently jointly owned by Jones and Freddie Fazelynia (who sold his company AAA Telecom to Vodafone last year) has obtained a Vodafone licence to provide mobile services to business customers.

Ex-Phone People sales director Paul Diffen has joined Jones as sales director after an acrimonious split from The Phone People last year.

Jones says he is now looking to put together a management team of industry veterans with a mixed background between retail service provision and distribution.

Jones says Yes intends to invest 20 million over the next three years. It currently employs 11 business advisers in its Manchester office.

The company says it will have five regional offices manned by 60 business advisors and 30 telephone operatives.

Jones says the first business centre will open in April with a new region opening every three months after that.

Products on offer will be converged billing least cost routing and energy services such as gas and electricity.

The advantage of converged billing is that the customer has reduced admin costs and increases their buying strength with one supplier.

We are then able to offer volume and cross discounts across services said Jones.

Our Christmas sales proved to succeed both in retail and on the internet you need to provide customers with the lowest prices and the highest standards of service.

Thanks to the huge buying power at talkingshop.co.uk we can take the High Street competition to task on all counts said talkingshop.co.uk managing director Darren Duesbury.

The stockists with the fullest tanks will win!

Participating dealerswill be sent monthly statements once they have registered so they can see exactly how the are progressing.

PNC acquired KJC last July. In addition to his existing responsibilities Ridge will now be in charge of sales marketing and operations across PNCs mobile fixed and internet businesses.

Geremy Thomas remains chief executive of PNC Tele.com.

Since the acquisition of KJC Darren has been an integral part of PNCs management team. The company will benefit from him focusing on the operational core of the business said Thomas.

PNC now has 50 shops including the 30 KJC outlets acquired in July.