Digital Radio will allow listeners to hear in CD quality stereo while being able to call up the stations web site and choose the musical output for the day.

Listeners will be able to vote for and influence a daily play-list of music and introduce additions to the play-list using 3G devices.

The most popular tracks will be played at the highest rotation with users being able to interact using the mobile internet.

Manx Telecoms NEC-built 3G network is scheduled to be launched next Spring.

Subject to approval by the Isle of Man Communications Commission Virgin Radio plans to operate a trial Digital Radio licence on the Isle of Man using a Digital Radio technology service provided by Crown Castle.

Scottish Media Group Virgin Radios parent company will present the new digital only service for the Isle of Man – currently named Manx Choice.

The Group says this will be the worlds first interactive radio station. Radio programmes will be selected by the public on a daily basis using 3rd generation technology.

In the future it is anticipated that Digital Radio reception and 3G capability will be combined into Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

Lee Roberts commercial development director of SMG Radio who created the concept behind Manx Choice said

Virgin Radio has always been an innovator in broadcasting. We were the first radio station in the world to launch a WAP site and we have been looking at 3G as a potential platform for several years.

Manx Choice new type of radio station for the 3G user using the latest telecommunications and broadcasting technology and shows one possible version of future broadcasting. It is the worlds first truly interactive radio station totally programmed by the listener using the worlds first example of a hybrid 3G and Digital Radio network.

Crown Castle president Bob Giles added:

We are very proud to be able to offer our support to such a technologically advanced project in the world of Digital Radio and 3G. After having been involved in the design and build of this network Crown Castle is delighted to be able to roll out converging services to make Digital Radio and 3G a reality.

Four new handsets will be available. Two from Motorola and one each from Siemens and Sagem. The Motorola V100 Pagewriter priced at 149.99 (RRP) is built around a complete QWERTY keyboard for SMS text messages or e-mails. Calls are taken on a headset.

Priced at 99.99 (RRP) the Motorola v2288 will be available exclusively in black. The phone will be sold with two coloured phone wraps and includes a built in FM Radio with headphones for music and news on the move.

The Sagem MW936 which will be priced at 89.99 (RRP). Featuring an in-built hands free speaker phone changeable front covers and WAP hot key for quick access the MW936 is ideal for a users first foray into WAP.

The Siemens C35i will be priced at 129.99 (RRP).

Tim Yates Marketing Director for One 2 One said:

We are launching our pay as you go WAP offering with an extremely strong range of handsets. Our WAP content has developed considerably over the past few months and the deals such as those with Time Out Loot and lastminute.com have added a great deal of value to our users. The handsets are sure to appeal to customers and we are confident that our pay as you go WAP range will help us retain our current status as the fastest growing network in the UK.

WAP calls will be charged at 10p per minute at all times. On the pay as you go standard plan users are able to make 23 hours and 58 minutes of calls each day for a flat rate of 5p per minute. The first two minutes of local or national calls or calls to other One 2 One customers each day will be charged at 30p per minute. After the first two minutes such calls are 5p per minute for the rest of the day.

New additions to the existing WAP offering include Time Out Sports.com Games Zone and Teletext. Other services such as e-mail both to and from PCs and between mobiles and a View My Bill section for checking your current balance and recent payments are invaluable to those constantly on the move. A range of interactive games and a favourites section where you can bookmark your favourite WAP sites are also available.

GSM network.

Dolphin has brought out a new range of free call net services aimed at specific industries and public and private safety organisations and construction companies. Dolphin is part of Dolphin Telecom Europes biggest mobile radio operator.

The subscriber initiates Voice

Activated Dialling by calling via a 0800 access number. Once connected the user is prompted to speak a name and location from their on-line address book

The on-line service features real-time itemised billing and an address book with a capacity for 3000 contact numbers.

The voice recognition and address book lookup is performed on DMLs network based dmGenX switch rather than the handset itself.

Standard tariff is 5p per minute currently encompassing some 750000000 people across 19 world destinations.

The service is available from any existing phone mobile or landline within the United Kingdom.

People remember names. Numbers just get in the way and I regard them as an endangered species. This is an evolutionary step towards user friendly communications says Robert Darwin managing director of Digital Mail.

I think that we can make using a mobile phone safer than listening to a tape when one is driving said Darwin

Digital Mail says it has has overcome the restrictions that have limited voice-dialling services in the past such as poor recognition technology and cumbersome dialling-list management.

Using state-of-the-art speech recognition technology we can offer recognition accuracy rates that often exceed manual dialling on a full-size keypad Darwin claimed.

The Vodafone-branded fixed line service is claimed to offer customers savings of up to 33 per cent on current BT prices and discounted fixed line calls to Vodafone mobiles from as little as 5.5p.

The Atlantic products will be branded Vodafone BusinessLine and Vodafone HomeLine and will be available for small to medium sized businesses and residential customers respectively.

An indirect access fixed phone service supplied by Atlantic-owned First Telecom has been available from Vodafone stores for over a year.

The Vodafone BusinessLine service complements Vodafones combined fixed and mobile service already available to corporate customers through its partnerships with Energis and Cable and Wireless Communications.

Vodafone HomeLine residential customers will get savings of 33 per cent on calls to Vodafone mobiles and savings of 25 per cent on local national and international calls.

The Vodafone fixed service is accessed by installing a small 4.99 dialler box at the phone socket. Eligible calls are automatically routed to the Vodafone fixed service.

Atlantic Telecom Group Plc is a European broadband integrated comms provider.

We have been offering combined mobile and fixed line services to our corporate customers for over three years and a fixed indirect access phone service has been available to customers through our retail stores for the last two years commented Vodafone commercial MD Paul Donovan.

Student users also get free text messaging until the end of January. After that they can continue to get one text media service free such as sports news gig guides etc.

Students have specific needs not provided for by the current range of mobile phone packages said Orange commercial director Richard Brennan.

Handsets available include the Bosch 210e Ericsson 2618e Siemens c35e Nokia 3110e Motorola v2288e and Motorola T2288e.

McCanns appointment wont affect existing local ad agencies working with individual Vodafone companies in each country.

After seeing a number of agencies we selected McCanns for the strength of its network and track record on campaigns of this type said Vodafones global branding director Thomas Geitner.

The agency will have an important role to play in establishing our future gobal brand enabling Vodafone to achieve its aim of becoming the worlds leading mobile multimedia company and ensuring the Group is in pole position when it launches third generation networks.

The GSM Association says that SMS demand is so great that its forecast of 10 billion messages a month by the end of the year will have been achived in September. The Association says 15 billion messages will be sent a month by the end of the year.

What was a cult following a couple of years ago is a mass-market phenomenon today said GSM

Association chairman Jim Healy.

There is huge demand boosted by a vast volume value and variety of services offered by GSM networks and internet applications services.

SMS initially took time to catch on and reach a critical mass in

Europe before exploding. We are seeing a replication of that trend across all markets now and are witnessing a subtle shift in the world of wireless comms from the verbal to the visual variety.

Rob Conway GSM Association CEO added:

The rise of SMS has been fuelled by many factors including the extraordinary growth of pre-pay services the development of WAP-based SMS messaging SMS roaming interconnection between operators and the sheer range and diversity of services now available to customers.

In France more than half a billion messages were reported as in Italy during August.

The Grinch stars Jim Carrey and is directed by Ron Howard. Its being hyped as the biggest film this side of Christmas.

One 2 One and The PocketPhone Shop have been given exclusive access to The Grinch and have put together a sales channel promotion to coincide with the films launch.

Branded Grinch postcard dispensers will be displayed at point-of-sale in over 300 cinemas nationwide offering a holiday competition to Los Angeles.

Entrants have to fill the entry form on the reverse of the card and then drop it into the nearest PocketPhone Shop.

Coupled with a branded entry box and considerable in-store branding in over 170 PocketPhone Shops nationwide is another holiday competition that is open to all purchasers of One 2 One phones until the end of December.

The promotion will be boosted with national newspaper competitions and online promotions. One 2 One recently promoted hit movies American Pie and Kevin & Perry Go Large.