The election was confirmed at the 3G bodys General Assembly in Berlin on January 30.

Bienaime has a long career with France Telecom Group including director of international development when he managed operational support for France Telecoms mobile activities worldwide.

Drinkwater (37) worked for One 2 One for four years. He was most recently with start-up mobile internet company Civista.

European Telecom has also hired NTL man Richard Hogan (32) as director of group purchasing.

Hogan has more than 15 years of purchasing and supply experience. He was head of supply chain development at NTL.

The new additions follow the loss of three high-profile sales executives who resigned from European Telecom last month. They were sales director Gareth Limpenny sales manager John Whitlock and export manager Rob Beard.

Both men will report to European Telecom group managing director David McKinney.

We are confident that both John and Richard bring with them the experience to take ET forward to the next stage said McKinney.

John spent five years at European Telecom while they were the leading distributor in the UK.

Johns leaving European Telecom had nothing to do with lack of ability or skill. Everyone knows it was (European Telecoms chairman) Warren Hardy pulling the strings not John McFarnon.

For the majority of the time John was at ET it was number one in the industry.

We have aims to be number one not just in the UK but globally said Jones.

McFarnon has been on garden leave since he and European Telecom International MD Colin Cartwright resigned from the company in april.

Vodafone said it carried a 30 per cent increase in voice traffic last Tuesday afternoon as news of the horrific attacks on New York and Washington were first reported on TV and radio.

The network further experienced an 18 per cent increase of traffic between 4pm and 5pm and a three to 17 per cent increase in traffic during the remainder of the night.

A spokesperson also said:

International calls on Vodafone were dramatically increased. Customers may have experienced difficulty making calls to the US due to disruption to USA fixed and mobile phone networks.

A BT Cellnet spokesperson confirmed:

We experienced a surge in demand for transatlantic calls. The network suffered no congestion but like all operators we experienced congestion issues particularly in the USA.

One 2 One PR manager Neil Bent said:

We carried lots more traffic on the network. But there were no problems. We dont have any figures available.

The call centre was due to open next March. But One 2 One says it is reviewing the need for such a building.

The reasons for this are underpinned by a change in the companys call handling patterns and the increased efficiency of the companys customer service advisors. Inquiries are being resolved to a high level more quickly then ever said a One 2 One spokesperson.

The number of first time users is reaching a plateau and customers have become more sophisticated. They are more aware of how to use their phones and therefore often require less initial support when they join One 2 One.

One 2 One expects the review to be complete by the end of the year.

The campaign includes national TV press and outdoor posters.

There are seven humorous TV commercials.

These show an ashamed mobile handset covered with a brown paper bag in six comedic situations – being shot poked with a stick breaking wind sneezing left lonely in a box and dancing to an embarrassing ring-tone.

The new campaign coincides with the opening of the 200th UK Phones 4U store in the centre of Cardiff. The store adds to its eight stores across Wales.

At least 25 more stores are to open in Wales during the next two years. Phones 4U signed its one millionth airtime customer earlier this summer.

Caudwell Group boss John Caudwell said:

Now we have topped the 200-store mark we wanted an advertising campaign to connect with our target audience. The state of your mobile phone says as much about you as what you wear its vital that we keep up with such an aggressive marketplace.

We have to put the latest and the best handsets in the hands of the right owner the range of products has to be right for todays generation of mobile phone users.

In July Caudwell Group announ-ced it would invest 99 million in its service provision division Singlepoint (Mobile News July 23).

This is the view of the National Radiological Protection Boards advisory group which looked into the possible health effects of TETRA radios. They are designed to replace older analogue systems used by the emergency services and commercial clients.

In the UK TETRA networks are run by Dolphin (see story P1) and BT Airwaves which operates a service for the police and other emergency services.

TETRA operates at 400Mhz and causes a power modulation in some of the signals coming from the terminals.

There was some concern that modulated RF fields could cause the body to lose calcium. But the NRPB says no associated health risk has been found.

The deal should mean that Woolwich Open Plan customers registered to use WAP banking will be able to access their accounts in five to 10 seconds compared to the industry average of 30 seconds plus.

This growth will not be universal. Plimsoll predicts only 43 per cent of companies in the mobile industry will see sales increase. Around 30 per cent will see stagnant sales and 27 per cent are likely to see sales decline.

Plimsoll analysed 544 UK companies in the UK and put the results in a 450 report called Profit Predictor Edition 2001: Mobile Phones.

As competition intensifies profitability will be key. Companies must aim to get a better grasp of their costs to improve profits says Plimsolls managing director Don Turkington.

The report includes a 12 month future predictor as well as an individual performance analysis of each of the Top 544 UK companies in the Mobile Phones industry.