Sales director Richard Walker has moved into a European role in charge of retail across the 14 countries in the Group.

Jonathan Hook has been appointed UK sales and marketing director and maintains overall responsibility for below the lineadvertising and all marketing support required by UK retail.

Tristia Clarke has been promoted from head of public relations to head of communications and will assume responsibility for above the line advertising public relations and employee communications.

Andrew Pinnington has been promoted to chief operating officer of the Telecoms Services division and will work alongside Value Telecoms MD Peter Edwards to manage Value Telecom and the facilities management business (CPW Services).

Chris Murton has been appointed online services director and assumes responsibility for all E-Commerce Interactive TV and Direct Sales activity and Andrew Sherwood formerly head of HR has been promoted to human resources director.

The call was made last week from a prototype 3G mobile from one of Vodafones six chosen 3G handset manufacturers over Vodafones initial 3G network of 30 radio base stations in the Thames Valley.

A progressive roll-out of Vodafones 3G network has been underway since Autumn 2000 and it is anticipated that commercial 3G services will be launched in the second half of 2002.

At launch it is likely that major conurbations and transportation routes will be the principal focus of service.

TRO payments will be calculated at the appropriate rate from August 1 for all BTCellnet customers who have been continuously connected to RSL for six months or more.

TRO payments regarding ex-RSL BTCellnet customers are to be paid through normal monthly commission mechanisms.

An upgrade process is being set up to allow BTCellnet dealers to continue to manage RSL COM customers.

RSL COM dealers business plans were thrown into turmoil when it became evident that the lump sum payments due to them this Autumn under RSL COMs Commission Plan 2000 (CP2000) would not be made.

BTCellnet has formally written to the estimated 60000 RSL COM customers it has acquired from the administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers to tell them that their contracts had been transferred to BTCellnet. RSL COM will continue to provide billing and customer service for a transition period of two to three months.

BTCellnet sales director Mark Stansfeld last month told Mobile News that the network was under no obligation to pay ongoing commissions but that it recognised it had a responsibility to dealers with whom it had a relationship.

The phone was to have launched in the third quarter of 2002 but after several delays launch was put back to the end of February 2003.

The P800 which includes a PDA and MP3 player and offers video streaming as well as a camera function will be distributed to the dealer channel and available for sales from the following Monday.

Its arrival couldnt have come at a better time after parent company Ericsson reported its seventh quarterly loss in a row at the start of the month. Cutbacks by mobile phone operators and delay in the rolling out of 3G systems were cited as reasons for the poor results.

Sony Ericsson UK marketing director Peter Marsden said:

The P800 has some distinct advantages over the handsets on the market at the moment and those set to come out. We are also confident that people will appreciate how stable it is. (See interview P18).

The Hutchison business supplies telecoms services to corporate accounts including Rolls Royce and Mobil.

Last year Hutchison generated revenues of 40 million.

The expansion of the corporate services division is our number one priority for 2001. The addition of Hutchisons subscribers positions Project Telecom as the UKs leading provide of telecom services to the corporate sector said Project Telecom chief executive TimRadford.

Project Telecom is a 250 million group which was successfully floated on the stock market last year.

Its portfolio includes more than 50000 corporate customers such as Aer Lingus Fuji Film Pretty Polly and Swissair. Last year it achieved top10 ranking in the Sunday Times Fast Track Index.

Darby will report to Peter Bamford chief executive for North Europe Middle East and Africa Region. He has worked at Coca Cola since 1984 and was in charge of its Central Europe and North-West Europe regions.

Chris Gent Vodafone Group CEO commented:

Gavins appointment will also allow Peter to concentrate on his increased responsibilities ensuring a continued high degree of focus on the critical UK market.

Oftel says UK prices for pre-pay international roaming are much higher than for customers in France Germany Sweden and Italy. Oftel says UK consumers can pay up to 1.50 a minute to receive incoming calls while travelling in Europe.

Many consumers may be getting caught because they are not aware of the high prices. Less than a quarter of consumers had any knowledge of the price of using a mobile phone abroad when they bought their phone.

Oftel advises pre-pay users to swap their Sim card when abroad for the Sim card of a foreign network.

Chris Kenny director of regulatory policy said:

The extremely high prices for pre-pay international roaming suggest that the UK operators are able to exploit a lack of consumer awareness. Better consumer information is vital if prices for pre-pay international roaming from the UK are to come down.

Well-informed consumers that shop around will put pressure on the mobile operators and will lead to lower prices in the future.

Oftel has already begun discussions with mobile providers retailers and consumer groups to address consumer awareness issues and I expect to see the industry taking action to improve consumer information and reduce prices over the coming months said Kenny.

NEC will begin delivery of 3G videophones in the fourth quarter of 2002. This is NECs largest agreement for 3G devices outside Japan.

Video applications are a key 3G features. Our customers will be keen to get one of these devices when we launch said Hutchison Whampoa MD Canning Fok.

The ACSP says it has been set up to promote the value of competition in services which benefits customers and contributes towards the establishment of a dynamic communications market in the UK.

Oftel Director General David Edmunds will launch the ACSP to press service providers and consumer group representatives this Thursday (February 22).

The database will also be used to analyse and segment Carphone Warehouses customer base to give marketing people the information they need to develop sales programmes and campaigns and to cross-sell products and services.