Vodafone commercial managing director Paul Donovan said:

Legally recognisable electronic signatures are fundamental to our mobile commerce strategy.

As the Government have already announced plans to allow individuals to submit tax returns electronically using digital signatures we hope that these trials will go some way towards establishing the technology and help the DTI to promote the UK as the European leader of mobile commerce.

Using information contained on their SIM smartcard present in mobile phones Vodafone customers will have the potential to use their mobile device whenever and wherever they currently use their signature said Donovan.

Whereas today we write cheques pay by credit card or debit card sign mortgage or stock trading contracts and in our working environments sign holiday forms or timesheets in the future these transactions could all be completed using just your mobile device.

The trials will demonstrate that the technology is easy to use and provides a more secure method of authorisation than our current hand-written signatures he continued

sale.

This follows a meeting last week between the police Home Office and networks on how to reduce mobile phone crime.

Also a new Home Office crime prevention leaflet will be prepared and distributed via major retailers the operator-owned shops and the Home Office Crime Prevention Officer network.

Networks have pledged increase take-up of their voluntary registration schemes for Pay as you Go phones to help operators bar stolen phones.

Mobile phone operators and retailers are to clamp down on false insurance claims for lost phones and review their insurance policies with a view to including cover for loss (with a duty of reasonable care) and for non-violent theft to discourage false reporting of theft.

Handset manufacturers and networks are to share information about techniques for preventing the reprogramming of handsets and consider implementing the use of PIN numbers and other options for personalising handsets such as voice registration.

We now have an action plan agreed by all parties to help us start to tackle the problem of mobile phone theft. More work still needs to be done but I believe these practical measures represent an excellent beginning said Home Secretary Jack Straw.

BTCellnets head of security John Cross (on behalf of the mobile phone industry) said:

This is part of the industrys ongoing strategy of improvingco-operation with the police on all aspects of mobile phone security. We welcome the involvement of the Home Office and the opportunity of continuing to work with them and the police on this important area.

Adrian ONeil Weekes faces 13 charges mostly of criminal deception involving cloned credit cards at various shops and stores between December 12 and early January.

Weekes is also charged with dishonestly handling 1100 worth of stolen clothes and computer equipment.

The announcement follows months of research across Europe and the USA plus extensive consultation with sister companies within Deutsche Telekoms wireless group T-Mobile International (TMO).

The T-Mobile brand will be used in corporate markets and for launching international tariffs planned for early summer.

One 2 One marketing director Tim Yates said:

We have said we would consider the use of complementary brands where they enhance our offering.

The T-Mobile brand will be present in over 20 European countries as well as in the USA once Deutsche Telekoms acquisition of Voicestream has been completed providing a target market of over 500 million customers said Yates.

Were trying to recognise the strength of the One 2 One brand but build into it the benefits of a global brand.

Well be launching certain international services one of which will be a flat rate tariff and it will come under T-Mobile branding. But most customers will see no change at all.

We will start to introduce the branding gradually. We havent decided yet exactly how it will manifest itself. Probably the first experience of it will be in the introduction of international services he said.

Yates explained the new brand will be a phased introduction co-ordinated primarily through international products and services.

We have something in the pipeline that will offer international travellers a home environment experience wherever they are on the T-Mobile network. The short codes that they dial in the UK will work the same on any T-Mobile network overseas.

T-Mobile recognises the role and the importance of local brands. In other European markets T-Mobile has not come in and re-branded the operation and neither does it have plans to do so in the UK with One 2 One Yates concluded.

This is described as an easy-to-use virtual corporate directory accessed via a WAP mobile phone or Internet browser.

It enables users to access key contacts when in the office or working remotely.

Rapide from Vodafone is a simple application with no training required.

Users access their internal business directories to search for specific contacts and can make calls directly from the results screen with the touch of a button often eliminating the need to route calls through company switchboards.

This is a further example of Vodafone Corporates commitment to improving business communications said Graham Ward managing director Vodafone Corporate.

Organisations will save time effort and money by encouraging their remote workforces to utilise the services of Rapide.

For customers who have not yet upgraded to a WAP phone a text message or vCard (electronic business card) can be sent from the Rapide web browser directly to one or more mobile phones including information such as telephone numbers call reminders messages or directions.

This is said to be a particularly useful function when the recipient is driving or whilst phones are switched off during a meeting.

Contact details can be securely updated in real time by authorised users directly from a desktop browser or WAP phone ensuring that details are never out of date.

An additional feature of the service is Rapide Corporate Pages.

As all businesses need to interface with other organisations Corporate Pages offers users access to a network of companies and their contacts making it easy to find the right person to speak to within an organisation and improving the potential for business networking opportunities.

The level of information provided is decided by each company.

Rivers has most recently been vice president of global marketing at mobile computing and data solutions company Intermec Technologies in Seattle.

Rivers reports to One 2 One chief executive Harris Jones. One 2 One is currently carrying out a full review of its business (see story P4).

These allow the user to access any two networks from their existing mobile phone.

Turning the phone off then on again automatically switches the network.

A connecting card fits into the phones own SIM holder.

The cover looks like a normal back phone cover and users can swap the cover with their existing one in less than a minute.

The idea is that users can select the best tariff and coverage to suit the time and place that they make a call and separate their call charges such as business and personal.

Or users says Elite could simply double their SIM card capacity by inserting two SIMs from the same network into the cover

The new range of covers will retail at under 20 and are available for a wide variety of Nokia Ericsson Philips Motorola and Panasonic handsets in the colours of the original covers.

The 62 stores are currently trading under a variety of names: MPC Midland Phones. JWE and Moco. all inherited from acquisitions over the last two years.

The mobile product is changing said GMC managing director Graham Cornhill.

We are on the threshold of a new mobile era and we wanted a High Street name that moved us away from mobile phones but sat comfortably with the future of cellular products and the impact of 3G said Cornhill.

Were now a major player in the High street. But to enable us to take full advantage of the economies of scale a multiple store retailer can command a re-branding was a must. With our new look and name we will be perfectly placed to take advantage of the new cellular opportunities that will come with 3G.

Last September GMC claimed to now be one of the top five independent dealerships in the UK with 37 stores doing 5000 connections a month. GMC bought 20 MoCo Mobile Phone centre stores a year ago.

Orange Shop Oxford Street employee Derek Justin Akpabio (25) is accused of stealing a total of 2750 in sums of between 50 and 150 during a three-month period.

He is also charged on numerous counts of falsifying receipts by pretending they had been signed by customers.