This will provide South African AA members with ways to reduce the threat of vehicle theft or hijack by providing realtime tracking capabilities that improve the chance of recovering a stolen vehicle. Orchid will enable the AA to offer its members navigational assistance emergency support in an accident and a breakdown location facility

Hijackings and vehicle crime in our country is on an upwards spiral said Barney Mostert group managing director of the AA in South Africa.

By offering realtime vehicle location to our members we are providing them with extra peace of mind against vehicle crime.

Added Global Telematics CEO Edward Belgeonne:

Weve had a number of recent successes in locating stolen vehicles in the UK with police working with Global Telematics to find the vehicles and recovering them in as little as 20 minutes.

With the escalating levels of vehicle theft and hijack in South Africa this kind of service has the potential to prove even more beneficial than it currently is in the UK.

In January RSL COM UK sold the 70 per cent of its consumer mobile base to BT Cellnet. The funds will be reinvested in RSL COMs UK national network and the rollout of new business services including GPRS. RSL COM will now concentrate on supplying fixed voice mobile data Internet and network services to the UK business market.

Barry Mowbray managing director of RSL COM UK said:

With the sale we can now focus on developing and marketing a stream of IP-based services.

RSL COM claims total revenues of over 200 million in 2000 and says it is the largest independent supplier of mobile telephony to the UK. It was placed in administration following financial problems which hit its parent US company.

Mowbray is currently engineering a management buy-out of the business.

Samsung executive director Ali Demin told Mobile News:

We are sorry he is leaving but we have a very strong team here and life has to go on. He has made a strong contribution to Samsung but he leaves behind a very strong team.

The experience he gained with products like our MP3 phones will help because Siemens has an MP3 product now.

Demin said Samsung has plans to be even more aggressive than we have been.

We intend to be a much bigger player than we are now and hopefully we shall start to see that reflected very soon.

We are intending to grow rapidly this year by doubling our sales. We do not feel that we have reached a market share figure that we deserve but we will make big improvements. Unlike our competitors we have a business thats spread over other areas not just mobile phones. It is a good time to take market share from our competitors who are not doing so well.

The network will be targeting all its registered pre-pay customers and encouraging them to switch to the new pay monthly deal.

One 2 One is taking all free call vouchers out of pre-pay boxes. Instead a 5 credit will be given on handset registration.

This will expire after 30 days if the phone is not registered. In addition customers will have to make a qualifying call within six months to avoid disconnection.

Unemployed Ademola Okimeji (35) pleaded guilty in Horseferry Road Magistrates Court in London to attempting to steal a Nokia and Samsung phone from The Orange Shop in Whiteleys shopping centre in Queensway Bayswater on December 19.

Okimeji tried to use a debit card in the name of Conroy which had been intercepted in the post on its way to the genuine owner. He also had a forged Halifax building society passbook and gas bill in the same name of Conroy.

However the debit card had been reported stolen and The Orange Shop manager called the police. Okimeji tried to escape but was caught and arrested.

The judge said: These were serious offences carefully plotted and planned. If he succeeded at The Orange Shop he would have gone to other shops and committed more offences.

Okimeji was bailed on condition he does not go to the Whiteleys shopping centre.

Samsung says the 10mm barrier was considered the technological limit in making slim handsets. Samsung says Sony and other Japanese companies have developed bar-type handset models which are around 10mm thick but that it is the first company to develop and introduce a 9.8mm thick flick-type phone including a standard battery.

Vodafones retail stores are now selling the GPRS-equipped Motorola Timeport T260 from 99.99. This is 100 cheaper than BTCellnets pricing of the same handset announced last month.

BTCellnet launched its GPRS network to corporate users in June last year and to consumers last month.

Vodafone UK is also introducing a GPRS WAP service for faster access to mobile internet services such as Vizzavi e-mail bank accounts restaurant guides while making and receiving voice calls.

Customers will be charged on the amount of data sent or received. Vodafone will be offering two price plans which they can add to their normal monthly tariffs.

There is the bundled option of GPRS 1 that is aimed at more frequent WAP users and which includes 1 MB of data transferral for 7.49 per month.

This equates to accessing 500 and a 1000 WAP pages per month.

The non-bundled GPRS price plan costs 3.99 per month and means paying for WAP access pro-rata at 2p per KB sent and received.

On GPRS 1 customers can carry over any remaining KBs of data from their monthly bundle for two more months.

Vodafone is also enhancing its text message tariffs by offering 50 or a 100 inclusive text messages on its Vodafone 20 + 50 Text to Leisure 200 + 50 Text as well as on a number of business plans.

Vodafone says the new price plans will provide savings of up to 3 per month for any customer sending more than 25 messages.

Meanwhile BTCellnet is extending its GPRS offerings with the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.

Corporate customers can now order the BlackBerry running over BT Cellnets GPRS networks and be always connected to their business e-mail account and to receive read and respond to messages in real time.

BlackBerry is developed and manufactured by Research In Motion and was launched in the USA in 1999.

It is the largest in Vodafones history and will involve branding on the sidepod nose and front wing of the Ferraris. The Vodafone brand will also appear on the drivers overalls and helmets. Vodafone also gets the opportiunity to market directly to Ferraris fan base.

This is an exceptionally good deal for us says Vodafone chief executive officer Chris Gent.

It is moving us into the super league of world-wide branding.

Vodafone dipped its toe into the world of Formula One last year when it had a small amount of branding on the Jordan cars. This was mainly its website address.

The Ferrari deal dramatically upstages Oranges sponsorship of the Arrows team which has yet to produce a team capable of competing for the world championship let alone podium places.

F1 reaches a world-wide audience of 52 billion people each year.

Power and Associates 2001 UK Mobile Telephone Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Of households with at least one mobile phone the portion with two or more phones has increased from 52 per cent last year to 67 per cent this year.

Orange remains in top position for the fourth year running achieving a customer satisfaction score of 108 points for pre-pay.

One 2 One was the most improved network for customer satisfaction says J.D. Power.

Nearly one in 10 housholds with a mobile phone has a WAP phone. Yet just one in three is actually used for internet access.

There has been a significant decrease this year among non-WAP phone owners expressing an interest in accessing the internet with their mobiles says Gunda Lapski director of telecoms and utilities for J.D. Power.

The difference may well be a reflection of the negative publicity that has surrounded WAP.

Peter Sheridan told police a bomb had been planted at London Bridge railway station. He made the call at 11pm on July 11 and told a New Scotland Yard receptionist it would explode in 20 minutes.

But police traced the hoax call to his mobile phone. Sheridan a pipe fitter pleaded guilty to making the hoax call.

He is expected to be jailed for more than six months once he appears for sentencing.