Mickey is leaving we will make an announcement shortly. He will be leaving amicably said Kondor chairman Malcolm Bartlett.

However the Deutsche Telekom-owned network does not disagree that some of its 7000 employees may be facing redundancy in the wake of an overhaul of the way the business is run in the face of the worldwide downturn in telecoms.

The review is part of a recognition that revenue is moving more to data and that the company needs to adapt to globalisation and not be solely a domestic operator. It feels it may have the right people in the wrong roles.

The official line according to marketing PR manager Neil Bent is:

As the company reaches a new level of maturity it intends to focus skills and resources on key business drivers.

In order to achieve this and in line with a determination to challenge commonly held views One 2 One intends to conduct a complete business review in the process of creating new and powerful ways of operating. This may result in a reduction in the companys overall head count.

However One 2 One will be concentrating its efforts on minimising any effects this might have.

The company is looking at staff skills roles and structures. It is looking at the market to see what shape it needs to be with the arrival of 3G. The review will take place over the next few weeks.

One 2 One cannot rule out any outcome. The review could flag up skill shortages and show we need to recruit. Or it could indicate we need to relocate staff internally Bent told Mobile News.

One 2 One is trying to be as open as possible. We are not being secretive. We are keeping people up to date. The assumption that it is bad news is ridiculous.

It will be two months before anyone knows the results of the review. One 2 One has had a successful year and is looking towards next year in terms of goals targets and budgets.

The company desires to improve efficiency added Bent.

12 snap will run a mobile phone marketing campaign using interactive mobile games to advertise the KitKat Chunky bar in Germany with the slogan the full load.

This will be Nestles first attempt at integrating mobile marketing into future marketing strategies.

Frank Schuebel marketing director at Nestle said: marketing via mobile phones is an interesting way of communicating which we wanted to try out. We decided on a collaboration with 12snap for our mobile marketing activities as 12snap has a young and incredibly innovative image coupled with a very wide radius.

The partnership with Nestle comes after 12snap announced in January Europes largest mobile marketing deal with the restaurant chain McDonalds in Germany.

This announcement was followed with the signing of a cash deal with American Express to promote and gain customers for its youth focused credit card blue card.

SMS campaigns allow mobile players to push out much more interactive and personalised service said 12snap co-founder and marketing manager Cyriac Roeding

Campaigns are resulting in very high response rates averaging between six and 12 per cent around 15 times higher than traditional direct marketing campaigns. Projections on revenue generated from wireless advertising are forecasting 12 billion in 2005.

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).