The vouchers can be used across any mobile network using all WAP enabled devices such as mobile phones and PDAs.

Vodafone won prizes for Most Informative Content for its Careers site and Best Recruitment Website for its Graduate site as well as being a finalist in the Best Usability and Use of Functionality category for the careers site.

There were over 100 entrants and Vodafone competed against other large UK companies.

Nigel Brocklehurst Vodafone human resources director said:

Almost 100 per cent of our graduate recruitment is achieved through the website and in some other parts of the business over 20 per cent of recruits come to us through the website.

Vodafones career website has a search engine to pull up jobs applicable to the candidate. If no relevant jobs are available the candidates details are stored and they are automatically contacted when an opportunity arises.

This means a total of 3.5 billion text messages were sent in the first four months of 2001 which equates to three million messages a day.

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.