Mobile operators get record salesSteve BushUK mobile phone sales hit record levels in the last quarter of 2000.Vodafone picked-up 1.4 million UK subscribers, making a UK total of 11.7 million. Globally, it now has 78.7 million. Orange gained 1.56 million in the UK, and now has just under ten million customers. Pre-paid services accounted for 90 per cent of Orange’s ...

MemQuest expands in UKRichard WilsonMemQuest, a joint venture between Torridon and contract manufacturer Solectron, is expanding its UK operations and hopes to double its engineering team during the next six months. A new technology centre at Leith, Edinburgh will design controller chips exploiting the company’s proprietary CyclicStorage technology for management of flash memory.

USBid.com opens in UKSteve BushOn-line electronics component source, USBid.com, is opening an office in Fareham, Hampshire, to increase its European presence. “Europe is extremely important to the success of our business, currently the region is responsible for almost 20 per cent of our turnover and is experiencing tremendous growth,” said Gary Heyes, president and CEO of USBid.com. The office will ...

E-Insite

TCS invests £40m in Irish facilityRichard Wilson Teradyne Connection Systems (TCS) is to invest around £40m in the building of a second manufacturing facility in Ireland. The new 94 acre site, in Cavan, just south of the border with Northern Ireland, is expected to be up and running in December. The high-speed connector specialist already employs 320 staff at a ...

Palm delves into e-walletRichard Ball Palm is planning to turn its handheld computers into electronic wallets, capable of transferring money to point of sale (POS) terminals. The firm demonstrated this week a Palm Pilot linked via infra-red to a VeriFone POS terminal. Replacing a magnetic stripe card with this system will improve security, the firms claim. Such a system would ...

Marconi/Alcatel mull Alstom saleRichard WilsonMarconi and Alcatel are considering jointly selling part of their respective 24 per cent stakes in French industrial group Alstom. It is expected that the offering will take place during the first quarter of 2001, subject to market conditions.

Hewitt promotes UK in Far EastRichard BallE-minister Patricia Hewitt is to visit China and Japan next week (Jan 15) to promote the UK as a trade and investment e-commerce partner. “The UK is the number one choice for investment into the EU, and Europe’s leading e-trading nation,” said Hewitt. Internet use in China has increased tenfold in just two years, ...

FEI takes on PSMA dutiesRichard Wilson The Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) has taken over the management of the Power Supply Manufacturers Association (PSMA) with effect from January 1, 2001. PSMA will operate as an autonomous unit within FEI. The move follows the FEI’s takeover of the Printed Circuit Interconnection Federation (PCIF) just before Christmas. PSMA is composed of ...

Receivers in at Quantum as ‘bad luck’ takes its tollRichard WilsonQuantum Electronics, the south Wales-based contract manufacturer, has called in the receivers.Some staff have already been laid off at the company which is still trading, but which has effectively been up for sale for the last three months.Behind the manufacturer’s problems seem to be reduced business from two key customers. ...