To keep pace with rapidly growing demand for mobile phone services, Orange has opened a 2000sqm "interim" customer service centre in Plymouth, three months after it first announced its plans to expand in the Southwest.

The current Plymouth facility will be home to 400 staff until a new purpose-built centre comes online in August 2000. At that point, employment will start to climb towards the 1100 target.

Orange now has five call centres in the UK. It is one of

the largest private sector employers in both the Southwest and in the Northeast. Ready to move into new markets, the company also recently announced plans to back the world's first GSM mobile videophone.

Scheduled for launch in the spring of 2000, the phone will provide full video and audio communication capabilities, as well as complete personal digital assistant functionality, including e-mail access, internet browsing, Microsoft Pocket Office applications and handwriting recognition.

Partners in the project include Cambridge Consultants, for overall technical design; Celestica, to supply hardware and design, develop and integrate the electronics; Motion Media, for video application software, control protocols and the user interface; NMI, a Microsoft system integrator; and the University of Strathclyde for the video compression software that will enable images to be transmitted.

Elliott Chase