The Island's largest cellular provider celebrated its independence yesterday.

Now free of the BTC epithet, Mobility held a launch party at its new retail store on Burnaby Street and the Minister of Tourism, Telecommunications and E-commerce Renee Webb was there to applaud the "new brand, new store and new GSM service."

The Minister said that Bermuda's telecommunication industry has made "absolutely phenomenal advances" since 1998 and is an example of competition working.

In the race to launch GSM services, Telecom Bermuda managed to overtake Mobility last week, but Mobility general manager Stanley G. Wright was able to reclaim the lead yesterday by launching the Island's first full GPRS GSM network.

This means that Mobility will be first to offer advanced third generation services such as downloading e-mails and photographs on a cell phone. Mobility have also been working on advanced voicemail and voice recognition services.

Their partner, Wildfire, a subsidiary of the UK company Orange, has developed a package specific to the Bermuda local market.

Widlfire National Sales Executive Aldo Calcagni explained that services will include a virtual assistant which recognises voice commands, such as "Phone Renee" and dials the appropriate number from a contact list. Useful for those times when you don't have both hands free.

Mobility confirmed that the new store on Burnaby Street will not replace dealers such as Audio Visual and All Talk in St. George's who will continue to sell Mobility services.

But the physical presence in Hamilton will mean that customers can drop in and find a real live customer service person to talk to if they are experiencing problems with the service.