A method of transferring high rate data between a first communications device (32) and a second communications device (1) is disclosed. The second communications device (1) has a first transceiver (4) for communication with the first communications device (32) at a first, low data rate over a long range, and a second transceiver (2) for communicating at a second, high data rate over a short range. The method comprises the steps of forming a coordinated short-range network (piconet) using the second communications device (1) and a plurality of other similar communications devices (11, 21), transferring a portion of said data to or from the first communications device (32) from or to each of said second communications device and said other communications devices using their first transceivers (2, 12, 22), and transferring said data portions between said other communications devices and the second communications device using their second transceivers (4, 14, 24).