Also expected on Thursday is the commercial launch of Wildfire the voice-activated system that gives every Orange phone voice-dialling at network level. Wildfire also allows voice-activation of stored numbers and a host of other call administration features that can be summoned up by voice commands.

Orange head Hans Snook is also expected to reveal details of new handsets such as the Motorola triple-band phone launched earlier this year and explain more about Oranges progress in developing a video mobile phone (see Sharp End).

Charges on Frequent Caller Plus fall from 22p to 20p a minute (peak). Regular Caller Plus drops from 33p to 30p a minute (peak) and Occasional Caller Plus charges come down from 37p to 32p a minute (peak).

Over 1.5 million BTCellnet users are now enrolled in the First programme which puts people automatically on the best tariff for their particular usage.

Orange is concerned that it has spent many millions of pounds creating a premium and aspirational brand which is being under-mined by give-away offers by some dealers.

However the network knows that any attempt at illegal price fixing will land it in hot water with the Office of Fair Trading. The network risks being at the receiving end of legal action by the OFT unless it treads very carefully.

For this reason not one of Oranges distributors is prepared to say a word either on or off the record about what is going on. But Mobile News understands that it has been made clear to some distributors that any breach in their terms of trading could result in termination of their account.

Orange has had meetings with its distributors such as Cellcom EBS Talking Point and Complete Mobile Communications.

The whole thing is being done in a spirit of co-operation rather than confrontation said one trade source.

Orange has expressed concern to its independent channels about its perceived devaluing of the brand image and the way that aspects such as free connections are devaluing the value of Orange and taking it back to the old days of give-away phones.

Orange director of sales Gareth Jones said Oranges dealings with its distributors were of a confidential nature and he declined to comment further. Similarly Cellcom boss Paul Cohen responded to all questions with a terse no comment.

His action is a defence against a claim lodged by One 2 One in February claiming Stone owed the network 269000 for sales of phones SIMs and services ordered between March and April last year. One2One sent Stone 30 invoices due for payment by July. But he disputed these payments claiming his dealer agreement had been wrongly terminated

Stone is now challenging One 2 Ones right to terminate loyalty bonuses he claimed were earned but not paid to him. He is taking legal action over the fact he is now unable to earn future loyalty bonuses.

Stone continues to refuse to pay One 2 Ones invoices. He says his own counterclaim of over 400000 is made up of unpaid commissions and future loyalty bonuses Stone continues to refuse to pay One 2 Ones invoices. He says his own counterclaim of over 400000 is made up of unpaid commissions and future loyalty bonuses.

In his counter-claim and Defence Stone argues he is owed 25908 for outstanding volume bonus 47199 for outstanding commissions and either 482017 for future bonuses he would have earned over 10 years or 363052 for bonuses over five years.

His counter-claim admits he has not paid the 269134 worth of One2One invoices and states:

The Defendant is entitled as a mattrer of law to deduct and set off all sums owing and due to him from the First Claiman (ie One 2 One).

Clause 13.2 of the Agency Agreement purports to forfeit the Defendants accrued entitlements following a termination of the Agency Agreement for any reason. The Defendant will contend that Clause 13.2 does not affect his entitlements under the Agency Agreement.

Stone had been a One 2 One dealer since 1994. He received his dealer termination notice on April 7 last year. One 2 One cited clause 12.4 of its dealer agreement which enables it to terminate a dealer in the event of the dealer failing to achieve any one of the minimum performance levels set in schedule five of the agreement.

Stones lawyers say One 2 One has not yet substantiated which performance levels have allegedly not been reached.

If One 2 One does not substantiate the definitions Stones lawyers intend to challenge the validity of Clause 13.2.l.

One 2 Ones legal spokesperson Guy Perring said:

Clause 132 of the One 2 One dealer agreement states if a dealer agreement is terminated the dealer has no further entitlement to sums due that otherwise may have been payable if the agreement had not been terminated.

This means Stone would only have been entitled to further loyalty bonuses if he was still an authorised dealer. He says One 2 One has withheld commissions loyalty and volume bonuses earned before his contract was terminated.

His solicitors claim One 2 One is acting unfairly in trying to deny him commissions for work he has actually done

Stones lawyers maintain the clause is ambigious and that the network is interpreting it to its own advantage. They say the Clause is invalid under the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

They argue that the clause is an invalid penalty because he has already paid a heavy penalty by being struck-off as a dealer.

The controversial dealer agreement entitles dealers to 90p loyalty bonus on customers who have purchased a SIM have remained connected for a minimum of six months. After this time the dealer would earn 90 pence per customer per month until contract termination. Stone says he was earning around 9000 a month in loyalty bonus. Under Clause 13.2 One2One intends to halt this money.

This is not the first time Stone has had a run-in with a network or service provider. In November 1994 his company Network Communications was one of 50 expelled Vodac dealers.

No improprieties were ever alleged. Vodac said the decision was based upon statistics and for our own business reasons.

Brown replaces Isto Pankakoski who this week moves back to Finland to become vice president of sales for Euope and Africa.

Brown was originally marketing director of Nokia in this country working under then managing director Nigel Litchfield before being promoted to a European role.

The men are to now stand trial at the Old Bailey. They are Customs administration officer Kailash Sawhney (48) Gunsum Patel (54) Nathanial Dass (41) Ibrahim Karagozlu (41) Andreas Demetriou (34) Mehmet Karagozlu (46) Tony Antoniou (30) and Andrew Nicholas (37).

All eight will appear for a plea and directions hearing on April 15.

The network spent 441.9 million on its network roll-out to more than 5000 base stations. Oranges customer base increased 80 per cent to 2.16 million at year end with more than 2.39 million customers today giving it a 16.6 per cent market share. Average revenue per contract customer remained virtually unchanged at 483 per head with prepay average revenue per customer coming in at 231. But the 18.1 per cent churn rate was up from the 1997 figure of 15.2 per cent.

1998 was the best year yet for mobile growth and on current trends the UK could see 50 per cent population penetration by the end of 2002 said Orange group managing director Hans Snook.

We have the largest and best-performing wirefree network in the UK. With over 5200 core base stations today our network is over 25 per cent larger than our nearest competitor and 70 per cent larger than the weakest network operator.

We now offer the best roaming proposition in the market with international call rates 20 per cent below BTs standard rates and roaming on 157 networks in 84 countries. This includes a more extensive roaming capability across the European Union than any other operator.

Later this year we shall be trialling third generation UMTS technology with our chosen partners and we are building a dedicated test bed in Bristol. Wirefree phones will progressively displace fixed lines and become the mainstream means of communication. Future growth will not be restricted to voice applications or indeed to people applications.

Wirefree devices will increasingly be embedded in physical infrastructure equipment and products and the profile of wirefree usage will alter said Snook.

The trial involves 1000 people being given dual-card StarTAC phones through which they can download electronic money onto a special Barclaycard by inserting it in the phone.

Barclaycard already has 60000 customers in Leeds taking part in Visa cash trials.

The Visa trial cards are SIM-type smart cards which can store up to 50 of electronic money through which low-value purchases such as newspapers and car parking can be paid for.

To use the phone as a cash machine the user inserts the special Visa Cash card keys in the amount required and enters a PIN.

The electronic money leaves the users bank account and is transmitted over the Cellnet network to the card in the phone.

The trial will be rolled out from April. It is the third mobile phone product from Barclays partnership with Cellnet.

Withdrawing e-cash over your mobile phone may seem futuristic. But within five years it will be commonplace said Cellnet managing director Peter Erskine.

In Singapore Citibank and network M1 have been running a similar mobile phone banking service. This allows customers to transfer funds pay bills and request credit line increases.

Based on Cellnet Easylife the Ultimate F-one 99 package will comprise a Philips Diga charger 10 call voucher Grand Prix video copy of F1 racing magazine and the chance to win British Grand Prix tickets. Formula One championship information will be sent to the phone from Cellnets Genie web site as SMS text. The user can hear further reports dialling a special number.

Pre-pay is the fastest-growing area of the mobile phone market. Companies that want to take advantage of this vast opportunity must provide consumers with propositions that add value. Our experience with the Football Phone KIT showed sport to be an emotive force. It seemed natural to theme our second pre-pay proposition in a similar fashion said European Telecom business development director Peter Cox.

According to European Telecom Formula one is the most widely-watched sport in the world attracting TV viewing audiences of more than 6.2 billion people in more than 200 countries.

The potential appeal of the phone to this mass audience is huge said Cox.

Also Irish network operator Eircell is to again sponsor the 1999 Formula 1 season on RTE for the third year running.

Eircell will be supporting RTEs live coverage of all F1 races with on-air promotions and a web site (www.eircell.i/ffl).

Vodafones Alan Harper is also likely to step down from the board of MDT in due course.

But Vodafone denies that it was wrong-footed by Cellnets deal.

Cellnet bid more than we bid said Vodafone corporate affairs manager Mike Caldwell.

Once Martin decided that he wanted to sell clearly he was going to talk to all the prospective buyers he could find.

When you are in a situation like that as a buyer you have to take everything into account and decide what you think. We felt what Martin Dawes was worth to us was less than Cellnet believe the business is worth to them and good luck to em. That is not a problem for Vodafone. We have walked away from deals before now and well no doubt do so again.

Any suggestion that this is a deal that got away from us rather than one we walked away from is completely unfounded. Well just have to see whether Cellnet gets the value for the money they paid said Caldwell.

Cellnet will manage MDT as a separate business unit retaining the management team and existing staff who handle 800000 customers.

Cellnet managing director Peter Erskine said:

This acquisition fits well with Cellnets strategy to deliver services through a number of channels. It will strengthen our business prospects and help maximise connections.

Martin Dawes himself is 70 million richer from selling out to Cellnet.