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.

The requirement may drop to $10 billion when re-balancing of shares and cash is finalised. The 11 banks are Bank of America Barclays Banque Nationale de Paris Citibank Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs HSBC ING Barings Nationale Australia Bank NatWest and WestLB.

The range announced at CeBIT consists of six products: Cosmo Mondo Galaxy Astral Geo and Aria. The main product Cosmo has been developed by a European design team following extensive research with consumers.

The range is being developed and made in Brittany France where Mitsubishis current research and manufacturing operations are situated.

The Brittany plant is expected to produce more than 800000 phones a month by the end of the year.

The Trium name comes from the Mitsubishi three-diamond logo and is said to symbolise style innovation and simplicity.

The first products will be available in June and be promoted with a Europe-wide marketing campaign.

The company says research into third-generation UMTS products is well under way.

We have been monitoring and developing third generation mobile communications technology for several years in Europe and Japan said Radi Kar vice president of technological strategy.

As third generation services are planned to start in Japan in early 2001 a year ahead of Europe we are already developing commercial models of third generation terminals.

We are also liaising with Mitsubishi sales teams and their dealers and operators to ensure Trium handsets include design requirements over and above basic specifications.

Orange and a member of the public had objected to One 2 Ones national press and magazine ads claiming it was the only network to offer Enhanced Full Rate for digitally enhanced sound.

Orange told the ASA it believed its network was the first to offer EFR and challenged the claim that the technology was only available on One 2 Ones new Precept service.

In its defence One 2 One said they had not seen an announcement of the launch of Oranges EFR service and said they had tried to check with Orange to ask if they offered EFR. Orange assured the ASA that its EFR service was operational in April last year and proved that many EFR calls had been made from April onwards.

The ASA concluded that One 2 One had not proved it was the first network to offer EFR and requested it to withdraw the claim.

Edmonds who has been based in the UK for the last 10 years set up and managed a cellular network in New Zealand.

He reports to Ora founder Malcolm Hanson who now becomes chairman. Hanson was last month brought back in to play an active role in Ora despite selling out for 20 million a year ago to the management buy-in team of Tim Helstrip and John Whittle.

Whittle is now managing director of Hugh Symons (Mobile News March 8) and Helstrip left Ora last month.

I was delighted to learn that Ken chose Ora from a number of options he had. I am confident he will bring a fresh new approach to the business and I look forward to working with him in the future on the continued success of Ora said Hanson.