One2One beats Orange in race for new subscribers

NEWS The UK's four mobile operators have posted healthy customer gains for the third quarter this year. The gains show continued growth in the mobile market and in particular the pre-paid mobile phone market. However, the battle for market share heats up with One2One taking on more customers than Orange for the first time - One2One's customer base rose by 604,000 to 3,254,000 while Orange saw a rise of 520,000. BT Cellnet also gained market share - with 923,000 new subscribers by comparison to Vodafone's 701,000 additions in the third quarter. Of Vodafone's new customer base, 98 per cent signed up to its pay-as-you-talk service, whereas over 50 per cent of new customers to Orange's network opted for a subscription tariff.