Santa's Global Village - UK mobile phone services providers expected to sign up more subscribers due to popularity of pre-paid packages as gifts - Brief Article

Brandweek, Dec 6, 1999

* The red-hot popularity of pre-paid mobile-phone packages as gifts makes it likely that the U.K.'s four providers will add 60% more customers in 4th quarter 1999 than during the same period last year, say industry executives and analysts, Vodafone AirTouch, BT Cellnet, Orange and One 2 One are expected to sign up a total of more than 4 million subscribers in the pre-Christmas period, topping their 1998-season record of 2.54 million.

While revenues are predicted to skyrocket, profits are likely to be curtailed by price declines and the cost of signing up new subscribers.