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To: Boplicity who wrote (59311)	1/4/2000 1:16:00 PM
From: William Hunt	Respond to of 152472

Gregory---Where the USA is headed---Tuesday January 4, 1:00 pm Eastern Time New figures to show 40 pct of Britons have mobiles By Paul Casciato LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Britain's four mobile phone companies are set to report on Wednesday that 40 percent of the UK population are now chatting on their products. Industry watchers said Vodafone AirTouch Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L), Orange Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L), BT Cellnet (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L) and One2One -- now owned by Deutsche Telecom -- will report they have now sold mobile phones to nearly 24 million out of 60 million Britons, some four million in the fourth quarter, including Christmas. All four companies are due to announce their quarterly subscriber figures on Wednesday. ``This is going to be a very, very aggressive quarter,' said Steve Wreford, analyst at CCF Charterhouse. Only about 22 percent of Britons had a mobile phone at the end of 1998. He and other analysts expect the pace of British public demand for the increasingly ubiquitous gadget to remain strong and said ``penetration' of the British population was expected to reach 50 percent this year and head for 60 percent in the next. ``The Finnish market is about 65 to 67 percent penetration now and it took them only 18 months to grow their market from 40 to 60 percent,' said Alex Gunz, analyst at ABN AMRO. Vodafone is enmeshed in a record-breaking 127 billion euros ($131 billion) takeover battle for German rival Mannesmann AG , while Mannesmann is itself in the midst of buying out Orange Plc. Shares in Vodafone -- the market leader -- were down nearly four percent at 294-3/4p at the close of trade on London's exchange. British Telecommunications Plc, owner of mobile phone unit BT Cellnet also saw its shares fall more than six percent to 14.23 pounds. But analysts said the shares should receive a long-term boost as mobile phone companies get on with the coming generation of devices, which will deliver data, news and e-commerce through mobile phones. ``What is really getting everyone excited is data over these mobile phones,' Wreford said. ($1 equals .9694 Euro) BEST WISHES BILL