The full service will cost

Meanwhile, the Times says Orange is expected to sell or close its struggling Dutch and Danish businesses. The move seems likely since tha main supporter of these businesses, Graham Howe, the deputy chief executive, resigned ten days ago. The two operations are loss-making and have a weak position in their respective markets.

Three years ago mobile operators paid billions of pounds for third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences on the back of an inflated stock market, only to find that the costs of introducing the new networks were prohibitive and consumers were either under-whelmed, confused or simply disinterested in such extras, especially by the useless “WAP”. Three years on, 3G services have been slow to get started, handsets have been slow to appear

The Guardian put this into context, noting that Reed has claimed the unlikely title of the world’s third largest internet company by revenue, generating online sales in excess of

The

Marc Pinter-Krainer, of competitor Knowledge Technology Solutions is quoted as saying, “All the customer needs to access market data is a web browser and internet connection.” The Times doesn