Britain's biggest mobile phone operator, Orange, is abandoning the network it has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on, and signed up to use British Telecom's, in a move that will double its broadband reach and put it head to head with the market big boys BT, Virgin Media and Talk Talk.

Orange has spent the last few years, and a shedload of cash, installing its own equipment in local BT exchanges, but is thought to have needed further significant investment to get its network up to scratch for expansion. Since its merger in the UK with T-Mobile, Orange has nearly 30 million mobile phone customers but only 840,000 broadband customers on a network that reaches about 65% of the population.
The thing about using BT's network – which has been positively encouraged by the competition watchdog Ofcom – is that Orange can also tap into the market for future technologies such as on-demand entertainment and also be in a position to offer business broadband.

The future's bright for Orange.

Goldman Sachs rocked

Uppity American bankers at Goldman Sachs had the smiles wiped off their smug faces today following news of a shock fraud charge lodged against US investment giant.

And true to form, the FTSE 100 Index – featuring share prices of 100 big Brit business – was rattled by naughty bank news and tumbled by 1.7% at one stage after America's Securities and Exchange Commission accused the Wall Street giant of defrauding investors in its disclosures about selling certain securities.

It's a civil fraud charge, as opposed to the criminal flavour, but was still enough to hit the share price of most UK banks as the industry waits to see what fallout occurs from the investigation.

Banks, hey, they just can't stay out of the news.

Hot air alert on UK economy

With the election campaign in full swing and just about anybody prepared to lay claim for masterminding an economic recovery, look out for figures next week on inflation, unemployment and public borrowing before Friday's announcement of the UK's national output for the first three months of this year.

No doubt if the expected output figure has a plus before it, Gordon will claim the prize at a time when he most needs a lift in the polls. Cue grinding of teeth by Dave and Nick.