Mannerisms

Judging from the quality of the networks, not many.

But that's how it used to be done. Hans Snook, founding CEO of Orange, tells a story of how he battled to get a decent network set up in the UK during the 90s (Orange launched in the UK in 1994).

Snook didn't totally believe the engineering department who told him they were building a great network. He used to drive round the country trying it out.

One day he went to a Marks and Spencer store in London. After failing to get a connection from inside the store, he phoned the engineering department and the following conversation took place:

HS: "I can't make a call".

ED: Did you also try it outside?"

HS: "Yes"

ED: "Did you try it outside and, while you were on the call, walk into the building?"

HS: "No."

ED: "Oh well if you did that you could keep the connection."

HS "So, if I'm in M&S, and I want to make a call, I've got to go outside the building, make the call, and then walk back into the building?"

ED "Yes"

HS "You are absolutely crazy. Can you imagine what a customer would think?"

ED: "Well, these things work by the laws of physics".

Refusing to accept such a restriction on the network, Snook asked Hutchison, Orange's Hong Kong owners, for another quarter of a billion quid to beef up the network's capabilities.

Eight years later Hutchison sold the business which Snook had built for 30bn.