"The fact is that Orange missed the boat a little and that is why he is rubbishing pre-pay phones. There is a bit of sour grapes in all this," said a spokesman. Pre-pay phone sales rose to 3.1 million in the first half of this year against 677,000 a year ago, and account for a third of the market. They are hugely popular as presents, or for teenagers because parents can control the amount spent.Vodafone AirTouch, the market leader with 6.2 million subscribers, of whom 2.5 million are pre-pay, hit back at the claims by Mr Snook. Hans Snook, chief executive of Orange, also alleged that pre-payment phones were a "con job" and estimated that 30 per cent of those sold were now switched off and lying in drawers after customers had discovered how prohibitively expensive they were to use. Mr Snook, who is known for his colourful and controversial views on the mobile industry, also criticised supermarkets for selling pre-payment phones for as little as pounds 49.99 without telling their customers how costly they were to run. The launch of pre-pay phones has led to an explosion in mobile sales in the past 12 months.

But unlike many of his contemporaries, he was constant in his belief that the success of the Scottish economy lay in embracing rather than resisting change.A keen tennis player, cricketer and golfer, he was a member of both Muirfield, and St Andrew's golf clubs. He also listed ornithology as one of his hobbies.He is survived by his second wife Suzetta and a son and three daughters.. AN EXTRAORDINARY row broke out yesterday between Britain's mobile telephone operators after Orange claimed that millions of customers who bought pre-payment phones were being "fleeced". "Sir Alick had been ill for several months with cancer and tackled his illness with typical courage and refusal to compromise."Mr Stewart added: "Sir Alick was enormously committed to the company and his deep personal involvement and enthusiasm were an inspiration to all his colleagues."Born in the Hebrides but educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, Sir Alick remained through and through a patriotic Scot. Sir Alick, who masterminded the transformation that turned S&N from a regional player into Britain's biggest brewer, will be best remembered for the way he saw off a hostile takeover bid for the group from John Elliott, the Australian Fosters lager tycoon, in 1989, after one of the most bitterly fought takeover battles of the decade. More recently, as chairman of General Accident, he played a pivotal role in the consolidation of the UK insurance industry when he steered the insurance giant into a merger with its rival Commercial Union last year.As chairman of Christian Salvesen, the family-controlled haulage firm, he also piloted the company through a controversial demerger following an unsuccessful bid approach from Hays, the rival logistics group.Brian Stewart, who succeeded Sir Alick as chief executive at S&N, said yesterday he was shocked and saddened to hear of Sir Alick's death on Tuesday night. SIR ALICK Rankin, the former chairman of Scottish & Newcastle Breweries and one of the pillars of the Scottish business community, has died aged 65 after losing a seven-month battle against leukemia. The exchange added that member firms should advise investors to use "limit orders" to halt trading in a stock if the price moves outside a given range. The admission that the low liquidity and volatility in share prices at the start of the day could damage investors is a victory for critics of the order book system - the LSE's flagship trading platform which electronically matches buyers and sellers of a stock.Small investors and large institutions such as Legal & General have complained that the system - introduced more than two years ago in a bid to make trading more efficient - can trigger sharp price movements and reduce liquidity in some stocks.

One broker said yesterday: "The LSE statement is a health warning for investors: people can be ripped off in the first hour."A spokesman said that the LSE had consistently warned members since the launch of the order book of the dangers of trading at the start of the session.The earlier trading hours start from 20 September.As well as Frankfurt and the LSE, six exchanges - Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Switzerland - have joined the European alliance.In its statement, the LSE also said that following a positive response to its initial consultation with members, it would develop proposals to extend the order book to FTSE 250 stocks, to reduce the time taken to settle transactions and to use auctions and/or liquidity providers.Outlook, page 17. In a statement confirming that the market will open an hour earlier, at 8am - to harmonise its trading hours with Frankfurt's Deutsche Borse and other members of the European alliance - the LSE reinforced previous warnings and urged brokers to "make their clients aware of the inherent risks" of trading right after the opening bell. THE LONDON Stock Exchange yesterday warned investors that buying and selling stocks in the first hour of trading is risky because of wild swings in share prices. That would set the scene for a final political resolution of the digital top-up fee sometime in November.. For ITV, however, that would be the stuff of nightmares, and, in any case, such a proposal would severely dent the logic of the licence fee and the whole BBC ethos of public service broadcasting.What seems most certain is that the coming months will see a real debate enjoined as Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, consults the public and other interested parties about Davies' proposals. In that eventuality, the survivors would be better equipped to make a long term financial success of ONdigital and its terrestrial platform alongside the bigger satellite and cable systems, while also continuing to provide tough programming competition to a wealthy BSkyB and a bigger BBC.Mr Davies could, in theory, opt to provide further funding by allowing the BBC to sell advertising on its domestic channels just as it does already on BBC World and BBC America. But they would probably be reluctant of being seen to use their influence so overtly.Another alternative could be to allow the ITV companies to grow bigger, squeezing the current four operators into perhaps two big players.