Orange, the British mobile phone company, is expected to be able to introduce its new service in Northern Ireland within the next two months. The company yesterday announced a £240 million sterling deal with Nokia for the "accelerated" rollout of its GSM 1800 network throughout Northern Ireland.

The company is the largest mobile phone company operating in Britain and is seeking to take a larger share of the Northern Ireland market, which has only about 10 per cent penetration at present.