Gossip

Hot news? or a huge, er, PR gaffe by Orange MD on "hot 3G phones"?

It must have seemed very witty; an in-joke amongst a bunch of insiders: "Don't use cooking appliances. I say, use your mobile 3G phone for that. You can fry eggs on them."

The witticism was cracked by Orange CEO Sanjiv Ahuja, reports Mobile News, the UK mobile distribution industry newspaper. Ahuja was speaking amongst friends, at the European Technology Round table Exhibition in Cannes - and unfortunately, it seems there was a BBC reporter there.

The newspaper reports that the sound of PR back-pedalling rivals any spin that political publicists could muster. "His remarks were taken out of context," flannelled the desperate flack, putting Vodafone into the frame. "He was asked why Vodafone is launching with 10 3G handsets, when Orange is only launching with two."

And are Vodafone phones good for fried eggs? Ah, um, well, let's find another spin for that: "He was making it clear that there are performance issues with competitor handsets."