New subscriber figures between July and September have come in bang on analyst forecasts overall, although market leader Vodafone Group Plc and number two operator Cellnet beat expectations while One2One, the smallest operator, disappointed.

And analysts expect a bumper fourth quarter, with popular pre-paid offers where subscribers can pay up front for call minutes -- an ideal Christmas present -- convincing at least one million more customers to buy mobile telephones by year-end.

Nevertheless, Vodafone and number three operator Orange Plc, the only two separately listed cellphone groups, saw their shares dive another 3.16 per cent and 9.71 per cent to 642P and 467.5P respectively.

"There are profits to be had in the sector and just for the moment the fear factor is in the market," saidone market-maker, as the FTSE 100 top share index nose-dived to its lowest level since last November amid global market gloom.

But the market-maker added: "As soon as the market turns, both will react strongly upwards."

However James Golob, telecoms analyst at Deutsche MorganGrenfell, said earnings multiples on British mobile telephone company shares were still high relative to the European sector on the back of domestic buying.

"UK mobile stocks have been increasingly far out of line with the rest of the European sector, which has come back quite sharply," he said.

"The UK mobile sector has held up because of large domestic buying of dependable growth in a climate where people have been very, very worried about growth."

Institutions that only buy British stocks have been concentrating on the mobile telephone sector, which promises robust growth, benchmarking their buying against British equities rather than other European mobile stocks.

"That has led to an increasing divergence of the UK quotedmobile stocks and the rest of the sector," Golob said.

On Golob's estimates, the sector is trading on 11.5 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for 1999.

But Vodafone's shares are trading at 15.5 times and Orange at 17.2 times EBITDA, despite their recent falls.

Vodafone's shares are also trading on 30 times prospective earnings for next year, while the average of its European peers is nearer 23 times. Orange has yet to report a pre-tax profit.

Vodafone comfortably led resilient quarterly growth, adding a net 302,000 to its British network. Cellnet, which is 60 per cent owned by British Telecommunications and 40 per cent by Securicor, staged a comeback with 230,000 new customers -- a sharp turnaround from the 79,000 it reported in the previous quarter.

Orange, the country's youngest operator which is 49 per cent owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, was on Friday the last of the four rivals to unveil figures and reported an expected net rise of201,000 new customers.

One2One, the 50:50 joint venture between Cable and Wireless Plc and MediaOne International of the US, halted its strong progress over the previous two quarters by adding only 127,000 against forecasts of nearer 200,000.

Around 20 per cent of people in Britain are expected to own cellphones by the end of the year, up from around 17.5 per cent currently, as the sector unveils some of the strongest quarters in its history.