Orange (India)

Cell phone services under the brand name Orange were launched in Mumbai, India in 2000. The brandname is being used under license by Hutchison Essar and Orange India was not part of the Orange group (France Telecom) of companies.

In 2006, Hutchison ended using Orange brand for its Mumbai operations and started using Hutch brand.

It is well known that Orange was one of the latest entrant when mobile telephony started in India and it has a high recall value even today.People in Mumbai still refer Vodafone Mumbai as Orange even though it changed the brand almost 4 years ago. It gained huge popularity as a telecom brand in Mumbai city.

France telecom once held 26% in BPL Mobile now Loop. However they exited this venture in 2003 because of dual brand visibility as they were competing against their own brand Orange which was in use by Hutchison Essar.

As of now France Telecom is using Orange brand for its Orange Business Service in India when they took over GTL.They hold licenses for NLD and ILD services in India.Company sources said FT recently got FIPB approval for applying for a new ISP licence.

Orange India Returns ???

In 2008 it was reported that Reliance Communications is in advanced talks with Orange to bring this brand back to India for their GSM operations.However the rumor was burn to ashes when a bigwig from FT denied any such deal and termed it as market speculation.

Earlier this year it was asserted that Orange may apply for MTNL 3G (Jadoo) franchise deal.FT again discarded this offer as they would not like to limit themselves in Delhi & Mumbai where MTNL is present and also want to explore the 2G customer base as it has the higher penetration rate than 3G.

Whether they would return or not is still a question as Indian Mobile Telephony is already overcrowded with 10-12 operators in each state, so getting a new license doesn't seem to be a good idea.It is yet to be seen whether they would follow Vodafone strategy when they bought Hutchison Essar

External links

Orange India website