Orange (brand)

Infobox Company
company_name = Orange
company_
company_type = Private
company_slogan = The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange
foundation = 28 April 1994
location_city = Paris
location_country = France
industry = Telecommunications
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent = France Telecom
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.orange.com www.orange.com]
footnotes =

Orange is the brand used by France Telecom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was acquired by France Telecom in 2001. In 2006, the company's ISP operations, previously Wanadoo, were also rebranded Orange. Orange is now the unique commercial façade of almost all France Telecom services.

Organization

It is a global mobile network operator:
* Europe:
** Armenia [http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniareport/report/en/2008/10/C27847D4-BCE4-467A-937B-2BB5AAE0B9D8.ASP] (starting in 2009)
** Austria [cite press release | title =Mergers: Commission clears proposed acquisition of One by France Telecom and private equity investor Mid Europa Partners | publisher =European Commission | date= 2007-09-21 | url =http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1378 | accessdate =2007-09-22 ] "(see Orange Austria)"
** Belgium "(see Mobistar)"
** France
** Moldova "(see Orange Moldova)"
** Poland "(see Orange Polska)"
** Portugal "(see Optimus Telecomunicações)"
** Republika Srpska
** Romania "(see Orange Romania)"
** Slovakia "(see Orange Slovensko)"
** Spain "(see Orange España)"
** Switzerland
** United Kingdom "(see Orange UK)"

* Africa and the Middle East:
** Botswana
** Cameroon
** Egypt "(see mobinil)"
** Israel "(see Orange Israel)"
** Ivory Coast
** Jordan "(see Orange Jordan)"
** Kenya
** Madagascar
** Mali
** Mauritius
** Niger
** Réunion
** Senegal

* Caribbean:
** Dominica
** Dominican Republic "(see Orange Dominicana)"
** French Guiana
** Martinique
** Saint Kitts and Nevis

It also franchises the Orange Brand in Israel "(see Orange Israel)" and has franchised it in Australia, India (until 2006) and Hong Kong in the past. It had a joint venture with Charoen Pokphand in Thailand until 2005.

As of December 31, 2007 France Telecom serves more than 170 million customers in five continents, of which two thirds are Orange customers. The group had consolidated sales of € 52.9 billion in 2007. As of December 31, 2007 the group had 109.7 million mobile customers and 11.7 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers. [cite web |url=http://www.orange.com/en_EN/group/ |title=Company Overview |accessdate=2008-02-14]

Apple announced on October 16, 2007 that Orange Mobile would be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in France.

Orange also belongs to the FreeMove mobile phone alliance.

History

Orange (mobile network operator)

Microtel Communications Ltd was formed in April 1990 as a consortium comprising Pactel Corporation, British Aerospace, Millicom and French company Matra (British Aerospace soon acquired full control of the company). In 1991 Microtel was awarded a license to develop a mobile network in the UK, and in July 1991 Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd acquired Microtel from BAe. BAe was paid in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd. shares, giving the company a 30% share. Microtel was renamed Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. in 1994. The Orange brand was created by an internal team at Microtel headed by Chris Moss (Marketing Director) and supported by Martin Keogh, Rob Furness and Ian Pond. The brand consultancy Wolff Olins was charged with designing the brand values and logo and advertising agency WCRS created the Orange slogan "The Future's bright, the Future's Orange" along with the now famous advertising.The logo is square because it was felt that the word orange could be seen as a fruit and it needed to be strong in the business world rather like American Express and Hertz. It was also important to establish it as the colour orange, which is seen as a strong feng shui colour.Fact|date=December 2007 The Orange network was launched on 28 April 1994.

Orange plc was formed in 1995 as a holding company for the Orange group. France Telecom formed the present company in 2001 after acquiring Orange plc (which had been acquired by Mannesmann AG, itself purchased by Vodafone shortly after, leading Vodafone to divest Orange) and merging its existing mobile operations into the company. The company was initially 100% owned by France Telecom (although there were and still remain minority investors in some of the national operating companies). In 2001 15% was sold in an IPO, but in 2003 the outstanding shares where reacquired by France Telecom.

Orange (internet service provider)

Orange operates as an ISP in France, the United Kingdom, Equatorial Guinea, Spain, Senegal, Slovakia and Switzerland. France Telecom also operates as an ISP in Poland through its stake in Telekomunikacja Polska, which is now being co-branded as Orange. It is currently the largest ISP in Europe with over ten million subscribers (including those of Telekomunikacja Polska), largely concentrated in France, the UK, Spain and Poland, and was originally known as Wanadoo.

The origin of the name Wanadoo is subject to some controversy, as some maintain it came about in the late 1990s when many internet at France Telecom, much in line with a number of other such projects such as Intranoo, Tatoo, Netatoo and @noo.Fact|date=December 2007

Wanadoo was floated on the stock market on 18 July 2000. In 2000, Wanadoo also took over the major British ISP Freeserve, which had previously been part of the Dixons Group (now DSG International plc). Following the buy-out, Freeserve maintained its own branding for a while before finally changing to the "Wanadoo" name on 28 April 2004.

However, the name Wanadoo changed to Orange on 1 June 2006 to simplify branding by the common parent company, France Telecom. This merging of companies has created a single brand offering mobile telecommunications and internet services.

Recent changes

In June 2005, France Telecom announced that its ISP Wanadoo and business service Equant would both be renamed Orange in 2006 to harmonize branding. [cite news |url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/29/wanadoo_orange_rebrand/ |title=Wanadoo brand to be scrapped |last=Richardson |first=Tim |publisher=The Register |date=2005-06-29 |accessdate=2006-12-19] In July 2005, France Telecom announced its intention to acquire 80% of the Spanish mobile phone operator Amena, a deal that was completed in November 2005. Amena was also rebranded to Orange with Wanadoo in Spain and Uni2, a fixed line provider, to complete a "triple play".

At the beginning of 2006, Orange in Slovakia started providing triple-play services via FTTH under the name "Orange Homebox".

On 27 September 2007, T-Mobile Netherlands [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2007/c_169/c_16920070721en00300030.pdf] bought Orange Netherlands from France Telecom and split the two segments. Mobile telephony was integrated with "T-Mobile", broadband is now provided by a subsidiary called "Online". The European Commission had already approved the acquisition as it was not seen as a danger to competition [ [http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1238 EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases ] ] .

In 2008 Orange was given permission from Apple to sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets. [cite news |url=http://www.francetelecom.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp080516uk.html |title= Orange brings iPhone to customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East |publisher= Orange| date=2008-05-16 |accessdate=2006-05-20]

Use of the Orange brand by other companies

Because the brand was originally owned by Hutchison, many of Hutchison's Asian and Oceanic subsidiaries continued using the Orange brand until recently.

On 1 February 2006, Hutchison Telecom announced that its Australian affiliate would withdraw the Orange brand name. Its CDMA network was shut down on August 9, 2006, after the vast majority of its customers had already migrated to the 3 network (also owned by Hutchison).

The Orange brand name has also now been removed from India. Orange Mumbai has now been rebranded to Hutch, which in turn was rebranded Vodafone in 2007.

Orange SA pulled out of its joint venture with Thailand's TelecomAsia, TA Orange, in 2003. TelecomAsia (now True Corporation) continued to use the Orange brand until 2006, when the operator was rebranded as True Move.

The Orange brand continues to be used under licence by Partner Communications Company Ltd. in Israel.

Operations within the Orange Group

Most operations in Orange SA are also branded Orange, but not all - the exceptions being Mobistar in Belgium, Mobinil in Egypt and Optimus Telecomunicações in Portugal. In general, these operations are not a majority holding of the Orange Group.

The situation in Belgium is unusual. Prior to the acquisition by France Telecom, Orange plc owned and operated a network there called Orange. Since France Telecom also owned the market leader Mobistar, one of the two networks had to be sold following the sale. A decision was made to sell Orange to KPN and keep Mobistar. Orange continued to trade for a while after the sale to KPN before rebranding to BASE. So for a period of time in Belgium, the Orange owned company Mobistar was competing with an operator called Orange.

Criticism

On 21 March 2007, Watchdog, a television series by the BBC focusing on consumer protection published the results from a Broadband survey they held. According to the survey Orange is the worst ISP in the UK. 68% of Orange customers that took part in the survey said they were unsatisfied with Orange's Customer Service, Orange was voted as the most unreliable broadband provider, Orange had the highest number of dissatisfied customers and two thirds of Orange customers experienced problems cancelling their Orange broadband. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20070321.shtml |title=BBC Watchdog Broadband Survey |accessdate=2007-03-21]

A consumer organization forum web site known as OrangeProblems focuses on the poor level of service provided by Orange Broadband in the UK. Initially set up as WanadooProblems.co.uk, the site focuses on the infamous Orange Local Loop Unbundling and poor Customer service but covers a wider range of Orange operations.

Orange Mobile has been criticised during a Channel 4 News investigation for a lack of security which potentially exposed customer records to fraud. [ [http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/concern%20over%20mobile%20security/172350 Channel 4 News] ]

In August 2007, Orange was criticized for summarily deleting email accounts tied to old Freeserve and Wanadoo pay-as-you-go dial-up accounts with no warning. [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/30/orange_freesever_purge/ "Night of the long juicer"] ]

In August 2008, after well publicized problems with iPhone 3G performances, customers compared their download speed anddiscovered that Orange in France was capping 3G download bandwidth. Orange admitted capping to 384kbit/s, way below the theoretic 7.2Mbit/s provided by the iPhone. [ [http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/26/orange_admits_to_capping_3g_speeds_in_france.html Orange admits to capping 3g speeds in France] ] [ [http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2224705/orange-cops-3g-caps Orange admits to 3G speed caps] ]

ee also

*3 (telecommunications) new brands set-up by Hutchison Whampoa after Orange.

References

External links

* http://www.orange.com - Main Orange Group's site
* [http://Orange.mobi Orange.mobi] - Orange's Official Mobile Website

Orange networks

*flagicon|Austria [http://www.orange.at/ Orange Austria]
*flagicon|Botswana [http://www.orange.co.bw Orange Botswana]
*flagicon|Cameroon [http://www.orange.cm Orange Cameroon]
*flagicon|Caribbean Community [http://www.orangecaraibe.com Orange Caribbean]
*flagicon|Dominica [http://www.orange.dm/ Orange Dominica]
*flagicon|Dominican Republic [http://www.orange.com.do Orange Dominicana (Dominican Republic)]
*flagicon|Equatorial Guinea [http://www.orange.gq/ Orange Equatorial Guinea]
*flagicon|France [http://www.orange.fr/ Orange France]
*flagicon|Israel [http://www.orange.co.il/ Orange Israel] Owned by Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited
*flagicon|Ivory Coast [http://www.orange.ci/ Orange Ivory Coast]
*flagicon|Jordan [http://www.orange.jo/ Orange Jordan]
*flagicon|Kenya [http://www.orange.co.ke/ Orange Kenya]
*flagicon|Liechtenstein [http://www.orange.li Orange Liechtenstein (subsidiary of Orange Switzerland)]
*flagicon|Madagascar [http://www.orange.mg Orange Madagascar]
*flagicon|Mali [http://www.orangemali.com/ Orange Mali]
*flagicon|Mauritius [http://www.orange.mu/ Orange Mauritius] Owned by Mauritius Telecom
*flagicon|Moldova [http://www.orange.md/ Orange Moldova] (61% controlled)
*flagicon|Niger [http://www.orange.ne/ Orange Niger]
*flagicon|Poland [http://www.orange.pl/ Orange Poland]
*flagicon|Romania [http://www.orange.ro/ Orange Romania]
*flagicon|Senegal [http://www.orange.sn/ Orange Senegal]
*flagicon|Slovakia [http://www.orange.sk/ Orange Slovakia]
*flagicon|Spain [http://www.orange.es/ Orange Spain]
*flagicon|Switzerland [http://www.orange.ch/ Orange Switzerland]
*flagicon|France [http://www.orange.re/ Orange Reunion]
*flagicon|UK [http://www.orange.co.uk/ Orange UK]

Orange-controlled or joint-controlled interests (non-Orange branded mobile operators)

*flagicon|Belgium [http://www.mobistar.be/ Mobistar (Belgium)]
*flagicon|Luxembourg [http://www.vox.lu/ VOXmobile (Luxembourg)] owned by mobistar
*flagicon|Egypt [http://www.mobinil.com.eg/ Mobinil (Egypt)]
*flagicon|Portugal [http://www.optimus.pt/ Optimus (Portugal)]

Other Orange websites

* [http://www.orangepartner.com Orange Partner] - Orange Group's developer/partner program, enabling businesses worldwide to commercialize their applications, content or solutions on the Orange network.