A single brand for integrated mobile, internet and fixed-line communications.

Orange, one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies and part of the France Telecom group, today announces the launch of the Orange brand in Spain.

As of Tuesday 3rd October, France Telecom Spain, the collective name for the group of mobile, internet and fixed-lines companies owned by the France Telecom Group will introduce the Orange brand, thereby signifying a new era in integrated telecommunications in the Spanish market. The evolution of Orange from mobile operator to total communications provider, is at the heart of France Telecom’s NExT strategy for integrated telecommunications, which will see the company use Orange as its flagship brand worldwide. Spain is the latest market in the France Telecom Group to introduce the Orange brand, strengthening Orange’s position as Europe’s second largest mobile and internet provider. Orange now reaches more than 100 million customers across the world.

In Spain, the existing brands of Amena, the mobile operator purchased by France Telecom in July 2005 and Wanadoo, the internet services provider will both be replaced by the Orange brand. In addition, today also sees the disappearance of the Equant and Uni2 brands in Spain with the launch of Orange Business Services, representing a single banner for Spain’s business communications services for large and multinational businesses. Business customers in Spain will now benefit from Orange’s expertise in business across 220 countries and territories with one of the industry’s broadest product and service portfolios.

Didier Lombard, Chief Executive Officer, France Telecom Group, said: “Spain is a significant and important market for our integrated operator strategy. With our fixed, mobile and internet assets in Spain, we are ideally positioned to implement our NExT strategy for delivering simple, innovative and convergent services to our customers. We look forward to building on the strong performance achieved in this market to date.”

Sanjiv Ahuja, Chief Executive Officer, Orange SA, said: “”The Orange brand has long proved to be a unique competitive advantage in other countries where we have launched it and this is because it stands for a way of doing business that aims to enhance people’s lives by removing barriers and delivering straightforward, simple-to-use products and services that are based on an intimate knowledge of our customers’ needs. We are very excited to be extending the Orange ‘experience’ to customers in Spain.”

Belarmino Garcia, Chief Executive Officer, France Telecom Spain, commented:” I am proud of what we have achieved to date and am looking forward to a new era in our company’s history – as Spain’s first integrated operator. Being part of an international group with one of the world’s most powerful brands provides us with the opportunity to launch something new and exciting that will undoubtedly propel our business forward in the market place.”

Orange customers in Spain can look forward to the following new improvements in the customer experience including:

Customer service

- A single portal, orangees – providing customers with access to products, services and content for fixed, mobile, internet and television. Customers can add new services, select entertainment on-demand, and communicate through this portal
- A single customer service number (1414) – simplifying the way that customers communicate with Orange in Spain
- A single customer loyalty programme – beginning in 2007, the initiative will reward Orange fixed, mobile, internet and television customers.
- More than 4,000 points of sale – will be completely redesigned to encompass key Orange elements, allowing customers to experience an attractive new retail environment for all services.

Products and service innovation

- The “Unique” Phone – Orange extends the launch of the Unique phone to Spain – offering customers a phone that switches seamlessly between the fixed and mobile networks depending on the user’s location. This product is scheduled for launch in December.
- Mobile Broadband with “Business Everywhere” – the Group’s familiar business product has been extended to Spain, allowing busy people to connect to the internet even when they are away from their office, providing simple and easy to use mobile access

- Quadruple Play – providing households with all their entertainment and communication needs free of usage or time restrictions. The service includes round-the-clock ADSL connection, unlimited calls to fixed phones nationwide, fixed-to-mobile and mobile-to-fixed calls, and television
- Orange TV – since this product’s extremely successful launch in Spain last June, coverage has already been expanded three times to reach more than 4 million households. Next year, Orange in Spain will launch ADSL television in high definition, which is currently in the testing phase, but promises to deliver exceptional sound and image quality.
- Orange World – customers accessing this new WAP portal from their Orange mobile, will have access to a new world of content and services.
- SIM+ – the high-capacity SIM+ card will enable customers to store large amounts of data such as MP3s, photos, videos, etc., on their phones, eliminating the need for additional memory.
- New music services: including a recommendation service for music by both new and established artists. This service analyses every musical selection in order to make further recommendations. Also, with Enjoy your music, Orange in Spain will offer the best in music for your mobile phone, with the option to download complete MP3-quality songs to your mobile phone and personal computer at the same time and at no extra cost.
- Numbers Plus – allowing Orange fixed line customers to make up to 1,000 minutes of free calls from their fixed phone to any Orange mobile. Also, each of the mobiles selected numbers will enjoy free calls to their fixed phone (up to 1,000 minutes per month).
- Enjoy Orange – allows customers to make unlimited phone calls during a specific period of time for a nominal monthly fee. With ‘Enjoy your moment’, customers can pick any 2 hours each day in which to make unlimited calls anywhere nationwide, on both fixed or mobile phones; ‘Enjoy your weekend’ allows customers to call anywhere nationwide for free on weekends, on both fixed and mobile phones.

Orange Business Services

In addition, Orange in Spain will leverage its mobile and fixed assets to provide its large and multinational business customers with customised, consistent solutions including:
- Triple play for Business: The first convergent service (IP telephony, data and mobile) on the Spanish market that marries the advantages of IP telephony and mobile VPN services. This translates into a convergence of prices and services, with a single plan for speed dial, a single directory service, a unified voicemail box, repeat dial and three-way conferencing, etc.
- International VPN and Roaming for Business – Orange extends its competitive international and roaming rates, regardless of the international carrier used when travelling. International VPN provides an international extension of the nationwide ‘virtual private network’ with special rates for calls between Orange mobiles within the same company.

Orange announces today that it will become the first mobile network to offer its customers unlimited voice calls to mobiles and landlines, texts and data. The updated packages will provide customers with unlimited access to the services that they use most.

Customers joining Orange or upgrading to an 18 month tariff and spending from over Р?35 per month will be given an unlimited service based on their needs. The highly sociable who choose the Dolphin package will receive unlimited texts on packages over Р?35. Racoon, which is aimed at those who use their phone as a tool not a toy will get unlimited calls to landlines. Customers who love to talk and choose the Canary package will receive unlimited evening and weekend calls, and those who like extras as standard would choose a package from Panther and receive unlimited off-peak texts.

The improved packages will be communicated by a Р?5 million advertising campaign featuring the animals and will appear on television, outdoor and in print. The television advert will feature four 45ft inflatables, one representing each of the Orange animals. As part of this campaign, around 10,000 customers were invited to participate in the Orange Project and be part in the advert. The invitation appeared in the national press, by text message and on the Orange website. 40 successful customers joined the film crew in Spain for the shoot, where they worked with others with their personality to build the animal balloon that best represented them. All had the same task but approached it in very different ways.

Jean-Pascal van Overbeke, Vice President Marketing Orange UK said: “Our animal packages make it easier for our customers to choose the right package for them, each of which is built specifically around the distinct behavioural characteristics of mobile phone users. During the four months since their birth, we have continued to learn from our customers about how each group uses their mobiles. It is now time to use this insight to make the packages more relevant and make sure that we are providing Orange customers with great value.”

Ready to go live in the Autumn of 2006, mBlox claims to be the first company to announce its successful accreditation on Vodafone and Orange to the new UK mobile internet billing scheme PayForIt.

The PayForIt scheme, run by all the UK mobile operators, will mean that consumers can buy content with their mobile phones just by clicking on a “Pay” button on a WAP page. It will offer an easier buying process with better consumer protection than existing methods of buying from a WAP page using premium SMS. Premium SMS content purchases were worth over Р?500m in the UK in 2005, and with the increasing use of the mobile internet, PayForIt is expected to grow the mobile content market considerably.

The PayForIt scheme protects consumers by ensuring that crucial interactions with the customer regarding the purchase are not handled by the content provider, but instead by a trusted intermediary company, known as an accredited payment intermediary. Companies will no longer be permitted to process WAP or mobile internet billing transactions if they are not accredited.

mBlox is one of a small handful of companies who have now successfully achieved accreditation on Vodafone and Orange. This means that mBlox has demonstrated the highest levels of integrity, security and reliability in its operations, earning it the right to process some of the first mobile internet transactions in the UK when the scheme goes fully live in Autumn 2006. The other operators have not launched their accreditation process yet that is expected to begin within the next two months. Andrew Bud

Last month, it was announced that mBlox had made a major investment in technology from carrier systems vendor Valista, which will be used to deliver the UK PayForIt service and similar services around the globe.

“We are enthusiastic supporters of PayForIt” said Andrew Bud, mBlox Executive Chairman . “Our major investment in this new technology will offer our customers the same seamless, international solution for mobile internet payments that they currently use for premium SMS services. We think that PayForIt, with its greater transparency and improved security, will earn consumer confidence and power new growth in this market.”