Orange

New laptop bundles announced by Orange - including unlimited downloads

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:40:49 -0400

As cell phone retailers bicker over who has the most attractive mobile broadband/laptop offer, Orange has trumped the opposition with a new proposition. The company has bundled a trio of HP Compaq laptops and USB HSDPA modems with broadband tariffs targeted to appeal to business users.

Key among these is 'unlimited' HSDPA usage - in reality a download limit of 5GB per month, although there are indications Orange will be lenient about applying this to valued subscribers.

The company would also argue its pricing effectively makes the HP Compaq laptops free. The bundles are based around the Compaq 6735s, 6730s and 6730b, with monthly subscriptions costing €42, €48 and €54 per month respectively. Contracts run for two years for a total expenditure of €1000, €1150 and €1300, again respectively. And, with the 6730b typically costing around €900 on its own, Orange might have a point.

To make sure that this offer catches the attention of business users, Orange has not only embedded the SIM card, but included 500 Wi-Fi minutes per month.

However, the company has failed to announce a launch date for these laptops - 'shortly' was all it was prepared to commit to.

For more on this story:
- go to Mobile Today and VNUnet

Related articles:
T-Mobile joins 'free laptop' parade. T-Mobile story
Vodafone signs with Lenovo for 3G laptop deal. Vodafone story

Orange ignores femtocells and launches 3G/Wi-Fi UMA service

Paul Rasmussen — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:36:39 -0400

Not wanting to wait for femtocells to become commercially viable has provoked Orange to announce its 3G/Wi-Fi UMA strategy. The company, which already has more than one million users of its 2G UMA service, claims its 3G UMA solution is a 'world first', initially using handsets from Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Gareth Abel, the company's marketing operations director for Orange group handsets, said the decision to go with Wi-Fi was made some time ago specifically to accelerate Orange's convergence strategy. "However, we've been working very closely with Samsung, Sony Ericsson and the cell phone chipset vendors to make 3G work within UMA. The critical challenge was to make the handover of voice calls from 3G to Wi-Fi, and vice versa, a seamless switch. This was the main technical issue and we had a dedicated team to ensure this would work, but it was a complex challenge."

The 3G UMA service has been designed to work with the Orange Livebox access point with the objective of attracting users of the new handset to download music, TV content and videos. "It will be targeted at a younger audience, a segment that wants to consume a wide choice of multimedia," said Abel.

The company admitted it would continue to monitor the development of femtocell technology, but, more specifically, focus on its potential readiness for widescale deployment. "For the moment, there won't be an immediate switchover to femtocells, as there's been a lot of effort within Orange achieving the 3G UMA product that we're announcing," confirmed Abel.

Story source: FierceWireless Europe

Related articles:
Femtocells to overtake UMA, SIP solutions by 2013. Femtocell story
Kineto's UMA Client to be available for 3G Phones built with Qualcomm Chipsets. UMA client story
3GPP adds 3G support to UMA standard. 3GPP story

Orange targets business users with SIM-only offer

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:57:57 -0400

Orange claims it has a solution for businesses that are facing increasingly difficult times with its new SIM-only tariff. The idea is that businesses can look to reuse existing handsets by inserting an Orange SIM card without the need to sign up to a long term contract.

Orange believes its SIM-only deal provides a more easily understood and cheaper alternative to mobile subscriptions. At the cheapest end of the spectrum the €19-a-month SIM offers 300 free inclusive minutes and 50 texts, with international calling included as standard -- perhaps not much use to a hectic businessman.

Of more interest is the option where Orange is offering to let users share the same tariff. The "Sharer SIM" deal means subscribers simply share the tariff and its minutes and text allocations across multiple lines. This option starts at €75 per month and offers 1,000 inclusive minutes.

For more on this story:
- go to VNUnet and Mobile Europe

Related articles:
T-Mobile goes aggressive--mimics winners' tactics. SIM-only story
SIM marketing deal boosts O2 results. O2 SIM story

Vodafone plans very sticky mobile portal

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:46:42 -0400

Vodafone plans to enhance its mobile portal to make it a recognized point to call for cell phone subscribers. The company said it would look to integrate its fixed-line website more closely with its mobile portal Vodafone Live!, which features content and services from partners including the BBC, Facebook, Google and Sky.

"The current experience of Vodafone Live! will pale into insignificance against what we have planned and we'll replicate that online," said Vodafone's consumer business director, Ian Shepherd. "We're developing the mobile Internet fast and online in parallel with that. We want the website to be a place that's meaningful and useful so that customers bookmark it and come back to it regularly." He added the company was planning a series of online tools, such as the ability to manage contacts and media, as part of the revamp -- which is where recent Zyb acquisition might come in to play.

So far, Orange is the only European carrier to treat its website as anything other than a storefront, something Vodafone now wants to emulate, or surpass.

For more on this story:
- go to NMA

Related articles:
Vodafone Announces the Acquisition of ZYB. Zyb acquistion story
Vodafone debuts unlimited mobile web pricing plans. Pricing plan story

Cut your SMS prices--PLEASE, says French government

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:57:53 -0400

The French population is beginning to complain loudly about increasing inflation, claims the French consumer goods minister, who has reacted by asking the country's three main operators--Orange, SFR and Bouygues, to cut SMS prices that have only fallen slightly over the past four years.

The minister, Luc Chatel, has urged the three operators to be aware of the problem faced by French consumers, and has invited them to make an example by cutting the cost of text messages.

The national regulator, Arcep, has provided support to Chatel's call by stating that French consumers on pay-as-you-go phones pay an average cost of €0.12 per text. This price has remained nearly constant since 2004 while the volume of texts has doubled in this period. Of interest are the prices of SMS from France's MVNOs that cost around 25-30 per cent less than from the three main operators. This 'consumer-pleasing' initiative by Chatel comes only days after the EU announced a proposal to slash by roughly two thirds the cost of text messages for people travelling between EU countries.

For more on this story:
- go to MoCo News

Related stories:
EU to impose heavy cuts to SMS roaming charges. EU SMS story
GSMA Responds To EU Proposals To Regulate Roaming Costs For Text Messaging. GSMA story

Orange eyes Vietnam as potential growth vehicle

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:18:25 -0400

Having failed to gain an entry into new markets with the collapse of its bid for TeliaSonera, France Telecom (FT) mobile arm Orange has moved on and is evaluating the Vietnamese market, a country, it claims, with 'marvellous' growth potential. The company is looking to generate an extra 0.5 per cent revenue growth through medium-sized purchases in the coming years following the TeliaSonera failure, said FT's CEO, Didier Lombard. "With TeliaSonera, we tried to do it in one shot. As this wasn't possible, we'll do it slowly through smaller acquisitions. That way, our shareholders will accept it more easily.''

About seven companies in Asia and Europe, including Vodafone and operators in Russia and Asia, have expressed interest in buying shares of Vietnam's state-owned mobile operator, MobiFone. The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has said it will send invitation letters asking operators to bid for the 3G licences this month, with a response required within two months. Russia's second largest mobile phone operator, Vimpelcom, has already committed to invest around US$270 million in a JV with Vietnam's Global Telecommunications Corp. The new company, G-Tel Mobile, will start providing cell phone services in Vietnam next summer.

For more on this story:
- go to Telecom TV and This Day

Related stories:
France Telecom fails to win TeliaSonera, looks for smaller fish. FT story

Cracks showing in FT's bid for TeliaSonera

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Despite some analyst support for France Telecom's (FT) bid for TeliaSonera, there are growing signs that it might need to look elsewhere, with Brussels-based Belgacom being put forward as a more tolerable alternative. The major hurdle for FT is the downward slide of its share price since rumours surfaced mid-April of a likely bid--the shares have slipped 17 per cent in this two-month period.

Further complications have arisen with fresh speculation that Telenor might make a bid for TeliaSonera, albeit that this plan would likely collapse under the weight of regulatory obstacles, a backlash against Nordic job losses and political complications.

FT's financial director, Gervais Pellissier, has taken an aggressive line with respect to the bid by threatening to walk away from its proposed €26.5 billion takeover of TeliaSonera unless the operator rapidly signaled its interest in a tie-up. Pellissier also admitted that FT could withdraw its offer if its share price started to plunge amid continuing uncertainty over a deal. However, Ovum's John Molony has painted a more positive picture of the strategic reason for a merger between FT and TeliaSonera.

For more on this story:
- read AFX News , The FT and Ovum's analysis

Related stories:
FT may dump TeliaSonera bid. FT bid story
What's behind FT's interest in TeliaSonera and Telenor? FT/TeliaSonera story

Where next for Orange?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Where next for Orange?

In the past, mobile operators looked upon Orange with awe as it led the market with innovation in almost every segment. Now the company lacks sparkle, is renowned for poor customer service and has unimaginative tariff plans. Not surprisingly, it has slipped to fourth place in the U.K. subscriber tables, with only the relative newcomer 3UK doing worse.

The new CEO, Tom Alexander--who joined from Virgin Mobile six months ago, has committed to doing the obvious. The focus now will be on improving its customer service and encouraging greater loyalty. Building loyalty is now vital in the U.K., as the market is mature and fiercely competitive, and a new structure that will see consumer and business customer teams working closer with the sales and loyalty team, should help the company to do better here.

Orange is increasing its retail stores and bringing back offshore call centres to the U.K. It is also creating up to 500 new customer-facing roles, replacing up to 450 admin, management and support roles (what were all these people doing?).

But this is fixing the necessary, and would probably enable Orange to stay where it is.

Where the company might claw its way back, according to Ovum, the U.K.-based market research firm, is with new services. Analysts with the company believe that Orange's emphasis on "totally connected" devices (for example, laptops with embedded cellular modules) that optimise both fixed and wireless broadband access has potential due to the relatively large installed base.

But is this enough to rebuild Orange? The company seems to need a huge injection of fresh thinking--something that its founder, Hans Snook, had by the bucket load. -Paul

France Telecom needs to up its bid for TeliaSonera

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Having finally made a bid for TeliaSonera, France Telecom (FT) is now being lambasted by the analyst community for pitching the price much too low. The offer of SKr56.22 for each TeliaSonera share is seen as needing to be above SKr60 to grab the attention of the major shareholders.

However, FT is determined to play hard ball claiming it won't raise the offer and is prepared to walk away unless there is a positive answer within 15 days. 'We have other options', said FT CEO, Didier Lombard.

Adding to the sense of mystery, Lombard hinted that FT might be prepared to alter certain "non-monetary" elements of the scheme, but declined to say what these would be.

Two major shareholders in TeliaSonera, the Swedish and Finnish governments, are said to be relaxed about the situation and speculated that FT's bid would encourage higher bids from other telecoms firms.

The Swedish government has the added political pressure of having sold shares in TeliaSonera to nearly 10 per cent of the population in an initial public offering at SKr85 each. One banker close to the deal has warned that, unless a much higher bid is made, this public embarrassment could see the Swedish government declining to accept FT's SKr56 offer.

For more on this story:
- read AFX News and The FT

Related stories:
France Telecom up against Swedish Army over TeliaSonera sale. FT story
France Telecom bids $42 billion for TeliaSonera. FT bid story

Orange: The Future is now 'The Agenda'

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Having seen its fortunes fall into decline, the newly-appointed CEO at Orange U.K., Tom Alexander, has promised a revamped strategy--labeled The Agenda, that will see its iconic branding, "The Future's Bright," etc, unceremoniously dropped. Apart from this, the new Orange UK boss will focus on building its broadband business, cut layers of middle management, do away with overseas call-centres and revive its sales portfolio by including laptops.

The France Telecom-owned operator has stated that it plans to combine its mobile and fixed-line broadband arms to develop new services and products. This will also see the company roll out 450 new 2G base stations to improve coverage and ramp up investment in its HSDPA network, which will offer speeds of 7.2Mb/sec in 30 U.K. cities, and 14.4Mb/sec in the five biggest cities in the next 18 months. Alexander is also expected to axe several hundred managers from a workforce of 12,500 and increase U.K.-based call-centre staff to improve customer service.

For more on this story:
- read The Guardian and PC Pro

Related stories:
Orange inks iPhone deals for EMEA. Orange story
Orange to enable FMC picocell service. Picocell story