According to a French newspaper, France Telecom Orange is planning to drop the France Telecom part of its name and become known as Orange.
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France Telecom's full logo |
The newspaper La Tribune, which sourced an internal document, said the name change will be proposed later in September and would be complete by mid-2012 if shareholders approve of the change. The operator will also look to change its listing name on the stock market, signaling a change of its entire corporate identity.
The name change would require approval from the French government, which holds a 27 per cent ownership in the company. That may be the biggest hurdle to the name change given the nationalist attitude of the government and the fact that the Orange brand originated in the UK.
The Orange brand was developed in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile-phone network, which was subsequently purchased by France Telecom in 2000.
For more:
- see this Total Telecom article
- see this Cellular-News article
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