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Tag: orange

  • Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Global Portfolio

    Microsoft announced nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this October and November from over 60 mobile operators in 30 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

    Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone.

    All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in October 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless.

    The following devices will come to North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in the holiday 2010 timeframe.

    In North America:

    AT&T
    • HTC Surround, United States
    • Samsung Focus, United States
    • LG Quantum, United States

    T-Mobile USA
    • HTC HD7, United States
    • Dell Venue Pro, United States

    TELUS
    • HTC 7 Surround, Canada
    • LG Optimus 7, Canada

    América Móvil
    • LG Optimus 7, Mexico

    In Europe:

    O2
    • HTC HD7, United Kingdom, Germany

    Orange
    • HTC 7 Mozart, including France, United Kingdom
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, including France, United Kingdom

    SFR
    • HTC 7 Trophy, France
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, France

    Movistar
    • LG Optimus 7, Spain
    • HTC HD7, Spain
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, Spain

    Deutsche Telekom AG
    • HTC 7 Mozart, Germany
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, Germany

    Vodafone
    • HTC 7 Trophy, including Germany, Spain, United Kingdom
    • LG Optimus 7, including Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

    In Asia Pacific:

    SingTel
    • HTC HD 7, Singapore
    • LG Optimus 7, Singapore

    Telstra
    • HTC 7 Mozart, Australia
    • LG Optimus 7Q, Australia

    Vodafone
    • HTC 7 Trophy, including Australia

    “We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”

  • Orange Launches Mobile HD Voice in the UK

    Orange announced that they are launching mobile High Definition Voice, which is now available nationwide at no extra cost for all UK Orange customers with an HD voice enabled handset.

    According to Orange, HD Voice reduces background noise and decreases perceived distance between callers by providing crystal clear calls. “Reducing the background noise, hisses and crackles of normal mobile calls, HD Voice also excels in noisy environments,” the company said.

    This will come as a relief for a third (32%) of Brits who blame background noise including road works or noisy chatty friends as the biggest disturbance in conversations (research conducted by Opinion Matters between 13/08/2010 and 16/08/2010).

    Orange HD Voice is available at no extra cost to all Orange mobile customers who take a HD Voice enabled handset. From launch, the Nokia 5230, Nokia X6, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro will be HD Voice enabled with further manufactures expected to offer HD handsets in the coming months.

    All HD Voice enabled handsets will be labelled with the Orange HD Voice logo, helping customers to easily recognise those devices that support the new Orange HD Voice service. HD Voice demonstration units will also be available in Orange shops.

    According to Orange, HD Voice also opens up new opportunities for better ways of working in business. “The arrival of HD Voice is hotly anticipated by the broadcasting industry, which believes that the service could reduce its reliance on expensive ISDN lines and the need to ferry guests to studios for interviews. Other industries that will benefit significantly from HD Voice include those with significant background noise like the construction and manufacturing industries,” the company said.

  • Everything Everywhere Joint Venture by Orange and T-Mobile Unveiled

    Everything Everywhere, the joint venture that is claimed to be Britain’s biggest communications company, has been unveiled by Orange and T-Mobile.

    The new company has a customer base of 30 million people: over half of the UK adult population. Orange and T-Mobile promise to transform the industry and give UK consumers” the best coverage, devices, service and communications experience possible.”

    Everything Everywhere is the name of the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile, and the company that all 16,500 employees will work for. The company will be officially integrated on July 1.

    Orange and T-Mobile will continue as brands in the market, with each brand having its own shops, marketing campaigns, propositions and service centers. However, behind the scenes, the two brands will be run by one company, with “one team and one vision.”

    As the companies said, their ambition is to combine both the Orange and T-Mobile networks, cut out duplication, and create a single “super-network.”

    Later this year, customers will experience the first benefits of the merger, with the ability to roam across both networks at no additional cost.

    According to Orange and T-Mobile, the new company intends to propel itself beyond mobile communications, with a greater focus in developing new revenue streams based on the way customers will use their devices in the future. With greater scale, the company intends to develop new revenue streams in adjacent markets, such as mobile advertising and mobile commerce.

    With the company’s new coverage and scale, it also intends to ramp up offers to the business market, as the companies informed.

    There is also a new leadership team for Everything Everywhere, with key personnel from both Orange and T-Mobile. The team is led by Tom Alexander, Chief Executive, and Richard Moat, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chief Executive.

    “We are on the verge of a communications revolution. Up until a few years ago, mobile was just about voice and text – not now. Multimedia phones have already started to change the way our customers access the world – for entertainment, education, information – wherever they are, whenever they want,” said Tom Alexander.

    “That is why, through our scale and Britain’s only super-network with its unsurpassed coverage and capacity, we will be leading this revolution, giving customers instant access to everything, everywhere,” he added.

  • Canalys Mobility Forum: Interview with Patrick Remy, VP Devices for Orange Group

    The Canalys Mobility Forum EMEA 2009 took place in London on the 17th of November.

    A highly informative event which gave industry experts insights into the evolution of the pc and phone industries for the coming years, it specifically developed a discussion around the dynamics of the netbook and smartphone sectors.

    Biz-News.com was with Patrick Remy, VP Devices for Orange Group a young French industry professional that is based in London. Patrick gave us some insights into the work of Orange Group and how it is managing to keep on top in a market that is continuously changing and where customers are growingly more demanding with the devices and services operators offer.

    At the event, great relevance was given to the smartphone sector, focusing on the various existing operating platforms and making special emphasis on Andriod as the platform to watch out for. As a special note attendants were told to look towards Asia, this is where most of the innovation is coming from.

    The event also covered the evolution of the netbook market, questioning its margins which are very low when compared to Notebooks and specially when compared to the smartpone sector. The recent introduction into the market of the Google Navigator and the effect it has had in the PND market was also discussed, something to keep an eye on as Google expands its service to more cities.

  • T-Mobile and Orange Merge to Create the UK's Largest Mobile Carrier

    Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom are planning to merge T-Mobile UK and Orange UK. The companies have entered into exclusive negotiations to combine T-Mobile and Orange in a new 50:50 joint venture company.

    If the negotiations are successfully accomplished (the deal is expected to be completed by the end of October), the new joint venture will create the UK’s leading mobile operator. It will have a combined mobile customer base of around 28 million, representing approximately 37 percent of UK mobile subscribers.

    The companies assure that this combination will result in expanded network coverage and better customer proximity through a larger network of own shops.

    Obviously, the other aim of the new enlarged business is to compete more effectively with the other two large UK operators – O2 and Vodafone.

    “By combining our operations in the UK, we anticipate the long-awaited consolidation in one of Europe’s most competitive markets. This will reinforce fair competition and will provide strong benefits for our customers through improved coverage, quality of service and an enhanced capacity to develop new services and technologies,” said Gervais Pellissier, CFO of France Telecom.

    “Our shareholders will benefit from higher profitability and an immediate cash flow per share accretion without impacting the overall indebtedness of the parent companies.”

    The business will have pro forma 2008 revenues of approximately £7.7 billion. The merger and integration of the operators should generate estimated synergies with a net present value in excess of £3.5 billion, as the companies claim.

    Estimated opex-based synergies should reach an annual run rate of over £445 million from 2014 onwards.

    The operators predict that the key areas for the opex synergies of the joint venture will be network & IT – large-scale site rationalisation leading to savings notably in site rental expenses, network operations and maintenance expenses – and distribution and marketing – higher proportion of sales through own shops, resulting in lower distribution costs and savings in marketing costs primarily post roll-out of a new branding strategy.

    “We will become market leader,” stated Timotheus Höttges, CFO of Deutsche Telekom.

    “Our customers will benefit in many ways, for example from the best mobile broadband offer in Britain. In the second-biggest market in Europe, which is undoubtedly one of the toughest and most competitive, we are giving T-Mobile UK a clear and strong future.”

    The joint venture expects to invest £600 to £800 million in integration costs over the period from 2010 to 2014. Those costs would primarily relate to the decommissioning of mobile sites, the rationalisation of the network of retail stores and the streamlining of operations.

    The Board of the new joint venture company will have balanced representation from both firms. The management team would be led by Tom Alexander, currently CEO of Orange UK, as CEO and Richard Moat, currently CEO of TMobile UK, as COO.

    The T-Mobile UK and Orange UK brands will be maintained separately for 18 months after completion of the transaction.

  • 02 Secures Exclusive UK Rights to Palm Pre


    O2 has beaten rival operator Orange to secure the exclusive rights to the Palm Pre when it is released in the UK.

    Palm and O2 are expected to make the announcement next week almost a month after the launch of the handset in the US.

    The deal strengthens O2’s position in the smartphone market since it is already the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the UK.

    There are no details yet on Pre costings and tariffs for the UK.

    News of O2’s deal with Palm was reported in The Guardian, which described the competition between O2 and Orange as "fierce".

    Apple recently announced that the iPhone 3GS sold over one million units in its first weekend of its availability.

    Sprint, the only wireless carrier to offer the Pre in the US, has not revealed sales numbers – although it appears to be doing reasonably well.

    Estimates of its sales range from 150,000 to 300,000 units.

  • Orange Brings Mobile HDTV to Hybrid Phones


    Orange is to offer high definition mobile TV to users of hybrid mobile/fixed Unik handsets.

    From next month, its customers in France will have access to more than 60 HD mobile TV channels, 20 of which will be with unlimited access.

    In September, Orange announced the world’s first 3G+ UMA platform, combining the two technologies to allow customers with hybrid phones to connect whether at home, near an Orange WiFi hotspot or on the move through the 3G network.

    Initially, the mobile HDTV service will only be available through LG’s KF757 handset or on the Sony Ericsson G705u.

    Orange currently has one million Unik subscribers.

    The channels are available on the Orange TV Player or, if the handset does not support the software, on the Orange World portal.

  • Orange Chooses ExaStore Storage Back-end For key French Football Matches

    Orange leverages ExaStore to support VOD and live streaming of French League 1 football

    Orange, a subsidiary of France Telecom, has deployed the ExaStore Clustered NAS System to serve as the storage back-end for its production and distribution of French football’s key Championship matches via its mobile network.

    Orange’s 5.9 million subscribers will be receiving the French League 1 football on their mobile phones via VOD and general broadcast.

    Speaking at the IBC in Amsterdam, Jeronimo Munoz, Exanet’s Regional Vice President, Southern Europe, said ExaStore would ensure that Orange could always match the demand required by the ever-increasing size and quality requirements of video broadcasting.

    “Most notably, ExaStore was deployed and integrated into Orange’s broadcast environment by system integrator Cognacq Jay within two weeks,” he said.

    Cognacq-Jay Image (CJI), Exanet’s media partner in France, said it chose ExaStore for Orange because it provided the highest performance within the most economical system by independently scaling online, in real time, ensuring customers get their football when they want it.