“The word among employees inside Orange is that the company has been doing everything it could to close a deal for the iPhone in the French market. Sales teams who are in charge of the consumer market are even said to have already started preparing for the launch since last month, just in case, while the marketing division already has a advertising plan in the works,” Alexandros Roussos reports for MacScoop.
“The company is the biggest player in terms of market share in France and holds a great piece of the U.K. market as well as other European countries. Orange also holds a strong position in professional mobile solutions through its Orange Business Everywhere program which includes voice, Wifi, EDGE and 3G services,” Roussos reports.
Full article here.
Then, little difference between oranges and apples
This would be nice.
Orange works really nice here un Lanzarote a little eastern Island of the Canary Islands.
Please lets be happen.
We belong to Spain.
The USB Modem works even in the “Wild” nice on my MacBook.
Orange is a great network, i’ve been with them since they started in the UK, their customer service is very slick, a lot of similarities between them and Apple in terms of their strong branding. I hope Apple go with Orange in the UK too.
Orange in France already sells MacBooks in combination with their internet access plans.
I suddenly want fruit salad.
Apple and Orange????
Much better than Blackberry.
I use Orange for my Internet/phone connection. Would love to add the iPhone.
I’ve been with Orange (it’s original home territory since its launch in 1994 by Hutchison Telecom) and the one thing I would say is that, since France Telecom took over (which occurred when Vodafone acquired Mannesman and was forced to divest the German company’s recently acquired new toy), most aspects of customer care have gone to hell in a handbasket.
That said, screwing SFR – the Vivendi-owned number two network in the French market – is the only way to go: I’d also send Vivendi’s CEO a note reminding him that he’ll never see the iPhone on his network until Doug Morris at UMG is put out of his misery and that company stops acting as a collective horse’s rear-end.
One of the most active R&D Lab at FranceTelecom/Orange is located in South San Francisco.
Among the areas those folks do cover : On-line advertising, Local Search & Profiling, Content Aware Networks, XML Routing & Application/Content Delivery Networks, Enterprise 2.0, Software as a Service & Enterprise Mobility, Content Management, Syndication & Federation, Mobile Search, Mobile Multimedia and New Wireless Technologies. Sounds like a perfect fit with the iPhone ecosystem…
More on FT/Orange Silicon Valley Lab here : http://www.francetelecom.com/en/group/rd/activities/vision/implantations/san_francisco.html
@MCCFR
I completely agree. Orange is possibly THE WORST service provider. I’ve been with them for almost 12 years and since the French took over they’ve been nothing but a nightmare for me.
Give me O2 and an iPhone and I’ll be a happy camper.
peace.