Paris, May 9, 2008

 

 

Orange Business Services is named a leader in The Forrester Wave™:  European WAN Services, Q2 2008, published in April by Forrester Research Inc., an independent research firm.

 

Using Forrester’s weightings, Orange Business Services has the highest current offering score, leading 12 major international network operators providing wide area network services to large multinational corporations. Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the providers across 62 criteria grouped into three high-level categories:  current offering, strategy and market presence. Orange Business Services was recognized as a leader based on the most points of presence, an extensive network, breadth of class of service capabilities, its managed services portfolio and its market strategy. Specifically, the report states:  “Orange should be on almost every enterprise’s tender list.”

 

In assessing Orange Business Services’ European WAN position as a market leader, Forrester found that:  “Orange’s current offering was the overall leader and includes one of the broadest European WAN solutions portfolios and some of the most comprehensive access options of all the providers evaluated. … It has a strong FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) capability based around its Orange mobile businesses, and it is aggressively moving into managed services and IT services.”

 

"We are pleased that Forrester’s report recognizes Orange Business Services as a leader in European WAN services," said Axel Haentjens, vice president, Marketing & External Communications, Orange Business Services. “As shown in the report, we offer our customers the most points of presence in the most countries and the broadest WAN services portfolio, proving that we are fully committed to providing our customers the services they need wherever they need them. In addition, we back our services by very robust class of service capabilities, always keeping our customers’ satisfaction as a priority."

 

To request the full report, visit www.forrester.com and click Vendor Comparisons & Waves under the Research tab.

 

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. France Telecom serves more than 170 million customers in five continents as of Dec. 31, 2007, of which two thirds are Orange customers. The Group had consolidated sales of 52.9 billion euros in 2007. As of Dec. 31, 2007, the Group had 109.6 million mobile customers and 11.6 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers.

 

Launched in June 2005, the NExT program (New Experience in Telecommunications) will enable the Group to pursue its transformation as an integrated operator and make France Telecom the benchmark for new telecommunications services in Europe. In 2006, Orange became the Group's single brand for Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates, and Orange Business Services the banner for services offered to businesses worldwide. France Telecom is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband internet services in Europe and one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

 

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris and on the New York Stock Exchange.