2008

Yazid Chir honoured as Best Change Maker

Orange was awarded three of the telecom industry’s highest accolades at Wednesday night’s annual World Communication Awards (WCA), held in London. For the third consecutive year, Orange Business Services was awarded ‘Best Global Operator’ and for the second year running, Orange was awarded ‘Best Mobile Operator’. Yazid Chir, a pioneer in virtualization solutions from Orange Business Services, was honoured with the tribute of Best Change Maker for establishing an organisation (NQT) which helps people from disadvantaged areas in Paris to find work suited to their skills.  
 
David Molony, Principal Analyst at Ovum and WCA Chair of Judges said, “We were pleased to award Best Global Operator to Orange Business Services for a whole series of reasons, including its impressive service expansions into new markets like Russia, where it is building a whole new network.  The evidence of how they were able to leverage their core competencies to outpace the market level of growth for ICT was striking.”  He adds, “Orange also clearly stood out for the Best Mobile Operator award because of its continued scale and innovation.  It has been consistently growing revenue and subscribers, entering new markets and achieving number one or two positions and introducing innovative services –  thoroughly deserved.”  

Celebrating 10 years of corporate and personal success in global communications, the World Communication Awards, recognises significant achievements and developments in the global telecoms industry. Orange was also awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for Orange Sport Info (Best Content Service), Orange Business Together (Best Managed Service) and for Near-Field Communications (Best Technology Foresight).

These achievements come just a month after Orange reported solid third quarter financial results and underlines the company’s continued vision and leadership in the telecommunications industry.  

Barbara Dalibard, president and CEO, Orange Business Services, comments, “Despite turbulence in the business market and the forecast of further uncertainty we have maintained our position. We remain steadfast over our ability to deliver innovative services that enable our enterprise customers to find new and creative ways to increase productivity and reduce costs.  The commitment of our team to our business customers  is also illustrated by the outstanding work of Yazid Chir, who has contributed both to product innovation and to the future working lives of disadvantaged people.”

Olaf Swantee, Senior EVP, Personal Communication Services and UK & International operations continues, “This year has been signicant for Orange, we have refreshed our brand across our footprint, maintained growth in mature markets and expanded to new territories including Kenya, Uganda and Armenia. This award underlines every achievement Orange has made as a converged operator in bringing voice, multimedia and multiplatform services to consumers and businesses. Our unrivalled commitment to innovation means we can deliver pioneering services and technologies to the most important part of our organisation: our customers.”