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Orange UK

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Orange
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1994 (by Hutchison Telecom)
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom Bristol, UK
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Tom Alexander(Chief Executive)
ProductsMobile telecommunications products and services,
Broadband and internet products and services
Revenue€6,620 million (2007)[1]
ParentFrance Télécom
Websitewww.orange.co.uk

Orange UK is a mobile network operator and internet service provider in the United Kingdom. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now owned by France Télécom. Orange UK has over 17 million customers through its mobile and broadband services[2].

History

The Company was founded in 1994 by Hutchison Telecom and was bought by Mannesmann AG in October 1999.[3] Vodafone acquired Mannesman in February 2000[4] and, not being allowed to hold two mobile telephone licences in the UK, decided to sell Orange UK to France Télécom in May 2000.[5] On September 8, 2009 France Telecom's Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. It is unclear the long-term future of either brand when such deal is completed in November, although both brands will be maintained for the first eighteen months at least. [6]

Service

Orange and T-Mobile shops in Leeds.

Orange UK currently offers two mobile phone packages; pay as you go and pay monthly service plans.

As with other prepaid plans, pay as you go mobile users are given the option to top-up their phone via a swipe card, over the internet, by voucher bought printed as a reciept froma till or via a credit or debit card.

The pay monthly service gives customers an option of 1, 18, 24 or 36 month contracts. The contracts come 'bundled' with minutes, text messages and within some contracts data and insurance services, additional charges can be incurred for Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) and Mobile Data services. Orange like other providers also offer SIM Only plans which require only a 30 day contract.

Orange UK operates a GPRS, EDGE and 3G service and is in the process of rolling out a HSDPA network. Orange's 2G network covers 99% of the UK population and has the largest integrated 3G/2.5G network in the UK, Orange claims it spends up to £1.5 million per day investing in its network[7].

In addition to this Orange UK provides DSL services, under the same brand. Originally operated as Freeserve in the UK it was bought-out by France Telecom, rebranded as Wanadoo and on 1st June 2006 Wanadoo was rebranded Orange. When Orange launched its DSL broadband service it offered it for 'free', joining TalkTalk in the foray for market share[8]. The company has attempted to converge its mobile and DSL broadband products and like its competitors offers DSL broadband services alongside its mobile services, at a subsidized rate (Free broadband with speeds of up to 8mb with 10gb usage allowance for free if you take a mobile package with an 18 month contract, or "unlimited" with speeds of up to 8mb when you take a mobile contract at 18months or more). Orange now offers 'triple-play' services converging mobile, landline and DSL broadband. Orange UK on its highest broadband service offers a Livebox which integrates VoIP technology as well as wi-fi. It has been Confirmed that Orange intends to launch a video on demand service through its DSL broadband service.

Price plans

In April 2006 Orange changed its contract offering by offering four packages to customers, each aimed at different lifestyles and differentiating its offering. Amid much amusement Orange changed the names of its packages to animals: Dolphin, Canary, Raccoon and Panther. On some plans there are unlimited minutes (to landlines or Orange UK mobiles), texts or data. In addition to this Orange offers dedicated business plans- Solo, Venture and Momentum. Orange also offers 'magic numbers'- unlimited free calls to other Orange UK mobiles on contract or "talk for an hour, pay for a minute" on PAYG (you will have to add it as your "magic number").

Later in April 2008 Orange extended its animals to Pay as you go customers, introducing Dolphin, Raccoon, Canary, Camel and Monkey. Dolphin and Canary offer bonuses, whilst Raccoon is a discounted call rate and Camel is for a call-abroad tariff giving discounted calls to foreign countries.

Orange like other mobile networks now offers an "Internet Everywhere" tariff on pay as you go, pay monthly and business plans. Pay monthly and business plans come with either a datacard or USB modem. It operates across the network's EDGE, 3G, HSDPA and HSUPA network and offers speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s. Orange has announced that this speed will be increased to 7.2Mbit/s in the top 30 UK cities and 14.4 Mbit/s in the top 5 cities, this will be rolled out over the next 18 months[8].

Also in April 2008 Orange UK introduced a new pricing structure on its broadband product. Customers who now connect to Orange must live in an LLU area (within the 'Orange network') or pay an increased tariff.

Retail

An Orange Shop in London, UK

Orange, like its competitors operates a retail estate, with over 300 stores. These are branded as "The Orange Shop" and operate as an indirect sales channel. These retails stores are run independently from Orange.

Contracts and pay as you go phones with Orange are also available from other retailers, such as Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u, Argos and smaller independent mobile phone dealers, operating either in physical retail, online, through call centers or even supermarkets.

Orange were the first British mobile phone network whose products could be bought online, from the UK's first online mobile phone dealer Mobiles.co.uk[9].

Image in the United Kingdom

In the UK, Orange has come under pressure from customers to improve its customer service department as a result of many reports of poor existing customer services. The deteriorating customer service and increased customer dissatisfaction has coincided with the takeover by France Telecom and the departure of Hans Snook as CEO of the company.

In response, an advertising campaign was run to reinforce the company's commitment to customer service. According to UK Mobile Market Statistics 2006 published by the Wireless World Forum, Orange has now fallen to fourth place behind O2, Vodafone, and T-Mobile in UK market share. Campaigns have also been run to advertise the new 3G service, featuring well-known faces such as Elton John and Stephen Fry. Jane Copeland has been one of the voices of Orange since the company's early years.

In early June 2008, CEO Tom Alexander made public his new vision for the orange brand. He named it 'the agenda' and focused it mainly on taking Orange back to the top of the customer satisfaction polls. Despite 'the agenda' causing widespread job losses (Mainly in the Coaching and HR areas) it has been hailed as a great step forward for the company by most of its senior management teams. 'The agenda' also sets out a plan for halting expansion in India and bringing all frontline customer service back to the UK.

At the cinema

At most cinemas across the UK, advertisements for Orange are shown directly before the film, after any other adverts and film trailers. The adverts feature short sketches involving various celebrities including; Rob Lowe, Dennis Hopper, Macaulay Culkin, Val Kilmer, Mena Suvari, Michael Madsen, Steven Seagal, Sean Astin, Patrick Swayze, Carrie Fisher, Roy Scheider, Spike Lee, John Cleese, Anjelica Huston, Alan Cumming, Verne Troyer, Daryl Hannah, Ewan McGregor, Snoop Dogg, Darth Vader, Emilio Estevez and Juliette Lewis. Throughout the sketch, a pair of fictional Orange executives, played by Brennan Brown and Steve Furst, manipulate an idea into film which promotes Orange through product placement, despite the product being completely 'out-of-place' (a mobile phone in a Western Film is one example); the catch line is "Don't let a mobile phone ruin your movie. Please switch it off."

The current star of Orange adverts is Juliette Lewis.

In addition to this Orange has offered "Orange Wednesdays" since 2003. This enables any Orange customer be they pay as you go, pay monthly or an internet customer able to apply for 2 for 1 cinema tickets at participating cinemas, by text message. This was a result of Orange attempting to increase cinema visits during the quiet weekly periods. The advertising campaign features the American Brennan Brown and English Steve Furst as megalomaniac and sarcastic film executives. Celebrities such as John Cleese, Carrie Fisher, Steven Segal, Michael Madsen and Patrick Swayze have also appeared in the advertisements. The Orange Wednesdays promotion also allows Orange customers a 2 for 1 entrées with complimentary appetizers at Pizza Express restaurants. Both the cinema ticket and meal offers require a printed voucher and a text ticket from Orange.[10]

Sponsorship

In spirit with Orange's commitment to cinema Orange sponsors the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards which includes an award in its own name- the Orange Rising Star Award.

Orange UK has also shown a commitment to music which has included partnering with the Glastonbury Festival to provide mobile charging facilities and offers a music bursary[11].

Orange also has many other lucrative partnerships through its parent company France Télécom to promote the Orange brand throughout the world.

Marketing slogan

"I Am" is the new marketing slogan of Orange UK.

It is to be used from 5 July 2008 across all of the company's marketing activity.

The main slogan to be used is "I am who I am because of everyone", however subsidiary slogans will be used to describe the company's products and services, for example "I am more focus, less fuzz" is used to describe the Samsung Soul handset.

A TV advert, "Everyman" was launched on 5 July 2008 to mark the beginning of the campaign, and a website at http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk accompanied the launch. A radio advert was also broadcast on commercial radio stations, which suggested to listeners to search for "I am" on search engines, (these being major search engines such as Google), in which included sponsored listings for the Orange I am campaign.

Orange's previous slogan, "The future's bright - the future's Orange" was used for many years and became extremely well known, so much so that in its later years the second half of the slogan tended to be dropped as unnecessary.

Criticism

Broadband dissatisfaction

On the 21 March 2007, Watchdog, a television series by the BBC focusing on consumer protection, published the results from a Broadband survey they held. According to the survey, Orange is the worst ISP in the UK; 68% of Orange customers who took part in the survey said they were dissatisfied with Orange's customer service. According to the survey Orange had the highest number of dissatisfied broadband customers, and two-thirds of Orange customers experienced problems cancelling their Orange broadband.[12]

A consumer organisation forum web site known as OrangeProblems monitors the customer service provided by Orange Broadband in the UK. Initially set up as WanadooProblems.co.uk, the site focuses on Orange Local Loop Unbundling but also covers a wider range of Orange operations.

Data protection

In 2007 Orange was found to be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after complaints from customers about the use of their personal information Orange has since agreed to reinforce the requirements of the Act.[13][14]

The company was also criticised in the press for its handling of personal data, following complaints of Orange customer data being used by independent mobile sales companies in the practice of slamming. Orange denied any involvement.[15]

Internet Filtering

It has come to light that Orange filter their customers Internet phone connection by either maintaining a list of inappropriate web sites and/or using a third party "ban-list". However, it has been reported that many "safe" sites are included in the ban-lists.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Annual Results 2007- France Télécom SA" (PDF). Orange PCS. 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  2. ^ "About Orange UK". Orange PCS. 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  3. ^ "Mannesman to buy Orange for $33bn". New York Times. 1999-10-21. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
  4. ^ "Vodafone seals Mannesmann merger". BBC News Online. BBC. 2000-02-03. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
  5. ^ "France Télécom to buy Orange for £25.1bn". The Independent. 2000-05-30. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ "Orange Coverage Data". Orange PCS. 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
  8. ^ a b "Orange responds to talktalk with its own 'free' broadband offer". The Guardian. 2006-05-25. Retrieved 2008-03-13. Cite error: The named reference "ICO4" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ "About Us- Mobiles.co.uk". Mobiles.co.uk. 2006-05-25. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  10. ^ "2 for 1 pizza, every Wednesday". Orange. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  11. ^ "Orange Music Bursary". Orange PCS. 2006-05-25. Retrieved 2008-03-24.
  12. ^ "BBC Watchdog Broadband Survey". Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  13. ^ "Orange and Littlewoods in breach of DPA". VNU. 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
  14. ^ "Orange and Littlewoods in breach of the Data Protection Act" (PDF) (Press release). Information Commissioner's Office. 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
  15. ^ "Orange slammed as users see red". The Guardian. 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2007-06-23.

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