ORANGE OPENS DEVELOPER CENTRES IN BOSTON AND SAN FRANCISCO

London 22 June 2005: Orange announces today that it has extended its Developer Centre network to the US with the opening of new centres in Boston and San Francisco. This follows the developer event – Code Camp - that took place in Florida in April and signifies a commitment from Orange to increase its exposure to developer excellence in the US. 

Located within the existing Orange Labs of the France Telecom Group, both centres offer well-equipped technical facilities designed to provide an efficient and comfortable atmosphere for application development in a dedicated laboratory. Developers are provided with tools and support as well as Orange handsets and SIMs for use during development and testing. 'Last-mile' testing gives developers the chance to try their application on the Orange 2G and in Boston, on the 3G network.

Developers will have the chance to meet Orange representatives at the centres to discuss their applications and the opportunity for official testing and selection for inclusion in the Orange Catalogue for a possible distribution of up to 54 million customers in 16 countries.

The centres in the US form part of a Developer Centre global network that already includes facilities in the UK (Maidenhead and Glasgow) and France (Velizy). The next Developer Centre opening will be in the Netherlands later this year.

As well as these physical sites, the Orange Partner programme also enables software application and content creators to develop and test applications remotely, have them certified by Orange, participate in free on-site and on-line training, receive white papers and use Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) with support from Orange.

Steve Glagow, Director of Orange Partner comments: "Having recruited many US-based developers at JavaOne and CTIA in San Francisco and more recently at our Code Camp event in Florida, we're keen to maintain and indeed strengthen those relationships. The Developer Centres in Boston and San Francisco will enable us to do just that through the face to face contact, tutorials, support and advice that we'll provide.

The long-term vision of the Orange Partner programme and the Developer Centre network is about the creation of innovative, exciting mobile application solutions and content. With the advent of 3G technology and the benefits of greater bandwidth, there's huge potential to deliver richer, faster content to customers and our developer network will have a crucial part to play in making this happen."

The integration of the Orange Developer Centres within France Telecom Group's Orange Labs will strengthen their relationship and increase the sharing of resources between the two entities of the France Telecom Group.

ENDS
For more information, call the Orange Media Centre on +44 207 984 2000 or +447973 201 911. Alternatively, visit the Orange Partner site at www.orangepartner.com

Notes to Editors

Orange and wirefree and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange PCS. The Orange group is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom Group, with operations in 16 countries across Europe and beyond. It provides a broad range of personal communications services, including Orange GSM1800 services and other digital cellular telephone services. Within the Orange Group, the Orange brand operates in the UK, France, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, Thailand, the Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, the Netherlands, Botswana, and Madagascar.  The Orange group also has controlled operations in Belgium (Mobistar). The Orange group has a joint controlling interest in Egypt (MobiNil) and minority interests in Portugal (Optimus) and Austria (One).  As at the end of December 2004, Orange was the largest mobile operator in both the UK with over 14.2 million active customers, and France with over 21.24 million registered customers. As at the end of December 2004, Orange controlled companies had almost 54 million customers worldwide. Orange, along with TIM, Telefonica and T-Mobile, is a founding member of the FreeMove alliance. Further information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com.

Orange Partner is a global partner and developer program from one of the world's leading mobile operators - Orange. The program provides mobile application and content developers with online training, a research database, tools, testing processes, application programming interfaces and peer-to-peer contact via the Orange Partner portal - www.orangepartner.com.  It also provides access to Orange global development centres and a whole range of other support services to members of the program. Orange Partner has been created to provide support to developers wishing to develop and propose solutions for possible distribution to over 54 million customers in 16 countries.

For further information, please go to www.orangepartner.com