IMPROVED INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE, NEW SERVICES AND TRANSPARENT PRICING SIGNALS 3G ACCELERATION FOR 2006
 
London - 16 January, 2006: The adoption of third generation services is expected to rapidly increase during 2006, as operators continue to rollout their third generation networks alongside compelling new services.

Orange today announced that it had struck new deals with a number of European operators, enabling its customers to use their 3G phones in 18 countries across the world – more than any other UK operator can offer.

Keith Greenfield, Director of Roaming and Interconnect, said: "2006 is going to be a big year for 3G both at home and abroad. Third generation technology is fast becoming a 'win win' story for the consumer. Network coverage is expanding while the cost of usage is falling. Consequently, adoption of 3G services will increase. We saw this happen with second generation voice and text in the late '90s. Now it's 3G's turn."

Orange already delivers the UK's largest integrated 3G network (to over 70% of the country) and, according to independent surveys, offers a better quality of coverage in main metropolitan areas, with more reliable data calls and quicker speeds.

To compliment its national coverage, Orange now offers 3G roaming in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Orange already has the largest GPRS roaming coverage and the best seamless Prepay roaming coverage of any UK operator.

Today, Orange also announced a new Orange World "roamers" home page which has been designed to bring greater visibility of the charges associated with using data abroad. As well as giving details of roaming costs, it will also offer links to sites that require only minimal data usage to view, delivering better value for Orange customers. The new simplified home page will be the first Orange World page that customers see if they are using the site internationally. The new home page will launch in the Spring. Customers can also access information about roaming with Orange at www.orange.co.uk/international.

Orange 3G data tariffs are split into five geographical zones and offer a fixed price per megabyte, regardless of which network a customer roams on. The website and new Orange World home page will enable customers to make an informed decision when using their phone abroad.

Greenfield added: "In the last quarter of 2005, 22 per cent of customers signing up to Orange opted for a 3G phone and tariff. On average, those customers then used more than five times the amount of data than they did on their 2G phone. The demand for 3G services is growing and we're expecting further acceleration this year."

Orange currently has over 300,000 3G customers in the UK and is expecting that figure to rise to 1.5 million by the end of this year.

Notes to Editors

Orange uses independent surveys to ensure it receives an honest appraisal of its network relative to the competition. The data from these surveys helps inform Orange about where network improvements can be made.

About Orange

Orange, wirefree and any other Orange product or service referred to in this release are trademarks of Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population, and offers roaming to pay monthly customers on 393 networks in 156 countries and to pay as you go customers on 131 networks in 67 countries. At the end of September 2005, Orange had over 14.6 million active UK customers. Across the world, Orange has 57.9 million customers.

In May 2005, Orange gained the top ranking for customer satisfaction among mobile phone contract customers in the annual J.D.Power and Associates 2005 UK Mobile Telephone Customers Satisfaction Study. It is the seventh time Orange has been ranked top by the study. In October 2005, Orange won the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards - voted for by readers of Mobile Choice magazine – for Best Network Operator for the fifth year running. In the same month, Orange also won Best International Mobile Operator at the World Communications Awards. The judges said: "Orange is so solid, you cannot expect more."

Information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk and media information can be found at www.orange.com.