Orange UK
The future's bright...
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| Brand name | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1993 (by Hutchison Telecommunications International) |
| Defunct | 2015 (phased into EE) |
| Headquarters | Hatfield, England, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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United Kingdom |
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Key people
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Marc Allera (Chief Executive) |
| Products | Mobile telecommunications products and services |
| Revenue | €5,108 million (2009) |
| Parent | EE Limited |
| Website | www |
Orange UK was a mobile network operator and a former internet service provider in the United Kingdom, launched in 1993. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by France Télécom (now Orange S.A.) in 2000, which then adopted the Orange brand for all its other mobile communications activities. Orange UK has since merged with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile UK to form a joint venture, EE. EE continued to operate the Orange brand until February 2015, when new connections and upgrades on Orange tariffs were withdrawn. Existing Orange customers who wish to upgrade must switch to an EE tariff when their contract term ends, or can choose to remain on their existing Orange tariff without renewing.
The inception of the Orange brand occurred in 1990 in the United Kingdom with the formation of "Microtel Communications Ltd" – a consortium initially formed by Pactel Corporation (American), British Aerospace, Millicom and Matra (French); and later, to be wholly owned by BAe. In July 1991, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate – Hutchison Whampoa through a deal with BAe, acquired a controlling stake of 65% in Microtel, who by then had won a license to develop a Personal communications network (PCN) network in United Kingdom. As per the stock swap deal, BAe was given a 30% stake in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd.
Hutchison renamed Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd; and on 28 April 1994, 'Orange' 1800-MHz GSM network was launched in the UK mobile network market. The Orange brand, at the time an unusual name for a telecommunications firm, was created by an internal team at Microtel headed by Chris Moss (Marketing Director) and supported by Martin Keogh, Rob Furness and Ian Pond. The brand consultancy Wolff Olins was charged with designing the brand values and logo and advertising agency WCRS created the Orange slogan "The future's bright, the future's Orange". The team that launched Orange in the UK was led by Malcolm Way, and later Hans Snook who became the Chief Executive.
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Wikipedia