All posts in Orange
The Mobile Operator Cluster Fuck – The Saga Continues
It seems like the four major Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can’t stay out of the news these days, as Challenges reported yesterday that Bouygues Telecom (3rd largest operator in France) is suing Iliad ( parent company of Free Mobile, the 4th largest mobile operator in France, launched earlier this year) for €100 Million for an […]
4 new announcements out of the Apple-esque Orange event
This morning, twitter is buzzing with the set of announcements coming out from telecom giant Orange‘s event Orange Hello. Creating a lot of buzz internationally and covered by TC & TNW, the event included the launch of new iPhone app Libon in 95 countries (available on Android soon), the launch of a new multimedia mobile sharing service […]
Tech brands increasingly Dominate Life in France
Technology continues to rapidly transform the daily lives of people around the world and perhaps even more so in France. Each year Havas Media, in conjunction with CSA, does a study to assess what the top 20 most prominent brands in the lives of the French [FR]. Their study is extremely comprehensive, covering almost 4k consumers […]
Orange to kill Unlimited Internet in France
News began to circulate last Friday that Orange was taking the first steps towards changing it’s household internet pricing from a fixed cost to a ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing. The news, originally picked up by La Lettre A[FR] & then reported on Rue89[FR], cites Orange as saying it is “actively preparing different offers based on usage.” The same announcement […]
Zilok Auto snags €1.5M from Jaina & the new Ecomobilité Ventures
ZIlok Auto announced yesterday a new round of funding from Marc Simoncini’s Jaina Capital & Ecomobilité Ventures, a Joint Venture fund by SNCF, Total & Orange. Zilok Auto is a peer-to-peer car rental service which hopes to help you monetize the 90% of the time you don’t use your car in order to subsidize the €6,000/year […]
High Speed Internet falls short in 1.7 Million User Test
Recently, the magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs(“60 Million Consumers”) released a study on high speed Internet, testing the connection speed for over 1.7 million consumers in France between January 2011 and May 2012. As reported by Numerama[FR], the study showed that, while most operators advertise high-speed internet as 10Mb/s, 50Mb/s, or even 100Mb/s, the reality is […]
Deezer raises €100M from Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik
Deezer has finalized a round of €100 million by Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik via his investment fund Access Industries, with 75 million euros injected into the company, and 25 million euros to buy out previous shareholders. The announcement, originally reported by Le Figaro, indicates that while French investor Idinvest has maintained its stake in the company, Dotcorp […]
Despite Delays, SFR launches 3G in RATP
After an agreement signed between French telecom provider SFR and the Paris region transport authority (RATP), SFR brought up the 1st iteration of their 3G network in the RATP – specifically in two main stations, Chatelet & Gare De Lyon. SFR customers in these areas finally have access the 3G networks underground after 3 months […]
France will have a 4G Network for the iPhone 5
We don’t often cover Apple news on the Rude Baguette – we leave that to bloggers who have no more interesting topics to write about. When Apple announced the specs on its latest iPhone 5, all the headlines read like this one from Reuters “Apple’s iPhone 5 puts Europe in 4G Slow lane.” How come? […]
Orange bribes the Assembly with a Cheap Phone Plan
The Assembly announced this week that Orange has won the contract with the assembly, which will put all members of the Assembly (about 3,000 lines) on the same phone plan, which will be paid for by the Assembly. According to Le Figaro[FR], The Assembly had previously been subsidizing individual phone plans up to 6,150 euros […]