Another Record Quarter for Orange; Orange Remains the UK's Fastest Growing Mobile Operator.

Business & Technology Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2000

Highlights

- 1.1 million net new customers in Q3 (Q3 1999: 520,000)

- Orange UK customer base almost 8.3 million

- Around one in four UK mobile users now use Orange

Orange today announced it added a Q3 record of 1.1 million net new customers in the third quarter of 2000, more than twice the 520,000 net growth in Q3 1999.

With 4.8 million net new customers added in the last 12 months, the total UK customer base now stands at 8.275 million, 2.4 times higher than at the same point last year.

Around one in four UK mobile phone users now use Orange.

Of this growth in the quarter, 18.8% or 209,000 were net new contract (post pay) customers, taking the post pay base to 2,966,000.

Prepay growth was 899,000 net new customers, 3.5 times higher than the same period last year. The Orange prepay base ended the quarter at 5,309,000.

Commenting, Graham Howe, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, said, "These results complete four consecutive quarters of record growth for Orange, during which the customer base has more than doubled. Orange continues to lead the market, reflecting our continued focus on service, quality, value for money and innovation.

"During the quarter we became the first UK operator to offer wirefree data cards (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) for use in laptops to send emails and faxes or access the Internet. These deliver data speeds of up to 28.8kbps, three times faster than is available over other GSM networks.

"Our acquisitions of Ananova and Wildfire and our significant stake in NewsTakes were also announced this quarter. All these are further steps towards our vision of the future, where your mobile phone is not just a phone but is a communications center, providing access to all the information you want, whenever you want it and wherever you are.

"Beyond the UK, the completion of our acquisition by France Telecom now makes Orange the number two wirefree force in Europe and the world's number three. Most recently, we have extended our position with the acquisition of a 34% stake in Bangkok Inter Teletech Co. Ltd in Thailand, giving us the opportunity to broaden our brand and vision into Asia.

"The future's bright.... The future's Orange"

Notes to Editors

- Orange and wirefree are trademarks of Orange.

- Orange provides a broad range of personal communications

services. As well as Orange GSM 1800 services, this includes

other digital cellular telephone and paging services.

- As at 30th September 2000, Orange had over 8.275 million

customers.

- Orange provides high quality coverage to 99% of the UK

population and over 80% of the geographic area. Coverage is

based on hand portable, unlike some other operators which

choose to base their coverage on boosted car kits.

- Orange is the largest and fastest-growing digital mobile phone

network in the UK, with around 7,200 base stations as we

entered the third quarter, and more than 10,000 sites targeted

by 2001.

- The third annual J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile Customer

Satisfaction Study, published on 9 May 2000, showed that

"Orange maintains its dominance in customer satisfaction for

the third consecutive year in the UK mobile market due to

industry-leading performances in both the pre-pay and contract

segments."

- In May 2000, OFTEL, the UK's telecommunications industry

regulator, published the results of its third survey of the

four UK GSM mobile communications networks' relative

performance. 97.7 per cent of calls made on Orange were

completed successfully. The figures for the other networks

were BT Cellnet 96.5 per cent, Vodafone 96.3 per cent, One 2

One 95.6 per cent. The survey was based on up to 30,000 test

calls on each of the four UK mobile operators' networks,

covering all motorways, 70 conurbations and an extensive

selection of A roads.

- In November 1999, the Consumers' Association's Which? magazine

published a survey of its members and concluded: "Orange was

easily the best all round. It consistently came first, or very

near the top, for both the quality of its network and customer

service.'`

- Orange was the first network operator to introduce Enhanced

Full Rate in February 1998. EFR provides fixed line call

quality across the entire Orange network to all customers at

no extra charge.

- Orange now offers roaming on 214 networks in 100 countries.

- Information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at

www.orange.co.uk and media information can be found at

www.media.orange.net