France Telecom inaugurates its Livebox Lab, an innovation nursery for Livebox and all its partners

Paris, July 4, 2006
* Livebox Lab was created to encourage the opening of Livebox to third parties, and welcomes all projects able to assist with the blossoming of an open Livebox “ecosystem”, in line with France Telecom’s convergence strategy
* Launch of the site www.liveboxlab.com, the single entry point for all candidate projects and the official publication channel of technical information concerning Livebox
* The first project produced by Livebox Lab: LiveRadio, an IP alarm clock radio which, via Livebox, will allow people to listen to Internet radios from across the world and to broadcast practical information


Livebox Lab is an “incubator” of products and services: it is a programme which benefits from the NExT marketing synergies and from France Telecom’s R&D, the purpose of which is to develop an ecosystem around Livebox, drawing on the innovation capabilities of third-party partners.

- An “ideas laboratory” dedicated to opening up the Livebox world
Livebox Lab’s mission is to assess and test partners’ proposed projects, in line with the market’s expectations and the latest technical innovations.
It was initiated with CEFT (French Telecommunications Entrepreneurs’ Club), and is now open to a wider public of partners, offering them a special working environment thanks to the technical and economic tools and experts made available by France Telecom.

Livebox Lab is an accelerator for developing products and services, the Livebox Lab confirms France Telecom’s position as world leader for “Home networking” (2.4 million Liveboxes in Europe at 31/03/06), as illustrated by the first Livebox services launched at the beginning of 2006 (Livezoom, Livemusic, Livetélésurveillance, Transfert Photo, Liveplug).

After having been selected on the basis of their capacity for innovation and their value potential, the projects which enter Livebox Lab are co-developed via:

* provision of technical and human resources enabling the partners to develop and test new services jointly
* definition of a new economic model enabling the income expected from these new home network services to be defined.

The average duration of the process within Livebox Lab is 4 to 5 months.

Livebox Lab is perfectly in line with the France Telecom’s Technocentre innovation industrialisation process, which brings together all projects in phase with the NExT (New Telecommunications Experience) programme. After having analysed the technical and economic assessments, the teams decide on the appropriateness of following up the project.
Those which will not be industrialised by France Telecom will be able to benefit from the “OK Livebox” label, adding by this means to the range of equipment and services compatible with Livebox.

- A dedicated website
Livebox Lab’s website, www.liveboxlab.com, is launched today: in addition to recruiting partners, it is used to publish technical information on Livebox and notably the opening of the first “APIs” (Access Programming Interface), which will enable developers and industrial companies to develop the future Home Networking terminals and services. The APIs enable them to have access to certain functions or technical information concerning Livebox, and to use simple commands which prevent them, for example, from having to reprogram everything when their services are established.

- First product delivered by Livebox Lab: Liveradio
This IP alarm-radio, created in partnership with the Baracoda company (Com1), is a digital radio connected directly to the Livebox. To be launched in the forthcoming months, the Liveradio will let people listen to Internet radios or podcasts from around the world, to display practical information directly on the terminal (e.g. weather forecasts, traffic and other news, etc.), and to personalise its contents and display modes.

Liveradio will be launched by the end of 2006.

Some ten projects are currently in the course of development and testing in Livebox Lab and should enable a range of new services to be offered based around security, communication, leisure, images, etc. within the next months, for the 2.4 million European users of Livebox.


About France Telecom
On 31 March 2006 France Telecom, one of the principal world telecommunications operators, had over 147 million customers in five continents (220 countries or territories) and in 2005 achieved consolidated revenues of 49 billion Euros with IFRS norms (12.8 billion Euros in the first quarter 2006). The NExT (New Telecommunications Experience) programme, which was launched in June 2005, enables the Group to continue its transformation into an integrated operator, turning France Telecom into the reference operator for new telecommunications services in Europe. On 1 June 2006, Orange thus became the Group’s single brand for Internet, television and mobile services in France and the United Kingdom, and Orange Business Services the brand for services provided to businesses across the world. France Telecom is the second largest mobile operator and Internet Service Provider in Europe, and one of the world leaders in telecommunications services to multinational companies.
France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on the Euronext Paris Eurolist market and on the New York Stock Exchange.

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