The France Telecom Foundation celebrates 20 years of community involvement and becomes the Orange Foundation

Paris, January 16, 2007 - The last twenty years have been rich with experiences and encounters as the France Telecom Foundation, along with its partners and its employees, has become involved in some important projects. Researchers, volunteers and associations, motivated by their common values, have endeavoured to forge, build and develop bonds between people.

Today the France Telecom Foundation becomes the Orange Foundation as it aims to step up its worldwide activity.


· The France Telecom Foundation: an approach focused on building links

The group and its employees are proud to see the Foundation join forces with associations to undertake community involvement initiatives around the globe. The Foundation’s efforts are concentrated in three areas:

- healthcare, to forge links by helping autistic people and by endeavouring to give people with a visual or hearing impairment greater independence and quality of life.

- education, to build links by joining in the battle against illiteracy and by promoting education for girls in developing countries.

- culture, to develop bonds by encouraging group singing.

Twenty years after its inception, the Foundation continues to expand its programme of community involvement initiatives: between 300 and 400 agreements are signed each year, representing an annual budget of some 5 million euros.

Alongside its partners, the Foundation has been involved in some important projects. For instance:

- contributing to major scientific discoveries, in particular in the area of the genetic origins of autism undertaken by a team at the Institut Pasteur;

- its commitment to education for girls in developing countries, with initiatives in Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar and Vietnam benefiting some 22,000 children;

- supporting adults with reading and writing difficulties, through both national and local initiatives: 5,000 adults have received help over the past two years and 1,500 volunteers have been trained;

- supporting vocal music at all stages, from detecting talent to producing their works.

The group’s employees support the work of the Foundation through volunteer programmes and sponsorship.

· The France Telecom Foundation becomes the Orange Foundation

The change of name to Orange symbolises the group’s desire to bring together, in the Foundation, all of the community involvement initiatives conducted in all of the countries in which the group is established. In 2006 these initiatives represented an investment of over 5 million euros, on top of the Foundation’s own budget (which also amounts to around 5 million euros).

For the group’s staff, especially those who have been working outside of France under the Orange brand name for several years already, the change will better enable them to identify with the Foundation’s work, become involved and play an active role in building the group’s community involvement policy together.

A number of important events are planned for 2007:

- ongoing support for scientific research into autism and the opening of new centres for autistic people;

- an extension of the scheme for making opera performances accessible to visually-impaired people (based on the operation conducted at the Opéra in Bordeaux);

- achievement of the milestone of 3 500 Daisy[1] reading devices for visually-impaired people (the Daisy system is equipped with a special “Victor” reader that makes audio books in MP3 CD format easier to use for blind and visually-impaired people).

- support for such initiatives as “Tous à l’Opéra” (for the first time in France, opera houses will hold an open day for the general public on 17 February), “Banlieues Bleues” (a jazz festival drawing together composers, schools and associations from Seine-Saint-Denis, from 9 March to 7 April);

- a special “Nuit de la Voix” on 4 June at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, where some now well-known vocal groups supported by the Foundation over the last 20 years will give a free concert.

- partnerships with Radio Classique (22 programmes with the Foundation’s musical partners) and the Magnum Photos agency (which will hold a photo exhibition dedicated to the Foundation’s work).

Visuals are available from the
France Telecom Media Centre: + 33 (0)1 49 09 73 61
www.francetelecom.com/fr/espaces/journalistes/mediatheque/photo/index.jsp

About Orange

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with more than 153 million customers on five continents.

In June, 2006, as part of the France Telecom integrated operator strategy (NExT programme) to deliver simple, convergent products, Orange became the single brand for mobile, internet and tv offers in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and in Spain, strengthening Orange’s position as the number two mobile and internet services brand in Europe. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions and services. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries and territories and serves customers in 220.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris Eurolist market and on the New York Stock Exchange. At September 30, 2006, the group had 92.59 million mobile customers, 12.09 million internet customers and 48.59 million fixed line customers.

At the end of 2005, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 49 billion euros by IFRS standards in 2005 (38.4 billion euros for the year-to-date at September 30, 2006) and had 203 000 employees.

Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com or the France Telecom at www.francetelecom.com.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.


[1] For instance, users can easily “browse” the book to find a particular chapter or paragraph, and speed up the reading if desired. Daisy technology is already widely used in the United States, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and Japan.

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