Orange Opens UK Innovation Centre

France Telecom-owned mobile and broadband provider Orange has launched a 'Technocentre' in Britain, where 'twenty-first century' services will be developed for its customers.

The new facility's teams - made up of marketers, engineers and researchers - will work together to identify changes in industry, culture and consumer behaviour, in order to conceive and produce new products and services that meet the changing needs of the firm's customers.

In addition, the centre will expand on the work of other Technocentre facilities around the world; with UK and group developers working on products and services for more than 170 million France Telecom customers, including 115m under the Orange brand. The new facility will also work on projects that are specifically aligned to UK customer needs.

Comprising 80 staff based in existing Orange offices in Bristol and London, the centre will form part of the Orange Labs network innovation chain that already employs more than 5,000 researchers, engineers and marketing specialists in 19 countries.

'We established the Orange Technocentre model over two years ago to breathe new life into innovation,' explained Didier Lombard, CEO and Chairman of France Telecom. 'Today, we are pleased to bring this successful approach to Britain, to draw on the Orange Labs network and meet the group's innovation needs globally and locally.'

Recent work that has come out of the Technocentres includes Home 3D-TV, life-sized video-calling screens, IP telephony, and text-to-voice services for people with sensory disabilities.

The centre will open on 5 January 2009, and it is expected that its first set of products and services will be released in the second half of the year.

Web sites: www.francetelecom.com and www.orange.com .

Orange recently pulled out of plans to use behavioural targeting firm Phorm's controversial targeted ad technology, because of concerns about customer privacy.