CAIRO: Orange, a France Telecom company, was quick to respond to the cut of two major submarine cables in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, Jan. 30, the company said in a press statement. Hand in hand, engineers from Orange and Telecom Egypt worked closely to deliver additional capacity of eight circuits of 155 mega each, totaling 1.2 Gega bit per second. This additional capacity helped relieve some of the frustration felt by internet users nationwide. The problem impacted most of the internet connectivity in Egypt and communication in many countries in the Middle East and Asia. On another front, Orange also mobilized other France Telecom resources, namely France Telecom Marine, which dispatched the ship Raymond Croze in less than 24 hours to the site of the incident. The specialized ship is equipped with the latest technology and has performed more than 100 repairs in the Mediterranean - or 50 percent of all Mediterranean cable repairs. Meanwhile, Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Telecom Egypt and Orange will continue to exert all necessary efforts to ensure all internet connectivity is resumed to its full capacity in the shortest time possible. Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators. France Telecom serves more than 167 million customers in five continents, of which two thirds are Orange customers. The Group had consolidated sales of ?51.7 billion in 2006 and ?39.4 billion for the first nine months of 2007. At September 30, 2007 the group had 106.9 million mobile customers and 11.4 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers. Launched in June 2005, the NExT program (New Experience in Telecommunications) will enable the Group to pursue its transformation as an integrated operator and make France Telecom the benchmark for new telecommunications services in Europe. In 2006, Orange became the Group s single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates, and Orange Business Services the banner for services offered to businesses worldwide.
