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Orange to launch Facebook-button phones
16 November 2011
France Telecom Orange is promoting bundled access to Facebook with a new range of phones to be marketed in Europe and Africa
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Everything Everywhere
France Telecom Orange is to market three phones in its European and African markets that will give customers direct access to Facebook services, with Facebook data included free in the package.
The range of phones, all of which have a Facebook button, will be focused on Romania and Poland in Europe and Tunisia and Egypt in north Africa, though other countries in both continents, including France, will also feature.
A pact between Orange and Facebook will potentially see the phones marketed in 17 countries, from France to Armenia in Europe and from Morocco to Uganda in Africa.
Orange Romania will sell the 3G version of the Facebook phone — an Android device made by TCL Communication in Shenzhen, China — for under €100 without subsidy, or for €9 with a monthly tariff plan, said Patrick Remy, the vice president of devices at Orange.
“That package will have 60 minutes of voice, a bit of data and unlimited access to Facebook,†he said. The phone has 3G at up to 7.2 megabits a second download, but Remy was unable to say how much customers in Romania would be charged for data access outside Facebook. The non-Facebook data limit will be 60 megabytes a month before extra charges start, he said.
The other two models, also made by TCL, are 2G only and will mainly be aimed at emerging markets. Orange has not yet set prices or tariffs for them, said Remy.
Though the deal seems set to drive many new customers to the social network service, both Remi and Facebook’s head of mobile, Henri Moissinac, confirmed that Facebook is not subsidising the phones or the free data. “There is no monetary relationship,†said Moissinac.
Remy added: “It’s not necessarily about exchanging money. It’s about designing phones that will be attractive to our joint customers.†The bundle will give new customers “a first taste of what the mobile internet can offerâ€.
The TCL phones will be branded Alcatel in some countries, especially in Africa — TCL set up a joint phone-making venture with Alcatel in 2004, before the Lucent merger, and took 100% control of it in 2005. In Europe the phones will normally carry just the Orange logo. According to Remy, 10-15% of the terminals in use on Orange networks have Orange’s own brand and the company hopes to push that to 20% in 2012.
Everything Everywhere, Orange’s joint UK venture with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, does not plan to market the phones, said Remy, though it does have access to Orange’s handset deals. GTB
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