France Telecom-Orange has unveiled a five-year action plan, called “conquests 2015”. The Group has set its sights on reviving a spirit of growth through international development.

France Telecom-Orange has unveiled a five-year action plan, called “conquests 2015”. The Group has set its sights on reviving a spirit of growth through international development. This will be based on the same acquisition policy as before and rules out any “transformational” deals.  

“Conquests 2015”, launched by Stéphane Richard, Chief Executive Officer of France Telecom-Orange, is aimed at setting out the challenges and perspectives that lie ahead, clarifying the Group’s business activities and regaining a sense of conquest and pride within the company.

The Group plans to recruit 10,000 additional employees from 2010 to end 2012. The measures set-out in the Group’s new social contract for France represent a total budget of 900 million euros over the same period, excluding anticipated savings from the part-time for seniors plan and natural attrition.

Orange also reaffirmed that its networks are its core business and its future. The conquest of networks means increasing coverage and bandwidth for both fixed and mobile networks, in both mature and emerging countries. 

In France, Orange will invest two billion euros by 2015 to deploy a new fibre optic network. This will guarantee coverage for 40% of households through coverage in every region of mainland France by 2012 and in every département by 2015 (including the three overseas territories). 

In addition, Orange said that it has the necessary technological expertise and is ready to launch LTE as soon as the regulations are in place. Orange will also invest in the monetization of mobile data traffic as well as in the deployment of “green” networks such as the Oryx program of solar-powered mobile telephone masts in Africa.  

Orange expects to double the sales over the next five years in emerging markets and plans to grow from close to 200 million customers at present to 300 million by 2015 across its entire footprint.