Orange Has 300,000 UK 3G Users - Expects Progress In 2006"

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Orange, the mobile telecommunications arm of France Telecom, Monday said it expects adoption of third generation, or 3G, services to rapidly increase in 2006 after reporting it has 300,000 users on its 3G network within the UK.

Orange said its U.K. 3G network reaches over 70% of the country's population and the company maintains its target for 1.5 million 3G users by the end of the year.

It said that in the last quarter of 2005, 22% of customers signing up to Orange opted for a 3G tariff, adding that those users subsequently used five times the amount of data than they had previously on earlier-generation handsets.

Orange also said it has expanded its international roaming service to 18 countries.

-By Nic Fildes, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; nicolas.fildes@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

For comparison, The Mobile World database reports that at the end of Q3 last year, Vodafone had 438,000 3G customers while the pure play 3G operator, Hutchison 3G had 3.25 million subscribers."

Posted to the site on 16th January 2006