registration document France Telecom 2009 - Orange.com

overview of the Group’s Business
6
OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS
International Carriers & Shared Services
The wholesale market’s customers includes voice specialists
(call-shops, prepaid cards), retail operators with or without a
wholesale activity and wholesalers.
Three main factors infl uence the market:
■ price: for a standard quality service, the operators seek
to optimize the traffi c routing cost with frequent price
fl uctuations;
■ quality: superior quality leads to greater call frequency and
duration and customer loyalty and satisfaction;
■ simplicity and outsourcing: simplifying or even outsourcing
the traffi c handling allows for fewer routing changes, limiting
the number of suppliers and stabilizing tariffs and service
quality.
The majority of the growth in this market is achieved through
acquisitions but in 2009 we saw a trend towards partnership
agreements along the lines of those entered into between TATA
and BT, BICS and MTN, ATT and TDC or even T-Mobile and
Orange in the UK.
Orange’s Wholesale Solutions activity
Orange’s Wholesale Solutions activity is based on a major longdistance
network infrastructure and offers a broad range of
solutions on the international market.
Orange’s presence in both the retail and wholesale markets
means it can develop wholesale solutions that are particularly
well adapted to the needs of the retail operators. Orange has
more than one thousand customers which include fi xed-line and
mobile operators and Internet access and content providers.
The Group is unique in that it is very involved in the design,
construction and operation of submarine cables. With its
ownership or co-ownership of several dozen of submarine cable
systems, the group ranks among the world’s largest owners of
submarine lines. In fact, the group currently uses more than half
the world-wide submarine fi ber optic cable capacity, and this
has allowed it to meet the increase in transatlantic traffi c.
The Group’s wholesale activity counts:
■ a seamless international network including a core with
over 100 points of presence, 120,000 km of fi ber and
interconnections with the main submarine cables (TAT-14,
SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, SEA-ME-WE 2/3, SEA-ME-WE 4,
Japan-US, APCN-2, Americas 2 and ECFS). It also includes
a satellite liaison service and hosting services available on
28 sites;
■ a global network of dedicated IP routes enabling the Group
to offer dedicated IP routes in over 100 countries, around 45
outlets, access via an AS 5511, IP MAN s in key cities and
dedicated VPNs for the GPRS Roaming Exchange;
■ direct voice connections and ISDN links: the Group has more
than 250 direct interconnections with operators and over 90
direct ISDN links;
■ 99.99% network availability, 24/7 centralized supervision
and a 4-hour mean time to restoration (MTTR). DWDM
and SONET/SDH technologies provide a secure network
architecture.
Offers
Voice
France Telecom’s network counts some 250 direct routes
and interconnections with more than 550 operators. Orange
International Carriers offers its customers a comprehensive
range of international voice traffi c routing and termination
solutions to help them meet the growing demand, generate
more traffi c and increase their revenue:
■ coverage of over 600 destinations;
■ hubbing solutions for routing voice and mobile traffi c without
the need for additional termination contracts;
■ optimal sound quality via a fully-digital SDH seamless network;
■ 24/7 technical support and real-time handling.
Mobile
Orange International Carriers helps over 130 mobile operators
meet the needs of their own clients. Its range of solutions
includes:
■ interconnection and interoperability solutions for quality
messaging, voice and video-telephony services;
■ a secure HSDPA/3G/3GPRS network interconnection;
■ a dedicated 3GRX service for access to more than 430 mobile
operators in over 160 countries;
■ SMS and MMS operability offerings enabling it to provide
its end customers with “one-to-all” connectivity and rapidly
expand their coverage;
■ the Orange Roaming Hub (Global eXchange) solution for
moving from a bilateral model to a multilateral roaming
system.
Internet and Transmission
The Group’s IP network architecture is built on dedicated
IP routes and interconnections to more than 200 Internet
service providers. It includes agreements with other major
network operators and direct connections to content providers
and end users in over 100 countries. Backed by this powerful
network, Orange International Carriers can offer a wide range
of connectivity options and fl exible solutions to allow operators
to manage traffi c fl ows and offer cutting-edge Internet services.
By selecting specifi c routes for each segment, operators
can improve network quality at a reduced cost in a secure
environment thanks to 24/7 tool monitoring.
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