Anti-vandalism Campaign

• Billions lost annually to vandalism and sabotage

• Vandalism may compromise attainment of Vision 2030

Nairobi, December 7, 2010… Integrated telecommunications services provider Orange wants Parliament to fast track legislation to curb cable vandalism and sabotage.

Orange Chief Executive Officer Mickael Ghossein said the passing and implementation of laws that introduce stiffer penalties for those found guilty of cable vandalism and sabotage could save the country billions of shillings lost through the malicious acts.

The telecommunications giant also wants crimes relating to cable cuts be classified as Economic Crimes, given the negative impact they have on Kenya’s economy.

The plea comes in the wake of a drastic increase in the number of cable cuts incidents across the country over the past few weeks.

Ghossein said, “Cumulatively, we have had a total of 342 cuts since beginning of year. Of these, 117 were copper cuts and 225 were optic fibre cable cuts”.

Yesterday, three cables were cut in Nairobi and at the Coast nearly grinding business to a halt in the affected areas.

Among those affected were two Business Processing Outsourcing firms, Mater Hospital and a cable that carries traffic for a mobile phone service operator.

In other incidents over the weekend, three cables were cut affecting telecommunications services. Among them is a cable located at the Moi Air Base.

He said it was particularly worrying that the majority of cuts affected the optic fibre cables which cannot be reused after they are cut.

“As opposed to copper which can be resold and smelted, the optic fibre cable is of no use when it is cut. This therefore points at malicious damage to the communications infrastructure, and we believe that this could be a scheme orchestrated by some of our competitors”, he said.

The company losses upto 2 Billion shillings annually due to copper and optic fibre cable cuts.

Ghossein said the money spent repairing the destroyed cables could have otherwise been invested in expanding the telecommunications infrastructure to reach more parts of the country and introduce new products and services into the market.

He regretted that the attainment of the Vision 2030 could be compromised due to the losses accrued by organisations that are cut from the communication grid by vandals.

He added; “Studies have shown that that an increase in connectivity has a positive ripple effect in the economy, and therefore disruption of the telecommunication structure in Kenya goes against the spirit of Vision 2030 as well as other economic aspirations of the country at large”.

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Annex 1:

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About Orange

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With more than 131 million customers, the Orange brand covers internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates. At the end of 2009, France Telecom had sales of 44.8 billion euros (33.7 billion euros for the first nine months of 2010). At 30 September 2010, the Group had a total customer base of 203 million customers in 32 countries.

These include 144.5 million mobile customers and 13.3 million broadband internet (ADSL, FTTH) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv