Orange becomes first European operator to introduce mini SIM cards in support of environmental commitments

• Mini SIM cards halve the amount of waste
• Trial launched to select pay-monthly customers
• Plans to extend mini SIM cards to all new Orange customers in future

Orange today announces that it has become the first European mobile operator to introduce mini SIM cards, an introduction aimed at reducing the amount of waste produced when customers receive new SIMs for an upgrade or new contract.

Customers receive new SIMs embedded in a credit card-sized piece of plastic. Just ten percent of the material is used for the plug-in SIM with the remaining 90% of the card’s plastic unused. The mini SIM cards will halve the amount of waste generated in providing customers with new SIMs by embedding two SIMs in each credit-card sized item during manufacturing.

As an indication of the scale of the issue, more than 2.9 billion SIM cards weighing 11,600 tonnes were shipped to mobile operators across the globe in 2008.

The trial of the mini SIM cards has commenced with select pay-monthly customers and in future will be extended to cover all new SIMs. SIM card providers, Gemalto, Sagem Orga and Oberthur Technologies, are supplying Orange with the mini SIM cards.

Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK, said: “Orange has recently made some significant changes in becoming a more sustainable, greener business. For instance, 80% of our energy now comes from renewable sources, customers are encouraged to recycle handsets in our stores, and we’ve committed to a universal mobile phone charger. Ultimately our goal is to have no waste involved in providing new SIMs and to use organic materials. This is just one small but significant step further in that journey of reducing the environmental impact of our business for our customers.”

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About Orange

Orange is the key brand of the France Telecom Group, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.

At the end of 2008, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 53.5 billion euros (12.7 billion euros for the first quarter of 2009) and at 29 April 2009, the Group had a customer base of almost 184 million customers in 30 countries. These include 123 million mobile customers worldwide and 13 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers in Europe. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband Internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies. In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of March 2009, Orange had almost 17 million customers in the UK – 15.8 million active mobile customers and close to one million fixed broadband customers.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.

For more information: www.orange.com, www.francetelecom.com, www.orange-business.com For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com or visit www.orange.co.uk/newsroom

Source: orange.co.uk

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