Concept
Orange S.A. (ɔʁɑ̃ʒ ɛs ɑ), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. In 2015, the group had a revenue of €40 billion. The company's head office is located in Issy-les-Moulineaux. Orange has been the company's main brand for mobile, landline, internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since 2006. The Orange brand originated in the United Kingdom in 1994 after Hutchison Whampoa acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications: that company became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and then was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. The France Télécom company was rebranded to Orange on 1 July 2013. The company has faced criticism due to the Orange S.A. suicides. In 1792, under the French Revolution, the first communication network was developed to enable the rapid transmission of information in a warring and unsafe country. That was the optical telegraphy network of Claude Chappe. In 1878, after the invention of the electrical telegraph and then the invention of the telephone, the French State created a Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Telephone Services were added to the ministry when they were nationalised in 1889. However, it was not until 1923 that the second 'T' (for 'telephones') appeared and the department of P&T became PTT. In 1941, a General Direction of Telecommunications was created within this ministry. Then, in 1944, the National Centre of Telecommunications Studies (CNET) was created to develop the telecommunications industry in France. In the 1970s, France attempted to make up for its delay in developing communications infrastructure, compared to other countries, by launching the programme "Delta LP" (increasing the main lines). It was at that time that the majority of the local loop was built (that is all the cables linking the users to the operator).
