French incumbent Orange today announced its ‘Essentials 2020’ five-year, €15bn investment plan, aimed at strengthening fibre and 4G networks across EMEA.
Announcing the plan, Orange CEO Stephane Richard addressed recent reports around the sale of…
French incumbent Orange today announced its ‘Essentials 2020’ five-year, €15bn investment plan, aimed at strengthening fibre and 4G networks across EMEA.
Announcing the plan, Orange CEO Stephane Richard addressed recent reports around the sale of a 49% stake in Dailymotion – saying the company was keeping its options open, and had not signed any exclusivity negotiations agreement with Hong Kong-based PCCW – as well as possible interest in Telecom Italia – saying there had been no formal talks.
The company will focus its fibre investments and connected home objectives on France, Spain (especially if the European Commission allows its proposed acquisition of fixed-line operator Jazztel), Poland (where Orange is deploying its own fibre network) and Belgium (where it will test cable technology by launching a TV offering)
In mobile, the company’s ambition is to reach more than 95% 4G coverage across European footprint in 2018.
In Africa and the Middle East, Orange said it would emphasise the continued deployment broadband networks, while launching 4G in seven countries this year, and the remainder by 2018.
In content, the company is focused on Orange TV, which will become more accessible via Polaris, a new TV interface, available now in Romania and soon in France.
Other key growth areas will be mobile financial services including money transfers and payments in the MEA region, as well as payment and mobile banking in Europe; connected devices (the Internet of Things) and Orange Business Services, which includes cloud services and cyber-defence.
Orange said its EBITDA would this year reach a low point of between €11.9bn and €12.1bn, and that it would maintain a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2x over the medium term.
The company is present in Europe (Armenia, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Spain and the UK), the Middle East (Egypt, Iraq and Jordan) and Africa (Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia).
