T-Mobile

T-Mobile is a mobile telephone provider, owned by Deutsche Telekom (the T stands for Telekom). It operates several GSM networks in Europe and the United States. T-Mobile also has financial stakes in mobile operators in Central and Eastern Europe. Globally, T-Mobile has some 150 million subscribers, making it the world's seventh largest mobile phone service provider by subscribers and the third largest multinational after the United Kingdom's Vodafone and Spain's Telefónica. Based in Germany, T-Mobile is present in ten other European countries, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States. T-Mobile is also currently in contract with Apple as service providers for Apple iPhones. In late 2005, Deutsche Telekom attempted to acquire rival mobile network operator O2, but was beaten out by Spain's Telefónica. In March 2008, the company announced they planned to acquire Siemens Wireless Modules (now known as Cinterion Wireless Modules) as part of the JOMA consortium. The Siemens Wireless Modules spin off to Cinterion Wireless Modules was concluded on May 1, 2008.

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Orange

Orange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was acquired by France Télécom in August 2000. In 2006, the company's ISP operations, previously Wanadoo, were also rebranded Orange. Orange is now the unique commercial façade of almost all France Telecom services. Orange France was incorporated in 2005 and has its headquarters in Arcueil, France.

History
Orange (mobile network operator)
Microtel Communications Ltd. was formed in April 1990 as a consortium comprising Pactel Corporation, British Aerospace, Millicom and French company Matra (British Aerospace soon acquired full control of the company). In 1991 Microtel was awarded a license to develop a mobile network in the UK, and in July 1991 Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd acquired Microtel from BAe. BAe was paid in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd. shares, giving the company a 30% share. Hutchison Whampoa held 65% and Barclays Bank the remaining 5%. Microtel was renamed Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. in 1994. The Orange brand was created by an internal team at Microtel headed by Chris Moss (Marketing Director) and supported by Martin Keogh, Rob Furness and Ian Pond. The brand consultancy Wolff Olins was charged with designing the brand values and logo and advertising agency WCRS created the Orange slogan "The Future's bright, the Future's Orange" along with the now famous advertising. The logo is square because it was felt that the word orange could be seen as a fruit and it needed to be strong in the business world rather like American Express and Hertz. It was also important to establish it as the colour Orange, which is seen as a strong Feng Shui colour. The Orange network was launched on 28 April 1994.

Orange plc was formed in 1995 as a holding company for the Orange group. France Telecom formed the present company in 2001 after acquiring Orange plc (which had been acquired by Mannesmann AG, itself purchased by Vodafone shortly after, leading Vodafone to divest Orange) and merging its existing mobile operations into the company. The company was initially 100% owned by France Telecom (although there were and still remain minority investors in some of the national operating companies). In 2001 15% was sold in an IPO, but in 2003 the outstanding shares were bought back by France Telecom.

Orange (internet service provider)
Orange operates as an ISP in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Guinea, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland. France Telecom also operates as an ISP in Poland through its stake in Telekomunikacja Polska, which is now being co-branded as Orange. It is currently the largest ISP in Europe with over ten million subscribers (including those of Telekomunikacja Polska), largely concentrated in France, the UK, Spain and Poland, and was originally known as Wanadoo.

Wanadoo was floated on the stock market on 18 July 2000. In 2000, Wanadoo also took over the major British ISP Freeserve, which had previously been part of the Dixons Group (now DSG International plc). Following the buy-out, Freeserve maintained its own branding for a while before finally changing to the Wanadoo name on 28 April 2004.
However, the name Wanadoo changed to Orange on 1 June 2006 to simplify branding by the common parent company, France Telecom. This merging of companies has created a single brand offering mobile telecommunications and internet services.

Recent changes

In June 2005, France Telecom announced that its ISP Wanadoo and business service Equant would both be renamed Orange in 2006 to harmonize branding. In July 2005, France Telecom announced its intention to acquire 80% of the Spanish mobile phone operator Amena, a deal that was completed in November 2005. Amena was also rebranded to Orange with Wanadoo in Spain and Uni2, a fixed line provider, to complete a "triple play".
At the beginning of 2006, Orange in Slovakia started providing triple-play services via FTTH under the name "Orange Homebox".

On 27 September 2007, T-Mobile Netherlands bought Orange Netherlands from France Telecom and split the two segments. Mobile telephony was integrated with T-Mobile, broadband is now provided by a subsidiary called Online. The European Commission had already approved the acquisition as it was not seen as a danger to competition.
In 2008 Orange was given permission from Apple to sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets.

In September 2009, Orange was the first to declare that they would be selling the iPhone in the UK once O2's exclusivity had ended. Vodafone announced that they too would be selling the iPhone in the UK. This however would be in early 2010, whereas Orange would start selling the iPhone at the end of 2009.

On 1 January 2009, the swiss multimedia shops company CityDisc is officially property of the France Telecom Group and becomes Orange CityDisc, the first hybrid shops in Europe to sell not only cellphones and accessories but also music, films and videogames.
On 5 April 2009, France Telecom (Orange) won an Arbitration Court case against Orascom Telecom, condemning OT to transfer its entire stake in Mobinil to FT at a price of E£441,658 per Mobinil share.
On 8 September 2009 Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. It is unclear the future of either brand when such deal is completed in November. On 28 October 2009 Orange will change the name of its Luxemburgian telco VOXMobile to Orange.

Use of the Orange brand by other companies
Because the brand was originally owned by Hutchison, many of Hutchison's Asian and Oceanic subsidiaries continued using the Orange brand until recently.
On 1 February 2006, Hutchison Telecom announced that its Australian affiliate would withdraw the Orange brand name. Its CDMA network was shut down on 9 August 2006, after the vast majority of its customers had already migrated to the 3 network (also owned by Hutchison).
The Orange brand name has also now been removed from India. Orange Mumbai was at first rebranded to Hutch, but has now been rebranded Vodafone in 2007.
Orange SA pulled out of its joint venture with Thailand's TelecomAsia, TA Orange, in 2003. TelecomAsia (now True Corporation) continued to use the Orange brand until 2006, when the operator was rebranded as True Move.
The Orange brand is used under licence by Partner Communications Company Ltd. in Israel and Mauritius Telecom in Mauritus.

Orange is the current sponsor of Rockcorps in the UK, a community based organisation where volunteers donate four hours of their time in exchange for a concert ticket.
Operations within the Orange Group
Most operations in Orange SA are also branded Orange, but not all - the exceptions being Mobistar in Belgium, Mobinil in Egypt and Optimus Telecomunicações in Portugal. Some of these operations are not a majority holding of the Orange Group, others have strong minority interests.

The situation in Belgium is unusual. Prior to the acquisition by France Telecom, Orange plc owned and operated a network there called Orange. Since France Telecom also owned the market leader Mobistar, one of the two networks had to be sold following the sale. A decision was made to sell Orange to KPN and keep Mobistar. Orange continued to trade for a while after the sale to KPN before rebranding to BASE. So for a period of time in Belgium, the Orange owned company Mobistar was competing with an operator called Orange.

Criticism
On 21 March 2007 Watchdog, a television series by the BBC focusing on consumer protection, published the results from a Broadband survey they held. According to the survey Orange is the worst ISP in the UK. 68% of Orange customers that took part in the survey said they were unsatisfied with Orange's Customer Service, Orange was voted as the most unreliable broadband provider, Orange had the highest number of dissatisfied customers and two thirds of Orange customers experienced problems cancelling their Orange broadband. In response to the problems with Orange UK broadband and 3G broadband during March 2009 and April 2009 the 3G data network has been upgraded to 3.5G and increased signal coverage. This new network can be seen in action on many mobile phones which display network for instance the Nokia N95, when the phone detects the higher speed. The Orange UK mobile broadband USB adapter works with the new network. The 3G networks for all telecommunication suppliers still struggle to get the throughput that was originally advertised when these networks were announced. The UK Telecomms Regulator has reported on the challenges for all suppliers.
A consumer organisation forum web site known as OrangeProblems.co.uk focuses on the poor level of service provided by Orange Broadband in the UK. Initially set up as WanadooProblems.co.uk, the site focuses on the infamous Orange Local Loop Unbundling and poor Customer service but covers a wider range of Orange operations such as lost email, significantly delayed SMTP and outages, suspicions of eavesdropping, et al.
Orange Mobile has been criticised during a Channel 4 News investigation for a lack of security which potentially exposed customer records to fraud.
YouGov's report reveals that Orange has improved its customer satisfaction ratings, with emphasis said to be on network reliability, network coverage reach, and "its ability to deliver a continuous mobile broadband connection".
"Being awarded the best mobile broadband network by our customers across the UK is a real honour. We have taken significant measures to improve the quality of our network for both voice and data, and are so glad that our customers are really starting to see the benefit", said Paul Tollet, vice president, Orange Business. In August 2007 Orange was criticised for summarily deleting email accounts tied to old Freeserve and Wanadoo 'pay as you go' dial-up accounts with no warning.
In August 2008, after well publicised problems with iPhone 3G performances, customers compared their download speed and discovered that Orange in France was capping 3G download bandwidth. Orange admitted capping to 384kbit/s, way below the theoretic 7.2Mbit/s provided by the iPhone.
In June 2008 Alex Singleton of the Daily Telegraph lambasted Orange's customer service.
"The hatred that large numbers of Orange customers have towards their network is mostly France Telecom's fault. The French firm utterly wrecked the company it bought. Internet forums are now full of angry customers who have been billed incorrectly or otherwise wronged, and who have found ringing Orange to complain a horrible experience."

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Vodafone

Vodafone is a British multinational mobile network operator headquartered in Newbury, United Kingdom. Vodafone is the world's largest mobile telecommunication network company, based on revenue, and has a market value of about £71.2 billion (November 2009). It currently has operations in 31 countries and partner networks in a further 40 countries.
The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones".[
As of 2009, Vodafone had an estimated 303 million customers in 31 markets across 5 continents. On this measure, it is the second largest mobile telecom group in the world behind China Mobile.
Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, based on number of subscribers.

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China Mobile Limited

China Mobile Limited provides mobile voice and multimedia services through its nationwide mobile telecommunications network, the largest of its kind in the world. While a state-owned enterprise, it is listed on both the NYSE and the Hong Kong stock exchange. In addition to the world’s largest mobile network, China Mobile has also the greatest number of mobile subscribers.

History
A state-owned enterprise directly controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China but also a public company that is listed on the NYSE and the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Mobile has dominated Chinese mobile services since its inception.

State control
China Mobile was created from the mobile-phone division of China Telecom after its 1999 break-up, and incorporated in 2000 It enjoys substantial protectionist benefits from China's government but also experiences frequent government intervention in its business affairs. As late as 2003, and as a result of governmental protectionism, China Mobile was one part of a duopoly that saw China Unicom and China Mobile control China's mobile services market.[5] Listed in 1997, government control is maintained through China Mobile Communications Corporation, a presumably government-owned holding company, which owns 100 percent equity interest in China Mobile (HK) Group Limited that in turn holds over seventy percent of China Mobile's equity interest, the remainder being controlled by public investors

Rural subscriber base
China Mobile has historically held a greater share of the rural market than competitors. By 2006 it had expanded its network so that 97% of the Chinese population lived in an area that received reception and has since seen a sustained stream of new, rural mobile customers. China Mobile also offers information services targeted at the rural market, chief among these being the Agricultural Information Service, which allows a variety of activities to take place through the use of mobile phones and the internet. These include the sale and purchase of agricultural products, access to market prices for agricultural products, connecting potential employees with employers looking to hire, dissemination of information by local government, wire transfers, bank withdrawals and payments, etc.

Overseas activities
China Mobile expanded overseas in 2007, with the purchase of Paktel in Pakistan, and launched the ZoNG brand there a year later.[
Acquisitions
In May 2008 the company took over China Tietong, a fixed-line telecom and the third largest broadband ISP in China, thus adding internet services to its core business of mobile services.
As a mainland China-based company listed and incorporated in Hong Kong, China Mobile is a red chip.

Network
China Mobile's has the world's largest GSM network, which encompasses all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly-administered municipalities in Mainland China and includes Hong Kong, too .GPRS is utilized for data transmission.
Its 3G network, still under construction as of 2009, utilizes the TD-SCDMA standard, which China Mobile helped develop. In 2009 it obtained the requisite licenses needed to pursue full deployment of this new network, and the prior year it had field-tested TD-SCDMA networks in eight cities.

Rankings
As of 2009, China Mobile is the world's largest mobile phone operator by number of subscribers, operator of the world's largest mobile network, the largest Chinese company listed overseas and the largest telecom carrier in Asia.

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