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Published on 11 July 2022, updated on 18 April 2024

Orange high-speed networks: what’s new in 2022?

To adapt to the needs and uses of citizens and consumers all over the world, we’re continuing to develop our networks along with our infrastructure. Here’s an update on our progress.

Offering enhanced connectivity

Major investment to ensure network deployments closely match our customers’ needs

We have invested €13 billion over the past 10 years in fiber optic technology.

Worldwide, by the end of September 2021, we had deployed 10.8 FTTH connections and we’re now rolling out networks in major cities in Morocco, Jordan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.

In January 2022, we celebrated the milestone of 6 million customers in France.

Orange 4G and 5G: recognized service quality

5G is available in Africa in Botswana and 7 European countries: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

In March 2022, 5G covered 45% of the French population within 1234 towns and communities.

In France, we’ve been recognized for the 11th year running by regulator ARCEP for the quality of our network. The study showed we offered the highest speeds, especially for 5G users. Our leadership position is a direct result of us prioritizing 5G performance through the mass deployment of 3.5 GHz antennas which considerably improve the user experience. We’re also testing industrial 5G applications across a number of ‘factory of the future’ projects.

In Europe, 99% of the population had 4G coverage at the end of 2020. In the Middle East and Africa, by mid-2021, 4G was available across 17 countries, connecting 4 million Orange customers.

 A new milestone in the transformation of its mobile networks in Europe, phasing out 2G and 3G by the end of the decade.

Strengthening our leadership in infrastructure

Thanks to these subsidiaries, we optimize, develop, and make better use of our network infrastructure.

TOTEM: our European TowerCo

TOTEM, the European TowerCo wholly owned by Orange SA, has been operating since November 2021. It strengthens our position in managing and operating passive mobile infrastructures and helps us tap into new growth opportunities.

Photo de Nicolas Roy

TOTEM has become a new player for regional development in Europe. TOTEM will create value for all stakeholders - operators, landlords and real estate players, regional authorities, companies -, thanks to its connectivity solutions and equipment sharing. TOTEM’s teams will rely on the excellence of its mobile infrastructure and a thorough understanding of its customers’ needs to develop connectivity services everywhere, in both rural and urban locations.

Nicolas Roy, CEO of TOTEM Group


TOTEM aims to become a leader on the European TowerCo market.

 

As of 1 November 2021, TOTEM’s passive mobile infrastructure portfolio includes over 26,000 sites in France and Spain, the two largest countries where Orange is present.

TOTEM France will manage 18,500 macro-sites with a mix of 58% tower sites, 30% flat roofs and 12% in other locations.

TOTEM Spain will manage 7,900 macro-sites, distributed equally between tower sites and flat roofs.

Orange Concessions: ensuring everyone can access fiber in France

Operational since November 2021, Orange Concessions is a new company 50% owned by Orange and 50% owned by a consortium of national, regional and local French partners.

Orange Concessions' overriding ambition is to give everyone in rural areas access to fiber while sharing the investment effort with its shareholders, La Banque des Territoires, CNP Assurances and EDF Invest.

Orange Concessions supports local authorities with their region's digital development: it orchestrates the design, construction and management of these fiber networks.

FiberCo in Poland: deploying fiber for Orange Polska customers

This project aims to enable Orange Polska to pursue its ambitious strategy of deploying optical fiber by sharing its investment costs. This FiberCo is owned 50/50 with APG and the joint venture aims to support the rollout of fiber in Poland, in areas where access to very high-speed broadband infrastructure is limited or inexistent. The FiberCo integrates 2.4 million lines, including 1.7 million households that will be deployed over the next five years.

How networks are now a social and societal necessity

Orange networks provide high-performance fixed and mobile broadband connectivity for customers in 26 countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Because we consider networks to be the backbone of the “responsible digital world”, we are developing our infrastructure with the ambition of supporting consumer needs as well as technological and societal developments.

 

Networks help us dream and more!

 

Eternal Notre-Dame: an immersive expedition through time and space
Working with our partners on this high-profile project demonstrates the Orange Group’s desire and pride to be part of the long-term collective effort to restore Notre-Dame de Paris, by relying on our innovation, virtual and augmented reality expertise as well as our very high-speed networks, while promoting the new immersive technologies offered by the French digital ecosystem.

Digital technology: a powerful catalyst for the energy and ecological transition
IADYS, supported since 2019 by Orange 5G Lab, has developed Jellyfishbot, a small robot capable of collecting waste and hydrocarbons from the surface of the water in ports, lakes or industrial sites. It can be controlled remotely thanks to HD image feedback and the low latency of the 5G network.