[April 19, 2012]

Orange Business Services and Verizon Enterprise Solutions Customers Can Now See Eye-to-Eye at Video Meetings

Orange Business Services and Verizon Enterprise Solutions are joining forces to meet enterprises' increasing demand for video collaboration offerings. The two companies have signed an interprovider connectivity agreement enabling Verizon Immersive Video Exchange customers and Orange Telepresence Community customers to collaborate via video meetings with a greater pool of participating customers, partners and suppliers worldwide, using Cisco TelePresence endpoints.

Telepresence (News - Alert) replicates face-to-face interactions so realistically that it feels as though everyone is in the same room - even though they may be thousands of miles apart. Through this interprovider solution, enterprises already using Cisco TelePresence provided by either Orange (News - Alert) or Verizon can hold real-time video meetings with one another in a highly secure, consistent and transparent manner.

Telepresence has inherent business benefits such as easy remote collaboration, quicker decision-making and issue resolution, more efficient use of limited resources and stronger relationships. By expanding the telepresence community, these advantages can be extended beyond internal collaboration and decision-making to facilitate all aspects of external business communications throughout all of the company's stakeholder relations.

Andrew McFadzen, head of International Network Solutions at Orange Business Services, said: "Orange is committed to implementing interexchange services to make it easier for our customers to communicate via telepresence, regardless of network or exchange. This agreement expands the telepresence ecosystem for customers of both providers, generating an even more compelling return on investment for telepresence customers. Our objective is to make telepresence as border-free as a phone call. We will continue to work with companies like Verizon to provide our customers access to as many otions as possible and enabling them to take full advantage of the business benefits of real-time, virtual meetings through telepresence."

Mike Palmer, vice president of product strategy for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said: "The consumerization of IT is helping to drive a new expectations and greater demand for video in the workplace. Our agreement with Orange takes another step toward making video communications as available and simple to use as voice, while increasing a company's return on its telepresence investment. Now video meetings can drive greater productivity and value across the four walls of one particular business or one particular network."

Editor's note

Orange Business Services now has telepresence interoperability agreements with AT&T, BT (News - Alert), Cisco, Tata, Telefonica and Verizon. To allow businesses to communicate visually with external entities, Orange Business Services offers Telepresence Community.

Verizon now has telepresence interoperability agreements with BT, Cisco, Orange and Tata as well as an Open Video Communications offering that links video systems that were previously incompatible.

About Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services, the France Telecom (News - Alert)-Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. With the world's largest, seamless network for voice and data, Orange Business Services reaches 220 countries and territories with local support in 166. Offering a comprehensive package of communication services covering cloud computing, enterprise mobility, M2M, security, unified communications, videoconferencing, and broadband, Orange Business Services delivers a best-in-class customer experience across a global landscape. Thousands of enterprise customers and 1.4 million mobile data users rely on an Orange Business Services international platform for communicating and conducting business. Orange Business Services is a four-time winner of Best Global Operator at the World Communication Awards. Learn more at www.orange-business.com

France Telecom-Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with 172,000 employees worldwide and sales of 45.3 billion euros in 2011. Orange is the Group's single brand for Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

About Verizon Enterprise Solutions

Verizon Enterprise Solutions creates global connections that generate growth, drive business innovation and move society forward. With industry-specific solutions and a full range of global wholesale products and services offered over the company's secure mobility, cloud, strategic networking and advanced communications platforms, Verizon Enterprise Solutions helps open new opportunities around the world for innovation, investment and business transformation. Visit verizon.com/enterprise to learn more.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless (News - Alert) operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 108 million total connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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