Tangerine dream: Orange sets a date for GPRS

NEWS The company hopes to make GPRS available to consumers, but the launch depends on when handsets become available. Motorola is thought to be the most likely supplier, though a contract has not been announced. Orange made the announcement when it delivered its annual results. The company reported substantial losses totalling E1.3bn (£800m) for the last year after goodwill and other deductions, slightly higher than analysts expectations. However, during 2000 the company saw its customer base rocket 68 per cent to 30 million. Orange also saw impressive growth in data services, reporting 700,000 WAP users in France and the UK, and 373 million text messages sent. Graham Howe, CFO and deputy CEO of Orange, said: "The underlying trends on take-up and usage of data services indicate to us that our target of 25 per cent of Orange's revenues from data by 2005 may be conservative." Orange were not immediately able to supply details of the number of people using its "HSCSD" high speed data service, launched last year, and widely perceived to be a flop. The company also expects to ship the first samples of the long-awaited Videophone in the next few weeks. This was first expected to hit the market over a year ago. Orange's parent company, France Telecom, announced a disappointing set of earnings, with profits up 32 per cent against analyst's expectations of 34 per cent. Wanadoo, the internet service which took over Freeserve at the end of last year, turned in a loss of E102m (£64m). Orange's share price is hovering above 550p, still below its offer price of 600p.