The future's bright... but not for Orange staff or 3G

NEWS Mobile phone giant Orange has announced that it expects to beat its expectations, but soured the news with talk of continued lay offs as it looks to further reduce costs. The company announced plans to axe 1,800 staff across Europe, with the bulk of the redundancies coming in Denmark and the UK. According to a spokesman for the company, as many as 800 staff have already been let go, with a further 1,000 to be announced over the coming year. Further bad news from Orange concerned the long-awaited roll out of 3G services. While the company, now owned by beleaguered France Telecom, claims it is still on target to hit its UK date of 2004, the launch of 3G outside the UK appears to falling further behind. No date was given for the launch outside the UK, but the company told the BBC it will now be later than previously expected.