France Telecom

From Wikicompany

France Télécom is the main telecommunication company in France.

The company employs about 220.000 people, and has nearly 90 million customers worldwide, including the French départements d'outre mer. For the last twelve months ending September 2004 it had revenues of 60.11 billion dollars.

Subsidiaries

France Télécom operates through several divisions, like:

• Wanadoo - First and largest ISP in France (second largest ISP in Europe).
• Orange - First mobile phone company in France
• Equant - Business sector telecommunication services
• TP Group - Telecommunications services

History

Up to 1988, France Télécom was known as the Direction Générale des Télécommunications, a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

It became autonomous in 1991. It ceased to be a state monopoly on January 1, 1998.

In 2004 France Telecom is likely to have to pay back 1 billion euros in alleged unlawful subsidies (in breach of state aid rules) it received from the French government, following an 18-month investigation by Mario Monti, the EC Competition Commissioner. It is understood that both France Telecom and the French government are appealing this decision.

The current CEO of France Télécom Thierry Breton was appointed in 2002 after leaving his previouse company Thomson (formerly THOMSON Multimedia SA, owner of the legendary American brand RCA) where he served as the CEO. On February 25th, 2005, he has been appointed minister of finance and industries.