Orange today announces a radical new step in its commitment to deliver the best roaming experience to its customers, with the removal of roaming charges in its largest post-paid plans across its entire European footprint - the first operator to do so. The new plans, for customers travelling within Europe are launching across Orange's key European markets, including France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Slovakia and Luxembourg and implemented throughout 2014.
The initiative is coupled with the news that Orange will launch 4G roaming from February for customers in France travelling to the UK, Portugal and South Korea. Further to this, technical readiness to deliver 4G roaming has been achieved in a further five markets including the UK (EE), Spain, Romania, Portugal and Moldova. 4G roaming will be fully available across Orange's European footprint by the end of 2014, including major destinations outside of Europe.
Orange's latest roaming initiative signifies a new type of offer in the market, whereby consumers on its largest post-paid plans, who typically travel abroad more frequently will no longer need to think about taking out a separate roaming bundle. Additional roaming charges will be removed on a range of plans starting from €30 per month, depending on local market dynamics, allowing customers to roam within Europe (and beyond in certain markets) on Orange and all partner networks.  In France, for example, Origami Play can use data for up to seven or 14 days a year (with a cap of 1 GB or 2 GB respectively, per year). Or Origami Jet Europe customers can use data up to 30 days a year (with a cap of 7 GB per year) as well unlimited voice and SMS in Europe. Also, already available in the UK, EE offers inclusive roaming calls and texts to 30 international destinations, including the US and Australia as part of its 4GEE Extra plans.
Orange is also making improvements to its existing Go Europe roaming tariffs for its remaining pay-monthly customers across Europe, as Orange strives to make roaming accessible to everyone. The improved Go Europe offers will be tailored to individual market needs, with offers launched from February onwards. Orange first introduced its Go Europe roaming offers in June 2013 with the simple premise that for a few euros, for a few days, all customers would get everything they needed to use their phone abroad without facing any surprises.  With continual innovation in roaming to reduce cost and remove surprises, Orange has seen the volume of data being used abroad grow 90 per cent year on year; and the number of roamers using data increase by 10 per cent year on year.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orange, commented: "Orange shares its customers' conviction that using a mobile phone abroad should be worry-free. Today's bold initiatives are designed to deliver on that promise, removing the need for many of our frequent roamers to even think about taking out a separate bundle. The results of our first Go Europe offers indicate that we are striking a chord with our customers, and we hope that these new improvements will instil further confidence that using your mobile abroad won't bite.
"We have made tremendous progress with our 4G deployments in Europe and beyond and with roaming now a reality, our customers travelling abroad can get the full benefits of their smartphones without surprises."

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