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Orange expands travel products

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 09 Oct 2013
Orange Horizons CEO S'ebastien Crozier says the company's travel products were developed to address high roaming costs.
Orange Horizons CEO S'ebastien Crozier says the company's travel products were developed to address high roaming costs.

Orange, the French telecoms company that has been making inroads in the South African market through a partnership with Nashua Mobile, has extended its initial travel product range to the UK and C^ote d'Ivoire.

This follows the June launch of Orange Corners in Nashua Mobile stores in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town, when the operator introduced SIM and mobile hotspot products for travellers to Botswana and France.

S'ebastien Crozier, CEO of Orange Horizons - the company's local consumer arm - says the latest product expansion is in line with Orange's strategy to extend South African products to popular travel destinations worldwide.

"The high costs associated with global roaming call and data services put a damper on the joy and excitement of travelling. Orange offers travellers the option to do so at local rates [and] avoid high roaming costs." The products can be bought locally before travellers depart to Botswana, France, the UK or C^ote d'Ivoire.

Nashua Mobile CEO Mark Taylor says the UK product assists South African travellers to the European sovereign state - "one of the most popular international tourism and business destinations" - with telecoms management.

"The Orange Ivory Coast services, meanwhile, will help South Africans doing business in Africa to manage their costs, while allowing visitors and expatriates from Ivory Coast to be serviced in SA."

Product range

The UK product is a UK SIM card, already loaded with either £10 (about R160) or £30 (about R480) credit. "Once you have loaded the SIM card into a phone, you will then need to choose the best prepaid plan, depending on your needs abroad," says Orange. The £10 option costs R240 (with a R40 transaction fee included) and the £30 option is available for R660 (R110 transaction fee).

For travellers going to C^ote d'Ivoire, a prepaid SIM card (which works in the same manner as the UK card) costs R16 and comes pre-loaded with 500 West African CFA franc (about R10).

"This is called Formule Seconde. It is a special offer for those who make short duration calls and wish to be charged for the exact time they spend on the phone during calls," explains Crozier.

A 5 000F scratch card is also available for the region, at R135 (including a R25 transaction fee). This option includes a 10% bonus.

For Internet access in these regions, Orange offers a 3G+ dongle, which plugs into a USB port. This is priced at R385 (including a R65 transaction fee), and includes 5GB of data, valid for 30 days after first activation. The dongle is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Apple Mac operating systems.

There are currently four Orange Corners in SA - in Sandton City, Johannesburg; Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria; and Icon Centre and Canal Walk in Cape Town.

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