OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & PARIS, Feb 07, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Sprint /quotes/zigman/240259/quotes/nls/s S -3.27% is partnering with Orange Business Services to provide Sprint with global machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity outside the U.S., the companies announced today. Through this agreement, Sprint will expand its M2M reach to include Sprint-branded global M2M connectivity to 180 countries.

ABI Research forecasts that there will be more than 106 million M2M connections globally, excluding the U.S., in 2012, growing to over 272 million M2M connections in 2016. Given this expected growth, the agreement enables Sprint to expand the reach of its business customers’ machines and basic operations beyond the United States in segments such as automotive and telematics, smart grid and metering, healthcare, retail point-of-sale and security.

“We look forward to working with Orange Business Services as a vital partner as we equip U.S. business customers with a strong global M2M capability and help them reduce complexity by working with a single support team,” said Yijing Brentano, vice president of international wholesale — Sprint. “Sprint recognizes that its customers compete in the global economy and they expect their processing, monitoring, diagnostic and distribution applications to work seamlessly wherever their business takes them. Thanks to Orange’s extensive and proven global network, we will provide our customers with seamless, global M2M solutions with the highest standard in quality of service.”

Orange Business Services, the enterprise arm of France Telecom-Orange /quotes/zigman/189986/quotes/nls/fte FTE -0.38% , is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. Orange Business Services is delivering its global M2M connectivity service to Sprint through its International M2M Center (IMC) based in Brussels. With 200+ experts dedicated to M2M, Orange Business Services brings together expertise in consulting, design, innovation, integration, project management and service management along with leading-edge knowledge of the M2M ecosystem. Its seamless global network provides IP access in 220 countries and territories and supports more than 2.5 million active M2M connections.

“We are thrilled to be Sprint’s partner for end-to-end M2M connectivity outside the U.S.,” said Rodolphe Fruges, vice president, Internet of Things and M2M — France Telecom-Orange. “The choice of Orange by Sprint, a major telecommunications carrier, is a great recognition of our unmatched M2M quality of service and global footprint. We look forward to extending this to Sprint’s enterprise customers as they deploy connected applications that require global and carrier-grade M2M solutions.”

“Sprint is one of our largest customers in the U.S., and we are delighted that they have chosen to partner with us to support such a critical component of their core business,” said Diana Einterz, senior vice president, Americas — Orange Business Services.

By adding Orange’s global capabilities to Sprint’s M2M solutions, customers will benefit from several important advantages, including:

— the ability to extend M2M solutions beyond the United States;

— the ability to have a single, dedicated entity managing global M2M connectivity requirements — with local implementation and local contract negotiation support;

— the ability to readily achieve economy of scale, cost control and faster project deployment when extending M2M capabilities globally, with secure and reliable configurations; and

— an integrated M2M supply chain process, ensuring a one-stop shop and a single provisioning and support process for each country in which a company operates.

In addition to its international footprint, Orange will provide Sprint with integral components to offer a seamless global M2M service, including:

— M2M-specific Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) SIM cards for deployment with a variety of M2M devices;

— a feature-rich Web portal Sprint customers can use to order and manage SIM cards; and

— the ability to provide end-to-end service from the SIM cards up to a customer’s application platform.

Sprint provides domestic and global M2M services through its Emerging Solutions Group, which is part of the company’s Wholesale and Emerging Solutions business unit.

About the Sprint Emerging Solutions Group

With more than a dozen years of experience with M2M, Sprint has been at the forefront of this wireless industry revolution, teaming with and supporting a large and diverse portfolio of innovative companies to create smarter wireless solutions that change the way people work and live. In 2010 Sprint opened the Sprint M2M Collaboration Center in Burlingame, Calif., a hands-on, interactive lab where ideas knowledge and technology unite to produce wirelessly enabled M2M concepts and products. Last year Sprint also introduced the Sprint Command Center, a Web-based portal that allows businesses with Sprint wireless-connected products the ability to manage, activate and de-activate each device. Sprint’s M2M leadership has earned prestigious third-party validation — including the top-ranked North American M2M provider (and second-ranked carrier overall among 12 global service providers) by Analysys Mason, and the Frost & Sullivan 2011 Customer Value Enhancement Award in North America for Machine to Machine Communications.

To learn more, visit www.sprint.com/m2m .

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 53 million customers at the end of 3Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index showed Sprint is the #1 most-improved company in customer satisfaction, across all industries, over the last three years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint .

About Orange

France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with 170,000 employees worldwide, including 102,000 employees in France, and sales of 33.8 billion euros in the first nine months of 2011. Present in 35 countries, the Group had a customer base of 221 million customers at 30 September 2011, including 145 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group’s single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. At 30 September 2011, the Group had 162 million mobile customers and 14 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, “conquests 2015”, Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom /quotes/zigman/189986/quotes/nls/fte FTE -0.38% is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com , www.orange-business.com , www.orange-innovation.tv

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

SOURCE: Sprint and Orange Business Services

                  Sprint          Stephanie Greenwood, 913-315-1612          [email protected]          or          Orange Business Services          Elizabeth Mayeri, +1 212-251-2086          [email protected]          or          Orange          Heloise Rothenbuhler, +33 1 44 44 93 93          [email protected]