According to rumors surfacing in the French press, the Paris, France-based carrier believes the name Orange is more widely recognized as a brand across the world. It is thought to have been looking at its brand portfolio for several months now, although a decision is not expected before a meeting on June 29.

The Orange brand has been highly successful since it was invented by the London, UK-based brand consultants Wolff Olins for Hutchison Telecommunications (UK), which was seeking a new name for its Personal Communications Network in the UK.

Orange was launched in the UK in April 1994, but the name was greeted by universal derision in the UK media, including the Evening Standard and the Financial Times in its Lex column.

Orange UK faced a tough battle. It was entering a UK mobile phone market as the last entrant in a field of four mobile operators, including the mobile goliath Vodafone Group, as well as BT Cellnet (now known as O2 Plc), the former mobile operation of BT Group.

Orange achieved success as it offered users easy to understand and relatively cheap Talk Plans, with per second billing, Caller ID, and itemized billing free-of-charge. By the end of 1995 Orange more than doubled its UK customer base to 785,000, compared to 379,000 at the end of 1994.

In 1996, Orange underwent its first initial public offering on the London and Nasdaq markets. Its major shareholders at the time were Hutchison Whampoa with 48%, and British Aerospace with 22%. With a valuation of GBP 2.4bn ($4.37bn), Orange became the youngest company to enter the FTSE-100.

In July 1997 it reached one million customers in the UK. Two years later in 1999 the Orange brand began to expand internationally, to countries including Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Australia, Israel and India.

It was in October 1999 that the German industrial conglomerate, Mannesmann, which was the majority shareholder and the leading mobile operator in Germany, announced it was acquiring Orange for GBP 19.8bn ($36.10). The offer was completed in February 2000 and Orange was delisted from the London and Nasdaq stock exchanges.

However that was not the end of the story, because at the same time Mannesmann was itself been acquired by Vodafone. The deal was only approved by the European Commission if Vodafone agreed to sell Orange.

In August 2000, France Telecom acquired Orange from Vodafone for GBP 25.1bn ($45.82bn). France Telecom then merged Orange with its existing mobile operation to form the new Orange group.

In 2001 Orange SA was floated on the EuroNext Paris (formerly the Paris Bourse) with a secondary listing in London. The French carrier purchased the remaining outstanding minority shareholdings in early 2005 and made it a fully owned unit of France Telecom.

The Orange brand now operates in the UK, France, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Thailand, the Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, Botswana and Madagascar. The Orange group also has controlled operations in Belgium (Mobistar) and a joint controlling interest in Egypt (MobiNil). The Orange group also has minority interests in Portugal (Optimus), Austria, (Connect Austria), and Mumbai/India (BPL Mobile).

Meanwhile, Solomon Trujillo, the American former chief executive of Orange, the UK mobile business has been appointed by Australian telecoms group Telstra as its new chief executive, ending months of uncertainty.