Orange and Sony Ericsson Announce Music Partnership

Exclusive agreement on WALKMAN® handset range and European sponsorship deal.

London/Paris, March 3, 2006 – Orange and Sony Ericsson today announce a partnership and integrated marketing campaign aimed at delivering the best mobile music experience to their European customers in 2006.

Orange will roll out the recently announced Sony Ericsson Walkman® phones across its European footprint in 2006. Orange and Sony Ericsson have in addition collaborated on an exclusive nine-month European sponsorship deal with multi platinum selling and Grammy Award winning Sony BMG artist Christina Aguilera. The partnership takes a fully integrated approach, with both parties working together for the first time across core business areas, including mobile phones, marketing communications, music services, content, sales and distribution.

A shared philosophy for mobile music excellence and previous joint initiatives led to this partnership and sponsorship deal, which includes the largest joint marketing commitment by both parties to date. The collaboration will enhance the consumer’s mobile music experience via a highly targeted marketing strategy which will be rolled out in Orange’s European markets.

The marketing campaign with Christina Aguilera includes a nine-month marketing platform built around the artist’s forthcoming single, album release and European Tour. Orange customers will have access to exclusive mobile music content via the Orange World portal such as full-track downloads, exclusive remixes, unseen videos via streaming and download, ringtones, realtones and wallpaper.

Orange customers will further benefit from the partnership as all new handsets within the Sony Ericsson Walkman® phone portfolio, commencing with the W810i and W300i, will be customised to fit with Orange’s successful Signature strategy. The Signature approach offers a consistent and easy to use interface across a variety of handset manufacturers.

"We have established Sony Ericsson Walkman® phones as credible digital music players and helped create a new genre of mobile phones,” said Jan Wäreby, Corporate Executive Vice President, Head of Sales & Marketing, Sony Ericsson. “The partnership we are announcing today with Orange incorporates all areas of the marketing mix, bringing great value to both partners whilst at the same time providing an unparalleled music offering for consumers.”

Frank Boulben, Executive Vice President, Brand Consumer Marketing, Orange comments: “Music is a key strategic priority for Orange in 2006. Through the Walkman range and exclusive sponsorship deal, this venture represents an exciting opportunity to respond to customer needs and to offer a seamless music experience to our broad customer base across Europe"

Notes to Editors:

* Walkman® is the registered trademark of Sony Corporation
* The agreement covers Belgium, France, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK
* Orange will be first or joint first to market with the roll out of the Sony Ericsson Walkman® phones


About Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications serves the global communications market with innovative and feature-rich mobile phones, accessories, PC-cards and M2M solutions. Established as a joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in 2001, with global corporate functions located in London, the company employs approximately 5,000 people worldwide, including R&D sites in Europe, Japan, China and America. Sony Ericsson is the global title sponsor of the Women’s Tennis Association, and works with the Association to promote the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in over 80 cities during the year. For more information on Sony Ericsson, please visit www.sonyericsson.com

About Orange
Orange and wirefree and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange PCS. The Orange group is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom group and has reporting operations in 17 countries across Europe and beyond. Within the Orange group, the Orange brand operates in the UK, France, Poland, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, the Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, the Netherlands, Botswana, and Madagascar. The Orange group also has controlled operations in Belgium (Mobistar), a joint controlling interest in Egypt (MobiNil) and minority interests in Portugal (Optimus) and Austria (One). As at the end of December 2005, Orange had 14.9 million active customers in the UK, and over 22.43 million registered customers in France. As at the end of December 2005 (excluding 9.92 million customers in Poland) Orange reporting companies had over 71 million customers worldwide including over 10 million Amena customers in Spain. Orange, along with TIM, Telefonica and T-Mobile, is a founding member of the FreeMove alliance. Further information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com.

Contact Information

Garry Lockwood

Sony Ericsson Press Office

Sony Ericsson

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