Orange Silicon Valley opens Orange GigaStudio to explore high bandwidth applications and foster innovation in Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Orange Silicon Valley today announced the opening of Orange GigaStudio, a 1 gigabit testbed to explore high bandwidth applications and foster innovation in immersive technology. Orange SV created the lab to evaluate high bandwidth applications and accelerate consumer adoption of ultrafast Internet connectivity by providing an experimental testbed for Silicon Valley startups to develop and scale consumer applications. The company will collaborate with early adopters and evangelists in the ultrafast Internet ecosystem, hold events to champion gigabit use cases and applications, and partner with startups to bring their products to Orange markets. The initiative will start with a 12-month trial and will be evaluated for renewal at the end of that period.

While US fiber remains fragmented across a number of local communities today, the French market is growing rapidly and Orange is the leader in the development of ultra-high bandwidth Internet. France is price competitive and offers consumers affordable fiber at less than half the price of comparable US Internet plans. Orange Fiber has 400,000 customers and 3 million French households are eligible for fiber today.

"Gigabit thinking" refers to how gigabit will fundamentally reshape the consumer experience. While common wisdom equates gigabit Internet with more and higher resolution video consumption, the technology demands a reset of product design thinking. By definition, gigabit Internet means that companies are no longer constrained by bandwidth limitations and the requirement to optimize for speed. Additional fiber benefits include low latency for gaming applications, symmetrical connections for faster uploads/cloud syncing, and effectively unlimited multi-tasking for consumer households.

Gabriel Sidhom, VP of Technology Strategy & Development at Orange SV, commented: "Orange is fully committed to rolling out very high broadband networks throughout Europe: Spain, Poland, and especially France with the target of covering 60% of the population by 2020. We are opening the Orange GigaStudio doors for high bandwidth startups to access our customer base. I encourage you to bring your ideas, come connect to our dedicated gigabit connection, and shape the Internet of tomorrow with us."

Orange Silicon Valley will hold the first Orange GigaStudio information session on July 31st. For more information or to apply to the Orange GigaStudio, please visit: www.orangegigastudio.com or follow Orange GigaStudio on Twitter: @osvgigastudio.

about Orange
Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2013 and has 164,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2014, including 101,000 employees in France. Present in 30 countries, the Group has a total customer base of more than 239 million customers at 31 March 2014, including 182 million mobile customers and 16 million fixed broadband customers worldwide. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services.
Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
For more information on the Internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.livetv.orange.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

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SOURCE Orange Silicon Valley