Wanadoo to transform into Orange

France Telecom the company behind the Wanadoo and Orange brands, is set to rename Wanadoo to bring it under the single brand identity of Orange. It is only a little over a year ago that Freeserve
was rebranded as Wanadoo. More details are available over on the The Register.

To some extent this may make some sense, as with the convergence of Internet access and mobile telephony, the ability to offer customers a single bill may prove attractive.

Update 3pm: TelecomTV has some further background on the rebranding. It appears this move is part
of the plan by CEO Didier Lombard to transform France Telecom in the next few years. There is a three year plan called Next – which stands for New Experience in Telecom services. Todays news is
considered the first big move since M. Lombard took over from Thierry Breton earlier in 2005 who left to become Finance Minister in the French government. France Telecom is hoping to have around
5 million broadband customers in the UK by 2008.