France Telecom is gearing up for a major rebranding of its Wanadoo internet division. Last year, France Telecom revealed plans to splash out €200m to repaint Wanadoo to Orange - the brightly-coloured name of its mobile phone operation.

The axing of the Wanadoo brand forms part of France Telecom's NExT (New Experience in Telecom services) strategy, which the telco claims will "give customers access to a universe of services that are both high value and simple".

So far, the firm has been reluctant to reveal any details of the name change. Today, however, it slipped out that one of the "NExT major milestones from Q2" would be the "re-branding campaign".

No one from France Telecom was available to comment at the time of writing, while a spokesman for Wanadoo UK declined to add any further details.

News of the rebranding came as France Telecom revealed that it now has 8.1m broadband customers in Europe - up 10 per cent since December. In the UK, the number of ADSL punters stands at 986,000.

France Telecom has also increased the number of mobile broadband users by 45 per cent over the last year to 2.2m punters.

Orange UK saw revenues rise five per cent to €1.44bn, matching a similar percentage rise in punters to just under 15m.

Overall, France Telecom revenues for the first three months were up smidgen at €12.8bn. ®

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