Orange - the mobilephoneco owned by France Telecom - reported strong customer growth during Q3 adding 1.3m new punters in all. France saw the biggest influx with the addition of 207,000 new customers, while the UK added 140,000 new users. Its "Rest of the World" segment (Orange, segment, geddit? [Clear your desk, you're fired - Ed]) also did well nudging the company past 52m customers around the world.

Revenues skipped in at €5.2bn (£3.6bn) in the three months to the end of September - up 9.1 per cent on last year. In the UK, the average annual amount each punter spends with Orange was up £4 to £274 buoyed in particular from revenue from non-voice services.

Three weeks ago, Orange UK announced that a number of techie jobs faced the axe as part of ongoing restructuring plans "designed to make Orange more efficient in a highly competitive market". Although Orange decline to say how many faced the chop it's estimated that as many as 300 people could be getting the boot. ®

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