Wanadoo was a Fournisseur of access to Internet, subsidiary of France Telecom which was present in countries like the Spain, the Tunisia, the the United Kingdom, Algeria, the Lebanon, the Jordan, Madagascar, the Morocco, the Senegal, the Guinea Equatoriale or the France. It was famous Orange in June 2006. France Telecom intending to gather all her activities except Téléphonie fixes in France under the “Orange” mark.

History

Wanadoo was born from the acquisition of tens of small suppliers of access in 1996. The company was a subsidiary company of the ODA become since PagesJaunes Groupe. At the time of the repurchase of the ODA by France Telecom, Wanadoo becomes the supplier of access to Internet of France Telecom under the name France Telecom Interactive SA then of Wanadoo SA.

Progressively of the years, Wanadoo became a group gathering the activity of access to Internet of the France Telecom Group (For example, with companies like Oléane , one of the 1st Internet provider (1993) and Registrar in France, integrated into the group France Telecom in April 1998), the directory activity with PagesJaunes and of the leading or commercial sites like GOA, Here are, Computer Chanel (disappeared today), Alapage, sites EMW (subsidiary with the press group Emap) of services Internet bound for the companies (Wanadoo Consulting, Wanadoo Dated, CVF), activities of contents multi-media (Wanadoo Edition, Wanadoo Audiovisuel). At the time of the Bubble Internet in the year 2000, France Telecom put Wanadoo out of purse, before completely reinstating it within the France Telecom group in 2004. The course of the action having been divided by 2 into four years. This rehabilitation then fusion with its head office having for goal to set up convergent solutions (fixed-Internet) and for legal reasons and strategic (cost prices as regards ADSL being thus more opaque, France Telecom having the obligation to allow the competitors to reach its infrastructures networks in order to avoid any monopoly, and to ensure competition)

For the general public, the object of Wanadoo was to be a Fournisseur of access to Internet within the division of the residential departments of communication of France Telecom.

In Belgium, it provided connections ADSL via Wanadoo Belgium and was yielded to the 1st quarter 2003 to Tiscali.

With the the United Kingdom, Wanadoo was known under the name of Freeserve until the April 28th 2004, then took the name Wanadoo to become Orange in June 2006 thereafter. Jean-Marc Steffann, chief technical officer of Wanadoo, contributed to the internationalization of the group by this repurchase.

In France, Wanadoo marketed its services of access to Internet between on May 2nd, 1996 and on June 1st, 2006, dates to which it was replaced by the mark Orange.

In Spain, it was made up mainly by acquisition of the gate and supplier of EresMas access

Origin of the name

The name Wanadoo was creates by Marcel Botton. This name is homophonous slang expression American “ wanna C ” ( want to C , literally “to want to make”).

Example: Do what you wanna C - “Do that you want” or “Do that you ace envies to make”.

One can also bring the word closer to the contraction of the " terms; Web " and " Xanadu " written with the whimsical termination " oo" current on the fabric.

Related articles

• Livebox
• Orange Internet

External bonds

• ''' Orange France '''
• Wanadoo, the saga