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Orange and Google today announced a strategic partnership that will leverage Orange’s SMS platform to bring Google’s services to African customers. This agreement marks an important step forward that will facilitate access to the growing mobile internet market in Africa. Indeed, at the end of 2010, only 1.4% of the population in Africa and Middle East had access to broadband services, compared to 62.5% for mobile services.

With a total customer base of around 60 million customers across the continent, Orange is one of the most powerful mobile operators in Africa and the Middle East today. Innovations such as Orange Money have already demonstrated that mobile technology can improve the lives of African customers and help businesses grow.

Through the development of SMS-based services that operate on all mobile networks (including GSM), Orange and Google will extend the reach of a wide range of internet services that were previously limited to smartphone and broadband users (through 3G, CDMA or WiMax networks) to all Orange mobile customers. Press release: http://bit.ly/qJ8iu6