• Every telco is looking for ‘sovereign’ business opportunities 
• Orange is the latest to create a unit to focus on a particular opportunity
• Its enterprise services division, Orange Business, has created a new unit to target the defence and homeland security sector

Orange Business, the enterprise services division of France’s Orange Group, has formed a new, dedicated unit to “support defence and security actors in France and Europe” in a move that is “strengthening its commitment to sovereignty”, the giant French telco has announced.  

The new unit, Direction Défense & Sécurité, has been set up so that Orange Business can “strengthen and develop existing activities” to address several key opportunities related to the defence sector as the world moves into a new era of regionalisation and conflict. It will be staffed by “several hundred experts dedicated to the digital transformation of ministries, operators and companies in defence and homeland security industries,” noted the telco. It will leverage the experience Orange Business has in developing and running wireless and wired networks, as well the division’s access to 45,000 km of terrestrial fibre, more than 2,500 satellite antennas and 450,000 km of submarine cables.

The unit’s proposition needs to be carefully developed, as the sector requires particular “cutting-edge” technologies and services above and beyond what is needed by many other verticals.  

It aims to address the defence and security sector’s need for resilient connectivity solutions and hybrid civilian/military networks, the hosting of sensitive data (in a sovereign IT environment), emergency communication systems, AI and cybersecurity. 

Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier Lompré stated: “Defence and security are complex and demanding sectors that require a specialised approach, dedicated expertise, and a nuanced understanding of sovereignty and resilience issues. That’s why we have decided to create the Defense & Security Division to harness Orange Business’s technological strength and operational excellence in serving key actors in this expanding sector.”

The unit will work in collaboration with the Defense and Security Vertical of Orange Cyberdefense, the telco’s dedicated cybersecurity division that is the market leader in France and “several other European countries”, according to Orange.

The new unit will be headed up by Nassima Auvray, director of defence and security at Orange Business, who, as well as nearly four years of experience at the telco’s enterprise division, has experience of working with France’s Defence Minister as an innovation and digital advisor.  

“I am proud to lead this strategic division, which brings together a multidisciplinary team of several hundred experts committed to designing sovereign, resilient and high-value solutions for our clients and partners in the defence and security sectors,” noted Auvray. “By leveraging Orange’s innovation power – from advanced cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to emerging quantum technologies – we are ideally positioned to meet the rapidly evolving needs of this highly specialised sector, which relies on civil solutions and contributes to building tomorrow’s secure digital infrastructure,” she added.

News of the move coincided with the announcement that Deutsche Telekom is consolidating its cloud services operations under one unit, dubbed T Cloud, in response to “the growing call for sovereign solutions in Europe.”

Expect to hear a lot more about sovereign strategy developments in the telecom sector throughout the rest of 2025…

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV