Orange S.A. in the context of "Orange UK"

Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of new trends in economic thinking about the inefficiencies of government regulation, and the risk that regulatory agencies would be controlled by the regulated industry to its benefit, and thereby hurt consumers and the wider economy. Economic regulations were promoted during the Gilded Age, in which progressive reforms were claimed as necessary to limit externalities like corporate abuse, unsafe child labor, monopolization, and pollution, and to mitigate boom and bust cycles. Around the late 1970s, such reforms were deemed burdensome on economic growth and many politicians espousing neoliberalism started promoting deregulation.

The stated rationale for deregulation is often that fewer and simpler regulations will lead to raised levels of competitiveness, therefore higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices overall. Opposition to deregulation may involve apprehension regarding environmental pollution and environmental quality standards (such as the removal of regulations on hazardous materials), financial uncertainty, and constraining monopolies.

A postal, telegraph, and telephone service (or PTT) is a government agency responsible for postal mail, telegraph, and telephone services. Such monopolies existed in many countries, though not in North America, post-war Japan or Spain. Many PTTs have been partially or completely privatised in recent years, though a few, such as Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilatı of Turkey, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications of Myanmar and Tusass of Greenland, continue to remain wholly government-owned. In many of said privatisations, the privatised corporation was completely renamed, such as KPN in the Netherlands, Orange S.A. in France (+ Orange Polska in Poland), BT Group in the United Kingdom, Eir in the Republic of Ireland, Swisscom in Switzerland, Telstra in Australia, Spark in New Zealand, Proximus Group in Belgium, A1 Telekom Austria Group in Austria, TDC Group in Denmark, Telia Company in Sweden and Finland, Telenor in Norway, Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan and Singtel in Singapore; whereas in others, the name of the privatised corporation has been only slightly modified, such as Telkom Indonesia in Indonesia, Telekom Malaysia in Malaysia, Deutsche Telekom in Germany (+ Hrvatski Telekom in Croatia and Telekom Romania Mobile in Romania), Kosovo Telecom in Kosovo, KT in South Korea, Post Luxembourg in Luxembourg and Síminn in Iceland.

Orange Polska SA (formerly Telekomunikacja Polska) is a Polish telecommunications provider established in December 1991. It is a public company traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, with a controlling stake owned by Orange S.A., the latter controlling over 50% of this stake by 2002. It operates the following services: PSTN, ISDN, GSM 900/1800 network (+ 3G UMTS, 4G LTE and 5G NR), ADSL, IDSL, FTTH fibre Internet, Frame Relay, ATM and Inmarsat.

La Poste (French pronunciation: [la pɔst]) is a postal service company in France, operating in Metropolitan France, the five French overseas departments and regions and the overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Under bilateral agreements, La Poste also has responsibility for mail services in Monaco through La Poste Monaco and in Andorra alongside the Spanish company Correos.

The company was created in 1991 following the split of the French PTT, a government department responsible for mail, telegraph and telephone services in France. The PTT, founded in 1879, was then divided between La Poste, which became responsible for postal service, and France Télécom (nowadays Orange) for the telecommunication services. France Télécom was immediately privatised but La Poste has remained a public company. However, in 1997 EU directive 97/67/EC required member states to "fully open the postal sector to competition", with the result that the French government allowed private postal service companies in 2005 and transformed La Poste into a public-owned company limited by shares in 2010.