Mubasher: France’s Orange on Thursday announced that it was looking to save EUR 1 billion ($1.18 billion) in additional gross savings by the end of 2020, and was expecting to invest a portion of that amount to develop its networks and services.

Orange is planning to utilise a "lean capital-expenditure programme" to cut unit costs by 15% in the next three years, the telecommunications group stated.

We are targeting a peak investment spend of EUR 7.4 billion in 2018, and expecting that this figure would decline from 2019 onwards, Orange revealed.

We have seen a return to revenue growth a full year ahead of plan, which combined with our operational efficiency programme and enabled us to renew growth of our adjusted Ebitda, said Orange's CEO Stephane Richard.