Orange has announced it is to rebrand as Pamplemousse, which is the French word for "grapefruit." In a statement, Xavier Prendlepith, executive vice president for identity nurture, said: "We feel the move to a larger citrus fruit reflects the upscaling of our wider ambitions in the connectivity space. We plan to reach many more segments of the industrial ecosystem, while still remaining essentially plant-based. Marvin Gaye once compared the world to 'a great big onion,' but we feel that now the time is right for a truly massive grapefruit of digital transformation." Figure 1: (Source: Milana Jovanov on Unsplash)

Elsewhere on what is soon to be Planet Pamplemousse, Orange has teamed up with DabaDoc to develop a medical video-consultation service for families in the African diaspora. The idea is that the diaspora can help those still living in their country of origin with health problems: The customer, from the diaspora, wishing to offer a DabaDoc Consult signs in to an Orange trans-country payment platform, chooses the amount they wish for the consultation, and then pays for the service by bank card. The beneficiary of the DabaDoc Consult then receives a code that they can use as payment for the video consultation on the platform.

Telefónica has created what it's calling a "campus" at its Madrid headquarters which will be used for digital skills training either face-to-face or remotely via the likes of Microsoft Teams. Channelling his inner pamplemousse, Telefónica's chairman, José María Álvarez-Pallete, said: "Our roots lie in communication and telecommunications. That is our past, our future is connecting lives. This campus is above all a place from within Telefónica for the whole world to connect."

NTT Data UK, the UK/Ireland arm of the Japanese-based IT services giant, has appointed Fernando Apezteguia as its new CEO. Apezteguia has been with the company for more than 20 years.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading