Posted by Admin on December 8, 2011 – 12:54 pm
Orange customers with a monthly contract will face a 4.34% increase in the cost of their plan. Users with a monthly payment of £35 will pay £36.50 form 8th January.
The good news is that there will be no increase in the cost of calls, text messages or internet access.
Consumer groups are said to be furious that exisiting customers are affected by the increase as they can be tied to a contract for 18 months or longer. Which Technology Editor Matt Bath was reported as saying ‘ This is a poor way to treat people. Existing customers should get the price that they signed up to for the remainder of their contract. Anyone who is fraustrated by this rise should complain to Orange and the regulator Ofcom’
There is also a big increase for Orange customers who have an IPhone and make a claim for a lost or damaged phone. They will now have to pay £50 instead of £15 excess payment for an Apple handset.
Customers should contact Orange to complain in the first instance and then complain to Ofcom.
Posted by Admin on June 7, 2011 – 2:22 pm
Ofcoms recent study into mobile broadband speeds conducted more than 4.2 million tests on dongles and data cards in areas that have strong 3G coverage.
It was found that 02 downloaded webpages faster than Orange ,Vodafone, T Mobile and 3 Mobile. Its average latency , which measures the speed of the connection, was also found to be lower tha Orange ,Vodophone and 3 Mobile.
Ofcom also praised 02 for providing the best download speeds at peak periods.
The average download speed during the busy period 20.00 to 22.00 was 1.7Mbps for all five companies. Webpages were taking 2.2 seconds to load. Outside peak periods Ofcom disclosed average speeds of 2.1Mbps
A spokesperson for 02 was reported as saying the results were evidence of 02′s commitment to providing the best possible service for its customers.The acheivement is just reward for the amount of money the company has spent on improving its infastructure.
Orange was named as the poorest performing company in the report but a spokesman for the company said that this was due to capacity issues that affected the infastructure when the trials were being carried out. Changes have been made since the study was carried out.
Posted by Admin on August 12, 2010 – 2:42 pm
Orange has announced that they will offer Free broadband for 3 Months to mobile customers when they take out a Home Max broadband package on a 18 month contract.
The deal for existing customers allows them to sign up for home broadband at a cost of just £6.50 per month, after 3 months at no cost.
Non mobile customers will get £6.50 off the normal monthly price of £9.50 for the first 3 months ,paying just £3 per month.
Home Max offers a download speed of 20Mpbs, unlimited monthly downloads, free eveing and weekend UK calls and free Livebox wireless router. Line rental is £10.50 per month.
All Orange customers can save £19.50 using this offer. UK Broadband is very reasonably priced and is almost half the price that it was 5 years ago.
Last month Orange announced its integration with T Mobile and is now the UK’s largest Telecoms company. They are now known as Everywhere.
Posted by Admin on May 4, 2010 – 2:04 pm
Orange has abondoned its own broadband network in a deal with BT. Orange has handed over its fixed line network to BT after spending millions of pounds installing its own equipment in a bid to improve services to its customers.
It is thought that Orange would need to make substantial investment to maintain its broadband network but feel that the BT deal will allow them ” to take advantage of future technology developments” such as home and TV entertainment. Constant investment is needed to stay up to date.
In a report in the Times Bruno Duarte, vice-president of strategy said the reason for the change is because of dwindling demand for its broadband services. However they do need to remain in fixed line broadband and using BT’s network will almost double its broadband reach.
Orange is the 5th largest fixed line broadband provider and has around 840,000 customers. This figure was however around 1 million a year ago. It is hoped that the deal will allow Orange to become more competitive in the broadband market.
Orange recently joined forces with T-mobile and has nearly 30 million mobile phone customers.
Posted by Admin on December 21, 2009 – 2:18 pm
Watchdog Ofcom has published a document which shows that broadband users in the UK pay less than other users in America and Europe for broadband services. Plus is seems that prices are still going down.
Included in the survey were the UK, France, Germany, US,Spain and Italy. Ofcom found that a typical household using a fixed and mobile phone.broadband and pay TV would pay £102 per month here is the UK. This is almost 28% lower than Italy. According to the Internation Communications Market Report the UK has the cheapest broadband services.
Some service providers such as Orange and O2 are said to be giving free broadband with some of their mobile phone contracts.
However broadband speeds in the UK are slow compared to services in Europe.
Posted by Admin on September 15, 2009 – 4:32 pm
A major shake up in the mobile phone industry is expected after Orange and T-Mobile agreed to a merger. The new company will have 28.4 million customers and almost a 40 % share of the market. The 2 companies are currently the third and fourth largest in the market but they will take the lead over O2′s 27% .
Analysts say that this deal could trigger off further similar deals especially with smaller companies. Vodafone and BT were mentioned but this was dismissed. Other experts are worried that there could be less incentive to offer good deals. However Tom Alexander from Orange and Richard Moat from T-Mobile are insisting that any savings will be passed onto customers. They are confident that the merger will not see any price increases and will benefit consumers with a better quality service and an improved network coverage.
Richard Moat will be the chief operating officer in the new company, while Tom Alexander will become the new chief executive. Moat has admitted that job losses are inevitable but the two brands will continue to operate seperately for at least 18 months. The deal will mean fewer phone masts . The deal is expected to generate savings of £3.5 billion and should be finalised by the end of October.
Posted by Admin on July 27, 2009 – 4:17 pm
Ofcom has pledged to investigate the mobile broadband market to find out why there are so many gaps in 3G ( third generation) coverage, particularly in rural areas. These areas are known as’ notspots’. Ofcom will also look at mobile broadband speeds which vary considerably.
3G services allow people to connect to the Internet via a wireless network using either a phone, a dobgle or a datacard which can be plugged into a laptop or PC.
Broadband Communications Company Epitiro has been researching mobile broadband download speeds and found that the average speed was just under IMbps. Mobile broadband users are only getting a quarter of advertised speeds. There are over 200,000 different tarrifs on the market for mobile broadband customers. Not an easy task when searching for a good deal.
It seems that consumers are now opting for mobile broadband and discontinuing their fixed line phones. Mobile calls increased by 11 billion minutes in 2008 ,while fixed line minutes fell by 8 billion.
The Digital Britain report initiated by the Government plans to free up more 3G spectrum to help reduce ‘notspots’ and hopefully to increase mobile broadband speeds.
Orange ,O2, T- Mobile, and Vodaphone are some of the service providers who offer mobile phone braodband packages.
Posted by Admin on July 1, 2009 – 1:02 pm
In January 2009 Lord Cater promised in his interim report that every home in Britain would be able to get broadband of at least 2MB per second by 2012.
Unfortunately, regulator Offcom are claiming that the current fixed- line network is incapable of getting broadband to 1.5 million homes in the UK at 2MB per second.
The UK’s five mobile phone companies are expected to meet Lord Carter this week in an attempt to sort out the problem. They will discuss Kip Meeks proposal of capping the amount of mobile phone frequency owned by Vodaphone and O2 and also by freeing up the capacity which will available when analogue television is turned off and using it for broadband.
Orange, 3 and T-Mobile are objecting to Vodaphone and O2 being allowed to use broadband services more than a year before the TV signal is available as they were allocated a broadband spectrum in 1980. They also want the two companies to be capped so that they will have to sell off some of their existing airwaves before picking up any spare TV capacity as this is perfect for broadband in rural areas.
It is hoped that a deal can be reached in order to meet the 2012 timetable.
