[3GScottishUser]

Just found out about the following...

If you have an Orange mobile on a £30 a month contract or more you get a free Broadband service up to 2 Mb/s (1GB download limit per month) and free VoIp calls to Orange and 01/02 nlandlines off-peak. Fair deal... but its now even better...

Pay an extra £5 a month and you get Broadband Max which provides Unlimited downloads (Fair Use Policy as ever), Free Voip calls via the Livebox to Orange numbers as well as all UK 01/02 landlines anytime plus free calls to 100 countries!!

Wow!!

So for £35 a month (18 month Canary 30 contract + Broadband Max) you get...

A free handset like a Nokia N80 or SE K800i
325 Mins X/Net from the mobile
Free calls to a magic number (Orange) for life + another every 6 months
650 SMS
(Free Data for 1st 2 months + Picture Messaging + 5 free Music Downloads + Free TV for 1 month)
Free Livebox WiFi Broadband Router
Up to 8Mb/s connection
Unlimited downloads (Subject to fair use)
Free calls via livebox to all 01/02 + Orange numbers - anytime (2 hour max then redial)
Free calls to 100 International destinations (Landlines _ some moblles)

I think the above is pretty hard to beat!!

[Ben]

That's quite an impressive converged package. I guess it's becoming clear that Orange will be about much more than just mobiles from now on, they want the lot.

[3GScottishUser]

The more you look at what you get the more the converged packages makes sense wheather you take full advantage of all the benefits or not.

Bob Fuller (3 UK CEO) reckons that 3 UK have the right idea and that all the convergence of services should focus around mobile services... I am not convinced!!

Orange and NTL/Virgin have other ideas and they will soon be joined by 02 who have bought be (ISP) and Vodafone who have a deal with BT for Broadband.

The mobile might be offering more but combinations of services including Broadband, Mobile, WiFi and Voip appear to be where the market is heading.

I'm already experiencing the future... and it's bright!! :)

[Hands0n]

A very attractive deal no doubt, and one that would suit very many. It certainly compares well with other [more] traditional offerings. I would save some £30pcm if I took this up, not taking into account the mobile phone and package in the bundle. The "free" VoIP calls to squillions of international locations is appealing.

All silver linings have some clouds; for me these would be

Having to change back to a BT line from my Telewest cable
Reduction of Broadband speed from 10Mbps (Telewest) to "upto" 8Mbps (Orange)
Limitation to six WiFi devices (I counted 10 in my home so far .... 11 if you include the PSX, and 12 if you include the bundled N80!!) - at this rate I'll need another Class C subnet :D
Stated "no support" for Apple Mac products - although Orange do say that these may work if configured manually with the Live box. OK if you're have the tech skills to sort this one out, you are on your own.


The six-device "cloud" might be able to be worked around by using a WiFi Router/AP/Repeater [Clue: Edimax kit] which would look like a single WiFi device to the Orange Live box and NAT a separate Class C WiFi for my host of devices!

I'm puzzled at Orange's WiFi limitation of six devices, also the lack of mention of suitable security in the form of WEP or preferably WPA/PSK. It may be in there, but I haven't found anything about security.

Those little niggles aside, the Orange proposition is tantalising. Now I wonder what the response will be from the others. NTL/Telewest under the Virgin banner may come up with something interesting. BT are one to watch closely, they have big ambitious plans for global domination, well at least UK to start with :rolleyes: T-Mobile and Vodafone have not shown their colours yet .... but they must be at it somewhere. Perhaps a tie-up with Sky who have everything but the Mobile bit sewn up (there'd be a good old fashioned branding spat I reckon).

[3GScottishUser]

The Livebox supports both WEP (by default) or WPA/PSK in the manual HTML control panel.

It's easy to set up and Orange CS are well up to speed with advice etc.

Maybe worth giving them a call to clarify?