[Ben]

I feel ridiculous posting this.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2007/11/19/Orange-Option-ICON-2-USB-Modem/p1

This is where it gets silly:

But when you start to consider using the Option 2 for more intensive use the tariffs start to look a little meaner. Pay £19.30 per month and all you get is an allowance of 160MB; £33.78 gets you a meagre 318MB and you have to go all the way up to £43.43 for a 1GB allowance. In today's connected world, it's quite easy to download several hundred megabytes in a day, just through general email correspondence and moderate Internet browsing - these prices and allowances are simply not realistic.

Who in their right mind would pay £33.78 (WTF? Why not £30?) to Orange when they could pay £30 for 3GB on a network as hardcore as Vodafone's? Vodafone, by the way, are already rolling out 7.2mbps.

Throw T-Mobile's and Three's tariffs in their and, latency aside, you'd really have to be a nutter.

[Hands0n]

There is an old Chinese proverb that goes "Know your enemy". Clearly, Orange have no knowledge of their competition. The other networks must be laughing their socks off at this French-owned abomination.

[Ben]

Well I'll be... Orange has brought its data rates for these devices in line with Vodafone. They don't have any attractive devices at the moment (one is coming soon) and we still don't know much about their network performance, but the inclusion of some WiFi minutes (sadly not unlimited, boo hoo) adds a bit of value: http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/yourplan/mocplan

Basically £25/mo (+ VAT I would imagine) for 3GB (burried in the T&C's FUP, took a little while to find!)

[Hands0n]

Some lead, others follow. Orange have decided to be the latter, which is a great shame from a company that was once an innovator.

[3GScottishUser]

I saw this 3GB per month mobile broadband Orange deal with the Huewai dongle on Phones4U's website.

It's £29 a month on an 18 month contract!!

What a shower of idiots France Telecom are.

With T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone all pitching the same at £15 a month anyone choosing Orange would need their head examined.

Orange are simply laughable when it comes to mobile data full stop!!!

[hecatae]

it's not only data that they have trouble pricing.

http://www.orangeaccessories.co.uk/reconditioned_mobile_phone/all.html

m600i more expensive than p990? :rolleyes:

[Hands0n]

I saw this 3GB per month mobile broadband Orange deal with the Huewai dongle on Phones4U's website.

It's £29 a month on an 18 month contract!!

What a shower of idiots France Telecom are.


I would be hard pressed to express it any better. But what the heck, let me have a moment to try :D

Orange are a bunch of numpties of the first order. That they once were a leading force in the UK is nothing more than a fond and very distant memory. They'd lost the plot before France Telecom took them over. The acquisition only hastened their demise into La La Land.

The math is so simply that you'd think that an ordinary Frenchman could work it out. So why not France Telecom? £15 vs £29 for the same deal. Hmmmm, thats a tough one.

Orange = History, and rightly so it seems.

[Ben]

It's like Orange started running to the middle of the road... got there, then kept on going! Now they're so far left of the field that they seem to be playing a different game :D

Still, they have some good voice and text packages, and I'm sure many still find their converged communications offering compelling. Still, isn't it funny that T-Mobile, Three and Vodafone are currently shoving it to Orange and O2 who went and bought their own fixed line ISP's because they thought it was the only way :D Perhaps the cartel is weakening!

[Martin3G]

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/mobile_broadband?WT.ac=ACSPHP_BR1

Option USB modem & unlimited data for £15 per month (24 month contract) :)

[Ben]

The terms and conditions linked to from that page are blank for this product. Does this mean there are no terms and conditions to worry about? ;)

24 month contract... ouch.

Good spot, though!

[Hands0n]

A friend of mine bought one of these for his business - 48 hours later it was back in Orange's posession and he went back to T-Mobile. His commentary was peppered with expletives starting with what happened after he took the Orange USB stick out of the box to when he put it back again. It was, apparently, not a terribly good experience for him.

I have an inherent mistrust of Orange, believing that they have lost their way under their new parent France Telecom. Another friend of mine works for another company that was bought up by Orange and says that the decline is tangible.

For my part, I would like to know what happens once you go over the 3GB allowance. FUP is all very well, but what are the out of bundle charges? As 3 have shown us, they sound modest until you add up how many 100MBs there are in 1GB and realise you are over £100 poorer for the privilege.