By Alex Lane on Wed, 12th September 2012
The good
- Completely unlimited broadband
- Very simple price plans
- Personal WiFi device
- Discount for Orange mobile users
The bad
- £10 off-network broadband charge
- Limited HSPA+ mobile network cover
- No PAYG mobile broadband
- Costly for non-Orange customers
Orange is one of the best-known mobile phone operators, although these days it’s merged with T-Mobile and is actually part of the larger company Everything Everywhere. In practical terms, this means they share a network with larger coverage than either had alone, and there’s also an arrangement to share some of Three’s 3G network.
As well as mobile phones, Orange has naturally branched out into mobile broadband with dongles for connecting your laptop, and a personal WiFi access point for connecting multiple devices like an iPod Touch or PSP. You can also get SIM-only broadband deals with the exclusive Tahiti Android tablet, and the iPad2.
While 3G coverage is good, it has only a limited 3G-plus network compared to other operators.
Orange also wants a slice of the lucrative home broadband and phones industry, and offers special rates to its mobile customers who take a DSL broadband connection, although you have to be near an Orange-equipped telephone exchange or there are extra costs.
The brand is perhaps most famous for its Orange cinema advertising, and the Orange Wednesdays offer is still available any Orange customer, giving you two-for-one cinema tickets every Wednesday at most cinemas, and a free pizza at Pizza Hut.
In a similar vein, Orange Film to Go gives you a free film from iTunes every Thursday if you have Orange home broadband or use any pay-as-you-go or pay-monthly mobile phone or broadband service.
Orange’s customer service came in for praise in Ofcom’s 2011 report, where 80 per cent of Orange home broadband customers said they were satisfied with its service.
Our rating: 
3
User rating: 
3.5
Orange is keen to convert its millions of mobile phone customers into broadband and landline customers as well, so there’s a £5 monthly discount for any Orange mobile customer who signs up to broadband.
It has a single unlimited downloads broadband package to which you can phone calls, which Orange expressly says means you can use as many MB/GB as you like without being charged more. Orange doesn’t have a fair use broadband policy, but it does manage traffic so that activities which need a high quality of service get priority, like Skype, streaming video and online gaming, but only during peak hours (6pm-11.30pm on weekdays and 5pm-11.30pm on weekends).
Unusually, however, there’s also a £10 monthly charge if your local exchange doesn’t have Orange’s own broadband equipment installed (about 85 per cent of the UK population is covered), because it has to pay BT to look after your connection. Most broadband suppliers either won’t take customers who aren’t near one of their exchanges, or don’t pass on the cost.
All of the exchanges in Orange’s network have ADSL2+ kit, so they can deliver up to 20Mbps downstream and 1.3Mbps up (in reality, averaging 6.3 to 8.1Mbps in Ofcom’s November 2011 survey, with uploads in the 800-900kbps range). Non-Orange exchanges won’t have this, so you’ll be paying £10 extra for up to 8Mbps.
In the package
On the positive side, there’s no connection charge and all Orange home broadband packages come with the Bright Box wireless router, McAfee Antivirus Plus 2012, and parental control software. They’re also 12-month contracts so you’re not stuck for too long if you change your mind.
The Bright Box is a WiFi ‘n’ wireless router with four 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports and a USB port for connecting direct, or attaching devices such as printers or hard discs. It’s also got ‘intelligent’ wireless that finds the least-crowded wireless frequencies so you get the highest speed possible.
Packages
If you just want broadband, then the Simply Broadband package costs £12.75/month and doesn’t require line rental with Orange.
If you want phone calls and want to switch your line rental to Orange (for £13.50/month), there are packages with off-peak calls (evening and weekends) for £5/month and anytime calls for £10/month - see Orange phone packages for details. If you’re already an Orange pay-monthly mobile phone customer, these also come with unlimited free Wi-Fi at BT Openzone hotspots.
Orange’s home phone packages are only available with Orange Home Broadband and line rental, on 12-month contracts.
There are two deals for inclusive calls to UK numbers: off-peak calls (evening and weekends) for £5/month and anytime calls for £10/month. Line rental costs an additional £13.50/month, but these prices include up to 20Mbps broadband - see Orange home broadband packages for details. As with the broadband packages, there’s a £5 monthly charge if you’re not already an Orange mobile customer and £10/month if you’re not covered by an exchange equipped with Orange’s equipment.
Unlimited UK anytime and off-peak calls include calls of up to an hour to numbers beginning 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870, but exclude calls to these numbers made from the Channel Islands. Off-peak calls are weekdays from 7pm to 7am and all weekend.
Outside your price plan, there’s a 12p connection charge and UK landlines cost 7.5p/min, 0845/0870 calls are 6p/min, and most calls to UK mobiles are 12.7p/min daytime or 7.6p/min evenings and 7.2p/min weekends.
You can add free international calls to 30 destinations for an extra £4 a month, with a 1000-minute monthly limit.
