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Orange mobile broadband

Orange overview

  • Orange offer a great range of new laptop deals, including a pink one if that's your thing!
  • Pay monthly contracts available from a flexible 1-month contract to 24 months; 1GB to 10GB download allowance, so plenty to choose from
  • Orange offer a neat solution if you need to boost your data allowance occasionally - you can buy add-on data on a 30-day rolling contract basis on both dongle-only and laptop contracts

Currently showing the top 3 of 8 results show all»

Best selling Orange mobile broadband deals

Hardware Price/mth Speed(Up to) Downloads(limit) Contract
Eee PC 901Laptop info» £29.36 3.6Mb 3 GBper month 24
months		 Go
E160Dongle info» £24.47 £29.00 setup 3.6Mb 10 GBper month 1
months		 Go
E160Dongle info» £14.68 3.6Mb 3 GBper month 18
months		 Go

Currently showing the top 3 of 8 results show all»

Orange road test

Orange Road test
Orange Huawei E160 dongle
Downloads
rating -2 stars2 stars
Uploads
rating -3 stars3 stars
Most stable
rating -4 stars4 stars
Coverage
rating -3 stars3 stars
Feelgood factor
rating -3 stars3 stars
Dongle software
rating -4 stars4 stars
Overall rating
rating -3 stars3 stars

May 2009

Orange provided us with a Huawei E160 dongle for our road trip – the same model as we were sent by overall road test winners Virgin Media, as well as O2. As you would expect from Orange there was plenty of black and orange packaging, as well as an “I am...” advert on the inside packaging, talking of illicit emails being sent on trains. Let's hope they didn't need to download any attachments...

This is a handsome looking dongle: sleek, matt black finish and orange detail make it look the business. Once popped into a USB socket the software installs immediately and we were ready to get online in just a couple of minutes, completely fuss free.

The Orange console that is automatically installed works fine, although doesn't quite match the one used by T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. There isn't an awful lot in it, but we found having the connect button on a separate page from the other information you may want to keep an eye on (connection speed/type etc) was an annoyance. However, this is only a minor point in an otherwise thoroughly adequate and reliable piece of software.

But a pretty dongle and nice software do not good broadband make. While the Orange dongle managed to complete a good number of the Mobile Broadband Genie speed tests, it was in the bottom two of the six for every single one. In fact, in half the speed tests it completed, the upload speed was faster than the download speed. That said, it faired better in the practical tests, streaming and downloading well in two thirds of the trials we set out which included the use of YouTube, Spotify and downloading podcasts.

Even though the upload speeds doubled the download speeds, it still slipped behind Vodafone and O2 for a creditable third place. Coverage was also an issue, with several of the tests failed due to time outs or failures to load pages. However, it held its connection very well, being narrowly beaten into runners up spot by O2 for the Most Stable award. This combination of stability and coverage will certainly appeal to some, as on this evidence those needing a steady connection with reasonable upload times over a long journey should be reasonably satisfied with what Orange's E160 has to offer.

Overall analysis of the Mobile Broadband Genie Road Trip 2009

by Chris Marling May 2009

About Orange

With its youthful 'the future's bright' days well behind it, the new 'I am' Orange is coping with a bit of an identity crisis. Once the cool, trend setting mobile network, it is now trying to act like one of the big boys while struggling with some of the baggage of its former self (mainly a poor customer service and reliability record). It's 'Orange Wednesdays' two-for-one cinema ticket deal is a sure-fire winner with mobile broadband customers though, and it is keeping pace (as far as deals go) in the mobile broadband UK market.

Back in 1994 Orange became the new kid on the mobile network block (a title it has since passed to 3). The company was taken over by France Telecom in 2001, along with the internet branch of the company originally known as Wanadoo (under which name it took over Freeserve): it became part of the Orange brand in 2006. As for mobile internet, while Orange has introduced a one-month rolling contract, there is not a specific pay as you go mobile broadband deal available. It started selling subsidised 'free' laptop deals with its mobile internet service in December 2008.

Orange has strong ties with Apple abroad, and rumours abound of UK deals in the pipeline to sell the iPhone here, as well as MacBook laptops as part of its range of so-called 'free laptop' deals with mobile broadband dongles. If true, this is sure to strengthen its position as it looks to join one of the 3G network sharing deals set up by its rivals (Vodafone/Os and 3/T-Mobile). Otherwise, its mobile broadband service could come in for more criticism in the long term.

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Orange customer reviews

Show all 35 Orange Mobile Broadband reviews»

neutral

by Dave
at 04:13 on 2 Jul 2009

@Angryorangecustomer.

I feel your frustration, but have you not been using a data counter? Although not 100% accurate, Netlimiter Monitor is pretty good, and its free. Plus you can login at anytime on the Orange website and see where you are with your data. Not sure if that has just been introduced recently though. Using a data card is like running a car with no speedo and complaining when you get a speeding ticket.

Remember, everything your computer does is connected to the internet, so it maybe chewing up data.

1) Windows updates and Service Packs, IE updates
2) Software patches
3) Antivirus updates

Check for computer virus. Seriously a virus/worm or trojan could be causing your computer to do this and be downloading. You have used about 15GB.

The people you need to speak to at Orange are the "billing integrity team". You were probably speaking to an operator that was not part of the billing/integrity team. I had queries about phone calls once. They ended up telling me exactly when calls were made and what phone was used. My issue was my mate borrowed my sim and made some calls, when I got the bill, I went ape s*it and immediately rang Orange on a rampage. I forgot he used it and I ended up with egg on my face. nonetheless was good to vent some steam at a poor billing operator.
unhappy

by Angryorangecustomer
at 17:16 on 28 Jun 2009

I am also extremely annoyed at orange, i have the 255 dongle and the contract of 3GB for £15 a month. My bills are usually fine but this month i received a bill for £256.44!! This was annoying as I'm 99.9% sure its innaccurate as im sooo careful with my internet usage and i do not download or stream anything! Anyway the real annoyance is when you try to get a detailed account of when or what your usage was! I couldnt find it on my account so i phoned up to get it, was informed i would have to send an email to obtain this information and they could not provide me with an e-mail address but i would find it on the website....oranges e-mail address had a notice at the bottom saying they could not respond to individual account queries...so i called again and the poor guy didnt know how to get the information, had to wait 15mins until he found his team leader so he could finally come up with the solution of sending me out a detailed bill from their office!!! I haven't recieved this yet, and i'm not getting my hopes up for it. All in all Orange customer service has been extremely inconsistent and they make it reaaally hard for you to find out information, its really sneaky of them. I'm positive it would not be difficult to make this information available in your online accout as it is in any phonebill. If you've had a bad experience with Orange then just tell everyone you know not to join them...word of mouth is the best/worst type of advertising...hopefully Orange will realise they need to drastically improve their "customer service" if they want to keep their customers.
unhappy

by chris fitzpatrick
at 18:19 on 23 Jun 2009

I am angry that orange can sell stuff under false pretences. I got a laptop and dongle with orange and i had bad signal almost straight away. Orange lied to me and told me it was only because a mast had gone down, but really it didn't. When i went to take it back they basically told me to stop moaning and called me a liar - even though the shop confirmed this - so i could not return because orage lied to me countless times to keep me contracted.

Orange are not very helpfull once they have sold you something. However, on the good side, they're now on watch dog as thousands have had the same done to them. I've been with orang for 6 and a half years - not once have i said a bad word about them. These internet no hopers who think they are computer experts actually dont know what the hell they are talking about - don't go with Orange.
neutral

by Em
at 11:17 on 15 Jun 2009

Ok Mark, point taken, but just feel that £60 is a lot of money to fork out for those of us who aren't that well off, necessitating a dongle cos we can't afford a landline at home! I wonder whether Orange could afford to sell cheaper ones.

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