How are Orange mobile now

[D-Dan]

It's been a long time since I dealt with Orange, and back then it was their woefully painful broadband that I had. I have to say I found them terrible to deal with in all aspects. Having said that, after years of PAYG mobile, I'm looking longingly at the Galaxy SIII and Phones4U are offering it on Orange at £26 per month, with a plan that is plenty for me. My previous experience of Orange tends to taint me a little, so can anyone recommend or otherwise the mobile arm of the company?

[Steve]

I think I'd use them for a mobile connection. Our two sons both use Orange their only real complaint has been and still is with the android handsets they use both I think are HTC.

[mervl]

The only thing is I'd check their coverage checker for the places where you need to use it most (it can be a bit pessimistic, they say its based on in-car rather than just outdoor use which could account for it, I suppose), which you might have done anyway. 3G can be a bit variable, but I've had no problem with the mobile network or their admin in the 15 years I've been with them. The masts have been merged with T-mobile (under the EE moniker) and they did some decommissioning which left some patchy coverage where they formerly had almost but not complete overlaps (as a brand either T-Mobile or Orange might be cheaper, depending on package). EE brand with 4G options are more expensive. As a national network I find EE good spread of coverage, local issues due to mast location or where there is heavy use, no probs with 2G fallback where needed. (O2 and Voda seem more concentrated, and 3 excellent but as far as I can gather 2G fallback almost non-existent outside their own network area). But data performance can depend as much on phone model as network. Have a new Android RAZRi for a couple of months (delivered in 2 working days of on-line order, typical in my experience unless out-of-stock which is a problem for popular models - and check their returns policy, which is a useful fall-back) - reception seems OK, 3G at home; doesn't quite keep signal as good as the very ancient Nokias but I've not found anything which does - is slightly better than my previous Blackberry.

Their LLU was poor for home broadband (ancient equipment) but they moved to BTw white label a couple of years back, and their home broadband service is now fairly typical. Have never had the same problems on mobile CS as with home broadband.

PS You might want to check http://orangeservicestatus.co.uk/ (an informal site for the grumblers) to see if there's a history of problems in your area, but though it looks horrific for a national network you could find the same sort of complaints for any operator, anywhere, and it's not always the network at fault.

[pctech]

As I understand it the broadband is now simply the BT Retail service branded as Orange as they signed that over to BT some time ago.

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/1989553/orange-moves-fixed-line-broadband-network-bt

T-mobile and Orange customers are now serviced through the company Everything Everywhere (EE) and that is what appears as the network on the mobile screen now I believe.

1 mate of mine is still on Orange and says he doesn't rate the CS much.

[peasblossom]

1 mate of mine is still on Orange and says he doesn't rate the CS much.

Me neither. The phones are fine but if you have a problem their customer service centre is difficult to deal with. You end up feeling fobbed off by the answers they give you. If they bothered having a forum as O2 do, it might be better.

[pctech]

O2 don't participate in their own forum but I've not had a bad experience with their CS I have to say.

[D-Dan]

I have to say that my own research tends to support the lousy CS issue. I may pay the extra £1 or so per month and go with Voda instead. :/

[john]

I've been with Orange (now EE) for 13 years on PAYG and have been happy with the service and never had a problem with the coverage both in the UK and when on holiday in Europe and the US. However I've never needed to contact their Customer Service so cannot comment on this.