Orange mobile broadband
Orange are a major supplier of home broadband and perhaps for this reason were a little late starting with mobile broadband. We think it's great for customers when a company has some catching up to do, as it usually means competitive pricing and innovative products.
Orange are particularly good for light users of mobile broadband, and have extended their mobile phone promotions (notably Orange Wednesdays) to their mobile broadband customers. Perhaps best of all, unlike most of their rivals, they just aren't greedy if you stray over your download limit.
Best for
- Cheapest contract mobile broadband - starting from £9.74 a month
- Flexible download limits - you can choose a download limit that suits you
- Fair excess usage charges - great if you occasionally need to exceed the download limit
- Perks - Orange Wednesdays (2 for 1 cinema tickets), Pizza Express offer, up to 200 free texts
Returns / cancellation policy
Orange has a fairly standard returns policy. You must cancel and return their USB modem within 2 weeks of receipt if you change your mind about your purchase or discover you have poor coverage.
It's possible to move to a lower price plan and not pay any extra charges, but you will have to wait until at least halfway through your contract and you can only downgrade once. Unsurprisingly you can move to another Orange plan of the same or a higher price at any time without charges.
Bear in mind that if you move to a new area where there is poor coverage after the returns period, Orange will unfortunately hold you to your contract and normal cancellation fees would apply (see below).
If you want to cancel your contract before the end of your minimum term, you will have to pay a cancellation charge. This will be the total of your monthly line rental multiplied by the number of months you have left in the minimum term of your contract. So if you're on an 18 month plan and wish to cancel after 8 months, you'll have to pay a cancellation charge equal to your monthly line rental for the remaining 10 months
Use abroad
Use of mobile broadband abroad is currently expensive for all mobile broadband suppliers, and Orange is no exception. It's still good value though, if you're travelling for business.
The cost in the EU is £2.94 per MB and £6.46 in the rest of the world. This is good value for email use (and Outlook 2007 users can use "download headers" to keep costs more firmly under control).
Excess charges
Excess charges apply if you exceed your monthly download allowance. We provide advice on how to avoid them, but Orange's excess usage charges are reasonable.
Orange let you purchase an additional 'bolt-on' at any time, which allows you to choose a download limit that suits you, and gives a low cost alternative to excess charges.
The rate is 1.43p per MB, but put another way this is £14.64 per GB.
About Orange
Formed in 1994, Orange is one of the UK's largest mobile phone networks. Orange was the first mobile phone company to recognise that mobiles are for everyone, not just business people. Today it remains committed to giving consumers great value.
Orange was originally a British company but is now owned by French Telecom. It has become a leading supplier of home broadband, and this allows it to offer deals which bundle home and mobile broadband.
The wide range of packages offered by Orange mobile broadband means that you are far more likely to find the right level of service at the right price for you. They offer a greater and more flexible range of data allowances then their rivals, with basic packages of 500MB and 1, 3 or 10GB, which can be altered to almost any level between and above these limits up to 20GB for heavy users. Low cost top-up bundles are also available to add on at any point during your contract. The contract lengths offered with Orange mobile broadband range from 30 days up to 24 months.