Phone & Internet through Orange

Does anyone use Orange for their landline and Internet? We're looking to switch from BT and Orange has a package for £30/month for free calls worldwide to landlines and unlimited broadband (with fair use policy). Sounds good. Just wondering if anyone has used them. Service good?

I've heard nothing bad bad things about Orange for internet, although I don't have specific experience with them myself (other than for my cell phone).

Vicky

Watchdog had a program about Broadband providers they took a survey & Orange along with a few others didn't do very well. but this was back in mid March of this year who knows maybe they have improved there service by now. here is the link to the Watchdog survey.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20070321.shtml

hiya

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ is your friend for this!

Look specifically in the forums for ISP unhappiness and select Orange to see more about them. then look at the sections about reviews and other charts etc and 'evaluate' if Orange is a good service to go for.

Hopefully if you do get them, they'll be able to provide the service you want.

I'm still 'evaluating' on whether to go for an 'all in one' service or not - currently for me, I don't see the service levels matching up to expectation at the prices promoted - so I'm sticking with 'best of breed' until such time the all-in-one business model matures signficantly.

Hope the link helps!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

We've had the Orange broadband/calling package for about 6 or 7 months, and are quite content with it. I've had occasional issues with trying to get through on the phone--occasionally it takes a couple of tries to connect properly, but nothing too obnoxious. Internet has been fine since we got the bugs worked out (I think the issues were due to husband installing too many security programs at once ).

Free international calling is brilliant! 

Aye i switched to orange for both my mobile and unlimited broadband.about april. Livebox is the bit that allows you to make international calls for free as well as local ones too.. You have to have a BT line and with the deal i have i pay £35 pounds a month for unlimited broadband and my moblie package.. I've had a few problems with customer services ie: i hate hate the indian call centres.. grrrrrrr don't get me started lol.. But im pretty happy with the unlimited broadband/wireless networking and mobile..

"unlimited broadband" doesn't mean upload and download, right?

My husband will be working from home and we're trying to find a reputable dealer with a good package that won't kill the wallet with overages (in either upload or download bandwidth).

"unlimited broadband" doesn't mean upload and download, right?

My husband will be working from home and we're trying to find a reputable dealer with a good package that won't kill the wallet with overages (in either upload or download bandwidth).

We used to be with PlusNet, which was awesome, but they have a timescale that you have to go by for downloading (unlimited at night only)...  We're now wth BT (package 3) and no problems with it (so far), plus you get the hub phone with free unlimited night & weekend calls & cheap calls any other time...

"unlimited broadband" doesn't mean upload and download, right?

It means any data you transfer over your DSL line in either direction for whatever purpose: E-mail, web-server, upload/download to an FTP server, etc.   The fair-use clause of "unlimited" service generally only kicks in above some pretty high limits -- If you sat there transfering multi-gigabyte files all day long, for example.

It means any data you transfer over your DSL line in either direction for whatever purpose: E-mail, web-server, upload/download to an FTP server, etc.   The fair-use clause of "unlimited" service generally only kicks in above some pretty high limits -- If you sat there transfering multi-gigabyte files all day long, for example.

thanks!

maybe it was that there was unlimited download but crappy upload capacity or something like that in some of the plans he was looking at. I'll have to dig deeper because I know there was some kind of discrepancy there.

i think you live in london- and so you most likely can get this- but for others- do check that you can get this particular deal b/f getting all exicted.  i can't get any of these home phone + internet deals becuase of my particular area...

maybe it was that there was unlimited download but crappy upload capacity or something like that

You might be thinking of the speeds attainable rather than limits on the quantity of data.   The regular DSL service provided domestically is ADSL -- Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.  The "asymmetric" description refers to the fact that your upstream link works at a fraction of the speed of your downstream link.  That's fine for the average internet user just web-browsing or downloading files, but not so good if you regularly want to send large files.  In fact in some places your upstream speed over DSL may be little or no better than on dial-up.

We don't do the all-in-one package but we only pay between £35-40 for internet, home phone, mobile and international calls (although this has virtually petered out due to Live Messenger being free to speak to my family).  Pipex broadband & home phone is £20/month plus any UK calls and use 1899 for international calling which tacks on maybe £3-4/month.  Most calls I make are on the mobile anyway which is £16.50/month.

Regarding "unlimited" broadband, why do they call it that?  They say "unlimited" (caveat - fair use policy!).  Why not just cap it at whatever amount they're willing to let you use even if it is very high?  Otherwise it's not really unlimited, is it?

Paul's right about upload speeds they can be fairly slow and have always been slower than download speeds.  of course speeds quoted always refer to download.

If you go to www.broadbandchecker.co.uk you can put in your postcode and home phone and it will tell you your local exchange and the maximum speed you can get from it.  I'm on an 8MBps internet package but my exchange can only handle 7MBps so that's the max I should be capable of getting.

Interestingly about that report, the top 2, Waitrose and Global are running at £19.99 and £18.99/month, I wonder if their better service is because they're not cutting prices so low?

Every internet provider has stipulations on their "Unlimited" usage...  Orange, however seems to be quite straightforward with their Fair Usage policy.     I know when we were with PlusNet they didn't initially have a limit, but then they said we were downloading too much during the daytime and said we either had to move it to later at night or get fined.     Oh well. 

They say "unlimited" (caveat - fair use policy!).  Why not just cap it at whatever amount they're willing to let you use even if it is very high? 

It's generally because they're not worried about occasional high usage, just that they want to have something to use if somebody starts downloading movies 24 hours a day every day on a regular basis or similar.

If you go to www.broadbandchecker.co.uk you can put in your postcode and home phone and it will tell you your local exchange and the maximum speed you can get from it.  I'm on an 8MBps internet package but my exchange can only handle 7MBps so that's the max I should be capable of getting.

The maximum speed attainable is also very dependent upon distance from the exchange and the quality of the local wiring.   There are places where the central office might be capable of providing 7 or 8MBps, but the state of the wiring in town might limit you to only 2 or 3Mbps, even close by.  By the time you get a few miles out, your speed will be much more restricted, even with good cabling.  Where I am, for example, is about 5 miles from the C.O. as the wire runs, and 300 to 400kbps is typically the highest achievable in practice.