Review: Orange Mobile Broadband

Orange Mobile Broadband Review

In a nutshell: Orange Mobile Broadband costs pretty much the same as mobile broadband from 3-Mobile, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone, and offers good connection speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps. With starting prices at under a tenner a month, this is a good option for personal users. Existing Orange customers (Pay Monthly, Pay as You Go and Home Broadband) can sign up for the Orange Internet Everywhere service costing £5 per month, making this the cheapest pay monthly offering in the market.
Best buy: Orange Mobile Broadband (from £10 per month)

The Orange Mobile Broadband service has been updated in December 2008 to offer a choice of three tariffs. For £15 a month you get a free USB dongle, connection speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps and up to 3 Gbytes of data. Low users can opt to pay just £10 per month for up to 1 GB of data and high users can get 10 GB per month for £25 per month. You'll need to sign up to an 18 month contract. The system is compatible with Windows and Apple Mac operating systems.

Orange Mobile Broadband Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile network? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the mobile broadband network that's best for them. Please do not review this network if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 87 reviews:

Reviewed by pritzwalk from UK on 1st Sep 2010
If I could give a negative rating I would. Literally the worst service ever. Unbelievably slow broadband to the extent that one of Orange's own representatives admitted to me that it shouldn't really be called "broadband". Average speeds of 1.5mb per minute! Yes you read that right, per MINUTE! Customer service are just rubbish, blame downgraded masts, promise to look into it and never call you back. I live in the Stratford, London area.
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Reviewed by Amina from UK on 22nd Aug 2010
I hate Orange with a passion! I have been on this stupid contract for over a year & I cannot wait to cancel it! I didn't even know I had 3gb data usage allowance, but I've been charged exceeding it because I went on to Youtube to WATCH (not download) videos! How ridiculous is that? So, i'm left paying £71.72! Ridiculous! I wouldn't trust 3 either, they wrongly charged me £50 for a bill, but after arguments, they reduced t to £25...I can't wait to cancel and go back on to o2, i should never have left it in the first place!
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Reviewed by Robert from Manchester on 19th Aug 2010
After some dreadful performance from Three's network I tried out a number of service providers and found Orange to be the most speed consistent. I signed up for the 18 month contract using Mobiles.co.uk and received a £60 cashback gift. Which brings the total month cost down to £11 a month. I work in the Northampton / Milton Keynes / Towcester and Manchester area and find it offers the most reliable broadband service. The worst service I found was Three, with O2 a close second.
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Reviewed by Jason from England on 11th Aug 2010
Just took out a £5/month contract as an existing customer - with £40 cashback from Quidco it worked out at £50 over 18 months, which seemed worth a try despite the poor reviews. Tried it last night in the location I'd mainly be using it and could not get a 3G signal at all, even at 2am (and I was on the outskirts of Exeter, not out in the boondocks) - best I could get was 2G which offers dial-up speeds... no thanks, had enough of those 10 years ago! Meanwhile my company Vodafone mobile was merrily displaying the 3G symbol just a few inches from the laptop... The 2 stars are for their customer service, at least they give you the chance to return the dongle and cancel the contract if it doesn't work. 0 stars for coverage... come on Orange, it's 2010!
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Reviewed by paul evans from wales on 26th Jul 2010
At first everything seemed to work fine than I started getting problems connecting to the internet
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Reviewed by Meghan from england on 23rd Jul 2010
ItWorked For About 3-4montha & now it says 'internet explorer has stopped working' loads f people have thesame problem dont get one.
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Reviewed by Peter from uk on 20th Jul 2010
Orange will sell you a mobile where they know there is no coverage. They will tell you specifically that they're giving you "unlimited" broadband when this is clearly a lie. Their Indian call centres will give you frustration you did not think possible - with their utter and complete technical incompetence. As yourself if you really want a headache?
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Reviewed by John from Surrey on 14th Jul 2010
Orange are the worst service provider, I have come across. They lie openly to their customers and mislead them about coverage. They do not operate full coverage in North West Surrey. Every time you speak with the Call Centre, months apart they give the same excuse that, a mast has just go down, they actually do not have mast in the GU area, however if you call them & look on their website they say/show "Excellent coverage", I have never come across such dishonest and deliberately misleading customer con strategy. When ask to speak with someone of authority the put you on endless hold. Never ever use Orange particularly if you are in GU postcode area, Vodafone, O2 or T Mobile have superior service by far.
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Reviewed by SJ Bailey from England on 4th Jul 2010
I been with Orange now for 7 months and I must admit the speed at which it operates is poor! I have a smart phone which is less of the smart, more of a pain in the arse due to the slow and sometimes patchy network. I still Have a long time to run on my contract and feel a little cheated by the poor service provided. On the other hand I would definitely recommend the 3 network-I use it at several locations and achieve good signal strength along with outstanding speed for a dongle. I hope this review is helpful.....
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Reviewed by gee from fife uk on 19th Jun 2010
avoid orange at aw costs got a dongle today...full signal bars aw lit up edge(which is just tad faster than dial up) ...glad u get 7 day return policy...straight bk to orange..three seems to be best deal n best speed where i stay..
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Reviewed by paul from uk on 18th Jun 2010
orange dongle was a good idea until my usage shot up for no reason and the orange signal went down try and get orange to help! your barking up the wrong tree thay do not tell you if your usage suddenly changes just send you over double the bill!!!!! ask them why and you get told is (its just what i have writen down) thay have no more information than i do i have a smart phone with orange as well as a dongle but can no longer get a signal down stairs orange say its because theres more ppl using there network thay wish as soon as i can get out of this contract for both phone and dongle i will.
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Reviewed by RobM from UK on 8th Jun 2010
Hmmm, methinks some people leaving reviews here should understand what it is they are reviewing. I have contracts with Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile and BT (which piggybacks vodafone). I travel a lot and can't afford not to be be connected so use multiple providers. First off, anyone who says my PC was working fine and then "I inserted a dongle and now the PC crashes" are idiots. The chances are the PC will work fine until it tries to use anything connected via a USB port. Second, anyone who leaves their PC on overnight but thinks they are not using any bandwidth are idiots. The parasitic botnet trojans they've unknowingly installed just love always on connections. Turn it off Doofus. Third, connection speeds. Even if you have a good signal, you will be sharing the base station backhaul with all the other idiots connected to the same base-station...you never ever see contention ratio stats published by the carriers...why, because most of their users are idiots. Personally, I've had the better experience with Orange but in reality they all suck to some degree at some time. Some just suck slightly less than others. What you idiots should be asking is "why can't I have 21Mb/s like the users in Sweden".
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Reviewed by James Falkingham from England on 6th May 2010
i took out a 24 month contract with laptop and dongle package with orange last june.worked ok for a few months then started having problems.laptop crashing and slow speeds.after much time with orange technical people had my dongle replaced.guess what.......same happened again.orange then told me the fault was with the laptop and that it was nothing to do with them and to contact toshiba.toshiba advised me to wipe the hard drive.ok at first but the same problems occured again.back to orange and another dongle sent.between january and may it was hardly used as it crashed so much and i didnt have the time or effort to ring orange.last week tried again and it was identified as a bad sim card which was part of a 'bad batch' orange had problems with.new sim card sent but i decided enough was enough.i complained to a manger at the call centre who denied orange had a 'bad batch' of sim cards and offered to refund me for 5 months of what i had been paying.i felt this was not good enough and demanded my contract be cancelled.i was told this wouldnt happen and the only way to cancel would be to pay £500 to buy out the contract.after more arguing i was phoned today to say they would cancel my contract for me.my advice would be to stay away from orange with regards to their dongle as i dont believe it actually works due to it corrupting computer software.if you are having problems try requsting a new sim card as it may be the problem.if all else fails stick by your guns and requst your contract be ended.they did it for me and if you argue enough and can prove they've not provided the service you've been paying for they'll do it for you too!
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Reviewed by John Johnston from United Kingdom on 28th Apr 2010
Orange customer 'service' is heart attack inducing frustration due to their incompetence. If they didn't owe me so much money I would bin them in an instant. 1 star? I didn't have a lower option!!!!
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Reviewed by shaun from shropshire on 16th Apr 2010
Been using this dongle now for 12months. Especially in Wales where you have hit and miss with mobile phone signal connections. Any way never had any issues what so ever usually get 3g signal through out Wales, great when at static caravan down in Twywn . Never any problems with laptop freezing I pay 15 a month . First three months was free so works out around 10 quid a month for 3 gbyte never gone over usage. Don't expect to download movies , will take forever. Orange was the only dongle with coverage in twywn...
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Reviewed by Victoria from Scotland on 6th Apr 2010
I have had Orange Mobile BB for nearly 2 years now with the original Icon 225 dongle. Never had a problem with it or the service. At home I have poor signal - no 3G - even speech on the mobile phone is dodgy, however this is at home where I have a wired phone and BB so I don't care. I use the dongle for camping and I do this every weekend from May to October. My regular site is in a 3G area and speeds are blistering. Connection is stable and only ever experience a problem during a severe storm. For some reason this is a usage checker on the Mac under the Icon Preferences and I use this along with my online account to keep tabs of usage. I am not a huge downloader and in almost 2 years most I have achieved in a month is 2.5 Gb - For £10 a month I am not complaining. The Icon is beginning to show its age a bit now - it's scratched and the usb plug is bent after the lid go lost and the dongle is continually being tossed in and out of rucksacks so it is not at all surprising that it is worn looking - however it does still work fine and to be honest I am surprised as I expected it not to last the distance. I have been an Orange customer for years now and the reason for this is they have given me no reason to want to leave them.
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Reviewed by steve from england on 31st Mar 2010
first off all, dont rely on the stats on your mobile broadband partner for download usage , because orange will swear blind its inaccurate and try and charge you for exceeding your limits, they also dont tell you that when you purchase the dongle taht u need to reset the orange mobile partner at the beginning of each month, otherwise they say the download usage rolls over. Secondly, ive never had a problem with wirelessly connecting this new laptop, plug in the dongle and the computer intermittently locks up, you cant do anything but power off, back to a wireless talk talk connection , and no such problem. Thirdly, the 3g connection drops more frequently than a lady of the nights knickers! In conclusion, do not go anywhere near a orange mobile broadband dongle !!
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Reviewed by Bert from England on 29th Mar 2010
HI everyone, I have a mobile dongle for broadband, & have had it for about 2 years, with only one issues, which is as follows, my dongle got slower & slower & then won't work at all, so I phoned Customer Services like the rest of you, & their where no help at all, so I checked on the internet to see if anyone else had had te same problem, (on a friends vodaphone dongle), yes their had, but the problem was the number I called, with the right number I spoke to the right department & their called & messaged my dongle, surprizly no reply as it was broken, their then asked a few question & the next day, yes the next day my door bell rang with a courier standing their with a new dongle, asked me to replace my sim card in the new dongle & return the old one with him, which I did, & I'm still on-line & its still working fine, that's my expericence of orange Bert
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Reviewed by sarah from kent on 16th Mar 2010
If anyones got any sense don't get a phone or contract with orange i've just been hit with a bill of £60 for using internet on the phone even though i was told it was free for 2 months and then £2 per month , idiots !
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Reviewed by Kevin from Scotland on 9th Mar 2010
THE WORST BROADBAND SUPPLIER ORANGE! I was on oranges Broadband Max Package from 2006 only getting a 'max' of about 3 meg but wasn't bothered. A couple of weeks ago I got a letter form Orange stating that they were glad I was 'enjoying the broadband' but that my Usage between December and January 2010 was 12.5GB in peak times and therefore I was in breach of their fair use policy and that WITHOUT WARNING they wee going to CAP my speed for Three Months and see if I behaved myself. I signed up in 2006 and at the time the FUP (Fair Use Policy) was 40gb a month so lets say I was a little confused. I looked on line on Orange's site for details of this FUP and found nothing detailing anything like this. I looked in their terms and conditions and found nothing; I looked on the forums Nothing. I then emailed Orange and asked what the FUP was since I was unaware of it and couldn't find any info. I got this reply "As you can possibly appreciate, high internet usages at peak times can cause other users on all networks connected to your exchange experience reduced download speeds. The policy allows users unlimited downloads outside of peak times (12am to 6pm) but over peak hours a download limit of 5Gb is in place and should be adequate for many users to play online games, watch standard definition streaming video or browse the internet without getting near this limit. Once the restriction has been applied we'll monitor usage (during peak and off-peak hours) for about three months and if it's within the fair usage policy, Your original connection speed will be restored. If you breach the fair usage policy for a second time, EUSC would permanently be added to your line." I then stated that I was unaware of this policy and had not been informed of this FUP and that it wasn't available to read anywhere they then claimed that an email had been sent out in June 2009 to ALL customers. I hadn't received this and therefore asked for a copy I was told " Unfortunately the email which was sent to your @hotmail.com email account with regards to the change of our limit of fair use in June 2009 was issued from an automated system and in result of this I am unable to forward you a copy of the email you have requested in your recent email." So to sum up THEY WERE GOING TO PENALIZE ME WITHOUT WARNING FOR 3MONTHS FOR BREACHING A POLICY THAT THEY DIDN'T INFORM ME ABOUT ..CANT PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE OF HAVING INFORMED ME ABOUT, THAT YOU CANT READ ANYWHERE ON THEIR WEBSITE AND IS BASED ON AN EXTREMEMLEY PALTRY ALLOWANCE OF 5GB A MONTH AT PEAK TIMES...IT IS PEAK TIME FOR A REASON SO IF YOU DONT KNOW THAT THIS POLICY EXISTS CHANCES ARE YOU WILL BREACH IT. I was going to sign up for a two year contract for an iPhone but thankfully I was out of contract so now O2 have my business for broadband and Phone
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Reviewed by Martin Whitecross from UK on 8th Mar 2010
Ive had the same problem as Emil In that Orange claim that I have gone over my usage when I very well know that I have not. They claimed that the extra usage was probably due to updates. I don't think so. I have a 10gb dongle and my last bill suggested that i went over that when I know very well that I've not used anywhere near that much as I have been keeping an eye on my usage. Oranges billing system has a serious problem somewhere and should be investigated by watchdog. Im not going to use my dongle for a whole month and see what happens.
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Reviewed by Ashley Mason from UK on 2nd Mar 2010
I certainly would not take out a contract with them. I moved house and my new house had no coverage. When i phoned up to ask what i could do, i was told "nothing" and that they "had no plans to improve the signal" (which by the way is in London!!) and was also told that "its not our fault you moved somewhere with no coverage" Apalling.
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Reviewed by Marc from UK on 25th Jan 2010
I have the Orange Mobile Broadband 3gb at £15. I have had my bills come in at the amounts i expect them to be. Speeds go up to 160kbps download, and runs Facebook nicely. Customer service is nice and they do what you ask them to do. Reliable billing service and only fault is my area's transmitter not being at the highest licenced power. Other than that the service i'm getting is good for what i am paying.
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Reviewed by Jim from UK on 21st Jan 2010
Well there are a lot of different usage plans available on the Orange Mobile Broadband, but whichever one you choose (if you are suckered into opting for Orange) Orange will always bill you for exceeding your usage and charge a phenomenally HUGE amount. It's as corrupt as I've ever seen, Forget "Watch Dog", Orange should be featured on Crime Watch. Just 5 more months of this "incarcerating contract", I'll never use Orange again! 1 star rating is a lot more than I want to award them, just assume I really meant minus 5
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Reviewed by Emil from United Kingdom on 18th Jan 2010
I signed up with Orange Mobile broadband in August 2009. I have received two bills for 6 weeks usage of £969.15. My limit was 3GB per month and I have been with Vodafone before this and never exceeded their limit. Basically, I have been using my connection to access my mail and facebook and a few Windows update. I have declined the invoices but according to their customer service they have already given me a bad credit report. Have sent an email to Jackie O'Leary (vice president of Orange Personal Communications). After that I got contaced by Executive department. First they offered me 25% off, when I did not agreed to that, the next offer was 50% off. I offered them to pay 25% and have a written document that I would not receive any bad credit report. At this point they are not willing to offer me that. To me this totally outrageous, I know I am not responsible for the 19GB they claim I have been using. In Executive department they said that the case might be that I left the dongle in the computer over night and that is has been updating internet during that time. I believe there is a major fault in Orange billing system and from what I learn many people share the same experience. The next step for me is to send an email to BBC Watchdog and as many news papers as I can. I am not going Orange get away with charging me this amount and claim it is correct and also give me a bad credit report while I am in a dispute of there outrageous invoices. I would advise everyone with the same experience to please contact me via email esteban.london@hotmail.com. I found a large amount of customer experiencing the same treatment. I would advise everyone who has got a faulty invoice from Orange to please contact me via email esteban.london@hotmail.com and we can seek legal action together. /Emil
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Reviewed by Shaz from UK on 14th Jan 2010
Got the orange dongle and its rubbish. I found Tmobile to be better than this but 2-3 months later that started playing up, but with orange, its good for the first week or so and as soon as you pass the warranty period, thats when problems start. I hate it and will maked this the last month, thank god I purchased a pay as you go. Do not go with Orange, as what everyone is saying below is the truth. It is slow, disconnects and I cant even do what I purchased it for, so please tell me why I am paying £15 for nothing?
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Reviewed by gaz from uk on 7th Jan 2010
i have both 3 mobile ineternet and orange mobile internet ( free with mobile phone contract) and no matter what time of day i use orange it is really slow, not even fast enough to browse. every now and again i can get a reasonable connection rates but vary rarely. where as with 3 mobile i get fast connection speeds most of the time, sometimes in the evenings i get slow down but 10x better than orange
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Reviewed by Dennis Mc from United Kingdom on 4th Jan 2010
When using orange mobile broadband with outlook on my widows notebook on three occassions the computer locked so badly that the clock stopped!!! Even task manager would not run. I phoned the help line twice and both times they just said that it couldn'tbe the fault of the mobile broadband service. The lock up has happened on 3 occassions when using Orange mobile broadband. I have not been able to use orange mobile broadband without this happening. You make up your own mind. The lock up isn't the worst problem. After stopping windows to deal with the lock out, Vista would not run properly until I carried out a system restore to a point prior to installing the orange dongle. Orange Mobile broadband is a minefield. DONT USE IT UNLESS YOU HAVE TO, DON'T TAKE OUT A LONG CONTRACT UNTIL YOU ARE SURE IT DOESN'T CAUSE PROBLEMS.
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Reviewed by Mike from UK on 27th Dec 2009
I am a technical engineer and have recently built a brand new high end machine for a friend who wanted to do advanced photo editing. The machine runs winxp sp3 and has been fully tested with no errors occuring except the usual winxp ones we all know how to get around. The second I inserted my friends orange dongle, the machine crashed and now that the software its installed, the machine continues to crash whether or not the dongle is in place. Ive noticed only the most recent posts here mention computer crashing so it looks like oranges software design has gone from bad to worse. Ive seen o2 and vodafone versions that work just fine but orange can't seem to get the software right and obviously haven't fully tested as they should have. until orange start getting ticks in all the right boxes idd stear clear and go with o2 (the only mobile company ive found that actually gives a toss about its customers)
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Reviewed by N.carter from Kent,uk on 10th Dec 2009
Orange dongle problems yet again. Have had 4 replacements with same problems. Goes so slow,like watching paint dry,dissconnects itself,crashes an not responsive. States im connected an data sent/rec going but cannot even get google home page up,get connection problems an contact administrator orange. Wast of time,dont get anywhere. Being charged for data that am not using as not usaable. Dongle not fit for purpose of use. Do not go with orange dongle. Ok for month then problems every time.
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Reviewed by Ibrahim from UK on 10th Dec 2009
Just got myself connected to the Internet via Orange Mobile Broadband today. Okay, first the good news: There's no 18-month contract anymore - it's a 30-day contract. Also, I like how Orange gives you a 10GB download limit for only £10 more than you'd normally pay for 3GB. Now the bad news: As everyone here has commented, it's VERY slow. So you basically end up getting "broadband" internet at download speeds which appear to be only slightly faster than dial-up. However, for people like me who need access to the Internet but don't have a landline available, it's a lot better than having no Internet access at all.
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Reviewed by smelly socks from uk on 9th Dec 2009
orange mobile broadband paying them money for a rubbish 3rd rate service and pathetic customer service time to move to another company who value and care about there customers AVOID ORANGE.
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Reviewed by jaideep singh from uk on 28th Nov 2009
please please do not take orange home broadband. They provide very very poor customer service. They will sell you trap. Do not touch them they are disease in broadband market.
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Reviewed by Charles from UK on 22nd Nov 2009
Avoid like the plague! Orange are running a scam! I read all the bad reviews and I thought that I cant go wrong as there was a 7 or 14 day return warranty. Guess what.... It worked flawles for the warranty time and soon after i started getting the terrible slower than dial up speeds that everyone is describing. I am not going to waste time to go into all of it. ALl I can advise you is YOU WILL REGRET ORANGE MOBILE BROADBAND.
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Reviewed by Deep from England on 12th Nov 2009
Im on the pay as you go on orange, and normally top my phone up £10 a month. 300txts/mins and free internet... im not complaing good service. (Y)and if you dont receive your rewards, then you just phone up free of charge and get them :)
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Reviewed by simon from nottingham on 9th Nov 2009
i have been with orange for years on a phone contract,i find the service brill no probs at all. then i decide to get the b/b dongle as i live in the center of nottingham thinking the i will have no probs with the coverage, how i was wrong, i lose pages, downloads stop half way through and it makes my laptop none responsive, kinda angry as i was told i would have no problems, now im stuck in a contract for 17 months
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Reviewed by ben from bridlington on 30th Sep 2009
iv just got the orange dongle with 3gb usage for £14.68 a month on a 1 month contract and the signal is ace...its just about as fast as the router i hade in the house but even better you can use it out doors...the 3gb seems to be lasting but you do have to be carefull what you download because if its a big download it will take quite a bit off your usage but the ocasional download is fine and if you use it for brousing like facebook,ebay,google,eg...its perfectly fine just try not to download...i hade a vodafone dongle and it was slow as hell so went with orange and i cant belive the speed i get to say its a dongle lol its ace
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Reviewed by A. FRIEND from UK on 21st Sep 2009
THIS IS A WARNING. DO TAKE ME SERIOUSLY WHEN I TELL YOU THAT ORANGE MOBILE BROADBAND IS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE! I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND ORANGE TO MY WORST ENEMY. EVERYTHING IS WRONG WITH ORANGE. IF UR THINKING ORANGE... STOP. TRY: O2, TALK TALK, VIRGIN, VODAFONE... EVEN 3; JUST BE SURE TO STEER CLEAR OF ORANGE. THIS HAS BEEN A WARNING.
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Reviewed by Mark from England on 8th Sep 2009
~Orange has to be the most unbelievable network around, I got the icon 225 dongle on an 18 month contract, it worked for 3 months, then just stopped, i paid a few bills after that in the hope that the "customer support" could help me out. Needless to say they done absolutly nothing! Then after complaining almost everyday for another 4 months they try and hit me with a £360 bill. Baring in mind my contract was only 18 months and was £25 a month...i paid for the first 7 and they try and charge me 14months worth (21 months in total?)
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Reviewed by carl kewley from england on 23rd Aug 2009
hey people i have had troubles with orange in the past but hey who hasnt but i been on orange pay as you go phone service i rang for me pac code to jump ship and move to vodafone well that phone call they had moved me to the monthly 30 day sim deal then let me upgrade to a handset of my choice to keep me as a customer with oodles of free mins texts and web then i was with three broadband it is terrible so i let my three dongle expire and then signed up with orange and there very friendly instore staff who gave me 3 months free internet too and the difference i can see its amazing i am with orange mobile phone and broadband and on the phone or in store the staff at orange have been fantastic with quieries and problems i have had unless in the future one of the other networks offer me something alot better i will never ever leave orange it's the best network i have dealt with out of them all
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Reviewed by dave brown from uk on 22nd Aug 2009
i was using a vodafone broadband dongle i could get speeds of up too 2.6mb download even though i only had 2 bars an 3g+ showing in the signal i then decided to get the orange broadband as there signal is alot stronger in my village so i got one pluged it in an wow 98% signal hsdpa but when i test the download speed it doesnt even get 1/2 a meg so contacted orange they said it may be due to time of day as network is very busy so i got up at 3 in the morning did the test again this time 97% signal and 300kbps download now they cant tell me it the busy net work unless every bugger with a new orange dongle got up at the same time to test theres very disapointed
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Reviewed by Amo from UK on 19th Aug 2009
Just got it today, and so far so good - really good connection speed (in London)
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Reviewed by Andy Crawford from Scotland on 3rd Aug 2009
If I could give it zero stars I would. Utter utter rubbish. Possibly the worst customer 'service' I've ever experienced. The device (E160) refuses to work on any signal better than EDGE which is essentially dial up, despite deing told that my postcode has excellent 3G+ coverage. Furthermore, it makes my computer crash after, on average, two minutes of attempted surfing. I've spent countless hours on the tech support line, mainly waiting in the queue to speak to someone who is inevitably entirely unable to suggest anything approaching helpful. Will be returning this to the shop tomorrow.
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Reviewed by Jonno from UK on 23rd Jul 2009
Orange mobile broadband is awesome! In manchester it has great coverage, is fast, really fast and their customer service is spot on. I pay 24 a month and get practically unlimited usage. Plus no line rental!
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Reviewed by tim from uk on 17th Jul 2009
our experience of orange mobile broadband is poor to say the least.The asus eeepc that comes with it is rubbish.After 2 replacements we still have the most unresponsive computer known to mankind always losing pages and crashing at every opportunity.The attitude of the shop staff is to keep replacing it with the same model!!!! if we could come off the contract we would asap xxx
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Reviewed by Lee from UK on 9th Jul 2009
If you value your money and your sanity, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not sign up for mobile broadband with this provider. I used the ICON 225. They have stung me twice with bills in excess of 140 pounds for apparently exceeding my 3 GB usage limit. All my bills since november have been around 20 pounds, then suddenly it shot up and I nearly had a heart attack when i read the bill. The first time I took responsibility for it because I was online a lot(I'm a graduate so im job searching, watching the odd youtube vid etc) so I paid it and I took the advisors advice and got a data counter (because orange doesnt provide one *rolls eyes*) so there was no way in hell I would go over and have to fork out that much again. I monitored it constantly. But what do i see when I nervously opened my next bill? A bill for £131.78p. I was livid. Called them up but the advisor made as much sense as sunbathing in the frozen artic and just would not listen to me. When they put another guy on from data support he explained that webistes sometimes download things without you even knowing it. I said: So where is the prior warning and information about this for us who arent computer geniuses or understand all this megabyte etc business (Its all gobbledy-gook to me) he said: Well maybe you should educate yourself in computers before signing up with this service! He was so rude! So everyone is a walking encyclopedia of computer knowledge are they!? Give me strength! I'm tied to this contract for another 9 months (To terminate the contract would cost me 130 quid + so im just gonna have to lock the dongle away and pay 15 quid a month (my uncle said to imagine it as some sort of tax but thats not the point) You can get charged up too 100 pounds if you go over your download limit by just 1 GB in some cases with mible broadbands. I found it out the hard way, so if your on orange broadband, BE WAREY! And if not, just stay away from it... PS. 1 star is too good for them. If I could have it would have been zero
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Reviewed by briny from england on 30th Jun 2009
About website reviews....review sites like these where you hear the 1st hand reviews of people who have used these packages are what people should be listening to when making a decision. If you waste your time and go to all those sites with one expert review dont waste your time. These type of reviews are totally unqualified and made by a person who's site posting the review is sponsored by a mobile company to write up a favourable review. Steer clear from these misleading 'paid for' reviews. Unfortunately too many people believe the so called 'experts'. When was the last time you went onto a branded website and read a review from an 'expert' (i say with my tongue glued to my cheek and laughing)that pointed out any of the horror's that lots of people here are experiencing...'never' is the answer...because they wouldn't get they're payoff from the service provider if they told the truth!! People always listen to the person on the street reviews who have used products first hand...not the so called 'experts' because they're interests lies not in the truth but in their pockets!!!
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Reviewed by geoff shilton from uk on 17th Jun 2009
update on my last. After waiting on hold for 41 minutes I had to end the call. Run out of battery. Orange, in my opinion you are absolutely useless in this area of your business. Get some more lines or operators. As a businessman I have far better things to do than wait 40 minutes to speak to you guys. You're in the phone business for lords sake so it cant be that difficult surely!? MUST TRY HARDER!!!!
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Reviewed by geoff shilton from uk on 17th Jun 2009
signed with Orange Mobile Broadband on their 3ghz dongle package 3 weeks ago. Since that time they have turned off the system once for no reason without notice and I have had cause to telephone their customer service number 3 times. As I write I have been waiting on the phone for 30 minutes and 52 seconds and counting..!!!!! The message they constantly give you REGARDLESS OF WHAT TIME OF DAY YOU CALL is ...." We are currently receiving a very high number of calls so you may experience a delay. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please hold and we will answer your call as soon as possible." YO ORANGE DUDES...HAVING TO WAIT THIS LONG TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE IS MOST DEFINITELY AN INCONVENIENCE. WISH I'D GONE WITH VODAFONE OR ANYONE WHO DIDNT PAY LIP SERVICE TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TREATED THEIR CUSTOMERS WITH SUCH OBVIOUS DISDANE. P.S...WHEN I WANTED TO SIGN UP THEY COULDNT DO ENOUGH BUT NOW THEY'VE GOT MY SIGNATURE ON AN 18 MONTH CONTRACT ALL THAT SUPERFICIAL B******T HAS GONE OUT OF THE WINDOW. VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!!. STEER CLEAR OF ORANGE MOBILE BROADBAND.
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Reviewed by Mark from England on 12th Jun 2009
I agree I think orange mobile broadband is brilliant. Use it all over the uk and find the hsdpa for downloading is absolutely awesome. Everyone seems to slate orange as a company but the last 6 to 12 months i think? and i quote "They are 200 percent better than before". Maybe this has got something to do with new guy Tom Alexander. He did well at virgin and looks like he is doing well here too. Well done orange.
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Reviewed by pat mcconnell from scotland on 11th Jun 2009
it always works,never has lost the connection,but most of the time goes down to gprs or edge from 3G(which is very fast)for £10.79/mth it's ok.ps,saving a fortune not having to have BT landline rental.
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Reviewed by lawrence gould from United Kingdom on 27th May 2009
Avoid at all costs This 3g dongle is as slow as Internet connection was 15 years ago appalling Complete waste of money How about NO stars
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Reviewed by Luiz Camargo from UNITED KINGDOM on 21st May 2009
Ridiculous... I regret so much having a 18 month contract. I've been over-billed twice in a row, they provide a software that measures (estimates, according to them)usage, but the bill almost 50% more in terms of data, so I paid almost triple what I was expecting... And, they do nothing about it. I was told to use a third party data tracker to check my usage for a month & then go back to them... Run away from it!!!
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Reviewed by xyz from UK on 6th May 2009
its fine but speed is realy poor
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Reviewed by Karen Gray from England on 1st May 2009
Have no problem with the product. Only problem is you can not view your usage on your account. Therefore you will not know if you have gone over your usage until the dreaded bill arrives. In this day and age I can't see why they can't provide this information. I can only assume they want you to go over thus collecting yet more money from us. Has anyone else had the same problem???
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Reviewed by Jan U from Worcestershire on 29th Apr 2009
I have been having problems with my orange dongle now for about 6 weeks. Its an intermittant fault where it sometimes will and sometimes won't connect to the internet or it takes numerous attempts to connect to the internet. I have made loads of calls to orange but so far havn't managed to sort it. On several occasions i have waited patiently for 15mins to be put through to an adviser and got cut off!! I have better things to do with my evenings than spend an hour getting online or another hour trying to get customer service. I find the whole thing so frustrating and am not prepared to pay for a service that i can't or have difficulty using.
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Reviewed by Jen.W. from Warwickshire, UK. on 27th Apr 2009
The servie where I live is appalling. We have called Orange on a number of occassions. Everytime they give us a month free which is nice but we still can't use our internet. They have told us it's due to a mast that was due to be repaired on 13th April-so far no improvement. Our connection lasts about 10minutes max. Ver frustrating. Despite the above they will not let us out of the yearly contract-even more frustrating. AVOID!!
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Reviewed by owen roe fay from united kingdom on 22nd Apr 2009
I have just a few things to say about orange they are excellent and they have always had very high standards with me in every department.
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Reviewed by Matthew from England, Hampshire on 22nd Apr 2009
Fantastic for first 2 days - now stuck on edge gprs network which is terribly slow - HELP! How do I change settings to 3g???
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Reviewed by John Bull from United Kingdom on 20th Apr 2009
I'm utterly appaled with Orange's customer services - not only do they offer a lack of support when you're experiencing problems, they have hung on me as recently as yesterday (April 19th, 2009). The call centre for technical support is, I understand, located in India and when I get through, the people on the other end refuse to help me on queries unless the account holder speaks to thim (which is poor as I wasn't requesting any confidential information, only for them to give me instructions). Upon contacting them, they had difficulty understanding me and I was told to do the same things over and over again, and was refused to be spoken to because I was unable to telephone where I would be near me desktop computer. The telephone signal was also sub-standard and it was difficult to hear them due to obviously poor telephone lines. This is one of the worst customer services I have ever encountered, and I strongly recommend if you are considering moving to Orange, you stay well clear, as if you suddenly encounter a problem, chances are you'll have to figure it out for yourself. Sky Broadband or BT is highly recommended.
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Reviewed by sean harris from england on 16th Apr 2009
my girlfriend bout us the orange mobile broadband with 3gb download limit. we both were happy at first because usually the normal broadband packages (BT especially) charge more than what you are tols to pay, plus there was no phone line charge too. but now there is virgin who charge around the same as what we pay for mobile broadband and virgin are faster and unlimited download also withorange you have to ring them up too check your account so it costs us due to not having an orange phone. so what i say is if you want broadband to take anywhere with you then go for mobile because thats what you'll get but be careful of how much you use it and be ready for very slow speeds. otherwise you should opt for fixed line or cable broadband.
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Reviewed by Steve Bullock from United Kingdom on 13th Apr 2009
I come from a Customer Service background and I have to be honest Orange Customer Service India is shocking, worse since Orange Plc advised that India was being dropped over a 2 year period. Orange UK Customer Service is outstanding especially through Contact Us or direct to customer.service@orange.co.uk. They cannot deal with account related queries simply because of DPA and they are not 100% positive that the request is from the account holder. They are rated for performance and need to answer 13 emails an hour, of those emails answered they need to call between 20% to 40%, and over the last 6 years this service has got better and better. If you request that a call is made to you via email and you give a time and date and make sure you yourself are available they will make sure they call you. If you miss them they'll not rearrange it that's up to you, but they'll send you an email of your next steps which has always been accurate. Brilliant is not the word. Mind you if you get a reply from a Joe or George forget it, waste of time, try again.....
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Reviewed by Chris Morris from United Kingdom on 9th Apr 2009
I Have been loaned a dongle which is an Icon 225 and I have to wait about 20 Minutes to watch a 10 minute video on youtube ...It would be Quicker to get in my car and watch it at my mates house....Orange need to sort this out ...and Quickly before everybody chooses another network .....I would imagine that most people already have ....Come on ORANGE what ya playin at ?
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Reviewed by katie from uk on 1st Apr 2009
i'm really disgusted with orange, the lack of customer service is unbelieveable and you can never get through to anyone, even on there website. the coverage is fine, its just the treatment of the customer (myself) that is unacceptable. the billing system is wrong, why should i have to pay a month in advance when i only had mobile broadband 2 weeks? now there saying there going to cut me off. they activated it late after me having to call customer services several times and since then i've had nothing but trouble, you can't even write a letter of complaint and get a reply! do i recommend orange???? NO WAY.
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Reviewed by alice x from uk on 13th Mar 2009
orange is an ok broadband apart from the reception you get 300 free texts if you top up with £10 and if u top up with more you get alot so a pretty good broadband but the reception lets it down (i reccomend O2)
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Reviewed by Rob from uk on 24th Feb 2009
My mobile broadband works fine, normally between 1-2mbps. Make sure you change the settings to 3g only (if coverage allows) otherwise it will keep switching to edge/gprs which is very slow!! Also I use the clip and lead it comes with to attatch it to the top of my laptop as it seems to improve signal and prevents damage to the dongle. I broke my first dongle (was plugged straight into usb port and dog kept knocking it) and had a nightmare from Orange customer services to replace it, so be careful!!
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Reviewed by joe from uk on 26th Jan 2009
im 14 got it with my phone honestly it its shockingly bad..the activated it late so i had to go 15 days or so without internet when i had homework to do *wink* and when we did get it..well its just sooo slow grr cant download any songs or anything.. grr
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Reviewed by jonathan service from belfast, uk on 19th Jan 2009
I opted for a broadband dongle in July 2008 at first no problems found it good value, but from 1st november 2008 i can now only get gprs(2G) instead of the normal umts(3G) as of today 19th jan 2009 i can still only get 2G reception in an otherwise 3G area, i have contacted orange a few times to see what is going on all they can say to me is the mobile mast is being repaired and they give me a date when it should be fixed as of the 5th call i get the same answer, all they offer me is a credit against my account but i don't want that i want the service i signed up for they will not give a total refund as i can get 2G but 2G is useless it is slow and sometimes freezes when trying to get to emails or uploads and downloads, they will not let me cancell my contract as they are in breach for not providing the service i signed up for, they will only offer partial refund, my advice don't go for an orange dongle when problems arise like mine you are left with a less than perfect intern et i may as well switch to old fashioned dial up thats how slow 2G is.
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Reviewed by Anas from Carlos on 30th Dec 2008
Absolutely brillaint. I was give Orange Broadband free with my Orange mobile phone contract. I was very skeptical as to weather this broadband was going to work or not after reading all the negative feedback on the net. I set the broadband up anyway and to be honest for personal use at home it is brilliant. I would recommend this to anybody.
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Reviewed by Lisi from UK on 24th Dec 2008
If you've never had a problem with Orange broadband then you would probably give it four or five stars. When they work, they do work well. When they DON'T however they'll just fob you off with "we'll contact you in 24 hours" and a month later you're still having issues. We've been with them for just over a year now but are currently swapping to another provider. We don't even care about the original faults or cancellation fee. We are simply desperate to get away from Orage. All i can say to those who think Orange is great is this: Just you wait til you need to contact their customer service. Good luck. You'll need it.
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Reviewed by Elizabeth from UK on 24th Dec 2008
Don't do it. Just don't do it. Orange are evil.
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Reviewed by rachel from uk on 21st Dec 2008
incredibly slow, never known anything like it. cant download anything. tried to get itunes for my phone.... was up to 25 hours remaining before i decided not to bother
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Reviewed by Matthew from Northern Ireland on 16th Dec 2008
I am using orange mobile broadband, i dont know what speed im supposed to be getting but i end up with about 1.6mb download and around 200kbs upload which is good, but im connected to a 3g+/hsdpa network so thats why i have the high speed, but just go to google and type in "orange coverage" and type in your postcode and it will tell you if you have good coverage in your area, if you do then your speeds should be good.
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Reviewed by Kelly from UK on 12th Dec 2008
All I can say is if you're going to buy your mobile broadband from an indirect supplier (ie Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4 U) do you really think they have your best interests at heart when checking your coverage for a specific operator????? Of course not. They just want to sell you the product and then post-sales it all goes back to Orange. I've had a dongle with Orange for the last two months. They did the coverage checker on me and it worked. I've got great speeds and have no problems. They also told me that if I had problems then i could return in 14 days, so it's not like people don't have a chance...
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Reviewed by ks from UK on 10th Dec 2008
ive read a few reviews on orange mobile broadband and the majority seem to be... less than good so i thought i'd post my experience with it... being an orange mobile phone user i decided to see what it was like. I live in North Wales and the 3g signal on my k850i is somewhat patchy... well, installed on my the Icon 225 onto my mac and connected to the net and i'm getting 500k download speeds at the moment with a signal of 2 bars... okay, i've only had it for a day, but pages seem to load zippy enough, and living in the 'sticks' a bit, i never had fantastically high expectations for it anyway. i have also downloaded an application which recorded a speed of 112k/s (equivalent to 1.12mb broadband)... the only thing i would say is he 3gb download limit is very stingy - come on orange - u the limit before your competitos get the better of you!. Time will tell if its anygood in the long term, and maybe if i had more than 2 bars signal it might be even better, but no complaints so far.. (i'm also connected to it right now..
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Reviewed by Jes from England on 16th Nov 2008
Don't EVER get orange. They will suck you in, and if you want to get out during the 14 day cool off period, then they are kidding you. I live in a very civilised area, and we get good signal but it takes about 30 mins to load a web page. Most times it disconnects as the internet page times out due to the slowness. Orange asked us to bring our laptop into their shop to see if it would work... we don't LIVE in there shop so of course it's going to work. Be careful the only way they will take it back is if you get absolutely NO signal. Everywhere gets signal but it's SLOW very slow, so be warned.
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Reviewed by John from UK on 26th Oct 2008
Does not do what it saids on the tin. Slow connection speed, tested it on a checker web site, 300k max for download. nowhere near 1.8! Its has slow bloatware as dialer. However, it does have pretty good coverage and it works well on virgin trains due to extended orange transmitters.
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Reviewed by clare from Somerset, UK on 8th Oct 2008
I had the free laptop and 18month dongle contract with carphone warehouse. I've had this for a few months now and NEVER get disconnected or experienced any problems. I have a 3 mobile and get terrible reception in the property and only Orange and Vodafone work so I checked the coverage on both and made my decision. I reckon if you download lots of stuff on the internet this probably isnt for you but if like me you just check your emails and surf on the net its ideal! Orange customer service were extremely helpful when I first set this up so no probs there either. Im happy!
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Reviewed by Yogesh from Uk london on 4th Oct 2008
Well all i can say is !! think 1000 times before u switch to orange ... i rate it not even a half star. worse conntection. with worse coverage and slow speed. The conncetion get disconnected in a average of 1 hr a day . so when my download starts for movies or games . it gets disconnected and thats it start again . well and once i didnt get any broad band for nearly 1 month and yea its true and that was not enough even when i asked for whats going on in the orange customer service they say even they dont know the problem .. it was a big prob for 30 days no net?? thats a lame business. and customer support team is in India. how will they know whats going on in uk. and those ppl dont even bother analysing the prob as they switch every hour and dont even bother .i m currently paying 19 £ a month for this piece of junk .well as far as im concerned I m never gonna use any product of orange ... never in my life
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Reviewed by Steve from Birmingham, UK on 2nd Oct 2008
Signed up for Orange mobile BB when I renewed my phone contract with a view to cancelling my BT line at home. I really wish I hadnt bothered. Having been with Orange for 6 years I have never had any signal problem. Now, after receiving a message from Orange saying the service in my area had been improved my phone will only work in the kitchen, I can only connect to the mobile BB network by attaching the dongle to a 10 feet long USB extension and attaching that with a sucker to the kitchen window and suffer regular disconnections. I have installed a speed tester on the laptop and my average connection upload speed is 0.06 mb/s and download 0.15 mb/s - awful. I have had to buy a 3 mobile BB dongle on PAYG as a backup and have my BT line reconnected.
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Reviewed by Fez from Manchester on 21st Aug 2008
Constant disconnections. Poor signals even in areas they say are good signal areas. Disappointed as i used to think orange had the best coverage
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Reviewed by declan from england on 11th Aug 2008
well all i can say is i do like orange mobile broad band but thats because i checked my postcode in an orange store they have all issues and a coverage checker accurate to say 100metres so my opinion is that next time you think of buying go to orange them selves
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Reviewed by Dave from Glasgow on 31st Jul 2008
I asked Phones4u about coverage in certain areas of Glasgow and was told there was good coverage all over Glasgow. That isn't true. Spent a lot of time with Orange support, eventually got passed on to level 2 support who said I am on the fringe of one aerial and I had been missold the device. Orange techs say that there aren't enough aerials in the Glasgow area to provide a good service in some areas at the moment, they are planning more but not in the next six months. In the evenings the data rate can go down to around 1600 bits per second (old fashioned teleprinter speeds!). The max download I've managed in one month is about 330Mbytes a long way short of 3Gbytes. Why don't Orange have a mobile broadband checker on their website? I think contract sellers are basing their predictions on the 3G mobile phone coverage checker which doesn't mean you will get good data transfer. I'm now left chasing the seller with trading standards. It's time someone like ofcom came down heavy on these folk.
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Reviewed by Darran from Wales on 26th Jul 2008
I bought Orange Mobile Broadband from Carphonewarehouse, they did a check on my postcode (I live in Cardiff) & told me i was in a very good coverage area and would get up to 1.8 mbps. I dont get anywhere near that, around 100k if i'm lucky.
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Reviewed by myles from england on 22nd Jul 2008
Its worked perfectly for me over the past 3-4 years. Had no problems with it. GOOOOOD!
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Reviewed by scott from UK on 8th Jul 2008
I think orange mobile broadband is great, i work for carphonewarehouse, i have orange and also 3 mobile broadband, i live in sheffield city centre and find orange far quicker with better signal, as i write this im downloading vista service pack 1 and the orange mobile broadband networks logged onto 3g+ and im getting 180k a sec download speed which equates to almost 2meg speed which is great, at most on 3s network i might get 1/2 a meg speed !!
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Reviewed by MR Hassan from UK on 6th Jul 2008
according to what you are told when you enquire about the dongle and it's speed you are told it has speed of 1.8 Mps minimum, but when you start browsing, the speed is very, very slow that it switchs from HSPDA to UMTS and to GPRS which has data tranfer rate of 34 - 48 kbps very murch slower than even a dail up modem. Now why not tell the customers about the reallity in speed, rather than dicovering after signing up?
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