[maxspank]

I called Orange today for the first time for some general info, apperently my billing date is the 19th of the month, does anyone know if this is worked out the same as vodafone (you pay for the current months line rental, and the previous months calls, so my first bill will include this month's line rental and next months f I receive the bill on the 19th next month?)

I also called to get a datapack put on my account, and was pleasently surprised to find I have unlimited access for 3 months anyway, that's cool cos I never knew that!

[Ben]

Orange do indeed charge you for your line rental for the upcoming month, and your calls from the previous one. Many changes to your Orange account will only become effective after your next billing date. It's a bit stoneage I know, but it gets the job done.

New 3G customers get 1GB free for 3 months - or this is still the case as far as I am aware anyway.

Orange World Access packs are indeed advisable if you intend to use GPRS - the rates aren't bad. Of course, considering they still charge for on-portal browsing it's quite possible you'll use a fair amount of data just in Orange World.

[getti]

I think you should NOT have to pay for browsing the networks portal. 3 and Vodafone dont charge and i cant see why O2 and Orange still do.

Free browsing but pay for content is the way forward i think and is the right way to be charged.

As it was said in the vodafone 3g launch webcast "Its like walking into a supermarket, paying to browse the shop floor and also having to pay for your goods at the end"

[Ben]

I agree completely, but hey, Orange World isn't exactly an exciting place to be anyway. Orange customers do have the advantage of 'cheapish' data add-ons giving them the freedom to browse where they like.

[Hands0n]

Surely the "free to browse" model will become de-facto - most likely Orange and O2 have not got the correct IP accounting and billing mechanism set up to differentiate between on-portal and elsewhere. It really is not rocket science in pure technical terms.

3 do seem to have the better portal to date, I quite like that they also give away little items like some of their news video downloads/streams which we used to have to pay for when it first launched these. These little "nuggets" are quite pleasant to receive, and no doubt spur folk on to purchase other content.

None of that is to say that Vodafone are lagging entirely far behind 3.

[simax]

Surely the "free to browse" model will become de-facto - most likely Orange and O2 have not got the correct IP accounting and billing mechanism set up to differentiate between on-portal and elsewhere. It really is not rocket science in pure technical terms.

Orange already have the means to do just this - it's just that at the moment they are choosing not to.

This may change later in the year. I don't know any more than that.

[crowfield99]

Whats wrong with Orange World!!! I quite like it :) Least Orange gives you full net access unlike 3 ner ner.

[Hands0n]

Probably nothing but ............ it seems that you get charged for GPRS usage while browsing Orange World, whereas with [for example] Vodafone you do not, nor with 3, possibly nor with T-Mobile (someone confirm this please) but with Orange and O2 at the moment you do! I think that you should not get charged for browsing the mobile ops Portal.

Yup Mr ner ner ;) , you are abserlooootely right that with 3 you don't get full net access - unless you sub to one of their [3's] data packages. But then again, aint that much like just using the other mobile ops GPRS - the diff being that with 3 you have bought into a bundled amount of such data access each month, whether you use it or not :eek: . The difference between 3 and the others in terms of data access is blurring - if not been fully addressed, albeit at a pre-arranged charge (which is way to high, but that's another moan entirely :D - don't get me going, I'll start swearing :rolleyes: ).

[crowfield99]

Has Vodafone extended its trial of Vodafone Live! ? Im sure it was going to be back to £ soon.

Think it was around April of this year - Could be wrong!

T-Mobile you have to pay i'm afriad.

[Hands0n]

Well, you don't pay to browse the Live! portal. You only pay for any content used, or if you leave Live! and go off to the Internet in general.

Vodafone now have a 30-day trial of Mobile TV, and it looks like you can change trial subscription and get another 30 days! Not sure how many times you can do that. After the 30 days you pay for whatever you've sub'd to.

But the shock is to be charged to browse the portal of a mobile operator like wot Orange do.

[crowfield99]

Vodafone have seemed to removed a notice that was on the website a while back (it looks that ways anyways) so live! might be free for a long time to come I hope...