Ben
2nd March 2006, 08:17 PM
Firstly, Orange are reported in Mobile to have taken a massive share of the prepay market during December and January. Handsets, including a low-end Moto, were available from £7.99. Mobile believes that up to 60% of these stupidly priced phones were box broken.
To add to the insanity, Orange's new tariffs are about to come out.
In place of tariffs, customers will be classified as an animal. The really low spenders will be called racoons (if you get classed as a racoon I think it's fair enough to say that Orange doesn't love you), with mid-spenders called canaries and the top-end called panthers. There's also a low-spend category called dolphins. If you can figure out where the hell that came from...
12 month contracts will offer 25% more minutes than before, while 18 months will give 50% more than previously - yet another indication of operators updating their core tariffs (finally) and slashing the cost of calling 'officially' rather than through all the irritating backdoor offers we've put up with since Three launched.
Oh, you can also nominate one Orange number (a second after 6 months) that you can call for an hour for just 1p. So... it's like stop the clock... only crap. :)
The new tariffs will, no doubt, be heavily subsidised, but buyer beware - Orange is not allowing customers to downgrade their tariff until month 11.
So yes, Orange have lost the plot IMHO.
To add to the insanity, Orange's new tariffs are about to come out.
In place of tariffs, customers will be classified as an animal. The really low spenders will be called racoons (if you get classed as a racoon I think it's fair enough to say that Orange doesn't love you), with mid-spenders called canaries and the top-end called panthers. There's also a low-spend category called dolphins. If you can figure out where the hell that came from...
12 month contracts will offer 25% more minutes than before, while 18 months will give 50% more than previously - yet another indication of operators updating their core tariffs (finally) and slashing the cost of calling 'officially' rather than through all the irritating backdoor offers we've put up with since Three launched.
Oh, you can also nominate one Orange number (a second after 6 months) that you can call for an hour for just 1p. So... it's like stop the clock... only crap. :)
The new tariffs will, no doubt, be heavily subsidised, but buyer beware - Orange is not allowing customers to downgrade their tariff until month 11.
So yes, Orange have lost the plot IMHO.