Broadband Guide

Orange broadband coverage and availability

Tuesday 10 April, 2012

By Helen Thomas

Primarily known for its mobile services, Orange (www.orange.co.uk) also offers broadband and home phone packages, with over 700,000 UK subscribers.

Orange coverage

Orange moved control of its broadband network over to BT in 2010, as part of a five-year agreement to increase Orange coverage virtually UK-wide.

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Moving over to the BT network also allowed Orange to benefit from upgrades made to the BT network. It also has dedicated equipment in the network, unlike other broadband suppliers such as Plusnet or Zen who share the network availability.

The move should be complete by the end of September 2011. The Orange broadband network area covers 85% of all UK homes.

See our postcode checker to find out if you are in the Orange broadband network area.

Broadband costs

Orange has a brand new pricing structure which rewards customers and is extremely competitive. Existing Orange customers can get unlimited broadband, with speeds up to 14Mb, and off-peak landline calls for just £5 a month plus line rental. Or unlimited broadband and anytime calls for just £10 a month plus line rental.

And at £12.75, Orange landline rental is significantly cheaper than both Virgin Media and BT at £13.90 a month (increasing to £14.60 for BT customers from 4 December 2011).

Orange also offers a broadband-only option for £12.75.

Non-Orange customers will pay £5 a month more on all of these options.

Customers outside of the Orange broadband network area

For those of you in the 15% of homes outside of the Orange broadband network, you’ll have to pay an extra £10 a month and will only be able to access speeds of up to 8Mb. However, even with the extra £10 a month charged, this is still in line with BT’s charges.

Check for Orange coverage in your area using our postcode checker.

Orange broadband speeds

Although Orange broadband offers speeds of up to 14Mb, the way copper wire broadband works means you won’t actually get your top speed.

Your distance from the exchange is the main thing that will slow you down, and the longer your line is, the slower your connection will be.

Ofcom research into broadband speeds in May 2011 showed that Orange averaged from 6.0 to 8.2Mb for its up to 14Mb connection compared to 7.3 to 8.9Mb for BT, 7.1 to 8.0Mb for Sky and 17.6 to 18.7Mb for Virgin Media for their nearest equivalent connections.

However, Orange says that since the migration to BT’s network “it has seen a 1Mb to 1.5Mb speed increase”.

Almost “truly” unlimited broadband

Orange broadband is “unlimited” - without a fair usage policy.

However, Orange broadband does apply what it refers to as “network performance” - or traffic management. But, rather than throttling all heavy traffic, Orange prioritises time-sensitive traffic such as webmail, the BBC iPlayer and YouTube.

Orange believes this will give the average customer a better online experience because truly unlimited broadband, such as that offered by Sky, can result in slower connections at peak times due to the heavy traffic of relatively few users.

Added extras with Orange

Orange does offer a number of added perks to its broadband customers making its broadband service even better value for money.

Existing Orange mobile customers get a £5 discount on their broadband and all packages come with free McAfee family protection, including parental controls.

And, like Orange mobile phone customers, the provider’s broadband users can also make the most of its Orange Wednesdays offer with 2 for 1 cinema tickets and pizza. Plus Orange broadband customers also benefit from the Film to Go offer in conjunction with Apple - giving you a free iTunes movie rental every Thursday.

Improving performance?

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In June 2011, Orange was on the receiving end of a damning Which? report where it was named as one of the “broadband providers to avoid” achieving an overall customer score of just 33% based on a range of categories including customer service and value for money.

However, Orange is making improvements to its broadband and customer experience. In July 2011, an Ofcom report put Orange top for customer service with a 76% satisfaction rating. This was particularly impressive since Orange was bottom in 2009 with just 42% satisfaction.

Sylvain Thevenot, Orange broadband marketing director, says that Orange is “making a big effort to improve customer services” with changes to call centres and technical support.

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