Orange Home Select Broadband Bundle

Review of Orange Broadband Home Select

STOP PRESS 1! This package is now available HALF PRICE for the first three months if taken before 31 August 2008.

STOP PRESS 2! Free activation (normally £30) if you sign up online before 31 August 2008.

WHAT colour do you think the future is? If your inclination is towards brightness coupled with an orangey hue, you may well be interested in this, Orange’s standalone broadband package.

CCJs? No problem!

The Orange Home Select broadband package is the middle brother of Orange’s Home broadband family, and the only one that doesn’t include an inclusive home phone package.

As a result, this is the only Orange package that doesn’t require credit checks, which is useful if your middle initials are CCJ, or the local bailiffs have your address pre-programmed into their sat-nav!

This Orange broadband package offers speeds of up to 8Mbps and includes unlimited data usage (so long as you keep within the rules of their fair use policy. You can read more about the best and worst fair use policies in our special report.).

Free Orange Livebox wireless router

You’ll also get the excellent Orange Livebox which not only acts as a wireless router, but also allows you to plug a phone into it and enjoy free, unlimited broadband phonecalls at any time, including free calls to Orange mobiles and free calls to 100 other countries.

You don’t need to be an Orange mobile phone customer to get this package, although if you take out an 18 or 24 month Orange mobile contract, you can get this same package for a greatly reduced monthly fee!

And if you do, the Orange Livebox will allow you to make totally free calls from your mobile when you're at home, by acting as a call router for all your mobile calls.

No more expensive support

Orange Broadband’s customer satisfaction has not been a shining beacon, but we’re glad to see customer reports suggesting this is improving.

Nothing like coming in at last position in a major nationwide survey to get some ass-kicking started in the customer services wing of Orange Broadband HQ!

Our experience with their Indian call centres have always been very positive.

Additionally, the 50p per minute technical support line has been scrapped for both this Orange Home Select package as well as the Orange Home Max package, and now costs just 5p per minute.

Half price cinema

Cinema fans will be pleased to know that all Orange Broadband customers are eligible for 2-for-1 cinema tickets every Wednesday, which gives you an opportunity to see their lame ’don’t let a mobile ruin your movie’ cinema ads.

	Orange Home Select is currently offering £10 for the first 3 months, or get it for just £12 when taken with an Orange 18 or 24 month mobile plan..

A little more detail

Broadband

			Special Note..	Any good?
Package Name:		Select	-
Connection Type:		ADSL	-
Max Speed:		8Mb	-
Usage Limit:		Unlimited	-
Hardware:		Orange 'LiveBox' Wireless Router	Acts as a wireless router and a second phoneline for free broadband phonecalls anytime
Anti-virus Protection:		No	McAfee Internet Security Suite available to buy for £39.99 (saving of £10)
Firewall:		Yes	Built into the Orange Livebox
E-mail Account:		Yes	1 email address
Webspace Provided:		Yes	5 batches of 30MB webspace
Domain Included:		No	-
Backup Dialup:		Yes	-
Consoles Supported:		All major consoles supported	-

Home Phone

Package Name:		Broadband Unlimited
UK Weekend Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
UK Evening Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
UK Peak Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
International Tariff:		Free to over 100 countries

Payment, Installation and Contract

Payment Method(s):		Direct Debit (all other payment methods incur a £2 per month surcharge)
Activation Fee:		Free until 30 Aug 2008, then £30
Installation:		Free
Minimum Contract:		18 months
Line Rental:		BT Line Rental required
Support:		24/7 5p per minute flat rate for customer and technical support

Actual User Ratings

At a Glance

Our Rating
Max Speed	8Mb
Usage Limit	Unlimited
Monthly Price	£20.00
Set Up Cost	Free
Min. Contract	18 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Anytime broadband calls to UK landlines and Orange mobile numbers using the Orange Livebox
	TV: Not included
	Mobile: Not included

	It is best suited for:
	Web users looking for a top-end Orange broadband package, but don't fancy undergoing a credit check.

Customer Reviews

Add your own review of Orange broadband...

Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseISP.co.uk).

Jeff from North Yorks writes... 23/05/2008

"Only stayed with Orange for their Web Hosting service `Mysite`. It has all crashed, yet again, causing me no end of problems. They wont even acknowledge there is a problem and their `service status` indicators havnt been updated for 2 years ! Add to that it takes 3 days for them to answer emails and the extortionate costs of calling their help lines and ... bye bye Orange. Youve just lost a loyal customer that has been with you through thick and thin... (freeserve and wanadoo). Speed is ok though... but I think that has more to do with our local exchange than Orange doing it`s job. Oh... and I almost forgot.... wireless !!! bought their wireless router thingy 18 months ago... still cant get the thing to work. Rubbish products from a rubbish company."

Herman from Glasgow writes... 01/03/2008

"Orange has to be the worst phone/internet provider I have ever signed up for. It's very slow,the connection drops on a regular basis and there the phone line is dead nearly every weekend.If you have any problems you have to call Orange on a premium call rate which will cost you up to £5 every time. The only useful feature is calls to overseas land line numbers which I use when my phone is actually working.Spend the extra few pound and get something decent!"

Mark Wood from London writes... 21/02/2008

"Orange have been failing to provide me with broadband for the last 9 months but are still trying to hold me to the 18 month contract! The "expert" techincal support service operates from overseas on very poor quality lines is VERY expensive and no more useful than asking my 70 year old neighbour"

Chris from Forest Of Dean writes... 22/10/2007

"Dreadful performance from Orange. Very slow at peak times (dial-up performance) and not a lot better at off-peak. Consistently drops out even though I have replaced the router with a decent Draytek Vigor. Line length and exchange capability mean I can only expect maximum of 2.5Mb but my old AOL 1Mb line was far superior to this Orange Home Max. Can't wait for my 1 yr contract to end so I can jump ship."

Chris from Glasgow writes... 15/08/2007

"I've found my Livebox to be very unreliable, and has limited features. The broadband connection drops on a regular basis, though reverting back to an old 'hard-wired' USB modem is fine. I'd spend some extra cash and buy a decent wireless router."