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Orange Home Starter Broadband, Phone (& Mobile) BundleIndependent review with up to date prices, details and special offers for this package...
Orange broadband review: Home StarterAS a basic broadband starter package, this Broadband Starter from Orange ticks about all the right boxes: it is well priced, packed with some excellent features and serves as a fantastic starting block for broadband access. Get it for even less This Orange Home Starter package promises speeds of up to 20Mb with a newly increased unlimited download limit. What's more, you can get it for free for the first three months if you are a new or existing Orange mobile customer and take one of their pay monthly mobile phone plans. It's rare to find unlimited and fast broadband this cheaply and part of the reason (Orange's large-heartedness apart, of course) is a certain looseness with the words 'unlimited' and '20Mb'. Orange's fair-use policy is notoriously unfair - see our investigation of fair use policies for more on this - so this broadband won't be suitable for heavy internet users. 20Mb is, like all broadband speeds, an 'up to' amount, the actual speeds that you can get will vary significantly based on your location. Neither of these problems should put you off Orange broadband altogether - if you're not a heavy internet user then fair-use won't affect you and Orange will estimate your speed fairly accurately before you sign up - it's just worth being aware of these things! Free off-peak home phone calls Incredibly for the price, the Orange Home Starter broadband package also includes free evening and weekend calls to all UK landlines. You will still have to pay line rental to BT, though. The one downside to this is that Orange will perform a credit check on you to ensure you're not going to be a liability to them. This check takes around 10 days, on top of the approximate 10 days to get the broadband up and running. If you know you have a bad credit rating, it is probably not worth applying for this package. The only Orange broadband package that doesn't require a credit check is the Orange Home Select, as this doesn't include home phone calls. Now with free setup While all Orange packages used to include a £30 setup and activation, a recent change has seen Orange drop this, making set up absolutely free. On the downside, Orange has introduced a £2 levy on all payment methods other than Direct Debit. So if you were planning to pay in buttons, you'll need to factor in an extra £2 to the monthly fee. Not the livebox, but wireless router nonetheless Orange are generous enough to include a free wireless router with this broadband package. Unfortunately this is not the cool Orange 'LiveBox' which not only operates as a wireless router but also acts as a second phone line (you'd need to take out the Orange Home Ultra deal to get that). Expensive telephone support In terms of support, we feel that despite the Indian call centres (which are surprisingly good in this case), Orange have done well to provide excellent free online support but they are losing lots of fans with their expensive and, frankly, unfair telephone technical support for this package. Standard customer support is charged at 5p per minute and is open from 7am to 11pm, but try asking them a technical question and you'll be kindly asked to call a 50p a minute line. Not good, Mr Orange. (Note that this charge only applies to Home Starter customers. Users of the Home Select and Home Max packages get technical support at 5p per minute) Excellent protection Putting a glaze back on the package though is Orange's free inclusive McAfee Privacy Service software which is great for checking and removing unwanted spyware as well as protecting the personal data on your PC. Orange also offer 20% off McAfee Internet Security Suite. In a nutshell, Orange has created a robust and ample starter broadband package with plenty to recommend it. Let's just see them sort out that expensive support!.
A little more detail...
Orange Home Starter package options...
User RatingsUser CommentsAdd your own review of Orange broadband... 
Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseISP.co.uk).  Sybil from Hertfordshire writes... 14/11/2008 "Not the best provider at all, customer services unhelpful, can't even pay them when they failed to collect money from direct debit, must wait until next collection cycle. Avoid at all cost" 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." |
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Home Starter non-LLU & Mobile
