Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed the N/A in the slot reserved for Orange’s maximum recorded speed below. This is because despite trying two different USB modems on two laptops, a selection of SIM cards and attempting to connect in a variety of locations, we couldn’t get Orange’s service running fast enough to even complete a speed test.
In mitigation, Orange claimed there were problems with our local 3G cell tower, and we’re absolutely convinced this must be an isolated hardware issue as the nationwide median speed of 0.7Mbits/sec suggests it does work, if a little slowly. Nevertheless, the network’s failure to solve our problems despite several support calls and replacement hardware is concerning.
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Reviews
From the dial-up speeds that were dribbling down our connection we could at least tell that Orange doesn’t compress website images, and the provided Internet Everywhere software discreetly covers the basics.
Windows 7 users note: we had to download an updated version of the software from Orange’s website to make it work on our 64-bit OS.
Orange offers one of the cheapest long-term contracts, with an 18-month deal with free modem costing only £5 per month – although that has a tight-fitting 500MB data cap. Month-by-month contracts start from £15 for 3GB of data, and £29 for the E1752 modem.
Overall rating: 2/6
Maximum speed recorded: N/A
Median speed: 0.7Mbits/sec
Modem tested: Huawei E1752
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