Category: Networks / Carriers

Orange to offer Asus Eee PC laptops with plans

I stumbled across an Orange advert for their data dongles in one of Emilys' gossip magazines last night (it blew open - I swear). Quadband, 7.2Mbps speeds with unlimited data. Yes, unlimited-ish. It's actually a "fair usage" cap of 1Gb. According to o...

HTC Touch Diamond back in stock on Orange

The HTC Touch Diamond is now back in stock at Orange following a bit of a shortage.. You can now hop off and buy one here in the Orange shop, plus you get the chance to win a trip to New York City ! How many of you …

Orange offer the iPhone ?!

Oh, Orange are on fire at the moment! In fact, you should probably sit down for this one. Following the confusing new "unlimited" data tariffs which showed "unlimited for two months" they now appear to be offering a free iPod Touch with phones that ar...

New Orange Data Plans get confusing..

We've been following the all-new Orange data plans since we asked the guy in charge why they were so pants during the launch of the HTC Touch Diamond. The "unlimited" data allowances aren't really unlimited but it's a whole lot better than the 30Mb li...

More on those new Orange data plans

The new Orange data plans are now online. Dolphin 35 will have 600 minutes of talk time with unlimited texts and unlimited data (up to 500Mb fair usage). Racoon 35 will offer 700 minutes of talk time with 100 texts, unlimited calls to landlines and un...

Update – New data plans for Orange

Following our earlier story about the imminent arrival of the HTC Touch Diamond on Orange, we've had some interesting news. By now you'll all be aware of our battle with Orange and their data plans. Personal customers, like myself, get just a 30Mb lim...

Voda to sell the Diamond for £230 without contract?

From what we're hearing it sounds like the HTC Touch Diamond has started appearing in network catalogues. It's popped up already in the Orange brochure, but strangely it's appeared in a Vodafone catalogue sporting a price of £230.... handset only. Y...

T-Mobile doubles the cost of 08 numbers

T-Mobile appears to have announced a new set of charges today. The prices, which will take effect on July 28th, are detailed here. It appears that T-Mobile have chosen to completely ignore an Ofcom ruling which states.. "Ofcom will require mobile and ...

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Coming to Orange?

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is another hot handset due to arrive this summer, but we've not heard much about which UK networks will be releasing it... until now. Orange seem to have it listed on their partner pages and, although you have to login to s...

Orange data tariffs – the saga continues

As you'll all know by now, I'm currently on Orange. I'm one of the many customers who are paying a rather large amount of cash for data. Today I've been charged nearly £12 for using just 7Mb of data, which seems to come from the "Pay As You …

HTC Diamond – Full Orange press release

We've just received the Orange press release for the HTC Touch Diamond. Like the T-Mobile variant, it'll be arriving in July, so it's looking like HTC will be selling these in June - a few weeks before the networks. The Orange branding has been carefu...

Orange attempt to lose more customers

Data usage is a hot topic at the moment. Most networks have started to get wise to the fact that - if you want to sell a "mobile internet" handset you've got to give users a decent allowance. If you don't, people will simply be too cautious and …

o2 coverage finally meets 3G licence obligation

UK network o2 have finally reached their 3G licence condition of 80% population coverage. It's the last network to meet it's obligation, with the other four UK networks reaching and breaching the figure last year. Regulator Ofcom gave the network unti...

T-Mobile and Vodafone announce new price plans

Are you a Vodafone UK customer? Are ya? Well, there's some great news if you are. Vodafone have just announced that pay monthly customers will no longer need to buy an additional internet bundle for £7.50. Plans will now automatically include interne...

Vodafone v1615 to get Windows Mobile 6.1

Steve Hurcombe has just emailed in about Windows Mobile 6.1 He's got himself the rather tasty Vodafone 1615 (the Voda version of the HTC TyTN II) and he wanted to know if it'd be updated to 6.1. Now, here at Coolsmartphone Towers we've got so used to ...

Visto announce easy push email on T-Mobile

Remember Visto ? They provide push email and got very upset some years back when Microsoft started to do the same thing. Now, however, they're to showcase a system called "WOW" - touted as the easiest-to-use mobile messaging solution. Not only that, b...

Orange locks the door, throws away the key?

We've had several posts in our forum pointing out a change in the Orange Terms and Conditions. Apparently a tweak has been made yesterday which stops you from paying to upgrade months in advance. Now you can only upgrade 3 months to the end of your co...

T-Mobile give free UK WiFi to mobile broadband customers

T-Mobile are to bundle WiFi access into their mobile broadband price plans. Prices start at £12.50 per month (when connecting with a Flext contract) and will give you access to the internet in a huge range of locations like Starbucks, train stations,...

HTC Touch Dual now showing on Orange website

Trevor Marshall has just mailed in because the HTC Touch Dual is now finally showing on the Orange website. It costs absolutely nothing if you're a new customer and we received ours yesterday. Don't forget to check our newly updated review if you're ...

HTC Touch comes to Canada

We reviewed the HTC Touch some time back and loved it, so it's great to see more and more networks picking it up around the globe. Now customers in Canada can grab this handset $199.99 provided you sign up to a whacking 3-year contract. You can also g...

Verizon launch two Windows Mobiles

During the first few years this site existed, our friends in America didn't really see much in the way of Windows Mobile phones. Now though, it's all changing. New handsets are now appearing fairly regularly and it's our turn to look on in envy as the...

T-Mobile UK Make browsing even cheaper

Following on from o2's recently announced "unlimited" plans (which confused us so much we didn't run the story), T-Mobile have reduced the price of their already excellent Web'n'Walk plans. The Web’n’walk Plus package (3GB monthly allowance) has b...

T-Mobile Vario III Pictured

OK, earlier we followed the launch of the HTC TyTN handset here in the UK. You're bound to see this on various networks with different names and branding. HTC are, of course, the people who build and sell the phones. You'll be able to buy them from HT...

Orange attempt to sort their customer service

It looks like Orange are realising a little too late about some of their current problems. They're investing £100m into improving their customer service. An Orange executive admits that their current systems are "not fit for purpose" and have added 1...

Lobster 700TV – It’s all over :(

Remember our Virgin Lobster 700TV Review ? The phone didn't impress us much, especially with the "throw a six to start" keyboard, but hey - you could watch TV on the move and Pamela Anderson was brought in to advertise it too. If you own one of these …

HTC Touch arriving at Orange stores

Shh.. don't tell anyone but we've heard that there's boxes of HTC Touch phones arriving in Orange stores all over the country. If you're lucky, and you go to the larger Orange Shops where they'll no doubt turn up first, you may be able to get your han...

Orange admits things aren’t going well

Orange are licking their wounds following the results of a wide-ranging survey. Their customers are complaining about confusing changes, account management, customer services and more. Orange are trying to rectify things with an internal campaign call...

Orange give away bikes as part of Tour de France

If you read my blog then you'll probably already be aware that I'm a huge fan of the lovely Gemma Atkinson. Now, surprisingly, I actually have a reason for posting a story about her in the front page. Yes, it may be a fairly tenuous reason, but it's …

Telus wheel out the HTC S720

Remember the huge review of the HTC S710 we did ? Well, if you're in Canada and have a fondness of the Telus network you can now get the EVDO version of this handset for a mere $149.99. It'll be known as the HTC S720 and, provided you …

Contract or Pay As You Go?

One thing I've noticed of late, especially when testing these excellent HTC devices, is that the traditional "contract" with networks is perhaps not always the best way to go. I've been with Orange for years - I had a Nokia 5.1 to begin with, way back...

Vodafone go flat-rate on data too

Vodafone have announced their entry into the flat-rate data plan market with a £7.50 data pack giving you anytime browsing with a monthly cap of 120Mb. Whilst it doesn't quite compare to the T-Mobile data plans, 120Mb is still four times more than th...

Orange SPV range to be discontinued?

The Orange SPV brand, as we've expected for a while, is to be dropped. No longer will HTC devices simply be rebranded as Orange SPV's - the manufacturer has now grown its' own base in Europe and is seeking a slot next to the big players like Nokia, …

Orange! Where’s the promised anytime browsing?!

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a bit lost. After going through several pages of tariffs I'm still unable to find the new Orange flat rate plans that are to launch this month. We've been promised "anytime browsing" by their press release but it just doesn't se...

Make a difference – submit your questions !

I'm getting some pretty interesting emails at the moment and they're all going to help shape the future of Windows Mobile. The best bit is that you guys get to point the way. Today an email came in today from a Vodafone service provider. They will be ...

Orange goes flat rate on data charges

We reported last week on the new data plans coming to Orange - now it's official. If you're an Orange Pay Monthly customer you can now choose between daily browsing for £1, monthly and weekend browsing for £5, or monthly anytime browsing for £8. It...

Orange Pay As You Go gets an overhaul

Orange have launched a new simplified Pay As You Go range along with a Speak Easy plan for calling almost anyone, on any network, at any time for a flat rate of 15p a minute. The plans also include a new Reserve Tank overdraft facility which gives £2...

Orange to drop data use charges

According to this Times article Orange will reveal some new tariffs later this week allowing unlimited access to the internet for a set fee. They, like many other networks, feel that the slow uptake of data and web use is mainly due to confusing prici...

Orange start HSPDA roll-out

Orange UK have today launched HSPDA - aka "3G on steroids" - and it will eventually cover over 90% of the UK outdoor population. Orange 3G+ will be rolled out beginning with key commercial areas in London and various airports, followed by the top five...

Orange SPV C100 and SIM+ Launch in Romania

Orange Romania have launched the SIM+ card alongside this - the Orange SPV C100 handset. The Windows Mobile 5.0 powered Smartphone has a 1.3 Megapixel camera, MicroSD slot, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, IR and a lower-than-normal 176x220 resolution screen. Th...