by : Mark Hirst

Orange Mobile is one of the longest established mobile phone operators in the UK, and has millions of subscribers, but despite the multi million pound advertising campaigns, and innovative deals that it has begun to offer, it now seems a distant fourth for many people looking for a new mobile phone.

A few years ago, Orange was the network of choice for many people; they offered things like itemised billing and free handsets as standard while other networks charged. They also had generous tariffs that included plenty of free call time, and on the whole their customer service was really good, however in recent years, they seem to have fallen behind their competitors.

There are a few advantages to having your phone on Orange. For example, if your calling plan is more than ?35 a month, they now include a free broadband package for your home. They also offer a range of flexible calling plans that allow you to choose how you spend your allowance - either text messages, or on free minutes. They have gone from having a very limited range of available handsets to offering the standard models that other suppliers provide, meaning that no matter what phone you want, you can now get it on Orange.

The network has also embraced 3G, which is now available across most of the country, and allows users to make video calls on their Orange mobile phones. However, when you compare what is available on Orange with competing networks such as 3, they always seem a little over priced, and while people may complain about the customer service with some networks, Orange's is just as bad, despite the extra cost that they charge - if you have a problem with their broadband, which is also quite expensive, they actually charge you 50p per minute to contact the help line!

New management has now been brought in at the French owned company in order to try and stem the tide of customers leaving to go with other operators, and this is starting to have some effect on subscriber numbers. In the long run, customers will benefit from more customers at Orange, as this will allow the company to get lower prices, and the network is still very popular with business customers thanks to the way in which it offers special tariffs to be shared across a company's whole network of phones.