Orange FUP

Hello everyone,

I have been looking at Orange Broadband mainly because of their competitive price and "unlimited" downloads.

When speaking to them on the phone the operator repeatedly told me that they had no fair-use policy and that they had no download limit.

I'm a bit sceptical of this as I have read many forum posts where people have stated that they have been warned by orange for exceeding a FUP.

Further searching has brought me to this page:

http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/com.instranet.Inst...

They clearly state that they haveno download limit or traffic management.

They do state that they slow down P2P during peak times which is understandable.

I would use P2P alot and my fear is that they would throttle my connection, however, the above link seems to say that they will only slow P2P down during peak time and there will be no further traffic management.

Can anyone else back this up?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

Can't say about usage limits as I am not excessive . It was always rumoured to be a FUP of 40 GB /mo on LLU, but since they discontinued LLU they say it is "unlimited" as that Help page confirms.

You are aware that they have discontinued LLU and handed over their BB to BT? Depending on your exchange they will either put you on BT WBC ADSL2+ on 21CN exchanges or BT IPStream ADSL Max on 20CN ones.

Yes I am aware they dropped LLU but I really don't understand how that affects me.

I am in the Belfast Stormont exchange:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NISTM

Could you shed any light for me?

Thanks,

Mark

You are on a 20CN exchange and will only be put on "up to" 8 Meg BT IPStream, the same as every other ISP in your area.

Thats what I thought, so at least with Orange I will be paying the least and also have unlimited no fair use policy broadband...

I've noticed an older thread from June this year where the poster states that their connection was throttled after a heavy months worth of downloading:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/f/4010345-o...

Have things actually changed since then? I find it hard to image they have...

Taken directly from Orange's "Broadband Code of Practice:"

Broadband usage
All our currently available broadband services offer unlimited usage, subject to fair use policy.
This means that there are not specific usage allowances as a feature of the package. Like
other broadband service providers we operate a fair usage policy that protects customers
from others that use their broadband connection excessively. If you exceed the fair use
policy, we could suspend your service or reduce the speed at which your broadband works.

So to be honest really no further on. I have sent them an email asking directly about their FUP so we'll see what happens...

Seeing as that clause will have been vetted by at least a company-employed solicitor, and possibly as high as an external QC, anyone telling you more detail than that stands to get the sack.

I've been on Orange for the last couple of weeks. I've already gone over 40gig (had no BB for 2 weeks during change so alot of catching up to do!) My DL'ing has been a mixture of filehosts and torrents. No sign of throttling anytime of the day or night, and not even any sign of contention in the evenings. Having said that Im on 21CN, and almost all the people who have complained about problems seem to be on 20CN.
You will get pretty much the same whoever you go with if you're on 20CN, so I'd go for the cheapest. At the moment on quidco.com you can get £150 for signing up as well.

Also when I spoke to technical support for router settings, they also said to me that there is no throttling and no limits.

Got my reply from Orange today:

Thanks for your email.

We don't have a set usage amount in place as this is now unlimited
download time.

If you don't use file sharing software or download large files from the
Internet it's unlikely you'll never be affected by our fair usage
policy. If you do, all we ask is that you do so considerately, perhaps
by downloading outside the peak hours of 6:30pm to midnight. Media
streaming, including the streaming of internet radio and Iplayer,
contributes to your use of bandwidth and you may find downloading in
peak hours is slower.

If you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to get in
contact with us again.

Kind Regards

Dawn
Customer Care
Orange Internet

So they have a FUP and are telling fibs on their website... From what I gather as long as I avoid any P2P downloading during peak times and don't take the [censored] with massive downloads each month I shouldn't be throttled.

Agree?

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

At the moment on quidco.com you can get £150 for signing up as well.

Thanks for the reply.

I saw the quidco offer after my girlfriend already started proceedings with Orange, can I still get the money back or have I missed the boat?

Thanks,

Mark

can I still get the money back or have I missed the boat?

Too late I'm afraid, now that you've signed up.

Harry

In reply to a post by mags88:

it's unlikely you'll never be affected by our fair usage policy.

Tough! They promise that it is likely you will be affected by their FUP.

In reply to a post by mags88:

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

At the moment on quidco.com you can get £150 for signing up as well.

Thanks for the reply.

I saw the quidco offer after my girlfriend already started proceedings with Orange, can I still get the money back or have I missed the boat?

Thanks,

Mark

Well the offer increased from £80 to £150 between me signing up and having the new line installed. I'm skint at the moment and could do with the £70, so I phoned to cancel planning to reorder straight away. The guy told me that the cashback is based on the installation date. I said "well you would say that" - he was pretty convincing saying make a note of call time, and that all calls are recorded. Cashback takes a month or two so I've not found out yet what will happen!
The problewm you have is that the offer is valid only when you use the special quidco phone number. Just cancel your order existing order and reorder through quidco.

Btw regarding throttling I've downloaded 40gbs in my first 2 weeks using torrents and filehosts. No sign of throttling at any time day or night. Regarding FUP - I guess its too early to know, but Orange tech support also told me that they no longer have it.

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-Jul-11 19:44:56)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by mags88:

it's unlikely you'll never be affected by our fair usage policy.

Tough! They promise that it is likely you will be affected by their FUP.

LOL! I think i'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

The problewm you have is that the offer is valid only when you use the special quidco phone number. Just cancel your order existing order and reorder through quidco

In view of what was said on the phone, if he wishws to try this wouldn't it be better after cancelling to clear cookies and order through the web click-through? Or isn't that available on the Orange offer?

Even that gets picked up by some companies though.

Or what is TopCashBack offering?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 15-Jul-11 08:50:09)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by mags88:

it's unlikely you'll never be affected by our fair usage policy.

Tough! They promise that it is likely you will be affected by their FUP.

Also worrying is that iPlayer (and similar) is included. Most I have seen exclude it.

Topcashback are offering £151.50

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/orange_home_broadband/

What I find strange is mags exchange. Its looks like its an almost city exchange, with FTTC available in some areas, but it isnt 21CN. Surely for FTTC it needs at least 21CN at the exchange to be worthwhile, or does FTTC use a totally separate infrastructure ?

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

Topcashback are offering £151.50

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/orange_home_broadband/

What I find strange is mags exchange. Its looks like its an almost city exchange, with FTTC available in some areas, but it isnt 21CN. Surely for FTTC it needs at least 21CN at the exchange to be worthwhile, or does FTTC use a totally separate infrastructure ?

The fibre cabinet need not be connected to the same exchange as the phone line. Just normally is, but there any quite a few places now where it isn't. As long as the other exchange is WBC-enabled.

As you say, FTTC needs WBC, or of course an LLU supplier using GEA. TalkTalk is the only one so far.

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

Topcashback are offering £151.50

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/orange_home_broadband/

That's pretty good, I think I might have to try that!