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Orange: "We won't cut iPhone customers off if 750MB data limit is reached"

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Wed 11 Nov 2009

An interview with Orange reveals the details behind their fair usage policy

After Orange’s 750MB monthly data limit was unearthed, a furore erupted which had many potential customers doubting whether their iPhone deal was indeed more attractive than O2’s. Sure, Orange may have far better 3G coverage than O2, but when there’s little price difference between the two, and with one network “capping” web browsing and downloading, it appeared Orange’s iPhone deal wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

 

Or so we thought – until we got confirmation from Orange themselves about exactly what that 750MB limit actually means. Rather than limiting users to using just 750MB a month, Orange doesn’t “Call it a cap, we don’t restrict the service, and we don’t charge them any more if they go over 750MB. It’s just an indication of where we’d prefer people to be,” a spokesperson confirmed exclusively to T3. Call it a fair usage policy, in other words.

 

Orange has plenty of experience with pleasing iPhone customers. They sell the iPhone in 28 countries, and prior to working out the tariffs for the UK market, they did their research and “looked into typical Orange iPhone data usage. We found 200MB was the average monthly usage, so we felt 750MB would be more than enough.”

 

They’re quick to point out they’ll be understanding with customers who've just unwrapped their shiny new iPhones. “People’s first month of usage tends to be a lot higher than subsequent months, in the first month of a customer’s contract we’ll bear that in mind. In the first month users are getting used to their iPhones, setting up email accounts, downloading a lot of applications. We’ll be lenient, and won’t cut customers off if the 750MB limit is reached.”

 

Why is Orange suggesting iPhone users should use under 750MB of data a month, when other contracts at the network allow more (or even less?) After selling more than 30,000 units in just nine hours of being on sale, they’re understandably cautious about protecting their other customers. “If it’s affecting other people’s usage, we’ll want to maintain our integrity. We’ve seen other networks face these problems with the iPhone, but we want to do our best to give our best multimedia experience.”

 

If you’ve just bought an iPhone, or are looking at Orange’s iPhone tariffs and thinking of joining up, don’t be too worried about the data limit guidelines they’ve set out. The Orange spokesperson assured us they wouldn’t be charging customers any extra for going over the 750MB each month, even though with other contracts they normally charge the customer a small amount for each day of 3G usage.

 

“Our standard data package for other phones starts at £1.47, but that does not apply to the iPhone. When people reach 750 they’re free to use as much as they want after that. If we see customers using loads more than that though, then we’ll send them alerts by SMS or phone call, to tell them they’re using more than they should be.”

 

Apple has taken a precaution to ensure your  24-hours of straight YouTube streaming won’t result in other customers being thrown off the 3G network. “If it’s over 10MB then [the iPhone] won’t allow you to download it. Instead, if you’re downloading a large document, pictures or even a cool game in the App Store, and it happens to be over 10MB, in order to protect that you’ll only be allowed to download it via Wi-Fi.”

 

Likewise, Orange pointed out that the BBC iPlayer “only works over Wi-Fi, so that’s ruled out to begin with.”

 

Heartening news for anyone who held off buying an iPhone with Orange, but if you're still worried about the fair data usage policy, then there's no harm waiting for Vodafone's iPhone contracts to be revealed in January.

 

Link: Orange iPhone