Having moved to a new area, I found that Orange's mobile phone signal was next to non-existent. I contacted Orange, who did do a good job at trying to keep me - they investigated the local mast, sending someone there to look for problems, and so on. Their conclusion was that there was nothing they could do to improve the signal. As a last ditch offer, they offered me a free upgrade to a Blackberry 8900 (I have the Blackberry Bold right now) which supports UMA - mobile phone access over broadband - but it would be a fresh 18 month contract.

For many, this might be a workable solution. As I do get called upon to do emergency maintenance for work, I need to have a mobile phone as backup in case my broadband fails. Therefore, pushing my mobile phone over broadband reduces my options.

Of course, Orange had made me a 'valid' offer, so they weren't 'able' to let me out of the contract, which means I need to continue paying the full amount of the contract for the next seven months, even though it provides me no benefit what-so-ever in the place I spend over 2/3 of my life - leaving me paying double (subscribing via another provider also), as I need a phone that actually works.

I've always been a big Orange fan, until now.