Posted: 13th Sep, 2007 By: MarkJ
UPDATE: Orange has been kind enough to issue us with a statement explaining their reasons behind the AnyTime closure. This has been pasted at the bottom of our news item.Orange has begun issuing its older unmetered dialup (AnyTime) ISP customers with letters warning of the services closure come December this year.
The notifications don't appear to give users much choice, offering an impressively cheap 2Mbps broadband ADSL connection for just £11.99 per month as compensation, which is £3 cheaper than the previous dialup package.
One of our readers, Nick, was kind enough to send us a rough scan of the original letter and we've re-printed it below (personal details removed, naturally):
Dialup customers will no doubt be frustrated with the move, which follows a recent e-mail deletion saga directed towards their pay-as-you-go dialup users (
here). Naturally Nick wasn't pleased either, offering the following comment on our forum (
here):
Had an informing/bullying letter from
Orange this morning telling me that their Anytime Dial-up service is being discontinued in December and that I'll be sent a Broadband kit within the next 3 weeks and be able to get broadband for just under £12 per month. However, if I don't want this broadband offer then I must phone their customer service number within fourteen days, which I have done as I don't want their Broadband yet or perhaps never.
Are they really turning off this service? I have been to the
Orange website and there is still the ability to register for their Anytime service or the PAYG service which according to the letter will be the only alternative to Broadband.
Typically customers often have important e-mail addresses with their ISP that they wont want to risk losing and such users now have very little choice. Its also surprising that
Orange havent offered dialup users more broadband packages, with 2Mbps being somewhat outdated.
Sadly dialup has been a technology in decline for quite sometime and no doubt
Orange's axe will only serve to hasten its exit.
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UPDATE - Statement from Orange:Orange spokesman: "Orange has decided to close the Any Time Dial-up service at the end of this year. This is because we believe that broadband provides our customers with more benefits and greater value for money than Any Time Dial-up. Our broadband packages cost from £12 a month so in a lot of cases, Any Time customers will be paying less than they were before.
At Orange, we intend to carry on investing in future products and services. The closure of Any Time Dial-up will allow us to do this more effectively."