Despite being one of the more prominent mobile broadband companies, Orange has been losing market share in the fixed line broadband market although it would seem that this is about to change. At the company’s last reported results its customer base in the UK fixed line broadband market had fallen to below 1 million even though it was doing particularly well in the mobile broadband sector.
As a consequence the company has totally revamped its broadband operation reducing prices to between £6.50 and £13.50 a month with speeds up to 20 Mb per second available across the UK. The company has also withdrawn the download cap although usage is still subject to the traditional fair usage requirements. Also, in a very interesting move, the company has attempted to tie fixed line broadband services with its mobile broadband network by offering the cheapest fixed line broadband packages to mobile phone customers. The idea is that this will reduce excessive churn rates which the company has been experiencing of late and which has seen some customers migrate to competitors.
The actions taken by Orange perfectly illustrated the need to crack not only the fixed line broadband market but also the mobile broadband market as well. Whether the company has done enough remains to be seen.