I'm trying to fill in all the details on the Orange PAYG deal for mobile data. The deal is 12 months free but capped (and I think that does mean capped, not fair use) at 250MB per month. If one goes over the cap then Orange say that mobile data in excess of the cap will be charged at standard rates.
I couldn't find a per-MB price for the standard rates but I didn't look too hard because I found that the standard PAYG terms include a cap of £2 per day for 25MB of data so my guess is that the per-MB rates are so extortionate that, if you go over the initial 250MB/month allowance, then you'll almost certainly be using enough extra data to trigger the £2 per day cap.
So the scenario as I see it is that on the first day of each monthly cycle one can use effectively unlimited amounts of data but, if one is consuming data at more than about 8MB/day on average (31 days x 8MB = about 250MB monthly cap) then one is going to use up the monthly total part-way through the billing cycle so at that point any subsequent days where one accesses data will incur a £2 charge each day (or less if the data use is so light as to be below the £2 daily cap).
So best case on the Orange PAYG scheme is totally free data access for a light user consuming at most about 8MB/day. For the sort of user who is currently consuming most of a 1GB/month limit (let's say 25MB/day) then the cost would be free for the first 10 days of the month (using the 250MB free allowance) and then another £21 days at £2/day = £42 for the month's data usage (ouch!).
Finally, trying to equate it to the O2 500MB monthly cap, that is about 16MB per day so Orange's free 250MB would keep such a user going for about 15 days and then the final 16 days would be at £2/day = £32 per month.
If all the above is right then the message is pretty clear. If you plan to go for the Orange PAYG scheme then do make very sure that you are likely to be a light user.
I think I am OK because what will save me is that I work from home so most of the time my phone will be getting its data from my home WiFi hence my 250MB monthly allowance won't be drawn on every single day. There will be many days in the month where I don't touch my allowance at all which will, I hope, leave plenty for the 5 or 10 days when I do make some use of it.
All my analysis does ignore the additional 750MB per month of free BT Openzone WiFi access but that's only of any use if one is anywhere near an Openzone access point and from my looking at the maps the coverage isn't great.
Comments gratefully received.
- Julian
