I just came off the phone to Orange customer services because the GPRS is down for Sheffield. This means that I can't (easily) get my email while out on the move.

It's been like it for at least a couple of weeks now. :(

Is anyone else suffering with the quality of Orange service since France Telecom bought them out a couple of years ago? I get the feeling that they are turning a once fabulous network into a money machine, with the customers suffering and them not caring.

No I have no problems but then I've got a Nokia on pay as you go which is several years old and put together by different parts of phones discarded by my daughters over the years as they've upgraded.

This doesn't help you much does it?

Orange are great for me. No problems using GPRS for picture messages etc, 98% of the time I have a full signal.. And I only pay £20 a month for 3000 texts, 200 anytime any network minutes and 30 photos.

Wouldn't change them for anyone else as I've found O2 and Vodafone have inconsistent signals, and don't even get me started with T-Mobile or 3.

I really hope it hasn't gotten worse because I am about to switch back over to them :(

I left orange a couple of years ago. I had been with them for years and never had an issue until I was moving. So while upgrading and signing for another year, I got them to check out the reception and coverage and they told me it was fine, no problems in the area I was moving to. THEY LIED to me! I had signed for another year moved into house and couldn't use my phone. I phoned and complained etc etc but they pretty much said 'tough'. They denied there was a prob in my area, said it was my house! I explained that all my mates on different networks can use their phones in my house, so how can it be my house? So they then said that they were fitting a new mast in my area soon. I asked why they needed to fit a mast if the network was fine (as this is what they had told me). They finally admitted they needed a mast because they reception was bad in my area! Lying idiots. I waited and waited and the mast wasn't fitted. I had to wait a year for my contract to run out and switched to O2 which works fine in my house/area.

Interestingly it turned out that at the time the watertower had a mast for every company but orange! Apparently orange wouldn't pay to put one on the watertower. Don't know if they have since, but wouldn't go back to them anyway. They owe me for a year of monthly line rental that I couldn't use. I feel they broke their contract which is to supply me with a service.