Orange has been rated the top provider for overall mobile broadband quality for the second time, according to a survey by independent research company YouGov.

Orange achieved the number one position in both quality and value for money, while customers have also rated Orange’s mobile broadband service top in nine out of 15 categories, including ease of use, staying connected and overall network coverage.

Orange is also continuing to invest in its network for voice and data – much like the other guys I think.

Orange is launching People Projects, a new Facebook application that lets people communicate with their social network and create groups online that want to support, or be part of community projects.  This is in line with Orange’s “brand vision” ( which is “Together we can do more”).

The new service encourages web users to discover a number of projects or initiatives where they are based, get in touch with the project owners or other volunteers, and communicate with one another.  It also lets the groups demonstrate their achievements and share them with the world. Starting in the UK and France, People Projects is an application developed for social networks (with Facebook leading the way), as well as its own supporting site:

Facebook app: http://apps.facebook.com/people-projects/

Website: http://www.peopleprojects.orange.com/home

The Facebook application enables web users to manage and fulfill shared projects, whether they are personal or community-focused  (e.g. holding a neighbourhood picnic or organising a charity event).

From today, all web users registered on Facebook are able to download the People Projects by Orange in order to create their own project and invite people to take part. In the future, Orange will offer the application on other community networks in addition to Facebook.  Initially available on the Web, People Projects by Orange will later be released for the mobile.

Orange today announced a partnership with Twitter, which will enable customers to send and receive Twitter updates directly from their mobile phones using text messaging. It also sees Orange become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS.

The partnership has been designed to give Orange customers fast and simple access to Twitter without the need to download special software or pay extra for services.  Customers will be able to update their own ’tweets’, send direct messages to other Twitter users and receive alerts on Twitter activity all through text messaging.  Twitter alerts will be available free, with upload text messages either included in customers’ bundles or charged at the usual rate.

Orange customers will have full control over Twitter alerts sent to their mobile phones with customers able to choose to receive text message updates on ‘tweets’ from all people they follow, individual users or direct messages. They’ll also be able to set times for receiving ‘tweets’.

So far, so good you might think – but it actually gets better (and more interesting):

Orange has also become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS. The Orange service enables customers to post their photos on ‘Snapshot’, a site developed by Orange UK, which automatically posts the link directly to Twitter in a ‘tweet’ and allow followers to add comments.

Finally, Twitter will also join Facebook, MySpace and Bebo on Social Life, a mobile social networking aggregator created by Orange which brings together social networking activity in one central place.  Accessible from Orange World, Orange’s mobile internet portal, Social Life allows customers to view and post updates and get in touch with friends and family across all four social networks at the same time through a single log-in.

So in summary then, Orange has gone large on its partnership with Twitter – but the most interesting thing, from my perspective, is the MMS capability – Twitter strikes me as something that has been crying out for an MMS integration, so it’s good to see it happening. I don’t imagine for a second Orange will be the first and last Operator to do this, watch the floodgates open now!

To find out more about the service, Orange mobile users should visit Orange World from their mobile handset.

So today was the day – despite all of the new initiatives that O2 (NYSE: TEF) rolled out to (arguably) spoil the party, Orange have forged ahead and started ‘punting’ (read: selling) the iPhone in the UK? Wanna know the stats? Good, I’ve just received some, direct from Orange:

Orange are delighted to reveal, that as of 4pm today Orange had sold more than 30,000 iPhones across the UK – smashing what we believe is the previously published first day sales records for a handset in the UK

At the same time, Orange’s first ever exclusive UK app – Orange Wednesdays – has gone to the top slot in the Entertainment Category, and hit second place in the free apps chart on the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) App Store. The app combines the latest film reviews and trailers with up to date info on what’s on, where films are showing, information on how to get there and the ability to redeem the 2-for-1 Orange Wednesdays cinema voucher on your Orange iPhone.

Orange’s 3G mobile network covers more people in the UK than any other, and is currently the focus of our recently launched £multi-million pound advertising campaign, which from today features the iPhone, entitled ‘You’re Covered’.

So there you go – short and to the point – but an impressive record I think – 30K iPhones in one day!

LTE, Long Term Evolution, 4G, whatever you want to call it, was designed to be a complete IP based system. Many of you may be surprised to hear this, but when LTE became a standard, it only supported data. That’s right, 4th generation networks didn’t have an interoperable standard for voice and SMS. Several solutions have been proposed, and I’ve extended my support to VoLGA, but it looks like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) will be the way going forward.

Who supports the decision? AT&T, Orange, Telefonica (many of you know them as O2), TeliaSonera, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE). That’s a lot of companies. Their posse is called “One Voice Initiative” and now that the big boys have all decided on a standard, progress towards getting LTE networks up and running will start to pick up. Verizon and TeliaSonera are competing to see who will launch the world’s first commercial LTE network in 2010, but it’s going to quite a ways off until 4G coverage is equal to the current 3G footprint.

If anyone can point me (and IntoMobile readers) to a blog post or a book that explains how IMS works, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ve always avoided the standard since I thought it would never fly. Oh how wrong I am now.

Update: The One Voice spec has been published, check it out [PDF] if you’re a network engineer.

[Via: Press Release]

Newsy newsy news – gotta love it – and this piece of news relates to the diversification of carriers on which the iPhone 3G(S) will officially sit in the UK! Orange are taking the lead (in following O2 (NYSE: TEF)), and getting the device ready for sale on the 10th November – also known as next Tuesday (relative to today).

The iPhone will be available in all 402 of Oranges stores, online, and also in the HMV outlets that Orange has a concession in. But not only that, Apple stores will have the Orange variant, along with Carphone Warehouse (and now Phones4U too!).

So what are the price points then? I mean, right now, that’s all anyone really wants to know:

Well, on Contract, you’ll need to pay £45/month to get the 3GS for free, and £30/month if you want the 3G model for free – those are 24-month kickers, so quite a commitment there. All the plans including unlimited Internet access (with fair use policy!), and also access to BT Openzone for WiFi (hmm, that model sounds very familiar!), with varying minutes/text dependent on the tariff. However, from a cursory glance I gave them, the tariffs look almost exactly the same, give or take a couple of pounds each way. Check it out in detail here.

On PAYG, again, the pricing seems frighteningly similar – forgetting the minutiae of the tariffs for a moment, the upfront costs of the devices (topping out at £539 for the iPhone 3GS), is pretty much exactly the same as O2 again. Check it out in detail here.

There are also some SME tariffs (here), just in case you might be interested – but I think the summary is that you are going to be paying pretty similar rates wherever you go. Nice.

[Original story via: Macworld.co.uk]

Orange announced a deal with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to bring the Goole Mobile App to its customers in Europe. The multi-year agreement is made to make mobile search and geo-location services easier to use by the carrier’s customers, while at the same time helping Google become ever more powerful player in the mobile industry. This, of course, is not to say Orange won’t benefit from the deal, as well.

Orange plans to bundle Google’s mobile app in its Signature phones, starting with those running Android. And in the UK and France, Google mobile search results will also include content from Orange’s own mobile portal.

In addition, Orange’s Android devices — including LG Eve, HTC Tatto and HTC Hero — will feature specially designed services like the Orange Email Wizard in one easy-to-manage place.

Once the “Android phase” is over, the two companies will bring Google Mobile App as well as other Google services to Symbian S60, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and Windows Mobile devices…

In a nutshell, Google is one step closer to ruling the world. Next in line are Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), after which we can say the search giant dominates the western hemisphere.

Orange France is the latest carrier to jump on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Messaging scheme. The France Telecom-owned operator will offer the service with its Origami Plus and Origami Jet monthly plans, as well as with the Orange email option. Following devices will be offered in the time of launch: Nokia 5230, Nokia E71, Nokia N97 and the Nokia N97 mini.

And as you know, using Nokia Messaging you can access thousands of webmail services from your mobile phone — including the most popular ones such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

[Via: Nokia PR]

Unwiredview.com has a story about the fact that Orange are working on a VoIP option for its customers, which should launch sometime in Q1-2010. The info actually comes from a French site called “Mac4Ever” (link at the bottom), which checked with a number of the French Operators.

Now of course that doesn’t automatically mean that other France Telecom (the parent company of Orange) OpCos will offer a VoIP solution, but with the likes of 3 in the UK already offering branded VoIP (Skype, as it happens), it would make sense to port across the solution over here too!

Interestingly, Mac4Ever also found out that SFR and Bouygues Telecom are less bothered about VoIP, with Bouygues saying the voice quality isn’t there. Maybe it’s just my experience, but I don’t even think VoIP delivers using a headset and Laptop – but then again I am picking about my audio artefacts!

Anyhow, it will be interesting to see what develops here, especially with the plethora of smartphones that are now capable of running VoIP apps!

[Via: Unwiredview.com via: Mac4Ever.com (via Google Translate)]

Following on recently available pre-orders, the fabled Sony Ericsson Idou has just landed on British shores as the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Satio! The touchscreen Sony Ericsson Satio is the Swedish-Japanese phone maker’s first Symbian S60 5th Edition smartphone and it oozes high-end sex appeal. We had a chance to put hands-on the Satio back when it was known as the Sony Ericsson Idou, and it’s one helluva device – especially since it runs the so-old-it-hurts Sybmain platform.

Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) UK is the only carrier to offer the Sony Ericsson Satio at the moment, but Orange has the Satio tagged as “coming soon.” Underneath that high-resolution 3.5-inch touchscreen lies all the high-end smartphone bits that we’d expect to see from a 12.1-megapixel cameraphone monster – DNLA-compatible WiFi, GPS, and 3G data. The glossy-black finish highlights the 12.1-megapixel camera (with Xenon flash) while the 3.5-inch touchscreen plays video with aplomb. Did we mention it sports a 12.1-megapixel camera? Yeah, it’s awesome.

Vodafone is offering the Satio for free when purchased with qualifying 2-year contract. Have at it!

If you’re not lucky enough to live on the British side of the pond, keep yourself busy with our Satio hands-on gallery.

[Via: TechRadar]