Free business Broadband to be provided in new Orange package

Orange will soon be offering free broadband access to all small business customers that are on its Solo mobile plan for the length of the contract they have taken out.

The “Broadband for Business” offer was announced by Orange on Tuesday as well as a variety of other updates for its customers. Amongst these updates was an offer along the same lines as the one above but for users on non-business monthly plans, and the home broadband plans offered by Orange have been given an upgrade allowing users “unlimited” data downloads but obviously within its fair-usage policy limits.

The launch date for the “Broadband for Business” has not yet been finalised by Orange but it mentioned that later this year is a realistic timeframe. Further specs for the deal include 8Mbps download speeds and “unlimited” data downloads again with its fair-usage constraints.

A statement also released by Orange on Tuesday confirmed it would also be offering “managed installation” and “free business-grade customer support”. Although the offer is targeted for businesses, the type of service-level agreement, if any, has not yet been disclosed by Orange. The provider explained on Tuesday that this information would become available on launch after ZDNet.co.uk raised the question.

It was also advised by the Orange spokesperson that the technical specifications were “subject to change for the free Broadband for Business offer” in relation to the various broadband offers for home workers and small businesses.

In his company statement on Tuesday Rob Barnes, the broadband chief for Moneysupermarket.com, said “Our tests have shown O2 is not just an overnight success — it’s establishing itself as one of the best broadband providers on the market. With Orange also pushing its way into the top three, mobile networks are dominating the [8Mbps] market at the moment, although whether Orange can maintain consistency remains to be seen.”