Orange has operated in the UK since 1994. In 2010, Orange merged with T-Mobile UK to form Everything Everywhere, which is now the largest mobile network operator in the UK.
Reasons To Choose Orange:
Orange Pay Monthly Tariffs
Orange offer monthly contracts of either 18 or 24 months, either with or without a handset (SIM Only). Orange Pay Monthly contracts are separated into categories characterised by animals that represent different types of users.
Phone Included
Contracts including a phone from Orange are separated into four categories: Dolphin, Panther, Canary and Racoon.
‘Dolphin’ contracts are focused on texting and internet access. Most dolphin contracts include unlimited texts and an internet data allowance. 24 month contracts range from £10.50 per month for 30 minutes, 500 texts and 100 MB of mobile data, to £41 per month for 1200 minutes, unlimited texts, push email and 250 MB of mobile data.
‘Panther’ contracts are ‘all-rounder’ contracts, with each deal offering unlimited texts, a minutes allowance, internet, push email and Wi-Fi access through BT’s OpenZone. Panther plans also include either 1 or 2 Orange ‘Swapables’ to add extra media services. Read more about Swapables here. 24 month Panther contracts begin at £15.50 per month for 50 minutes, 1 Swappable and a 250 MB data allowance, and range up to £61 per month for 3000 minutes, 2 Swapables and a 2 GB data allowance (plus the standard unlimited texts, push email and Wi-Fi included in all Panther contracts).
‘Canary’ contracts focus on a balance between free minutes and texts and do not include internet or MMS features as standard. 24 month Canary contracts begin at £10.50 per month for 100 minutes and 500 texts and range up to £26 per month for 500 minutes and unlimited texts.
Finally, ‘Racoon’ contracts offer free minutes and unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines. Like Canary contracts, Racoon contracts do not feature any internet or MMS features as standard. 24 month Racoon contracts range from £15.50 per month for 50 minutes to £26 per month for 400 minutes (plus the standard unlimited landline calls included in all Racoon contracts).
18 month contracts are also available in all 4 categories and typically cost £5 per month more than an equivalent 24 month contract. All Orange Pay Monthly contracts can also be customised with a wide range of Extras, from international calls to picture messages.
Orange SIM Only Tariffs
SIM only contracts from Orange are separated into 6 main categories based on the types of benefits they offer: Racoon, Canary, Camel, Panther, iPhone and Dolphin. Most SIM only deals from Orange are offered as either 1 month rolling contracts or 12 month contracts, with 12 month contracts generally around £5 cheaper than 1 month equivalents.
All Canary contracts include unlimited texts along with a monthly allowance of free minutes. Dolphin contracts also include unlimited texts along with a 500 MB mobile data allowance and an allowance of minutes. Racoon contracts offer a mixture of free minutes and texts and also include unlimited landline calls. Panther and iPhone plans both offer unlimited texts, free minutes and a data allowance. Finally, Camel contracts offer free international minutes to selected countries.
All Orange SIM only plans can be further customised by adding Extras.
Orange Pay As You Go (PAYG) Tariffs
Orange’s Pay As You Go tariffs are built around their ‘animal packages’ theme, with different packages designed to suit different types of users. There are five different animal packages to choose from, some of which confer additional benefits when a minimum top up is made and some of which have automatic benefits.
The five available Orange PAYG animal packages are Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon and Camel. The Monkey tariff is designed for music lovers and provides free music downloads to customers with some top ups. The Dolphin tariff provides a mobile data allowance and free text messages with top ups over £10, while the Canary tariff offers free minutes and texts as well as free evening and weekend calls to customers who top up over £10. Instead of giving bonuses along with top ups, the Racoon tariff simply offers the lowest standard call rates from Orange, and the Camel tariff has special international rates and free international minutes.
Pay As You Go customers can purchase ‘Extras’ to add a mobile data allowance to their tariff.
If you’re currently using a different mobile network and wish to move to an Orange contract, it is possible to keep your current number. In order to transfer your number to Orange, you will need to obtain a PAC from your current network. ‘PAC’ stands for ‘Port Authorisation Code’ and is a unique code that tells networks that you’ve given authorisation to move your number.
To get a PAC from your current network, you only need to contact them and request one. Guidelines issued by Ofcom, the UK communication industries’ regulatory body, state that when requested networks should provide you with a PAC either immediately over the phone or within two hours by text message.
You can obtain a PAC either before or after you begin a contract with Orange, but bear in mind that each PAC is only valid for 30 days after it’s issued. If you obtain a PAC beforehand, you can provide it while setting up your new contract and Orange will automatically begin the transfer process. If you set up a contract before obtaining a PAC code, you can obtain one later and contact Orange to transfer your number. In either case, you’ll receive a temporary new number from Orange, which will be replaced by your old number once the transfer process is complete.
| Benefit | Cost | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
Everything Everywhere![]() |
Free | Orange customers can also use the T-Mobile network free of charge, allowing for extra network coverage. | All |
Orange Swapables![]() |
Free | Swapables are free subscription media services offered to some Panther tariff customers. Available Swapables include streaming live TV from Sky Sports, entertainment and music from MTV and news from The Times. Customers on appropriate plans can select up to two Swapables services and can change their selected services once per month. | Panther Pay Monthly |
Orange Wednesdays![]() |
Free | Orange customers can get 2 for 1 tickets every Wednesday from selected cinemas. | All |
Orange Film To Go![]() |
Free | Orange customers can download one selected free film from iTunes each Thursday. | All |
Reserve Tank![]() |
Free | PAYG customers can activate their “Reserve Tank” when they run out of credit. The Reserve Tank provides £2.50 of credit to allow customers to make calls when they cannot top-up. The £2.50 credit is paid back from the next top-up. | PAYG |
Phone Fund![]() |
Free | For every £10 top-up made by Orange PAYG customers, Orange adds £1 to a separate “Phone Fund” that can be used towards the cost of a new handset. | PAYG |
Magic Numbers![]() |
Free | Orange customers can select commonly called Orange numbers and receive free or discounted calls to those numbers. The number and type of Magic Numbers received depends upon the type of contract. | All |
| Benefit | Cost | Description | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay Monthly Extras | Varies | Orange offer a range of “Extras” that allow customers to customise their contracts with additional services for a monthly fee. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Photo messaging | £5 per month | This Extra provides 50 picture messages per month. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Orange Maps Sat Nav | £5 per month | This Extra provides access to Orange Maps for turn-by-turn navigation and map services. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| £5 per month | This Extra provides push email services for contracts that don’t have this by default. | Contract & SIM Only | ||
| Orange Games Zone | £5 per month | Customers who pick this Extra can download 2 free games per month and receive a 20% discount on all purchases from Orange’s Games Zone. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Mobile Internet | £5 to £10.21 per month | Orange offer two Extras for customers whose tariffs do not automatically include mobile data. For £5 per month users receive 500 MBs, or for £10.21 users receive 1 GB. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Sky News And Sky Sports | £5 per month | This Extra provides access to Sky News and live coverage of sporting events through a 3G connection. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Traveller Extras | £5.10 to £175.00 per month | Orange offer a range of Extras for customers who wish to use their mobiles abroad, including discounts to call rates, free minutes in selected countries and mobile internet packages. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| International Calls | £5.10 | This Extra provides 50 free minutes to international numbers in selected countries. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Unlimited Text Messages | £5.10 | This Extra adds unlimited text messages to a tariff. | Contract & SIM Only | |
| Pay As You Go Extras | Varies | Orange offer ‘Extras’ for Pay As You Go tariffs that allow customers to purchase services for one-off payments, taken from their credit. | PAYG | |
| UK Minutes | £1 to £5 | Orange PAYG customers can purchase either 25 minutes to use in one day for £1, or 100 minutes to use in one month for £5. | PAYG | |
| International Minutes | £5 to £10 | Orange offer purchasable packages of minutes for calling to selected countries. | PAYG | |
| Travelling Minutes | £5 | Buying this extra provides customers with 30 minutes to use while travelling in selected Western European countries. | PAYG | |
| Texts | £1 to £5 | Orange offer text bundles to PAYG customers, from 50 texts to use in one day for £1, to unlimited texts for 1 month for £5. | PAYG | |
| Mobile Internet | £1 to £5 | Orange PAYG customers can purchase 50 MB of mobile data to use in one day for £1 or 250 MB of mobile data to use in one month for £5. | PAYG | |
| Push Email | £1 per week | This offer provides push email services to phones for £1 per week. | PAYG | |
| BlackBerry Internet Service | £5 per month | Orange PAYG customers with BlackBerry phones can access BlackBerry services for £5 per month. | PAYG |
Dolphin Pay Monthly plans from Orange offer either 100 MB or 25o MB of mobile data, while Panther and iPhone Pay Monthly plans offer between 250 MB and 1 GB of mobile data, and additional Wi-Fi data through BT’s OpenZone network. Mobile data can be added to Pay Monthly tariffs that do not already include an allowance by adding a Mobile Internet Extra. 500 MB Extras are available for £5 per month, and 1GB Extras are available for £10.21 per month.
PAYG customers on the ‘Dolphin’ plan receive 100 MB of mobile data to use in a month when they top up over £10, and users on the ‘Monkey’ plan receive a small daily allowance when they top up over £5. As well as these options, all PAYG customers can purchase internet Extras at 50 MB of mobile data to use in one day for £1 or 250 MB of mobile data to use in one month for £5.
Use the handy chart below to get an idea of how much data you might need:
| 100 MB | 500MB | 1GB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| downloading or streaming music | 20 songs | 100 songs | 200 songs |
| downloading or streaming video | 20 minutes | 1 hours | 2 hours |
| basic webpages ( text or mobile versions) | 1,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| rich webpages (containing, rich images & flash) | 300 | 1,500 | 3,000 |
| text emails | 100,000 | 500,000 | 1,000,000 |
| emails with images or attachments | 200 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
Table represents approximate values.

Will I get good coverage in my area? Use the handy Orange coverage checker to make sure you´ll be able to use your phone in your local area.