Orange UK Bold'ers.

What is Orange's 3G network like? Smooth? Decent? Problems?
I would really like to know before opening another 18 monther.

I have the exact same concern. Was with orange a year ago and their 2g coverage was rubbish in Reading. Hope it has improved.

I also dislike branded phones and am therefore waiting for carphonewarehouse to release an unbranded version

You're quite right - Orange 2G is terrible. They don't seem to do EDGE. I've been using the Bold in London for a day now and the 3G is good - but I've not had 3G before and can't say how it compares with the other networks. I also haven't tried it outside London yet.

Any other Orange 3G users out there?

It does say on that link that they do 384kbps 3G service. That would make them one of the slower 3G networks. I think some of the other UK 3G networks are at 1.7mbps or greater.

I get 1-2Mbps on 3g with my orange USB Stick thing, and coverage is about as good as Vodafone 3g. The odd thing with 3g is that even where the signal strength is low, the speed can be quite good. As an example, I was recently at a customer with really poor "broadband" - 160Kbps - , due to them being slap bang in the middle of nowhere, ADSL-wise (Blackmore in Essex) and I managed to download a 100Mb file using my orange stick with *one or no signal bars showing* at 1.8Mbps.

I can't tell what coverage is like on the bold because stupid orange haven't even STARTED doing my upgrade, even though I've now had the phone for 24 hours.

I find that orange 2g coverage is excellent though. I can drive through rural areas for miles without being cut off. More than can be said for vodafone anyway round where I live.

Thats good to know - I hope it means the Bold would also get 1-2Mbps.

Orange 2G coverage might be comprehensive, but I could never get EDGE coverage, making surfing very slow.

I find a few areas have EDGE - more and more areas but very slow rollout.

I live in the middle of nowhere (Rural Cambridgeshire) and my 2g is currently at 3 bars with GPRS. My T-Mobile N95 is currently showing 4 bars 2g.

In Cambridge yesterday I was getting full bars 3g coverage against my T-Mobile N95 which was only showing 3 bars 3G.

To add, I've been playing some more and I'm actually getting some degree of 3g coverage in my house! Upon checking the coverage checker it states that I can get variable coverage in my postcode, however 2g is poor...funny as I'm getting 3bars+ 2g and when it switches to 3g its 4-5 bars..I'm even getting the little BB logo next to the 3g symbol and it is certainly faster than the 2g. How weird as no other network offers me 3g at home!!