Feature

Orange's Blind Guinea Pigs

Networks & Network Services
In a bid to get costs down and increase profit, as well as being more 'green', Orange are trialing new ways of supplying handsets to customers, but they won't know.
 
Back in 2006 Orange bought over €3.1 billion worth of handsets, which in anybody's book is a hefty sum of money.

Although they might be leaving it a little late in the day one of Orange's key priorities for 2007 is to deliver on their profit and cashflow targets. One of the ways of achieving the targets is to cut down on expenditure, namely the €3.1 billion.

5000 Orange customers who upgrade to the Motorola V8 Espresso from this week will be subject to a secret trial regarding how their handsets are packaged and delivered.


Orange will be switching to Royal Mail to deliver the units, but in order for it to slip cleanly through the letter box the packaging will have to be reduced.

Usually the biggest thing in the box is the manual, and lets face it; who reads the thing anyway, so Orange have done away with it. Instead, the manual will be replaced by a PDF version either on CDrom or USB key, or the customers will be given a web address to visit should they wish to learn how to operate their phone.


In another bid to cut costs, Orange are asking customers to do it themselves when it comes to support. The USB key and the CDROM will also give instant access to an Orange web-site with device specific, extras and how-to information. A leaflet will provide the URL to the same site, so if a customer has access to a pc they can download the handset manual and figure it all out for themselves, if not... they need to call a support line and presumably request one.

So if you have any disgruntled customers walk in demanding a manual for their Moto V8 Espresso, this is why.