Why is Orange Poland such a crappy / expensive network?

in comparing orange poland with the numerous mnvos in the uk , ( vectone/lyca/giffgaff/lebara -even the main 4 operators) it seems to me that the price you pay, for the service you get , is pretty dire.

-no free customer service numbers and a
pitiful amount of minutes for the top up you make

my uk payg network offers me unlimited calls / unlimited texts for 15 quid - something im never gonna get with orange poland..... the pity of it is ,,, most folks i know in poland are with orange - so makes no sense switching network.

It's all about how competitive market and developed network is. Road quality in Poland is also worse than in UK, so why not Mobile services?

Get a bill phone.
I pay around 70zl and I've got unlimited data transfer and 600 mins of talktime (including texts)


I don't really see that as being a good enough excuse. Basically you're just shrugging shoulders and it's the wrong attitude to have regarding infrastructure progress.

The reason the communication network is less developed in Poland has to do with the very simple reason that during PRL times, the telecommunications network was incredibly weak. A vast amount of people didn't even have landlines installed when communism ended. The network never expanded and developed like other countries, including other post-communism ones.

Thus Poland has been playing catch up since then.
The arrival of Play here though has forced the sleeping giants of Era (now t-Mobile) and those Orange clowns to pick up the slack. It's improving, but these things take time.

If you live in an urban area, Play is normally the best network to go with, however outside of urban areas it's worse than dire.

Re: roads, the roads that Poland has are OK, the problem is there aren't enough of them. This is thankfully changing too, however it's still going far too slow. That road to Rzeszcow, which was supposed to be finished before June 2012, is still not fully open. That's beyond ridiculous. There's no reason why Poland hasn't got a fully operational road network by now. Communism ended almost a quarter of a century ago ffs! Plenty of people need work and the govt has more than enough money in its EU coffers to fund the road building.

Why isn't it happening? Simple, the ineptitude and downright laziness of the civil service here. Old habits die hard here.

/rant

Play uses PLus GSM network.

But in the same time builds its own network. When it has access to it's own network then use it, otherwise switches to Plus. So it's not virtual operator. It's one of 4 real operators with own infrastructure.

Play is the fourth cellular network in Poland. PLAY uses EGSM 900 for its 2G services and UMTS 2100 and UMTS 900 for 3G. Its MCC is 260-06. Thanks to domestic roaming with Polkomtel (Plus) and Centertel (Orange), PLAY is a nation-wide cellular carrier.

why do you repeat what I said?

Should have LTE data soon too.
I'm know they're getting their towers ready, but not sure if it's launched yet.

I don't even use Play tbh, I've a good deal with Orange so I'm not bothered changing. Also the bad reception in the countryside puts me off. When they fix that I'd think about it.

Being specific is not repeating.

what do you mean. Orange has bad reception or Plus (Play)?

I am with Plus, and just renewed my contract. I am paying now 40 PLN per month for 400 minutes to all networks.
Their coverage is OK.
Data transfer I do not care for, I do not have a smartphone :)
If I am on the go I have Play USB, which I just top up for the required period.

I also had bad experience with Orange, but not only. As with me, I was a satisfied long-time customer when long time ago it was Centertel's network called Idea. The business tariff had *600 customer helpline with a real person answering instantly etc. Then came Orange and after struggling a lot with falling quality of their services (one particular technical problem solving took them 9 months!) I resigned and chose Era provider. I was happy with the change - much better contact, services and cheaper rates. Soon they rebranded to T-Mobile. And similar situation happened: a drop of the quality to unbearable scale. I was overpaying a lot comparing to other networks and there was many tech flaws too. I broke the contract, paid the fine for it, but it was worth it. I moved to Play this time. I pay 1/3 of what I used to pay, I get more minutes and the tariff is way more clear. They reply quickly, call back if needed and I am happy with them. So choose either Plus or Play.

I am still using orange, just because I can't be bothered going through the whole thing with moving my number to a different network (I last did this in the UK about 6 years ago, has it got any easier?). Although I used play for a while for data services and thought it was good in the city. However when I have stuff to do out in the country I had nothing, it's not great with Orange either. This will improve, but it just takes time for the masts to go up.

The issue I have is with the time limits on top-ups. I don't use my phone all that much, just very short phone calls and texts. However if I topped up the amount I use in a month (probably around 10-15zl, unless I deliberately phone the UK to use it up) I would only get 10 days before it was useless. I remember this being the case when I got my first phone in the UK around 10 years ago or so, but is it really necessary. It is such a colossal rip off saying that, I only have a limited amount of time to access my credit!

As I have not used Play for cellular service I cannot say if they are the same, but if they are I might just go through with the hassle!

You can keep your number now...well for contract phone anyway....pretty sure it can be done with credit phones too.
I'd no idea credit phones were still so popular here until I read this thread.

Don't know why you all dont change to a bill, far more value.

I do hope you negotiated very hard with them? It usually takes 2-3 phone calls, but they do have a special department for people who are threatening to cancel - we got a hell of a deal with our last renewal :)

I did actually :)
Of course now I think they cheated me during the last contract period :)
Data transfer 200 MB included, but since I do not have a smartphone....

It depends though, I would rather not be tied down to a contract for 2 years. I had contract mobiles in the UK and ended up going back to PAYG because I wasn't using the full amount that I was paying for and ended up better on the packs for PAYG. I can pay 5zl and have unlimited texts (to orange) for a month and stuff like that. If you are a heavy phone user then I agree contract is much better value, but paying 50 zl a month for a few minutes here and there and a couple of texts is hardly good value.

Woof, naw, you don't need a bill phone so ;)

Exactly, I hardly use my phone, so there is no point. I would say a good thing for people coming over is to get a PAYG phone, see how quick they are running through their credit and see how much they are spending a month. Then decide.

[Moved from]: Orange internet packages In Poland on pay as you go??

Anyone know how I can purchase internet/data packages on an orange pay as you go sim card? Not yet got to grips with polish enough to read website and GF not much help with such things....

You need to send a text INTERNETXXL to the number 570 - it will cost you 15PLN for 500MB to use in a month time

orange.pl/kid,4000377334,id,4002010584,title,Pakiety-Internetowe,article.html

[Moved from]: How to change voice language to English on Orange TV ?

Hi there...

We have recently moved to Krakow and looking for suggestions on how to change voice language to English on Orange TV.

Thank you in advance. !

When watching a channel: click OK on the remote - on the screen you'll see additional informations - choose "język" (language), and then you may change it to English (if available). The next option is "napisy" - subtitles. You can also try to modify it sometimes.

After much travelling to Poland my new partner has moved with me to the UK. Just bought her and English EE sim and found that her phone is locked to Orange PL!!! I know it can be unblocked but she is scared of any financial penalty coming her way! She has about 6 months to go on a contract her ex husband is paying. He shares her phone on his contract!!! She loves her phone, how can she solve her situation?

She should not be afraid. I think for a few years they don't put this locks anymore and some operators take them out for free (Play)

Thanks Monitor, but this afternoon after getting home with a new sim her phone wouldn't accept it and it was locked to Orange!: ( Told her to ask her husband to go to the Orange shop in Blonie. She's had her phone 18 months or so, but it's not the primary phone on her husbands contract, only an additional phone! I have the unlocking code for her phone and I'm confident I can unlock it, but he's scared of any trouble from Orange and her phone being permanently disabled!

Is it possible to cancel an Orange TV contract?

Depends how long it's been running. what went wrong?

Scotgirl again. We are in Wołczkowo with very poor Internet service from Orange (very small bandwidth). Have been told that skynet will be better. Does anyone use them? Would you recommend?

By the way, I've changed the name of the Facebook group to Szczecin Information Group.

Orange is infamous for their extremely bad services and Wołczkowo is outside city proper, so unfortunately this was to be expected.
You are using 3G/LTE, right? Get 5 zł starter cards from every single company and test them all before signing a contract.
Don't know about Skynet, never used them. Another local ISP you might check is Espol, they got wimax and LTE services and you should be in range.