Orange have released a new pay as you go sim with an emphasis on calling and texting abroad (similar to the carphone warehouse 'mobile world' sim card) here is the link, hope its of help to anyone who comes to the uk or texts/ calls abroad

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/sim/callabro...=oct06114_ph_05

Shelf Life?

Roaming?

Problem with Mobile World is very limited shelf life (120 days) and since it doesn't allow roaming no way to keep it active from abroad..although when I got mine the sim was free and all I had to do was pay for air time with 10 quid minimum which I have just about used up so it won't be a big deal if they de-activate the card but I do like some certainty on numbers.

Also, what about calls within the UK?

Also very interesting there are no eu countries on the list...

Not quite.

"New" EU:
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Lithuania
Poland
Slovenia

In EU from 2007:
Romania

Yeah..I noticed that after I posted but I suppose one could say none of the eu countries using the euro...can it have anything to do with the eu roaming restrictions?

No idea. The list countries make me think it may be an offer for tourists and immigrants. However, at least Polish immigrants in UK are already "fans" of O2 with some dialthru numbers or International Bolt-on :)

ok uk numbers uou pay normal orange payg rates plus you get the whole magic numbers and life span again a normal orange payg life span between top up's. i find it odd that even though they have america they miss out on canadaland? thats what i understood from the terms and conditions page! again think roaming is the same as the other orange payg, wonder if other orange networks around the world are going to start up there own 'calling abroad' pre paid sim.

I really doubt about Orange Poland. At the moment their prepaid SIMs are the most expensive ones for both national off-net calls as well as most of international calls. Despite this (and other disadvantages), Orange became #1 operator in June'06 (over 11 milion active SIMs) :whistle:

Which I still don't understand. Uncompetitive prices, poor coverage, and lots of stupid rules (lose all your credit after 90 days, etc.). I don't know anyone in Poland who uses Orange, perhaps they're all hiding in Jelenia G?ra or Białystok or somewhere...

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Uncompetitive prices - not quite.
There are many options (packets, selected cheaper numbers, extra top-ups, Profit loyalty program) that make using Orange much cheaper.
And don't look at prepaid market only. E.g. postpaid tariffs start from 10 PLN/month only and they are all not just "free minutes/SMS packets" but "minimum monthly fee" plans. More precisely, you pay 10, 25, or more monthly fee and this fee it contains all the services that you used (including data transmission, roaming or premium rate SMS). This is the only offer of that kind for non-business users in Poland.

Poor coverage - not true now. Of course, it used to bad because of their delayed start (to compare with Plus and Era) and even more delayed 900 coverage.

Lots of stupid rules (lose all your credit after 90 days, etc.) - yes, losing money is why they are sometimes called "thieves" :). But, believe me - rules of buying packets of minutes/SMS in Simplus Easy are even more stupid :)

I don't know anyone in Poland who uses Orange - I do :).
But I must say that the number of active Orange SIMs may be "improved" by the rule that each prepaid SIM is valid one year after activation for incoming calls. Thousands of such formally active SIMs lay in drawers countrywide - two in mine :)

And two in mine! :beer: