I’ve been waiting for the N95 to be available on Orange for some time now. I’ve had my existing Nokia N70 for almost 2 years. I normally upgrade my handset once I’m free to do so (ie. once my existing 12 month contract allows me to), so I have up-to-date handsets to test the browsing of mobile sites I create and also to test applications I promote to mobile users Worldwide. I have a fairly large collection of WAP enabled handsets I’ve built up over the years.

When the Nokia N80 was available for upgrade to me I was keen to get this one as I’d heard that it was possible to use the handset’s ability to connect to wifi for any internet browsing and applications that require a data connection. This would be good for users that want to use data hungry stuff like music downloads, mobile video downloads or streaming video applications. When I mentioned this to a client at work ( who also happens to work in Orange’s department that test’s new handsets for compatibility ), I was advised that the N95 may be a better one to wait for.

After researching the handset myself, even though it probably wasn’t going to be the best phone to be using for testing my WAP sites, I decided it would probably reduce the amount of devices I carry around all the time and felt it was a “must have”. It could replace my N70, ipaq hx4700, 4 megapixel digital camera and bluthtooth GPS receiver in one foul swoop!

I’ve phoned Orange customer services countless occasions over the past 6 month’s and every time it’s due in next month. Yesterday after having read my brother’s blog post about how he is having problem’s getting information out of Orange. I was told they would be due in April! Again another month! I’m getting severely p**sed off with Orange especially when I see the handset is available on other networks!

I have been customer of Orange since 1994 and over the years I’ve been fairly happy with the service. I have also been prepared to pay the ridiculous data charges that early adopters of WAP users have had to pay since 1999. I’m lucky that I could justify paying the charges as my mobile sites more than covered the costs. I consider myself to be a loyal Orange customer, I have been for 13 years. I have over the years tried many different brands of mobile phone and I keep coming back to Nokia handsets. Simply because they are the best. I am now a loyal Nokia user and if I have to go elsewhere for the handset I “the customer” want then so be it! Grrgh!! :-)