Orange Australia to Migrate to 3 Brand

Hutchison Telecoms has joined its mobile services, Orange and 3, under the single brand 3, and plans to upgrade Orange customers from its 2G CDMA network to its 3G network.

“The appetite for 3G services is growing in Australia and globally,” said Kevin Russell, CEO Hutchison Telecoms. “It is the future for delivering mobile services and in the next two to three years we will see its rapid adoption – fuelled by exciting multi functional handsets and appealing information, entertainment and communication services. 3 has led the way in making the 3G experience a present day reality for over half a million customers, and we want our 2G customers to be able to upgrade and experience 3G easily.”

“Bringing our 2G customers well and truly into the 3 family by rebranding is the first step. The next step is providing those customers with the most compelling plans, market leading handsets, and access to 3’s exciting services,” Russell added.

2G customers will now receive 3 branded bills and correspondence, and are receiving exclusive offers to upgrade to 3G, including attractive plans and subsidised handset pricing.

“With these outstanding offers we expect the uptake to be high. In January alone, in a campaign to a targeted segment of our base, over 20,000 2G customers upgraded to 3G. This interest in upgrading will grow with today’s launch of the first mass market Nokia 3G handset – the 6280,” Russell added.

With the anticipated demand, additional capacity in key areas of sales, service and support has been provided to ensure a positive customer experience.

Customers upgrading will be able to do so either in 3 Stores or Dealers, as well as by phone or web. All channels previously selling 3 and Orange, will exclusively sell 3’s 3G service.

The company also hinted at the discontinuation of their 2G CDMA operations, following the move from Australia's largest operator, Telstra: “Once a significant proportion of our customers have upgraded and are settled in with their 3G service, we will review our plans for continuing to operate our CDMA network. Telstra has already put a timestamp on that technology of approximately three years. Customers want certainty now, so we would expect that upgrade process to complete well within that timeframe,” Russell said.