Orange beats the crunch with £5 per month tariff

UK mobile operator Orange introduced a credit crunch busting mobile contract this week with a £5 per month tariff.

For budget conscious customers, Orange is now pitching a new £5 per month tariff alongside £10 and £15 monthly plans. All the contracts include a free handset but the stinger is that subscribers will need to sign up for 36 months, although they’re entitled to a handset upgrade after 18 months.

For a fiver a month customers get 50 minutes, 50 texts and a Nokia 2630 handset; at £10 they get 100 minutes, 300 texts and a Nokia 3600; and for £15 they get 200 minutes, unlimited texts and a Nokia 6500.

Orange is also introducing a range of 18 month SIM only contracts, starting at £10 a month for 100 minutes and 500 texts and going up to £30 per month for 1600 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.

Last week the operator tried tempting prepay users by launching the BlackBerry Curve 8900 on a pay as you go price plan. The Curve weighs in at £249.99 on a prepay tariff and follows the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 on prepay earlier this year.