Orange yesterday held it’s hands up and admitted that it’s data network was having a massive hissy fit leaving Orange users without mobile data access.  Voice data seemed to be unaffected but email and web browsing completely failed for many users. The full extent of the problem isn’t known, but forum posts and other articles are suggesting that many users had been having issues with the data network for a good while before Orange admitted the problem existed. Me included.

While this may have been a minor inconvenience to some, roaming buisness users were no doubt livid, and were made more so by Orange’s admission that they had no scheduled fix for the problem.

No information has been forthcoming about the cause of the outage.

Earlier this year the advertising standards agency upheld a complaint about Orange’s claim that its “3G network covers more people in the UK than any other operator“, the ASA ruled that because orange could not show that they had gathered data for the performance of their rivals in the same way that they did for their own network the claim was misleading.

A big company misleading people? Advertising people lying through their recently whitened teeth?
Surely not.

I can’t help feeling that this outage and Orange’s response is a fairly standard fare for big business nowadays. If you work for a big company, feel free to print out and keep my handy guide to managing major technical problems:

1. Say NOTHING until someone goes to the media. Arrange for your forum to be  ”down for maintenance”.  Spend more on advertising.

2. Deny the problem and stonewall any questions.

3. Keep denying the problem until several high profile third parties have confirmed it beyond the point where anyone with half a brain still believes you.

4. Issue a vague, non committal statement that the problem may possibly be real but only affects a few people and it’s probably their fault anyway. Stupid customers.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the problem is fixed or the media lose interest.

6. If the problem gets fixed, either:

a) SAY NOTHING, that would mean admitting you were wrong.

b) Announce the fix amidst great fanfare, casting yourself in the role of hero whilst glossing over the fact that it was your stupid fault in the first place.

7) If you are still getting flack, a member of management may have to do a Captain Oates.

Sound familiar?

Briefly: Introducing the Nokia 6500 Slide from Mobilesplease, the stainless steel slider takes media another step further with video call support, FM radio and TV out. It is a slide version on the 6500 Classic surprisingly.
Great Mobile Phone Deal: Wow this Free Nokia 6500 Slide from Mobiles Please.

Aimed at the style conscious but with a lot of cutting edge technology, the 6500 slide is a 3G handset with fantastic a fantastic 3.2 mega pixel camera. It is chunkier version of the 6500 classic but the excellent features make up for it.
Made from stainless steel the slider phone boosts a 2.2 inch 16M colour display with a quick user interface. The solid feel and superior materials and the large and tactile keys and controls are just the right beginning of the user’s relationship with the 6500 slide. The handset is easy to navigate and is similar to early Nokia models.

As this is a 3G handset it has twin camera for video calling, the one at the rear is not only 3.2 mega pixel but also has autofocus and a Carl Zeiss lens which takes pretty amazing shots. With only 20MB of onboard memory to store all your favourite pictures Nokia also supplies a 256 micro SD card so there is plenty of room for all your favourite memories.
One of the most surprising features of this handset is the TV out which means you can connect your handset to the TV and the monitor will mirror what is displaying on your mobile. This is great for viewing images, listening to music and playing games. It’s a cutting edge feature and works surprisingly well.
A multimedia phone, it has a great music player which comes complete with high quality head phones. It is a great player originally reserved for music-oriented Nokia phones and is obviously becoming the standard player for all recent Series 40 devices. The player supports AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, WMA, AMR-NB, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, MIDI Tones (64-tone poly) and True tones.

What does the Nokia 6500 Classic Slide have to offer?
•    Large High Resolution Screen
•    A 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus and Carl Zeiss Lens
•    Fully equipped music player with excellent features
•    Tv out

Here at Mobiles Please we love this handset as it combines style with a lot of great technology.
Mobiles please have the Sony Ericsson W910i available on the Orange and 3 mobile Network with great deals.

Nokia 6500 slide supports 3G for faster data transfers, as well as EDGE and GPRS where 3G is not available. With a lot of great 3G handsets on the market this has an advantage with a sleek sophisticated look.