Mobile broadband provider Orange has given names to its three major mobile broadband price plans in order to bring them in line with the animal-inspired brands of its mobile phone tariffs.

The three new plans have been dubbed Panther, Dolphin and Raccoon, with the intention being that mobile phone customers currently on Orange will have a better idea as to what each package will offer and the wireless broadband prices will echo the mobile tariffs after which they are named.

The cheapest of these new deals is Raccoon, which will cost you £5 a month for a fixed 18 month minimum contract. For your money you will have a 500MB data allowance, which is adequate for modest surfing needs and should be suitable for anyone who requires only sporadic internet access.

The mid-range Panther mobile broadband tariff is also tied to an 18 month minimum contract and it gives you 10GB of data allowance per month for £25 each month. This is for heavier users who might need to send and receive lots of emails, download files and even stream video.

The most comprehensive new tariff from Orange is called Dolphin and with it comes an unlimited data allowance for £35 each month. As with all unlimited plans, there is a fair use policy to adhere to, which ultimately means that you will have over 20GB of data each month and for all intents and purposes is more than enough to meet the needs of the heaviest of single users.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “Orange has always been a leader when it comes to wireless broadband prices and mobile broadband innovation and it is now renaming its key tariffs to make the choice even easier. Users who have enjoyed its mobile phone packages should know roughly what to expect and Orange’s unrivalled 3G coverage levels are also an important asset to consider.”

Mobile broadband provider Orange has recently announced a new set of packages aimed at business users, with the promise of making work far more flexible in the future.

Orange hopes that organisations and individuals will be better able to cope with a diverse and changing set of business requirements when they pick up a mobile broadband package which has been designed with the needs of an enterprise user in mind.

Orange says that the traditional hours of work are no longer as rigid as they were in the past and it believes that with a business mobile broadband package, staff will be able to adjust their own schedules without having to remain stuck in the office to get the job done.

Orange’s small business director Martin Lyne said that its aim was to reflect the working lives of its customers with the malleability of its business mobile broadband packages.

The new Orange packages offer unlimited use to business customers with a moderate fair use policy to govern the monthly data allocation. It also says that it has made the pricing of its business tariffs clearer.

Mr Lyne said that UK businesses would be presented with a range of mobile broadband options and would have the freedom to choose the package most appropriate to their specific needs.

Orange has been promoting its mobile broadband as a means of allowing workers to make the most out of the good weather when the summer rolls around. It says that using mobile broadband will allow business customers to work from home, or from the local park, rather than having to commute into the office, consequently reducing their carbon footprint.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added “Orange tells us that 90 per cent of workers commute for more than an hour a day, so with Orange and BT business broadband packages evolving, many of us should be able to benefit from more time working at home”.

Wireless broadband prices are set to drop even further after announcements by both Orange and O2 that they will be reducing the cost of several mobile broadband tariffs in both the pay monthly and pay as you go ranges.

O2 is now going to offer new customers the chance to sign up to a 24 month mobile broadband contract that comes with a 3GB data allowance each month for just £10 for the first 4 months. This deal will also included unlimited access to a huge network of Wi-Fi hotspots around the UK, which means that the data allowance will not be constraining customers of this service.

If you are looking for a mobile broadband deal that does not require the lengthy commitment period of pay monthly contracts, then you will welcome the news that O2 has also cut the price of its standalone USB mobile broadband dongle by a third to just £20. Again unlimited Wi-Fi is included for all pay as you go customers and top-ups cost from as little as £2 a day for half a gigabyte of data allowance.

Orange is also taking to reducing the initial cost of its mobile broadband packages by giving new customers three months at half price. That means a 3GB monthly allowance on an 18 month contract is only £7.50 for the first three months and the 10GB tariff is just £12.50.

All of these contract deals from both O2 and Orange still include a free USB modem, so you really will be able to take advantage of the new lower wireless broadband prices. Simon Gerrard, Communications Manager at Simple Broadband added that “these are both limited time offers aimed at securing new customers before the end of January, so you will need to act fast if you want to take advantage of the savings on offer”.

Despite the recent announcement of the merger deal that will see Orange and T-Mobile become the largest single mobile broadband provider in the UK, the feelings of unity are not spreading to the rest of the providers, as the newly joined firms are refusing to share their portion of the radio spectrum.

Industry regulators Ofcom are likely to demand an explanation for the decision by Orange and T-Mobile, which will shut out the other major providers from over half of the available radio spectrum over which services including mobile broadband and cellular networking are provided.

Recent investigations into radio spectrum allocation carried out by an independent research firm advised capping the amount a single organisation could own and if the merger goes ahead then Orange and T-Mobile would be in serious breach of these recommendations.

There were some hopes that over the next year, all of the major mobile broadband providers would share their radio spectrum, allowing people with Vodafone mobile broadband USB dongles to benefit from improved coverage as part of industry-wide cooperation. This spirit of sharing has been somewhat dampened by recent events.

Although the merger of Orange and T-Mobile, which would give them close to a 40% stake in the mobile broadband market, was initially going to be subject to a competition review, it seems that murmurings from the Office of Fair Trading suggest independent investigations into the merger have been put on hold. This is likely to result in the formation of the new provider occurring far quicker than was previously thought.

Industry observers are fairly sceptical that any industry wrangling which takes place before the general election in 2010 will actually have any lasting effect. Changes in legislation are inevitable no matter which party comes to power, although the stubborn behaviour of all providers could sour relationships in the future.