The future is bleak for Orange customers in London

NEWS Over the last few weeks, customers have been frequently getting 'network busy' messages, both at peak and off-peak hours. One source close to the operator claims that this is due to its network approaching maximum capacity - an allegation denied by the company. The source said: "Orange's network is at very high capacity in London and it's working hard to solve the problem. It is also doing GPRS upgrades which is causing problems at the base stations." Orange has been telling existing customers they can expect problems to continue while repairs and maintenance are carried out to masts in the UK capital. One call centre agent said customers can expect "weeks of chaos". Another customer service agent spoken to by silicon.com said its call centre has been receiving "a lot more complaints" about the network being busy, and that this is "probably because masts have been taken down in the London area for maintenance and repairs". There have even been cases of customers being spammed with SMS messages. According to a call centre agent, some users have reported up to ten spams an hour. Orange prides itself on its network performance and the latest subscriber figures showed it had the highest growth rate of the four UK operators, with 1.2 million new users signing up between April and June this year. Like other mobile operators, it is expecting a spurt of new subscribers in the run-up to Christmas. The telco has admitted that it's having problems on certain parts of its network, but denied that these were due to the network reaching maximum capacity.