Virgin Mobile beats Orange in customer poaching row

NEWS Orange's attempt to poach customers from Virgin Mobile has been dealt a blow by the UK advertising standards watchdog. Virgin Mobile objected to an Orange ad offering customers the chance to keep their old phone number and tariff plan when they switch to Orange. Virgin complained on two counts. Firstly, Orange was charging a £10 connection fee and Virgin felt it didn't have an equivalent to Virgin's 'Big Bonus' scheme, so the tariff wasn't in fact the same. Secondly, it objected to an Orange claim that Virgin didn't subsidise handsets. Both complaints were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.