Orange mobile broadband customers have been without internet access since Thursday, and the company cannot tell them when it will be restored.

First to go was access to secure websites like Hotmail and Amazon on Thursday of last week. By Saturday there was no internet access at all.

We were contacted by a frustrated business customer yesterday. He had spent four hours trying to get through to technical support, and was finally told there was a problem with an APN server and no one knew when it would be fixed. He was told customers would be offered compensation.

Orange sent us the following statement:

We can confirm that some of our customers may have experienced intermittent connectivity issues whilst accessing our mobile data network recently. We are working to resolve this issue as a matter of priority and can confirm that only a small number of customers remain affected. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

On Monday Orange launched its Wi-fi radio. The £99 box can stream internet radio stations and play back MP3s, and can be synched to an Orange phone. Of course, it's not an awful lot of use without a broadband connection. ®

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• Orange rapped for 'unlimited' broadband (13 June 2007)