14 DAY TRIAL // Reportedly, Orange has signed a deal with Carphone Warehouse to continue selling contracts until January next year. After Vodafone gave up selling contracts through Carphone Warehouse, some expected other mobile operators to do the same.
Orange clearly isn't one of them as it has now used the opportunity to negotiate a much better deal with Carphone. According to the new agreement, Carphone is required to connect a certain number of Orange broadband customers, even though this is in direct competition with their own TalkTalk broadband they have been promoting throughout this year.
Also, Orange is reported to pay Carphone less money upfront, with more to follow as Carphone gains customers in the future.
When it comes to selling online, Orange clearly prefers selling more contracts on their own website than via a third party, as they have decided to restrict the number of online sells Carphone can make.
According to a source, as much as 40 percent of Carphone's new contract connections can come from its telesales operations, websites or adverts in the back of newspapers. Recently, O2 has also signed a deal with Carphone Warehouse after giving up Phones 4U they had been working with up until now and T-Mobile has also announced a partnership with the same retailers.
If things keep going like this, soon most mobile operators will be selling contracts through Carphone Warehouse, which might be a good thing because at least customers will continue to have a broad range of services provided by mobile operators to choose from when visiting the retailers. Each mobile operator having their own retailer would lead to customers not being able to compare services offered and choose the one that is most suitable.