The HTC Hero smartphone is now available on the Orange UK mobile network, as promised yesterday by the company. Orange (and T-Mobile) have exclusive rights on the graphite-coloured HTC Hero, hence why the only UK sim-free units on sale are white. Orange has also bundled in a 2GB microSD card with the handset.
The phone is available on a number of different price plans. The cheapest contract appears to be the Dolphin 40, which includes 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and a free handset for £34.25 per month over two years. Data will cost up to £1.47 per day extra on Orange, or you can add a 500MB data package for £4.89 extra per month.
One thing I don’t understand though is that the Hero is designed to be used in an always-connected environment. However, Orange doesn’t offer unlimited data plans, which seems a bit silly in my view. Orange has exclusive rights on the Symbian-based Samsung i8910 Omnia HD too and the operator was criticised for the same reason. I just hope Orange doesn’t ‘cripple’ the firmware on the HTC Hero like it did on the i8910 HD.
