Orange UK arrives in the 21st Century with the HTC Hero

Butter me in chocolate and call me Shirley!

Orange UK has leaped forward into the 21st Century to take it’s rightful position amongst the mobile demigods.

For quite a while I’ve felt Orange has been languishing in the doldrums with uninspiring handset offerings and next to no reason for any mobile geek to even give them the time of day, let alone obsess over or get excited at their services.

Not any more.

First of all, let me introduce Conor Maples. Yes! Orange UK has a handsome new representative in the form of Conor.

Here’s the video he posted today announcing (and showing off) the new HTC Hero coming to Orange shortly:

Isn’t this smart? A mobile operator — in human form. I can’t actually think of any other uK operator that’s formally done this before. T-Mobile, Vodafone, o2 and 3 all hide behind faceless Twitter accounts. The overview video is excellent — well produced, factual, friendly and approachable.

For a while now Conor has been listening to my wailing moans about Orange’s lack of excitement and complete lack of ‘voice’ in the marketplace, telling me repeatedly, ‘Look, wait and see what we’ve got coming.’

Well here we go. Check out the Orange UK Press Office website and you’ll find a blog format of throughly interesting stuff, most notably Orange UK’s formal announcement of the HTC Hero (key point being the Hero is the first in an array of Android devices coming to Orange.. get IN).

You’ll be able to pick up the HTC Hero from Orange next month free on just under £40/month:

Orange is offering the HTC Hero for free to customers who take out a £39.15 per month, 24 month contract. The package includes 1200 any network call minutes, unlimited texts, as well as inclusive anytime internet browsing so users can make the most out of their mobile experience.

I can finally lay the ghost of off-peak unlimited data to rest.

Nice one Orange!