"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 12:31:00 on Sun, 3 Apr 2016,
tim... remarked:

When Rabbit was withdrawn, one of the compensation packages on offer was
a free Orange phone, although it was still on a contract at £30/month.
The networks weren't subsidising the phones from the monthly contract
back then.

Oh yes they were.

It was much more necessary then because the entry price for buying a phone
was beyond the "utility" value that a domestic customer would pay

They weren't selling many to domestic customers (if you mean consumers)
back then, because the industry's main market was companies. Calls cost
typically 50p/minute.

There was still a market in selling to "normal" people, just not to be used
for casual conversations


Orange and One-to-One started opening it up to a wider audience with
prices which appealed more to the masses, but the Nokia Orange in 1994 was
still £299 to buy.

I would bet that they was still a subsidised price :-(


tim