Why is Wildfire closing down?
Over the last eighteen months user numbers have declined and with fewer and fewer Wildfire customers, it's now become financially and technically impractical to run as a service.

But people tell us it was hi-tech and really beneficial - why close that kind of service down?
While it was certainly cutting-edge when launched, during a recent review of the service it became clear that Wildfire does not offer some key features that the vast majority of Orange customers have come to expect from their answer phone service. These include answer phone call returns, missed call text alerts, listen and reply to email and Answer Phone Group Messaging offering the ability to send messages to large groups of Orange users.

So what are you doing to help customers who are being affected by the closure of the Wildfire service?
We're offering disabled customers the chance to use TALKS software which voice-activates the phone's menu. We're currently looking at ways of making this software available, but we can confirm that Orange will cover the cost of the software, which is approximately £150. The TALKS package uses the ETI Eloquence text-to-speech software and is recommended by the Royal National Institute of the Blind and can improve the working lives of many users, giving them access to SMS, e-mail, Wap services, contact lists and other mobile applications.

The software can also alert the user to e-mail, text messages and incoming calls, and turn menus, instructions and content displayed on the mobile phone screen into speech. The converted text can be heard through the internal speaker or an optional wired or Bluetooth headset. There is also a caller ID function so the user can hear who is calling without taking the call.

But people still aren't happy. Do you think you could have done things better?
We've done what we thought was best for our customers. If there are areas that our customers are not happy about, we would welcome an open dialogue with them. Wildfire will be closing down - that's a business decision which will not be changing. What we're trying to do is limit the impact the closure of that service has on the relatively small number of customers who used the service.

The way in which you told customers about this service closure has been criticised. They say you tried to hoodwink them by turning a negative into a positive. Why did you do this?
All Orange customers who use Wildfire were contacted by letter to advise them that the service was being withdrawn and that they will be seamlessly migrated to the Orange Answer Phone service. There was certainly no intention to fool them, we were simply communicating with them in a clear and concise way.

Why didn't you tell them about the TALKS service offer in the letter?
This offer is now being made available to any customer with sensory disabilities.

What about customers who don't have a sensory disability but used Wildfire for a reasons of a different disability - people who suffer from arthritis for instance?
We'll deal with each call on a case-by-case basis. We will try to what's right by our customers and make sure that, wherever possible they are given a suitable alternative to Wildfire.

But some customers say this alternative isn't suitable.
The TALKS software is the nearest thing on the market that we could find to the Wildfire service and that's why we're offering all customers with sensory disabilities the free software.

Isn't the closure of Wildfire breaking the Disability Discrimination Act?
No, we don't believe it is. Wildfire was a service that we offered to all of our customers from the year 2000. It wasn't aimed or created specifically for use by our customers with sensory disabilities - that was a fantastic added benefit that, as with many new technologies, found its own home following its launch.

Why have you given your customers such short notice about this closure?
The closure of Wildfire has been made for business and technical reasons that have been carefully considered. We're focused on providing our customers with (and paying for) an alternative option to Wildfire which we believe in 9 times out of 10 will adequately replace the service. We're hoping that these measures will limit the effect of the removal of Wildfire and therefore the notice period will be of little consequence.