Orange is to overhaul its pay monthly tariffs and services as of 1 April.

Details of the new range of packages were released today, each with its own animal theme (see below).

Orange is cutting the minutes new and migrating customers get from lower-priced tariffs. From April, ?19 a month will buy 50 rather than 60 minutes, and ?25 gets you 100 minutes - 20 minutes less than the current amount. Mid-range bundles will stay the same and high-end customers will pocket an extra 100 minutes for their ?75.

The text bundle range will be revised to introduce something called a "digressive pricing structure": the more you buy as part of your plan, the less you pay per text. The standard out-of-bundle text rate will be upped from 10p to 12p under the plans, as will a minute's talktime to a landline, and to another Orange phone.

There will also be proverbial carrot-dangling to encourage 18-month contracts in the form of what Orange calls "Magic Numbers".

The blurb put it thus: "The customer will be decremented [sic]one minute for up to an hour call to the Magic Number."

This seems to mean that you get an hour's worth of talk time to a nominated number for the price of a minute.

An internal document seen by El Reg reveals when the new structure comes in, Orange will start hitting up customers for ?1.50 a month for itemised billing. Not paying by Orange's preferred direct debit method will now set you back ?3.50 a month too, and delivery reports on texts will cost a penny a pop.

It's just left for new Orange customers and those migrating to the new rates to decide: are they a dolphin, a panther, a canary, or a raccoon?

Still no word on whether there will be half decent data plans either...