After sending back an upgrade and deciding to leave, Orange have improved their retention offer to me, However I'm still in a dilemma over the amount of mobile data. I'm a customer of Virgin Media for my Digital Media Services and I've learned I can get a good deal from them that includes unlimited data.
Here are the deals.

Orange;
Free Galaxy S3
Unlimited calls, unlimited texts, Unlimited e-mails, 1.5Gb Data.
3Gb BT Openzone (I assume this is what is now called BT-Wifi, as it doesn't include BT-FON Openzone)
1 Free Swappable.
Plus insurance at £6 pcm
Total = £30 pcm

Virgin Mobile
Galaxy S3 £19
Unlimited calls, Texts and Data
Insurance included (Mandatory I think).
Total = £36 pcm (if I remain a Virgin Media customer, £41 pcm if I leave Virgin Media).

My experience is, that with a Smartphone like the S3 that makes it easy to watch TV etc and that makes doing a lot of fancy things a pleasure, I could potentially use a lot of data. While I have the 3Gb BT-Wi-fi, BT-Wi-fi isn't available everywhere. I've never used anything like that, so I'm not sure how useful it is in general compared to mobile data - especially if you're outside in the street.

I note that Virgin Media are releasing a similar TV-On-The-Go service to Sky GO that I would certainly use a lot. I assume that this will require a 3G connection, as I believe Sky GO does. This will swallow up Orange's entire 1.5Gb data allowance very quickly.

Moreover, I worry that being locked into a contract on Orange for two years with limited data might eventually become restrictive, even if it isn't at the moment. It's a reasonable assumption to make that mobile data will become more useful over time with improvements in technology and services. Some people say that 1.5Gb is a lot at the moment, but then 100Mb used to be a lot in the days of WAP and not that long ago the prospect of a 1Mb broadband connection would have seemed like overkill to many people.

What would you do? Stick with Orange's limited data and 3GB BT Openzone, or go with Virgin Media's unlimited data for £6 more a month (or £11 more a month if I ever leave VIrgin Media)?

Personally I'd pay the extra six quid a month. If you're planning on watching lots of video when you're out and about, you'll much through 1.5gb in no time. Plus it's nice not to worry about going over your usage limits etc.

It's my understanding that Virgin and Orange both use EE - so your coverage should be identical.

A question to the forum- what sort of speeds do you get with Virgin mobile? Any throttling or capping of speeds vs the other networks? I'm thinking of going for one of the virgin sim only deals myself

This was my thought. I've been reading a bit into the subject and I read somewhere that one of the reasons more people don't exceed their data allowance is partly because the older, smaller screen smartphones don't lend themselves to lengthy viewing of video as the S3, the Note and presumably the iphone 5 do. It might also be the case that people are subconsciously aware of the data limits and temper their usage accordingly.

Data usage is apparently increasing all the time and I wouldn't want to find myself being left behind in a year or two.

I reckon go for the unlimited as I doubt Orange would offer you much extra data for an extra £6 per month.

Absolutely correct. 500mb for £5. How amazingly generous. I think even O2 are better than that, but I could be wrong.

As Citizen Smith might have said, I have two words for Orange - and the second one is "off".

My brother has just left Orange after 10 years and was basically encouraged to go by retentions.

They were effectively saying that he would be foolish not paying extra to get the iPhone 5 from them.

The only option they had was a phone he didn't want.

I'm quite concerned that Everything Everywhere is already abusing their size.