Axed: The posh voice of Orange is replaced with new 'matey' tones

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Mobile phone users are protesting after their network ditched a well-spoken middle-aged woman as its official voice - and replaced her with the "matey" tones of a much younger woman.

Subscribers have telephoned to complain about the new spoken menu they hear when picking up their voicemail messages.

And they have even set up their own internet forum to protest at the change by the telecommunications giant Orange.

Last month the company decided to "refresh" its image and dropped Jane Copland, a highly regarded voiceover artist, after 14 years, and replaced her with 28-year-old actress Ruth Gibson.

Already, more than 70 people have signed up to the forum, called Bring Back The Original Orange Answerphone Woman, on the internet networking site Facebook.

On it, Ms Gibson's voice has been described as "squeaky", "matey", "annoying" and "patronising" and one customer asked: "Is it unnormal to be this irritated by a voicemail voice?"

A spokesman for Orange, which has 15.4 million mobile customers in Britain, said: "The new voice on our systems reflects the way communication has progressed and we have no plans to change it."

Do you agree that the new Orange Answerphone voice is 'squeaky', 'matey' and 'annoying'? Click here to listen to it.