It's not actually a price rise. Three are ending a "promotion"
Indeed. I'm paying £25 per month, with a £10 discount applied. By ending the discount, the tariff merely reverts back to its standard price.
I'm on my way home from London now, having tried Three 3G & Three 4G, EE 4G and 3G, plus O2 4G... except in many cases, O2 failed to even get 4G. In one place (King's Cross station - outdoors) it was EDGE only! I've concluded that if you want to use data anywhere in London, DON'T use O2!
Some interesting results which I'll publish later, as there's loads of video editing to do (I filmed every single test) and writing down all the numbers in a spreadsheet. I did 3 tests for each network in each location, as well as some ad hoc tests on some buses and around the place.
Locations were;
King's Cross railway station (front square)
Old Street ('Silicon roundabout')
Tottenham Court Road (Centrepoint, and almost exactly where I was before Christmas with the rather disappointing tests)
Oxford Street (between TCR and Oxford Circus)
Oxford Circus (by Three and EE stores).
I didn't have time to do more tests in more locations, but I think this will be good enough for some.
As I said, some interesting results (as a spoiler, Three didn't do great for download speeds but the increased upload speeds will make a big difference to many) to come....
LTE-A and VoLTE are not the same thing, as your post seems to suggest.
It is more than likely that VoLTE will be available on the highest spec handsets which will almost certainly also support LTE-A. VoLTE may take a while as it is different to deploy for every network.
Indoor coverage will be an issue for some time to come as it will take a new generation of handsets with LTE-A (VoLTE) on-board to work at the lower frequencies that would solve that problem. Voice is affected far more than data as it's presently circuit switched and when a signal becomes unusable the call drops. Data simply gets resent if it fails to reach it's intended destination, so it may appear slower but reception issues do not cause the same failure as happens with voice at 2100MHz when 3 has no fallback to more robust lower frequency GSM coverage.
Is there really much point guessing about LTE-A upgrades before LTE itself has been made openly avialable on the 3 network?
VoLTE does not require LTE-Advanced, VoLTE was defined in Release 8 and a bit of Release 9, Release 10-12 is when LTE Advanced comes into play. VoLTE is considered part of a standard LTE network for example only reason Verizon hasn't released VoLTE yet is because they would have no fallback because they use CDMA. But now that Verizon LTE coverage is pretty much the same as there 3G they plan to do start it early this year. For a lot of devices it will require a software update to allow VoLTE not all will work but most should.
Enapace isnt talking about LTE advanced. He's talking about general indoor signal on 4G
All current gen 4G handsets will work on band 20.
All networks will be rolling out 800mhz to improve indoor signal. Vodafone quote this as an advantage of their 4G network.
Three have plans for VoLTE this year.
What does LTE advanced have to do with this? You seem to be confused.
Thank you I appreciate. Though I've never understood Vodafone saying that as they already have 2G and 3G 900 so it shouldn't be much different at all. Major advantage for Vodafone is speeds as they haven't got enough 900 MHz free to use DC-HSDPA.
LTE-A and VoLTE are not the same thing, as your post seems to suggest.
Correct though when Three rollout LTE-Advanced as they eventually will imagine Late 2015/Early 2016. I am sure is going be useful for Three 2x5MHz of 800MHz and 2x15MHz 800MHz should give some impressive speeds be useful across vast majority of country as well. Obviously EE could do something similar but Vodafone and O2 can't.
Indeed. I'm paying £25 per month, with a £10 discount applied. By ending the discount, the tariff merely reverts back to its standard price.
I'm on my way home from London now, having tried Three 3G & Three 4G, EE 4G and 3G, plus O2 4G... except in many cases, O2 failed to even get 4G. In one place (King's Cross station - outdoors) it was EDGE only! I've concluded that if you want to use data anywhere in London, DON'T use O2!
Some interesting results which I'll publish later, as there's loads of video editing to do (I filmed every single test) and writing down all the numbers in a spreadsheet. I did 3 tests for each network in each location, as well as some ad hoc tests on some buses and around the place.
Locations were;
King's Cross railway station (front square)
Old Street ('Silicon roundabout')
Tottenham Court Road (Centrepoint, and almost exactly where I was before Christmas with the rather disappointing tests)
Oxford Street (between TCR and Oxford Circus)
Oxford Circus (by Three and EE stores).
I didn't have time to do more tests in more locations, but I think this will be good enough for some.
As I said, some interesting results (as a spoiler, Three didn't do great for download speeds but the increased upload speeds will make a big difference to many) to come....
Looking forward to seeing the results if the network can deliver a steady 10-20 MB of download and 5-10MB of upload that would be plenty for me main thing I'm hoping for from 4G is indoor coverage lower pings and slightly fast uploads.
Indoor coverage will be an issue for some time to come as it will take a new generation of handsets with LTE-A (VoLTE) on-board to work at the lower frequencies that would solve that problem. Voice is affected far more than data as it's presently circuit switched and when a signal becomes unusable the call drops. Data simply gets resent if it fails to reach it's intended destination, so it may appear slower but reception issues do not cause the same failure as happens with voice at 2100MHz when 3 has no fallback to more robust lower frequency GSM coverage.
Is there really much point guessing about LTE-A upgrades before LTE itself has been made openly avialable on the 3 network?
I can make ’calls’ over 4G though - FaceTime and Skype work fine if I only have WiFi or 4G (when it launches).
It is more than likely that VoLTE will be available on the highest spec handsets which will almost certainly also support LTE-A. VoLTE may take a while as it is different to deploy for every network.
Sorry I missed this. Okay let's set this record straight any device which has LTE and a Snapdragon 600 processor or better should support VoLTE. Some of the later sold Snapdragon 400 devices will also support VoLTE. Like I said while that is not all of them it is a fair amount of them most people who haven't got one of those devices are likely to be running near to end of there contract anyway.
Sorry I missed this. Okay let's set this record straight any device which has LTE and a Snapdragon 600 processor or better should support VoLTE. Some of the later sold Snapdragon 400 devices will also support VoLTE. Like I said while that is not all of them it is a fair amount of them most people who haven't got one of those devices are likely to be running near to end of there contract anyway.
I remember this coming up before where wavejock thought LTE-A and VoLTE were the same thing before. It was in an EE centric thread.
As you've stated above, they are not the same or require one to have the other.
It is kind of understandable why people think that as originally it wasn't supported in LTE devices but most do support it now. It is only the older LTE devices which won't have support for it. As far as I am aware the iPhone 5 doesn't have support for VoLTE if anyone was wondering I know the iPhone 5C/S does but pretty sure the 5's modern doesn't support it.
Devices such as S4/HTC One/Xperia Z1/LG G2 should all support VoLTE after a software update. As Snapdragon Gobi Moderns are integrated into the processors pretty sure they don't sell processors with out the moderns.
Hi over on the official three blog i saw this reply from one of the moderators after yet another 4g roll out rant from a customer.
I quote:
".........There is an old saying, ‘the best laid plans of mice & men are aft and gone astray’, so whilst we had plans in place to release it in full in December, the plans unfortunately changed and I can appreciate why people now feel like you feel. "
This is the first time i have heard a member of Three staff admit that the plan went wrong and that the original intention was to release in full in December and also a sort of apology to boot.
I think they are finally starting to crumble and some honesty is starting to slip through.
Three CS told me the other day that they're around 6 weeks delayed.
People who are on the one plan now wont pay any extra. No one else will pay any extra.
Prices and tariffs change all the time. The fact is that three are providing 4G at no extra cost across all tariffs no matter when you sign up. You and wavejock need to take your copy and paste anti three posts elsewhere please.
I was really hopeing this would not happen as i am on the one plan paying £38 a month but nearly finished my 24 month contract in April so was going to down grade to sim only £15 Grrr.So not sure what to do now get another 12 month sim or pay the 3 months left on my contract to change to sim only.Does anyone know if i got another sim now could i port my old number to my new sim in april ?.
Devices such as S4/HTC One/Xperia Z1/LG G2 should all support VoLTE after a software update. As Snapdragon Gobi Moderns are integrated into the processors pretty sure they don't sell processors with out the moderns.
Very interesting but that means that only a very small proportion of customers with very high spec recent handsets will be able to benefit from VoLTE. I expect most newly released devices with LTE on-board will also support VoLTE but even at that from my understanding it's a tricky technology to implement and Verizon have delayed it's introduction until mid 2014.
I don't think I have had any major issues with 3's data other than speed issues in some built up areas. My biggest gripe has always been with voice (which is still a major consideration) as I have found circuit switched calls much more reliable on other networks that have seamless switching everywhere from 2100MHz UMTS to 1800MHz and 900MHz GSM. Some folks still need reliable voice communication and in a big centre of population like Glasgow 3 don't have any fallback any longer to Orange and that causes dropped call problems. Even when they did have fallback the calls still dropped because it took time to register on the Orange network after the call dropped on 3. VoLTE will help 3 a lot in terms of this issue and that is the factor that I was highlighting. Happy to learn my SGS4 should support VoLTE
Well just spoke to three customer service apparently the one plan 12 month is going up to £20 and he wasn't sure about the 30 day rolling contract but could be £25 again.LOL typical just my luck.
Indeed. I'm paying £25 per month, with a £10 discount applied. By ending the discount, the tariff merely reverts back to its standard price.
First time you learn that it's a promotional price is when you get the paperwork and it shows £25 with a £10 Promotional discount. Nowhere on their website does it say that the price is anything but £15 per month. And of course because they ship the sims next day but the contract comes nearly a week later, you've already 'used' the sim and tied yourself into a 12 month contract before realising there is a little bit odd about the deal you are on.
Will be interesting if they try a price rise for existing customers based on removing that discount.
Very interesting but that means that only a very small proportion of customers with very high spec recent handsets will be able to benefit from VoLTE. I expect most newly released devices with LTE on-board will also support VoLTE but even at that from my understanding it's a tricky technology to implement and Verizon have delayed it's introduction until mid 2014.
I don't think I have had any major issues with 3's data other than speed issues in some built up areas. My biggest gripe has always been with voice (which is still a major consideration) as I have found circuit switched calls much more reliable on other networks that have seamless switching everywhere from 2100MHz UMTS to 1800MHz and 900MHz GSM. Some folks still need reliable voice communication and in a big centre of population like Glasgow 3 don't have any fallback any longer to Orange and that causes dropped call problems. Even when they did have fallback the calls still dropped because it took time to register on the Orange network after the call dropped on 3. VoLTE will help 3 a lot in terms of this issue and that is the factor that I was highlighting. Happy to learn my SGS4 should support VoLTE
It is a tricky technology to implant as it requires a complete redesign of the network and how it processes voice calls. In fairness there wasn't a lot of LTE devices released in the UK before this year so we are kind of lucky in that respect as most will support VoLTE. I expect a lot of the more budget devices that come out this year will support VoLTE. Anything with a Snapdragon 600 or 800 will support VoLTE and the Snapdragon 400 devices that came out Q3/Q4 that have LTE will also support VoLTE. I wouldn't bet on devices like the Z10 or the S4 Mini to support VoLTE as the modem likely don't support but yeah the S4 should be fine. I agree it will be very useful for Three I find the call quality to be very good on Three but as you say the indoor coverage isn't as good like it is on EE/Vodafone/O2.
The coverage map has been updated again. My local mast now has 4g and i am now in the pink and not the blue as i was before.
A lot more masts have been lit up in london by the look of it
I just noticed that as well Manchester seems to have had a lot more masts turned on by the looks of it most of the city centre is now indoors coverage. Good to see the rollout is progressing along nicely.
Did notice something odd though it says at my home address now that I have good service on Normal 3G but on Advanced 3G I apparently have excellent service no idea how that makes sense as the signal should be identical on both.
Will be interesting if they try a price rise for existing customers based on removing that discount.
Interesting point but AFAIK if the terms including prices are amended to your detriment other than for inflation adjustment you have the right to cancel without penalty. Not sure how that works with a 'special offer' where a discount is applied but it would be pretty nasty business practice to shaft people who signed up for a deal that clearly stated the cost was £XX.XX per month.
Hopefully 3 honour the price they quoted to all of those who bought SIMs and handsets prior to any price increase.
This 'increase' may have something to do with the "Managing data demand through future pricing' that featured in 3's strategy slide presentation that was posted earlier in this thread.
Well just spoke to three customer service apparently the one plan 12 month is going up to £20 and he wasn't sure about the 30 day rolling contract but could be £25 again.LOL typical just my luck.
They might be putting the price back up due to lack of device contract sales you never know.
Has anyone noticed that USB dongles and Mi-Fi devices are no longer offered with AYCE data?
All of 3's data products have a capped allowance.
I expect the same will apply to tethering in the near future.
Handset data browsing will remain unlimited but tethering will probably be capped to prevent heavy downloading especially when 4G increases speed to make a tethered handset a viable alternative to fixed line broadband and that may rapidly cause bandwidth issues in some areas with a high penetration of short stay users (student accommodation etc).
First time you learn that it's a promotional price is when you get the paperwork and it shows £25 with a £10 Promotional discount. Nowhere on their website does it say that the price is anything but £15 per month. And of course because they ship the sims next day but the contract comes nearly a week later, you've already 'used' the sim and tied yourself into a 12 month contract before realising there is a little bit odd about the deal you are on.
Will be interesting if they try a price rise for existing customers based on removing that discount.
Three are not raising the price for customers already signed up. Only for new customers.
Well just spoke to three customer service apparently the one plan 12 month is going up to £20 and he wasn't sure about the 30 day rolling contract but could be £25 again.LOL typical just my luck.
Personalised nonsense which I expect DS moderators to remove and restore this thread to a discussion about products and services rather than the nasty comments made by some to try and divert attention from the original topic.
But you were wrong, hence I had a valid reason to point out the flaws in your argument (trolling) and prove why what you said was incorrect.
Jabba, if I'm currently on the one month rolling One Plan at £18, will I still remain at £18 until I leave three? Or will I have no choice to take a rise because it's a one month rolling contract only?
Comments
Indeed. I'm paying £25 per month, with a £10 discount applied. By ending the discount, the tariff merely reverts back to its standard price.
I'm on my way home from London now, having tried Three 3G & Three 4G, EE 4G and 3G, plus O2 4G... except in many cases, O2 failed to even get 4G. In one place (King's Cross station - outdoors) it was EDGE only! I've concluded that if you want to use data anywhere in London, DON'T use O2!
Some interesting results which I'll publish later, as there's loads of video editing to do (I filmed every single test) and writing down all the numbers in a spreadsheet. I did 3 tests for each network in each location, as well as some ad hoc tests on some buses and around the place.
Locations were;
King's Cross railway station (front square)
Old Street ('Silicon roundabout')
Tottenham Court Road (Centrepoint, and almost exactly where I was before Christmas with the rather disappointing tests)
Oxford Street (between TCR and Oxford Circus)
Oxford Circus (by Three and EE stores).
I didn't have time to do more tests in more locations, but I think this will be good enough for some.
As I said, some interesting results (as a spoiler, Three didn't do great for download speeds but the increased upload speeds will make a big difference to many) to come....
It is more than likely that VoLTE will be available on the highest spec handsets which will almost certainly also support LTE-A. VoLTE may take a while as it is different to deploy for every network.
VoLTE does not require LTE-Advanced, VoLTE was defined in Release 8 and a bit of Release 9, Release 10-12 is when LTE Advanced comes into play. VoLTE is considered part of a standard LTE network for example only reason Verizon hasn't released VoLTE yet is because they would have no fallback because they use CDMA. But now that Verizon LTE coverage is pretty much the same as there 3G they plan to do start it early this year. For a lot of devices it will require a software update to allow VoLTE not all will work but most should.
Thank you I appreciate. Though I've never understood Vodafone saying that as they already have 2G and 3G 900 so it shouldn't be much different at all. Major advantage for Vodafone is speeds as they haven't got enough 900 MHz free to use DC-HSDPA.
Correct though when Three rollout LTE-Advanced as they eventually will imagine Late 2015/Early 2016. I am sure is going be useful for Three 2x5MHz of 800MHz and 2x15MHz 800MHz should give some impressive speeds be useful across vast majority of country as well. Obviously EE could do something similar but Vodafone and O2 can't.
Looking forward to seeing the results if the network can deliver a steady 10-20 MB of download and 5-10MB of upload that would be plenty for me main thing I'm hoping for from 4G is indoor coverage lower pings and slightly fast uploads.
http://i.imgur.com/bwU4r.gif
Sorry I missed this. Okay let's set this record straight any device which has LTE and a Snapdragon 600 processor or better should support VoLTE. Some of the later sold Snapdragon 400 devices will also support VoLTE. Like I said while that is not all of them it is a fair amount of them most people who haven't got one of those devices are likely to be running near to end of there contract anyway.
http://www.qualcomm.com/sites/default/files/document/files/wireless-networks-web_lte_08152013_original-1.pdf
There is your proof btw scroll down to page 14 & 15.
I remember this coming up before where wavejock thought LTE-A and VoLTE were the same thing before. It was in an EE centric thread.
As you've stated above, they are not the same or require one to have the other.
It is kind of understandable why people think that as originally it wasn't supported in LTE devices but most do support it now. It is only the older LTE devices which won't have support for it. As far as I am aware the iPhone 5 doesn't have support for VoLTE if anyone was wondering I know the iPhone 5C/S does but pretty sure the 5's modern doesn't support it.
Devices such as S4/HTC One/Xperia Z1/LG G2 should all support VoLTE after a software update. As Snapdragon Gobi Moderns are integrated into the processors pretty sure they don't sell processors with out the moderns.
Three CS told me the other day that they're around 6 weeks delayed.
I was really hopeing this would not happen as i am on the one plan paying £38 a month but nearly finished my 24 month contract in April so was going to down grade to sim only £15 Grrr.So not sure what to do now get another 12 month sim or pay the 3 months left on my contract to change to sim only.Does anyone know if i got another sim now could i port my old number to my new sim in april ?.
Very interesting but that means that only a very small proportion of customers with very high spec recent handsets will be able to benefit from VoLTE. I expect most newly released devices with LTE on-board will also support VoLTE but even at that from my understanding it's a tricky technology to implement and Verizon have delayed it's introduction until mid 2014.
I don't think I have had any major issues with 3's data other than speed issues in some built up areas. My biggest gripe has always been with voice (which is still a major consideration) as I have found circuit switched calls much more reliable on other networks that have seamless switching everywhere from 2100MHz UMTS to 1800MHz and 900MHz GSM. Some folks still need reliable voice communication and in a big centre of population like Glasgow 3 don't have any fallback any longer to Orange and that causes dropped call problems. Even when they did have fallback the calls still dropped because it took time to register on the Orange network after the call dropped on 3. VoLTE will help 3 a lot in terms of this issue and that is the factor that I was highlighting. Happy to learn my SGS4 should support VoLTE
A lot more masts have been lit up in london by the look of it
First time you learn that it's a promotional price is when you get the paperwork and it shows £25 with a £10 Promotional discount. Nowhere on their website does it say that the price is anything but £15 per month. And of course because they ship the sims next day but the contract comes nearly a week later, you've already 'used' the sim and tied yourself into a 12 month contract before realising there is a little bit odd about the deal you are on.
Will be interesting if they try a price rise for existing customers based on removing that discount.
It is a tricky technology to implant as it requires a complete redesign of the network and how it processes voice calls. In fairness there wasn't a lot of LTE devices released in the UK before this year so we are kind of lucky in that respect as most will support VoLTE. I expect a lot of the more budget devices that come out this year will support VoLTE. Anything with a Snapdragon 600 or 800 will support VoLTE and the Snapdragon 400 devices that came out Q3/Q4 that have LTE will also support VoLTE. I wouldn't bet on devices like the Z10 or the S4 Mini to support VoLTE as the modem likely don't support but yeah the S4 should be fine. I agree it will be very useful for Three I find the call quality to be very good on Three but as you say the indoor coverage isn't as good like it is on EE/Vodafone/O2.
I just noticed that as well Manchester seems to have had a lot more masts turned on by the looks of it most of the city centre is now indoors coverage. Good to see the rollout is progressing along nicely.
Did notice something odd though it says at my home address now that I have good service on Normal 3G but on Advanced 3G I apparently have excellent service no idea how that makes sense as the signal should be identical on both.
Interesting point but AFAIK if the terms including prices are amended to your detriment other than for inflation adjustment you have the right to cancel without penalty. Not sure how that works with a 'special offer' where a discount is applied but it would be pretty nasty business practice to shaft people who signed up for a deal that clearly stated the cost was £XX.XX per month.
Hopefully 3 honour the price they quoted to all of those who bought SIMs and handsets prior to any price increase.
This 'increase' may have something to do with the "Managing data demand through future pricing' that featured in 3's strategy slide presentation that was posted earlier in this thread.
They might be putting the price back up due to lack of device contract sales you never know.
All of 3's data products have a capped allowance.
I expect the same will apply to tethering in the near future.
Handset data browsing will remain unlimited but tethering will probably be capped to prevent heavy downloading especially when 4G increases speed to make a tethered handset a viable alternative to fixed line broadband and that may rapidly cause bandwidth issues in some areas with a high penetration of short stay users (student accommodation etc).
Three are not raising the price for customers already signed up. Only for new customers.
They have never been offered with AYCE data allowances AFAIK. I'm 100% sure they haven't done over the past 18 months atleast.
Try mid February.
Nope, plan was always for a trial in December. Just Three didn't communicate it properly to the staff and public (and still haven't fully).
Over 70 in one week.
£20 - 12m
£22 - 01m
100% not happening. No price increases at all. You just pay the price you signed up to.
But you were wrong, hence I had a valid reason to point out the flaws in your argument (trolling) and prove why what you said was incorrect.
Irony
(filler as post too short)