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3..good, bad or indifferent?
allie4
Posts: 11,994 Forum Member
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I promised a friend I would do a bit of research for her about her moving from Vodafone to 3 and where better to look than here?
Can any of you tell me what are the advantages/ disadvantages of 3? She thinks they have better offers than other providers but I thought I'd read they weren't so good?
Advice gratefully received!
Can any of you tell me what are the advantages/ disadvantages of 3? She thinks they have better offers than other providers but I thought I'd read they weren't so good?
Advice gratefully received!
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As with any network the disadvantage may be related to use areas so check coverage first hand. I find Three good value for money and it provides fast/reliable 3G data where I need to use it. The In Touch app supports voice and text over Wifi which can be useful in buildings where no mobile network reaches. Feel at home inclusive roaming is also great value when I visit the USA. There will be places as where Three coverage isn't very good I've found this to be true of all networks hence the opening sentence.
Latest rootmetrics report comparing all UK MNO's -
http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/special-report-2014-1h-uk
The best thing to do is get a pay as you go SIM card and give it a try, then you can check the coverage and speeds in your area before signing up to anything.
Also the partner gets the same problem in shrewsbury. So from my experience providing the masts aren't oversubscribed in the area they provide a decent service.
The problem is they don't want to tell you the masts are oversubscribed so you probably wouldn't be able to find out until your a customer.
The final straw was when I was only getting .1meg download speed (yes 100k) when I had always got 5+ in my home town even though I had decent 3G signal (on my works phone and also my own phone). Vodafone did not sort this out over several months.
I still can't believe how O2 and Vodafone can get away with their lack of 3G.
Vodafone has now become a joke with data speeds and dropped calls.
https://www.three.co.uk/Support/Free_SIM/Order
Good advice, tried this myself with 3...excellent coverage around town, unfortunately at home no signal.
As someone who has used all the networks, I find three excellent. For example, even with 1 bar of signal, I can get a usable data connection, whereas the same signal from Voda or O2 would often render the phone effectively unconnected. Also, with Voda, I found I was having to take advantage of pub/cafe wifi, whereas with 3, I usually find the 3.5g data is as fast if not faster than the wifi, so I hardly use wifi now outside of home.
I had a USA holiday this year across 7 states, and being able to use my phone for mapping etc for free was just superb.
Also, along with EE, you get HD calling between three -to three and three to ee calls.
I pay £9.90 per month for 600mins. 5000 texts and 1GB of data.
For what I need from a phone, nobody else touches three for this price.
Lower frequencies is only an excuse when you don't have enough masts. When every network has low frequencies for 4G then having not enough masts will mean less capacity (ie, slower speeds) and or less good indoor coverage.
I was going to say this, I started typing about cell spacing being planned differently on MBNL to take account of spectrum and then closed the window. The issue of frequency vs coverage is often misunderstood, as the people that post about it assume the spacing is the same, if the cell spacing is more dense on higher frequencies, it has the benefits of similar coverage and much better capacity.
No intention of moving networks, especially if I can't get unlimited internet/tethering(which you can't)
I used to be with Vodafone for about 5yrs, tried Tesco Mobile (O2) for about a year then moved onto Giff Gaff (O2 again) for about 3years. Vodafone were quite good with their signal for calls/data but were quite expensive. O2 were ok but data was slow.
Not sure why but I always avoided 3 mainly due to the reputation based on what they were like back when I was on Vodafone. However, I've only been with 3 for about 4months but I have to say I'm very impressed. Their prices are quite good, 3G is much faster than I ever got with O2/Vodafone. The only issue I have is poor signal in some areas but for the most part I think they're definitely the best network I've been with now + the 123 Pay as you go plan is great!.
P.s. I don't work for Three!
Three are very good for data. Three have no 2G network they use 21000MHz for 3G and 1800MHz / 800MHz for 4G. They only issue as others have pointed is indoors 3G coverage can be an issue. They have a In Touch WiFi app and Home Signal Box (Femtocell) to get around this. Voice Over LTE will solve many of these issues as will their use of 800MHz. So try a pay as you go sim and see how things work out.
I was beginning to wonder!:D:D
Three provides access to Orange 2G in certain areas, mainly rural spots which have little or no 3G coverage. I've seen it in quite a lot of North and Mid Wales for example.
I realized when I stopped typing how suspicious I sounded haha
Their 2G backup is being turned off in more places rather than on, surely.
Then again, when you look at 2G data on O2 and Voda you realise just how useless 2G data can be
On EE I manage to get 45kbps around here on GPRS, good enough for messaging