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Reception on "3"?
Starzz123
Posts: 1,700 Forum Member
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I'm considering a contract with 3 but the the network has a bad reputation for it's signal, could any of you guys make a compelling case for/against moving to 3 from Orange/EE.
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Also Three has come a long way from those years ago when it was crap.
Just try out a pay as you go SIM or something. I've been with them for a while now and no issues.
The internet is superb, but can occasionally be a bit slow on the occasional evening esp when tethering.
Overall Three are infinitely better than my old network T-Mobile!
Do you like the 3G coverage you get with EE? Because if you do, you'll get very similar coverage on 3, as they share masts with them.
I can't fault the reception and I am in a rural area.
They are a good network and you get 4G included for nothing, 4G costs extra on EE.
I travel around the country for work and have a work phone on Vodafone and personal on Three. For pure signal alone, Three surprisingly beats the pants off Vodafone which isn't even THAT great for 2G in reality.
As has been already mentioned, EE and Three have nearly identical 3g Coverage due to their network share under the MBNL banner. If you regularly rely on EE 2g however you may not receive coverage from Three.
I got a PAYG SIM from Three about 6 months ago to try them out as I was getting annoyed with Vodafone with their slow DATA and I was really impressed (I do a lot of driving for my job and one of the tests was I had my own phone with a Three SIM in it and also my works phone with Vodafone (both Galaxy S3's) and I drove from Harlow to Cromer in Norfolk and where Vodafone dropped down to 2G or even no signal at-all Three had the minimum of 3G)!
A couple of times I have been away with my wife and friend and where they would have 2G or Edge data on their O2 and Vodafone phones I would have HSPA+ (3G++) on my phone and could stream iPlayer etc with no problem and was even kind enough to let them tether to my phone so they could use the internet ;-) .
I have since signed up for a 2 year contract with Three with a phone and could not be happier.
The only problem I did have was I only had 1 bar of reception at home, but the only network with more than that is O2 (even Vodafone is never more than 2 bars), but as soon as I signed up for 2 years Three said I could have a booster box for home and now I have full signal.
I would recommend getting a PAYG SIM just to try them out.
A 'Three' contract will probably be cheaper/offer more minutes etc than EE but if you require the security of having that 2G fallback as well, EE could be better.
Also, although Three do offer 4G at no extra cost, its not as if their coverage is much to speak of at the moment.
Three's 30 day SIM only deals are quite competitive if you dont require a new phone, maybe a way of testing the service for a few months.
Get a 3 PAYG sim, chuck it in and see how it goes for a couple of days. That's really the only way to be sure!
Much of North/Mid Wales too.
I've never actually seen my phone go to 2G fallback. I have 3G the majority of the time, and very occasionally I get a no service message if I'm underground, or in the middle of nowhere. I travel around lots of bits of the country and Three has service pretty much everywhere I've been.
You would have known this before you switched so why switch? I suppose home coverage is not important to you.
See if you can get on the InTouch trial by calling customer services and explaining you have poor coverage.
Presumably if you're no longer getting good coverage, you were using 2G on EE before. If it was 3G, there should be no difference.
Being selfish, if you're happy with your 3G network, keep it to yourself, as the more users in your area you convince to move, the worse it might be for everyone!:D
And pretty much all of wales except the major cities, I was Roaming on Orange on the South Coast of Wales this weekend, H from three was present but indoors it was patchy.
EDIT: saw this was a duplicate comment - cant see how to delete.
A fair bit of East Anglia too in my experience.
Absolutely
I live just outside Glasgow and get a full 3G/4G signal 99.9% of the time. Ive been with 3 for four years and would never go back to another network now!
and I have no issues with calls either
Not true. I checked coverage myself and they also checked in store, before I switched to 3, and was promised excellent coverage for calls and data, at my home address, reality is at home I never have more than 1 bar indoors, and often no bars (not a problem with the Three InTouch app that I am trialling), and data is often 3g and never 4g indoors (not a problem as I have wireless at home). Away from home my coverage is excellent.
How would i have know it? im not blessed with the gift or foresight i must be honest.
As for why i switched, its well documented on here but after nearly 20 years with One2One/T-Mobile/EE they refused to renew any loyalty bonus and they suddenly looked pretty poor value.
Funny enough Vodafone 2G is the best there and have been doing upgrades on that mast so imagine 3G900MHz will happen soon.