I saw this article over on Coolsmartphone.com
The person writing the article wanted to test 3s all you can eat data plan to see how much he could use.

Here are his results.
He used at the end of the test 46,238,4695 MB
and was not charged a penny.
Full details
http://www.coolsmartphone.com/2011/0...esults-are-in/

This is the one of the things that made me switch to 3, their very generous data and text allowances for a great price, 3 seem to be going against the grain of other phone carriers who seem to be capping everyone to 500mb these days

Actually he used 46,238.4695 MB. There is a decimal point between the 238 and 4695. Had to look very close as the text further down said 45GB and if the decimal point had been a comma then it would have been 45TB which would make it even more amazing! Though there is one too many digits for that to be true

Of course what will happen is 3 will have a sudden surge in users who start to take the piss out of these new packages, they will then be forced to apply a Fair Usage Policy which will result probably in caps of a couple of GB.

To be honest I don't see why most people would need more than 500MB. Unless your streaming data all the time like for example a radio station or on youtube every evening on the train home I don't see how people can exceed 500MB. I for example have only used 300MB in 3 and 1/2 weeks and that is with me downloading a few apps, watched a number of youtube videos, on facebook often, emailing all the time and various other apps that act like RSS feeds running all the time. It's more than enough for me.

Only once in the last year have I come close to reaching 500MB, and that was because I had some app downloading data all the time that I wasn't aware of.

On a quiet month I'll use 1.5GB. Most months it hovers around the 3GB mark. On the quiet months there is hardly any streaming at all. Mostly Exchange emails.

i use facebook msn messenger and send emails stream radio for 1 hour a week i use over 1gb a month

i can use 300mb in a few days on radio alone, and once my 11 yr old daughter gets hold of it on nights, she hammers it, with youtube and all the other crap kids do

You have 50Mb broadband and she prefers to watch youtube over a 3G connection?

Using my Android as a Sat Nav uses quite a bit, especially in 'satellite' mode.

the stuff in this thread is the reason why the rest of us are capped.

Not really. 3G has been around for 8 years, plenty of time to build capability, the networks being cheap is the reason the rest of you are capped. It's interesting to note, however, that even since O2 started capping iPhone contracts, they're still rubbish in central London which is where the issue was in the first place.

i'm not sure that's true. i don't think it's feasible to build a network allowing everyone to transfer 46GB of data a month, there isn't enough spectrum, you'd need a tower every hundred yards.

there isn't the demand anyway. data is expensive on the infrastructure side for cellcos, everyone wants all they can eat data but for £5 a month.

what can i say, shes into phones now, just got her own bloody sanfransisco as well

do you think i can still get my hands on my desire

and im obviously on about when were out and about (in the car) and at other peoples houses

this is why I went to 3, I wont use 46gb but having the extra 500mb or so is handy and get great reception in my area. just seems the other networks are being tight as 500mb isn't going to last long.

to offer all the data you can use, 3 must be confident in there network to offer this unless its just a ploy to attract a few more customers.

I suspect this to be honest. If they become popular with smartphone users they may start to have network problems due to the high volume of data traffic. If that comes about expect them to slowly start to bring in limits I reckon.

I mean, wasn't one of the other networks a year or two ago boasting about how they were unlimited, or offered more than the others? But now they are all at 500MB besides 3 it seems.

there is an element of predictability regarding 3 signing up new members with this unlimited tariff and then introducing a cap because of network abuse.

They better not do that as ive just left o2 and gone to 3 for that reason

The difference with 3 is though that they are a 3G-only network, so are built from the ground up to support heavy data usage. They also have considerably better traffic management systems than the other networks, as all data on their network be it internet, voice or text has to be managed. If everyone switches to 3 and starts what other networks call excessive usage, they'll just throttle the speed as opposed to capping the download limit.

3 have more spectrum.

if any of you remember the 3G auctions in 2000, as the new entrant they were awarded more juice.

yeah but also seem to have a few black spots in my area where the signal just drops off and it goes to roaming on orange.

i just think 1gb should be standard as hasn't orange upped the limit to 750mb on some of the contracts they do ?

because having a smartphone your going to take advantage of its web and other features which the other networks seem to think you wont and put a silly limit of 500mb.

I've used nearly 7gb so far this month

Hi, quick question, my iphone on 3 only ever has 3g if that stops for any reason i have no internet connection on my phone, should i do anything to cut over to Orange or should it do this on its own.

It should do so automatically.
However, 3 are slowly withdrawing Orange backup cover area by area (where they deem their own coverage to be adequate)

Thanks for that, do i need data roaming switched on???