You top up by £15 and then buy the add-on, hence you no-longer have your credit.

This is a considerably better deal than anyone else is offering in my opinion.

I admit the Orange deal is good if you only use data occasionally, don't send too many texts and only really call 5 people (who happen to be on Orange too). If this suits you down to the ground, then good for you

However, I'm pretty sure you only get 5 magic numbers when you have been with Orange for quite a while (don't you get a new one every 6 months?) - so this isn't something that will be open to anybody thinking of moving to Orange anyway.

Also, you have a minimum cost of 20p per call (even to your magic numbers), so this wouldn't suit a person who makes a lot of short calls of say 1 or 2 minutes. At 20p a go, you could get as little as 50 minutes (or even less) from that £10 credit. Plus you have to factor out the odd call to voicemail and customer services (which I imagine are chargeable).

I'm not saying this isn't a great deal for you... it is just very specific and would be pretty useless to some people (such as me!) in just about every respect:

- I know hardly anyone on Orange anyway
- I will use way more than 100MB per month - at least 300-400 realistically.
- Some months 300 texts won't be enough

Horses for courses I guess.

But until recently the £10 only got you 100 minutes. 3's £15 plan now offers the same as giffgaff.

Difference is Giffgaff is slow, 3 is fast. I'm getting quite frustrated of running my HD7 on GG. It's designed to need good connectivity and there's constantly a sense of waiting for things to download even when I'm in an HSDPA area. Plus running on GG subjects you to that Phorm-type proxy that's on O2's network.

I can't remember how to amend the APN details to bypass that.

I think I might unlock my phone just to check out the comparative speed.

Also, in answer to your previous question: you topup £15 and use the credit to buy the addon. Just like using credit on GG to buy goodybags. Only difference being you can buy goodybags directly on GG.

If 3 have good coverage in your area you won't look back trust me! You get 3G data coverage just about everywhere it seems (even inside big old buildings!) though I suppose you have to for it to be viable.

It absolutely blows o2 out of the water for data speeds here in Manchester. I used to get so frustrated that things wouldn't load on o2 - even when I supposedly had a 3G signal!

I've got a couple of months left with o2 but getting annoyed with them due to the poor 3G signal. My journey to work on the train each day is a perfect time to use my phone, but I only ever get a 3G signal when leaving one city and entering the other.

I'm hoping 3 can make up for the part in between. Tempted to get a SIM and see what they are like in the near future.

Depending on what it would cost to unlock your phone, it's probably worth requesting a free PAYG sim from 3 and trying it in your phone for the journey one day. Obviously you won't be able to use it, but you should be able to see whether 3G signal is retained and at what strength.

My phone is unlocked already.

Yeah that is a good idea, I was going to top it up with £15 but if I don't need to add anything and just watch the 3G signal that would be better way of telling.

Just a shame I've got 3 more months with o2

That's not true, £10+ goodybags will continue to have unlimited internet.

It's only the free internet for people using standard airtime credit and the £5 goodybags that is ending on April 1st
After that it's 20p for the first 20mb and then 20p per MB after that.

Anyone with a £10+ goodybag will continue to have unlimited internet

It's good if you can get it, but data with o2 (and also therefore giffgaff) has been very close to a complete waste of time in my experience.

I've read this thread but still a little confused as I have no experience of PAYG. I'm actually looking for a plan for a teenager that looks exactly like what this offers. But am I right in thinking that the only outlay from scratch is £15 per month as I'm confused by the add-on concept.

"add-on" is just the name that Three use to describe their various "extras" that a person buys after adding PAYG credit.


A top-up is done of, say, £15. (By e-voucher and then key in the many digit code via a Three phone)

While on the phone I imagine there are options to select via the number keys and one option is the "All In One 15" Add-on which gives all-you-can-eat data (and some talk minutes/texts)


I haven't tried it yet so not sure, but there is currently no option to select the Add-ons online. Apparently it's just via Threes 444 number on a Three phone (or unlocked 3g phone with Three sim)

I'm thinking that Three will eventually cap the £15 Add-on at something like 6GB and leave All-You-Can-Eat on the £25 Add-on only.

The idea being that people get used to the true unlimited data and decide to spend the £25/month rather than go back to how it was.

Sorry, I still don't understand that. Are you saying that there is some monthly charge (£10?) plus an add-on charge of £15 pm ?

there is no monthly charge, 15 pound is the price of this addon, . if you topup a normal £10 it will stay on the phone until you use it up. you still get free data @ 150meg plus you have the £10 to spend on calls and texts. i hope this makes sense.

??
I haven't mentioned £10 It's a pay as you go service.

If you really have never used pay-as-you-go before then maybe an explanation of that would be more helpful to you.

Three may be promoting this but you sure can't buy it!

No sign online, or via the 444 number (just voice/text add-ons) Nothing. zippo.

http://www.three.co.uk/Pay_As_You_Go/Add_ons

There is no link to purchase the Add-on on that page. This is the point people are making. It's advertising a service that currently there is no way of buying.

just add the £15 addon as normal, you will get the data! my3 just hasn't updated yet

You can now buy an All in One 15 or 25 and immediately start using your new data. If you don’t see all-you-can eat in My3 just yet don’t worry. So long as you top-up from today, you’ll be able to make the most of the internet on your smartphone, we’re just going through the process of getting our systems and many hundreds of pieces of communications updated.


http://blog.three.co.uk/2011/03/07/a...pay-as-you-go/

Sorry, it was just an impression I got from earlier comments in this thread, hence my question mark on the £10.

I think I understand this now. Just to recap in my own words my understanding is -

I could take a SIM unlocked phone and with no other outlay than £15 pm I would get 300 minutes 3000 texts and unlimited data.
This seems too good to be true when compared with contract plans of other carriers.

They are probably desperate for customers. There are limitations of the network how much can get through, regardless of the lack of a small print.

Incidentally, what stops one using the unlimited data for making voice calls via Skype ?

Why so anti?

i would imagine that were possible yet 3 offer free unlimited skype on selected handsets anyway!

http://www.three.co.uk/Company/3G_Network/Skype

Yes, you've got it

Top up your account with £15, use that £15 to buy the add-on and bosh - you have 300 minutes, 3000 texts and unlimited data for the month.



Well, as chaos77 says, 3 offer Skype for free anyway - as long as you download the app directly from 3. You can check if the handset is compatible (and if so, get a download link sent to your 3 mobile) by clicking this link and following the instructions; http://www.three.co.uk/_popup/Skype

There's always a catch, that's not anti, that's being realistic.