Wavejock has outdone him/herself this time.

IMO, it's time he/she followed quasdaaf or whatever he/she was called into the "Inactive User" group, as his/her constant anti 3 trolling/agenda is the scourge of the DS forums.

Thankfully some seem to have understood the basis on which contracts are offered.

You buy a service with a contract to accept what is offered for a period. When that ends you get the opportunity to renew at whatever terms are offered by the supplier for the new period. That can be as previously agreed or it can be amended. In this instance it looks very likely that renewals will be subject to the terms offered to new customers which is what is happening with customers attempting to upgrade One Plan contracts to get a new handset.

As previously stated, lets wait and see when July comes around..... The changes have yet to be made officially so it's not clear what will be on offer.

Handset contracts ceased to offer unlimited tethering earlier in the year, so that is irrelevant to this change.

With the Sim Only One Plan A 'rolling contact' has no end date or renewal period, it only has a minimum term of 30 days or 1 year (whichever was chosen at the start), other than that it just keeps rolling as the name suggests - How hard is that to understand?

You've received bans for this kind of baiting behaviour multiple times now, where you knowingly keep re-posting inaccurate information to rile other members.

But does 'rolling' mean the same terms are an obligation for the provider?

I don't think so......

Each period is the contract agreement as far as I can see. When one period ends it can be renewed and that can be with new terms and conditions that the service provider offers.

Each period is not a contract, a rolling contract has no specified end, it just rolls on. A provider is able to change the terms at any point. Thee have indicated no intention to do so and would need to give 30 days notice in writing. There are also customers on the original One Plan with handsets who still have unlimited tethering and the same with unlimited data on T-mobile's Full Monty.

Any assertion by you that each 30 days is a new contract is entirely incorrect, as is any claim that Three plan to make changes to existing rolling contracts.

Again, you are posting rubbish. A contract is open ended and is sold with a minimum term, upon completion of the minimum term the contract continues to operate as laid out in the contract terms.

This had been the industry standard for at least this century (probably forever but I can't be bothered to actually verify if the original contracts in the early 90s were any different just to satisfy a single hairy little person).

We shall see.... 3 need to reposition themselves and have to loose their costly fixed line alternative users. They have taken steps to make that happen with handset inclusive contracts and mobile broadband, so allowing the lowest financial contributors on SIM only deals to continue to consume unlimited data for an indefinite period seems foolhardy!

Hammering a sponge into a brick wall is easier than dealing with this, er, *******.

How will this make them "loose" (or even lose) those customers they already are "fixed line alternative users"?

Those customers are retaining their unlimited tethering, if anything, it means those customers will never leave as no-one offers an alternative plan to go to.

There's nothing to 'see', though. I'll still be on my original One Plan with unlimited tethering in eighteen months time. Fact.

Wrong, it clearly explains that a rolling contract has no specific end date. It ends when either party gives 30 days notice. It doesn't renew every month, it just rolls with no fixed end date.


Dictionary definition
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dict...ling-contract#

I expect a change to T & Cs then to bring all customers into line with tethering policies. Again we have to wait and see but commonsense suggests that is where this move is heading to help resolve the frequently complained about rising congestion issues and noticeable traffic management in major areas of population.

Can you cite any other time this has occurred?

I can't think of a single occasion, a provider has moved a customer on a 'legacy' tariff onto a new one, they just keep "rolling" on the old (and no longer available to new customers) tariff.

I have a friend who for many many years, was one Mercury One to One's original offer (where you bought the phone outright and ALL of your calls were free).

TMobile were forever phoning him up to try and get him to "move" to another tariff and for many years he refused.

Then just say that. Don't go around saying its a fact when its not.

As of now there are no changes for existing customers. So stop saying there is and making up facts. You said three would automatically change the T&C and now you're saying they wont and that its up to Three. So hypocritical.

There were a few old one2one tariffs that T-Mobile wanted people off of, I remember at one stage they were offering a free top end phone and 50% discounts on line rental to get people to change, but the networks don't want the bad publicity of forcing people to change, quite a few very old tariffs had ring fenced customers for many years.

More recently, the flext plans that offered all calls in allowance (including international) still have many customers on them.

As a matter of interest, what is your experience in the mobile industry? What networks or retailers have you worked for? And in what capacity?

Exactly the situation my mate was in. At one time he lived on a boat, so no landline, but free calls to anywhere in the world suited him just fine.

Utter nonsense

You can keep your existing terms and conditions if you want or change to a completely new tariff if you want.

Forum members should take WaveJocks posts with a pinch salt

If Three were to do that to any customer, it would be unprecedented and show them to be in utterly dire straits financially, well beyond the level and solutions giffgaff have had to implement. Personally I can't see it happen. But we'll know for sure come July 1st when my contract ends.

From recent experience I was given a simple option by my energy provider. We have to move you to a new tariff but if you don't like it you can pay what you owe and move elsewhere. That was the approach to a long term direct debit customer and it's really that simple when corporate priorities prevail. To put the sums into perspective what was at stake was about 8 times what a mobile SIM only customer pays 3 every month for a One Plan deal!

What is so surprising about a network that has reached capacity in some places trying to limit what was once necessary to acquire customers? Strategies change and 3 have stated they have been considering a range of options to reduce data congestion.

Do they continue to increase the traffic management for new people on lucrative handset contracts whilst allowing far less revenue generating customers with SIM only contracts to consume unlimited amounts of data by tethering often using mobile as a fixed line alternative for an indefinite period?

Roll-Out 4G to be consumed for the least return? Seriously?

There had to be a point where reality bites and the loss of the heaviest consumers in the short term looks more than sensible considering the revenue potential from continuing sales of high end handsets combined with realistic levels of data consumption to average users.

Not good news for some but the consolation is that it was good whilst it lasted and that was when 3 had bucket loads of capacity and just about any revenue was good regardless of how much was consumed. Times have changed and 3 have been sliding down the performance rankings in the most significant National surveys of providers this year.

Just to be clear, if I'm on a 24month one plan contract(which I've been on for 3-4 years now), if I don't except an upgrade phone I won't/can't be moved off it AND the terms/conditions(I.e unlimited tethering) will have to remain as it was oriingally when I signed up 4 years ago?

All networks get high utilisation in some places at some times, nobody has 'reached capacity' You're making it up again, just like earlier when you made it sound like the end of the world was happening.

You've also made a lot of unsubstantiated and sweeping claims with regard to capacity. If you take a look at Root Metrics you'll see Three performing favourably in a lot of places, often being the most reliable network, or in the top 50%, rather than the lower 50% in most areas.

Allowance is not the same as consumption, average use per One Plan user was 2GB I seem to remember. Traffic sense ring-fenced tethering customers in capacity restricted areas anyway, and will continue to for those customers that will have rolling contracts.

You don't half exaggerate and sensationalise.

Yes, that's the industry norm and hasn't been deviated from by any network yet.

As long as you don't upgrade or change price plan you remain as you were.

Let's see some links to show this isn't just drivel thought up by someone with absolutely no clue.

Again, I ask, wavejock, what is your experience with regards to the telecoms industry? What networks or retailers have you worked for, and in what capacity?

Is there any evidence that Three has a major problem with users tethering and replacing their home broadband connection?

Of course Three is right to be mindful of future problems, but I am not aware that all of the issues today are down to people who have hooked up their mobiles via USB (or as a portable hotspot) to their computer, or bought a router with USB port to share around the home.

No doubt some people are doing it, but how many? Probably very few. I bet very few even know how to do the latter (which would be the only proper way to do it if you wanted to connect your computer, Smart TVs, set top boxes, consoles etc).

I only found this thread just now. I thought it had already been discussed elsewhere and explained, but clearly that wasn't enough and our resident anti-Three member decided to create a new thread to spread such misinformation.

Yes, I expect tethering to end on NEW SIM-only plans, but for nothing to change for existing users. I can't see why Three will feel the need.

If Three really had massive congestion problems, it would be axing AYCE data completely, not just stopping tethering.