Good to know.

Now, where's wavejock!?

Right, but clearly this update/glitch was in reference to new SIM only plans that will have a cap on tethering. If these SIM only plans are anything like the new contract plans then logically speaking we will get an unlimited minutes SIM only plan. Hence why the glitch to the description said 2GB cap and no 3-3 calls. Because you wouldn't need them on an unlimited minutes plan.

3 to 3 minutes do appear to have vanished on SIM Only, but the 2000 any network minutes limit is still there:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y68...ps21059258.jpg

Looks like another glitch.
The Three website is becoming like the EE website haha.

Here is the price guide which shows 5000 3-3 mins included.

http://www.three.co.uk/ThreePortal/S...&ssbinary=true

Scared us all there for a day or so, don't do that again Three! Very coincidental that the second wavejockglw posted about the change, Three put that up on their website. I can only assume someone at Three reads the forums and has a sense of humour.

If you haven't got the one plan yet I suggest getting it ASAP.

A glitch like that doesn't just happen without reason. I remember when T-Mobile did a similar thing and it meant new price plans.

I agree...... perhaps some pre-live webpage publishing and the 'live' date probably makes sense at the start of a month. I expect the One Plan name will disappear from SIM only to differentiate the new offer from the previous one. The new SIM Only plans will likely mirror the handset offerings with the 2GB tethering allowance, unlimited handset data, unlimited minutes and SMS, highly competitive IMO.

Will this change when it arrives make me more or less likely to consider 3 as a service provider.......???? Definitely more likely as their bandwidth won't be getting congested with the same amount of data by those using the service as a fixed line alternative.

Only time I have known of a company changing T&C's for existing customers was when I was with Fast4 and they introduced a 15GB cap and moved existing customers to the new contract with two days notice. I suspect such a change was illegal then and still is now:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...8&postcount=29

Yeah, prices have gone up on all networks. At least you know what the price is for the minimum contract term on Three.

Thanks

This is why I have no faith in Three's support agents - they are literally looking at the Three website.

Well the person who pointed it out probably said it was on the website. They are probably thinking there has been a change. Sometimes things happen and mix up's happen. The support people aren't as bad as you make out.

Agreed, they've been great with me whenever I've had to deal with them.

The one thing that does get me though is this. All customers who already have the One Plan and tether like mad are still able to do so, surely this change won't make things better, but just stops them getting worse in terms of congestion etc.

As I understand it they only people they affect in congested areas is other tetherers though, due to Traffic Sense ring fencing tethering resource.

Doubtfull that tethering customers only affect others tethering. Can some evidence to support this be posted?

Only when you start posting evidence for all your posts.

You ignored over 4 members on this thread and other threads who asked you for evidence. No doubt you'll say thine wonk is wrong because he never posted evidence. But the fact is you never post evidence when asked by others too, that's quite hypocritical don't you think.

He did indeed ignore people who asked for information to back up some of his claims. I won't play those games. Wavejock just see the Traffic Shaping Key Facts document, where it explains that Three allocates a fixed amount of network resource to P2P and to tethering users.

http://support.three.co.uk/mobiledoc...s_document.pdf

That's the whole point of Trafficsense, without it everyone would share available resource. Trafficsense's whole purpose is to allocate disproportionate amounts to certain activities and to ring-fence them into 'pools' to protect other users and optimise traffic.

The fact is that tethering affects everyone else on the network. Whilst it can be identified and prevented it is simply data and is carried on the same frequency range as all other non-tethering traffic so it's use can impact on those using handsets to browse etc. AFAIK there is no special dedicated bandwidth for tethering traffic.

The restriction of tethering is primarily about the reduction of congestion and elimination of fixed line type use by a minority who through no fault of their own have created a situation where intrusive traffic management has to be used to ensure a reasonable quality of service for average users. Once tethering has been limited I would expect to see less emphasis on TrafficSense resulting in a better user experience for smartphone customers, especially in built up areas.

Yes, he's completely ignored information again you were right Jabbamk1. I would suggest we don't bother replying any longer if he's going to selectively ignore posts and just keep posting inaccurate information, and also selectively ignore requests for citation from multiple other members on his wild claims. I would recommend that people report this kind of behaviour. Anyone reading the last few posts can see it is deliberate.

If they can create generous mobile broadband options (say 20GB a month for £20 a month) then I wouldn't mind giving up unlimited tethering.

quite frustrating that I got my 24-month handset deal just before Three slashed the SIMO price of One Plan from £25/month to £15/month. Looks like my only option to keep unlimited tethering now will be to sit on my (expensive sans new handset) £26/month tariff.

You'd be paying £6 per month over the cost of the current SIM Only One Plan (currently with unlimited tethering) once the contract runs out.

As you say, it's irratating when others (like me ) are paying £15 per month inc unlimited tethering).

I'm presuming you've got a fair wait to go until the end of your 24 month contract?

Also, who knows what options will be on the table when your contract expires (12/18 months?)?

It's the main reason I now but my handset outright and go SIM Only. A lot can change in 2 years and I hate being tied in to any supplier for that amount of time.

I appreciate that not everyone can just drop several hundred £s on a phone, but IMO it's well worth it if you can (I know folks that have gotten 0% interest credit cards to buy handsets and just paid them off over 12 months).

£20 for 20GB sounds a good deal but it does not leave much margin for the operator who is paying a ball park figure of about €1 per GB to deliver data over 3/4G networks. 3 have around 8 million active customers which is about 1/3rd of those on the big networks (EE, O2 and Vodafone) so for a long time they have had the ability to offer unlimited data as they have had lots of capacity to spare. After the network has been built and is running the costs are pretty much fixed and to make a return networks need to get as many customers using them as possible within their capacity limit. Average use on 3 is around 2GB per month on the One Plan it has been stated and that is well within the 5GB per month average use that 3/4G networks can deliver but the problem that arises is that in some areas there are significant numbers who have bought a mobile phone contract or SIM and are using it as their primary broadband facility. 3 have had to introduce data traffic management to address this issue to make sure those joining the network can get a usable service wherever they go with their smartphones. There are only two options as 3 gains new customers, they can set tariffs that share the capacity they have evenly or they can buy more capacity. The latter is an option but it's restricted as spectrum for mobile telecoms is scarce and highly sought after when it is auctioned by the government.

Unlimited tethering on handset contracts and SIM Only have made the top end Mobile Broadband offerings utterly pointless on 3. All of 3's Mobile Broadband offerings have specific data limits as do all other networks, price regulates demand so easy to control! 3 do a dongle deal with 15GB of data for £19.99 a month so not far from the target price mentioned above. Only problem with that is a SIM Only One Plan offer with U/L tethering can be bought for 1p per month more and it has 5000 voice minutes and texts as well!

For the reasons listed above I would recommend taking the advice of others and snapping up the One Plan SIM Only deal whilst it still exists as there is unlikely to be anything similar on the market again in the near future.

Where does your information come from about how much 1Gb costs a network operator to deliver? Does it vary that much between operators?

He said ball park figure. In other words, meaningless. The cost will vary so much that it is impossible to put a cost to it unless you know only what the operator will know.

If you need to massively expand your network infrastructure to cope with increased usage, that adds to the cost. If you can just muster along without doing that, you can keep costs down but provide a crap service. Just as some networks did for so long by not investing in 3G.

Unless Three cares to share this commercially sensitive information, it's best not to take notice of this figure.

Probably not that much as the equipment and sites etc are all common costs.

€1 per GB is the lowest cost I have seen in any industry documents with €2-3 per GB more common figures.

Happy to share my source in response to the polite request above and per advice 'ignore' those who are hostile in threads.

Those costs come from a respected network equipment maker (Nokia Siemens Networks) who provide infrastructure to many mobile networks worldwide. Nokia Siemens are telecoms experts who have defined and deployed mobile technology standards for many years so their white papers are respected and are reference materials for not only industry but government and international organisations. The information in the one below was published in 2010 before the rollout of 4G and does not take account of networks sharing costs but it provides some interesting statistics about the capacity and costs of the technology. Well worth reading if you are interested in learning more. White Papers are professional documents written by experts and are highly valued by academics to increase understanding. They are often referenced in academic assignments and when relevant are highly rated forms of factual corroboration.

The Nokia Siemens Networks White Paper "Mobile Broadband with HSPA and LTE - capacity and cost aspects' is available as a PDF download from a link on the following webpage:

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/e...d-cost-aspects

More information about 'White Papers' can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper

I bought my current handset outright after my contract handset was stolen, another benefit is that it is not locked or carrier-branded which helps with getting software updates.

At the time One Plan SIMO was £25/month (and no idea it would go down) and this contract was £26/month for 24 months with an HTC 8X. I was going to get the SIMO until I saw that deal which, at the time, meant I would be effectively paying £24 only for a handset that was otherwise costing £400 at the time so a great deal.

@wavejock - to clarify, if they had cheaper mobile broadband options, I would scrap my Three phone entirely (at contract end) and rely on my work phone tariff (£8 for 4GB of tetherable 4G data on either vodafone or EE plus cheap rates for calls/texts of which I am a low user).