Have you considered a job with the daily mail?

Sounds like he's the editor!

Just a quick question: I hear there's a deal going around where if you threaten to leave they'll do the One Plan for £15 a month.

If I go for this offer, will it effect my unlimited tethering?

I imagine you've already missed the boat there - by all accounts the new SIM plans are due to launch today so the one plan will likely no longer be available anymore to switch to. Probably best just to wait and see what the new plans are - maybe they will suit you better anyway? Doesn't look like they have been changed on the three website yet - guess they will appear in the morning or later in the day.

Actually just seen the new plans are on the website but currently only in the price guide section. The new "one plan equivalent" (AYCE calls/texts/data with a 4GB hotspot limit) is £25 for 12 month minimum term, or £28 for rolling one month. Hope they consider discounting those! Makes my £15/month one plan look better value than ever!

As long as the order is placed on the website it should still be honoured

Three's new and at first glance unneccessarily complicated SIM-only plans have arrived - the new SIM-only price guide explains all (or confuses all).

There's a new concept of voice, text and data 'units' - quite why I'm not sure.

The concept of all-you-can-eat voice and text introduced - and all-you-can-eat data remains an option - however there's an upper limit to what you're allowed to eat, which is 25GB for data, 3000 mins for voice and 5000 text messages.

Voice calls now have a 'minimum charge' (as it were) of 1 minute (aka 1 voice unit), before 'per-second billing applies' to reduce the inclusive allowance.

If you've a plan with AYCE data, then (as has been predicted) up to 4GB can be used (of the 25GB total) as a personal hotspot allowance each month. And no more One Plan, of course.

Looks a bit like they got someone from EE in to help design the tariff structure and muddy the waters!

Interesting.

That's a change.

Three haven't made it clear if the 25,000 units is a guide (like it has been since 2010 to work out a unit cost) or a fair use policy. Three have made a point of stressing that ayce means unlimited with no fair use policy and they've always used 3,000 mins, 5,000 texts and 25GB of data as a guide to work out unit costs. But in this guide it almost looks like a fair use policy. Can someone post the equivalent pay monthly price plan guide so I can compare.

Edit: just had a quick read and it seems it was just a guide to work out unit cost. So ayce data is still unlimited (up to 1000gb) but three explicitly state that there is a fair use of 5,000 texts and then are ambiguous about ayce mins.

Really confusing. Going to see if I can get it clarified.

This is what the price guide says dated 01/07/14


But the new SIM Only price guide is very vague and markedly different so I don't know if it's still just a unit for the purpose of calculating a unit cost or if it's now actually a fair use policy. Like I said, The SIMO guide explicitly states AYCE as being a unit, the pay monthly handset price plans does not.

All that is known is that there is a 5,000 texts fair use on AYCE texts for the SIMO plans but no fair use for the contract handset plans.

The 25,000 unit thing is when in a Feel at Home location

The sim price guide seems to imply its both UK and abroad-

"For the purposes of All-You-Can-Eat data, your plan is comprised of a total of 25,000 data units which can be converted into megabytes of data use, either within the UK or when abroad in a Feel At Home destination."

Yet in the same document they also quote


So one part of the document states that AYCE Data will now only 'convert' to mean 25GB a month, yet directly above that, on the exactly same document they say that have set the usage cap at 1000gb, the same as it was previously.

I don't think Three know the answer to this question either......

However also to note...


So does this mean that if AYCE data was now effectively limited to 25GB / Month, that you can also use upto this 25GB for Tethering?, not a limit of 4GB as was previously thought

I think that Three have paid Confused.com to write their new price guide.

Certainly reads as a 25gb limit on the all you can eat data plans to me.

The new price guide for Sim only contracts from 15th july says ;-

http://www.three.co.uk/_standalone/L...=1220492755541

Clearly states ;-

* All-You-Can-Eat Data units are 25,000 data units while All-You-Can-Eat voice units are 3,000 units and All-You-Can-Eat text units
are 5,000 text units per month.

The new AYCE limit is 25GB

PAYG tariffs are not effected yet (No doubt they will create a new PAYG tariff using the (free 0800) feature to get customers to switch to a new '25GB' capped PAYG tariff but currently PAYG is still at 1000GB limit.

This is just a mess. It makes no sense to "convert" something into units when there's always a 1:1 mapping.

The confusion is this 3,000, 5,000 and 25,000 was previously attached to the AYCE moniker to work out a unit cost. This applies to the contract handset plans where it states that it's just a number to work out a unit cost and not a fair use policy as AYCE still means ayce.

Where as in the SIM Only plans it doesn't mention a unit cost and just says its now made up of 3000 units. So either the wording is very confusing and it's still unlimited. Or there actually is a hard limit of units on AYCE.

Very confusing.

But like I said, I'll try and clarify it.

Just had it confirmed by Three, AYCE is still AYCE with the 1000GB soft cap it always was, the 25GB part is talking about Feel at Home

This has been confirmed so everyone can feel happier

I don't know buddy.

That really sounds like a generic answer to me.

The new SIMO T&C are markedly different from the one for contract handset plans. Either someone can't write in english or the T&C for SIMO have changed.

Whilst the Contract handset tariffs say 25GB in feel at home, the SIM Only guide says 25GB in the UK (as well as abroad).

So that's why I'm unsure. The wording is very different between both files. Another example is that the contract handset plans have truly unlimited texts but the SIM Only plans has a hard cap of 5000 texts. This is explicitly mentioned.

Have a look here-


I'm going to try and find out for sure.

For clarity do these new AYCE tether caps apply to existing The One Plan subscribers for just the new 24 month phone and Sim only plans launched yesterday ?

Does anything else change for existing The One Plan Sim Only users ?

No. Existing customers stay on the same plan and T&C they're on already.

So if you're on the one plan then it's still unlimited data and tethering etc...

Do you have it in writing?

If so, can you scan it and put it online so we can see it please (obviously blanking out any personal information)?

Cheers.

Good news cheers !

£15 per month here, can't see me ever moving off of that!

Hopefully, one of these years I'll get 4G in my area...

It is indeed, all this talk of "units" and some associated ambiguity is what's setting everyone off.

Can't say I'm surprised though. Quoted verbatim from page 22 of the Three SIM Price Guide:


Clear as mud?

But once again, Three has managed to confuse people. This keeps happening! How many tariff changes do they need to do in order to get everything right first time?!

It might be right in some places, and explained in the price guide or other T&Cs but it's vital to also make it clear in the basic, simplified, text most people will read. Otherwise it just gives rise to confusion and misleading interpretations and is ideal for the usual trolls.