Thank goodness I ordered the One Plan last night!

The problem with units is that there is no definition of what a unit is, except that made up by three. And it wouldnt take much to change the goalposts should Three wish to do so
so 1 Unit could be 1Mb or it could be 0.5mb

I don't really get the units at all. Why does anyone need to know about them? It's not like the old T-Mobile Flex tariffs where using one of something took up one of something else, so what's the relevance?

As said, it could be to allow Three to change what a unit is later on - although that would become even more confusing. Rather like when supermarkets keep changing the value/cost of one loyalty point. A total nightmare and also rather pointless as it just generates bad will.

It's so confusing this morning I called Three (333) CS and they was unaware of the terms change.

They implied that the data was unlimited well to (1000GB) although I directed them to the website got placed on hold and they confirmed that for new customers on any sim only plan with AYCE there's a 25GB limit.


'If you have all-you-can-eat data units as part of your package or with an Add-on, there are no hidden “fair use policies”. The number of data units set out in this guide of 25,000 are the number of data units that you can convert into 25 GB for use in the UK or a Feel At Home destination each month. For other international data roaming costs – please visit the roaming section of our website or go to page 17 in this Price Guide.'

As a previous member posted - That's confusing as hell!


I'm so glad I got The One Plan sim only on the 11th ;-

http://i.imgur.com/AqElNGB.png

Three will have a hard time getting me to move from this tariff
Last edited by Jack_Wilson2 : 15-07-2014 at 18:44

Marketing. 25,000 units sounds better than 25gb. To a lot of consumers getting 25,000 of something is more attractive than getting 25 of something else, even if the conversion shows the two things are exactly the same.

Regardless if it's 'Units' to make it entice users it's hardly 'All-you-can-eat' is it

It's no more different than saying Unlimited but then having a small print saying 'limited to 1kb/s and 1MB usage per month'
Last edited by Jack_Wilson2 : 15-07-2014 at 19:01

Agree 100%, however its no different to what the other networks have been doing for years and I don't see how these changes will be treated any differently.

Three have been offering AYCE Data with Unlimited Tethering for some time now, and no other network has come close to giving them any competition by introducing a similar offering, at least not without blocking tethering, or having some kind of hidden fair use policy. They (3) probably feel that they can now comfortably reduce their AYCE Unlimited (1000gb) data to a still reasonably generous limit of 25GB / Month and still keep a competitive edge over the other networks.

After all, even after these changes, where else can you get 25GB Data with 4GB Tethering at the new prices?, yes its a big U-Turn on what originally made them popular but as far as I can see, there is little, if anything elsewhere to challenge them. If there was, I think it would have been mentioned by now .

Of course its possible that some other network has been waiting in the wings for Three to change tactics, and now they will now launch their own unlimited product, or one which offers more Data than the new Tariffs from '3' but I think the chances of that are very slim.

Have i misread something or are people saying that AYCE data is going down to 25GB? If that's the case then i may leave them.

Im all for some sort of upper limit like 25gb if it means usable video like iplayer or youtube after 6pm. Most evenings i cant even stream and just about to browse pages as the network is so overloaded.

Those conplaining that 1000gb upper limit is bot enough, go do your torrent downloading elsewhere and pay for landline broadband you cheapskates. It's people like that who spoil it for the rest of us which really annoy me

The difference is Ofcom stopped mobile network operators from using the term 'Unlimited' when tariffs wasn't actually unlimited unless it was made perfectly clear I believe to this day mobile providers can not use the word 'Unlimited' if it's not. As it's 'All-you-can-eat' it's not a 'Unlimited' phase. If you have a Chinese restaurant and you're offering 'All-you-can-eat' you're not going to let your customers 'Eat you out of house and home' are you?

Three have been offering unlimited data for some time. I remember when AYCE was limited to 80GB and wasn't '1000GB' on previous tariffs before '15th July'. This was a couple of years ago like when they first introduced 'AYCE' and realised the cap wasn't enough to stop users from going over it. I agree no-other providers come close without charging insane prices look how much EE charge for '50GB' it's crazy! Absolutely crazy! I still believe it's a good deal, but I am glad I got The One Plan for good on the 11th of June 2014. I'm glad the new cap doesn't effect me and i'll most probably stay on this plan for years to come.

What makes you think everyone who uses mobile broadband in place of ADSL is a heavy user or wants more than 1000gb a month?. Did you do a national survey?

What tariff and on what provider would you take instead?

Nothings changing for existing customers.

We are complaining about Three AYCE been limited to 25GB which is not a AYCE service.

It doesn't make you a cheapskate to use the services you're entitled to use.

I would have absolutely no problem with the service being 25GB with 4GB tethering - I'd be very happy to "downgrade" to that when my contract is up.

But the way that this is being marketed is just terrible. I don't see how they can possibly use the term "All You Can Eat" anymore after making such a fuss about it in the past.

I really don't get how Three manages to have such unclear communication. Virtually everything they say these days is needlessly unclear.

Nope you just havent read enough of the thread...................... existing customers are not affected, only new ones from today.

Opps beat me to it, dont you feel like a parrot sometimes?

And it's all in the name of being open, honest and transparent to the customer.

Sometimes just being simple is enough.

I don't see the changes today as a U-turn, but simply coming to realise that the previous deals were just too damn good (I've said this for ages, and people I know high up within Three have known and said this for ages too).

Ultimately, Three was the small player that needed to shake things up. And the rest of the competition just looked down and laughed at how Three was acting like a mug, giving everything for free and never looking like it would be able to make money.

And make money is something Three needs to do, given it's now building a 4G network.

So, clearly last year, Three realised it had to still try and compete (with things like Feel at Home, free calls to 0800 and AYCE data on the handset) but also stop giving away too much. Unlimited tethering once people were getting DC-HSDPA speeds was bad enough, for 4G it's potentially going to be a big problem one day (I don't think it's a big problem right now).

Three is simply doing what any good business should do and pre-empting any future problems, and also making sure that it doesn't give away too much. As long as it can still offer a tariff with AYCE data, a generous tethering amount (more than many tariffs offer as standard on other networks for anything close to the same amount of money) then it will still be the best value.

Three is ahead on 3G coverage, but behind on 4G and with no 2G fallback, so there are still other considerations, but if you have 3G or 4G then I think Three still has an unbeatable offering.

EE has brought down its 4G charges, or increased allowances, so we have to assume that Three has played a part in improving what the competition is offering too - so even if you don't sign with Three, simply having Three in the market is doing good for the consumer overall.

Yikes...... the details in the new 3 SIM Price Guide are unexpected. (Use of units is deliberately and unnecessarily confusing, why not just say 25GB per month?)

All You Can Eat on SIM Only contracts now actually means a cap of 25GB with a 4GB tethering allowance?

I think 3 may have some issues with the description of that plan given that it is now far from all you can eat and has a hard limit that quite a few might actually reach. The average customer should not be affected but 3 have not been attracting average data users with SIM Only plans previously though.

So far more restrictive than just a tethering cap now perhaps to address the issue of congestion that has been blighting many in built up areas where additional capacity is not a proposition. This also sends a clear message to those considering using mobile data as a fixed line alternative which is no bad thing.

I know a few folks who work for networks that compete with 3 and they have always said that the 'all you can eat' proposition was not only unsustainable but damaging as increased congestion ultimately affects the data performance for average users who buy a smartphone to communicate on the move. Looks like they were right as the new limits whilst still a great deal for the average customer are very different from their predecessors.

Hey look.

It's wavejock jumping to conclusions again. That's new

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

"Your data units can be converted into megabytes (MB) of data. One data unit is equivalent to 1 MB but 1 GB of data is comprised of 1,000 units. 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."

25,000MB is actually less than 25GB (not much less though).

How can something that has a hard limit of 25GB be described as 'All you can eat'? (Additional data, including tethering, can be bought as a personal hotspot add on of 1 GB packages for an extra £5 each after the 25GB limit is reached).

Similarly how can 3000 minutes be 'all you can eat' or 5000 SMS?

Looks like 3's marketing dept are trying to have their cake and eat it!

As long as the cakes not too big, how many units are in a victoria cream sponge?
Could they be swapped for data units, or are they all units of different things?
What happens if you want a bigger slice of cake? or maybe another type of cake? chocolate sponge?

The only way units would make sense would be if they were interchangeable with other things such as voice/data/sms/mms etc etc
As it is this units business is a complete mess, three need to cut the crap and just state things as they are, All you can eat, unlimited e3tc etc are and should be sold as exactly that 25GB is 25GB, 25,000mb is what it is as well. With smartphones able to track data usage most people with smart phones should be able to track how many Gee-Bees or Em Bees they use even if they dont know what they are

Indeed, the 'all you can eat' description is now very misleading. Why on earth have they chosen to have 500MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB plans and named the 25GB one 'all you can eat'? Are they hoping there will be an inheritance factor from the recently discontinued AYCE 1000GB SIM plans?

I don't think it will be take long before 3 are forced to justify 'all you can eat' with the ASA or other consumer organisations when applied to the amended 'unit' based SIM Only price plans.

Any reason you haven't bothered to read what those with at least some knowledge of the industry have written? Or do you think your own (slightly ignorant) rambling if repeated often enough will eventually become true?

From earlier on (yesterday):