Originally Posted by Chris1973:
“I think most accept that unlimited tethering isn't coming back, what most are wanting now is something a bit more generous than the existing allowance.
EE offers a 50GB monthly allowance shared between handset and tethering albeit at a high price. Currently Three doesn't offer anything approaching this usage beyond handset data, at any price.
Even the goalposts have moved in relation to the 15GB Mobile Data package from '3' which now only seems to be available when taken with a dongle and a minimum 24 month contract.”
Three were meant to introduce more generous Mobile Broadband tariffs earlier this year but they delayed it to summer, then to Q4 and now it probably won't be till the new year.
And Three haven't changed the goalposts, 15GB was always on a 24 month contract with a dongle/Mi-Fi. It's never been on a 1 month/12 month contract. Maybe you're thinking of the 10GB plan?
The 2GB/4GB tethering allowance from Three is the worst idea ever and I maintain that whoever introduced that should be fired. Especially as you don't have the option to increase it by much if anything at all.
Three have an opportunity to get customers to pay for additional tetherable data but they're capping it at a low rate that their competitors easily exceed now.
Originally Posted by Chris1973:
“Sure, unlimited tethering wasn't profitable at £15 - £18 a month on SIMO, but that has now been addressed by removing it and imposing the 4GB limit, so why are they also hiking the price for *some* existing customers.”
Who's to say it wasn't profitable, Three in the grand scheme of things have been growing their profit YOY. There are a number of financial reasons and also data related reasons as to why Three are doing this.
One reason is that Three can save a hell of a lot of money by simplifying their plans, also they can increase revenue without increasing customers. It's a win for Three. Three's customer growth isn't at the rate Three want so charging some customers more or the same for less is going to benefit Three. They've already worked out that they'll profit of this move.