[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by david16

Indeed if you offer it you can't blame the customer for using it to the maximum possible to their requirements even if it does badly impact on the network for other much lighter data users.

I don't see the heavy data and tethering use as deliberate abuse of the network.

Whilst to some degree you make a fair point, I don't think Three ever intended it to be used in such a way as some have done. Maybe Three should have tackled this sooner and put the brakes on. Unlimited Data via handset is to some degree sustainable, the tethering wasn't and they are paying the price for it. Whether folk like it or not they are doing the right thing in my eyes, I tethered no more than 2-5GB a month so their new one plan would have done me nicely. At least Three is not forcing those currently in contract over to the new tariffs, in that respect they are honouring their original commitments. Those out of contract sadly they are being forced to move, they are doing it the right way by giving people sufficient notice. It might be shit but sooner or later Three had to grow up, admittedly it is doing this in a cack handed manner what with their 4G rollout strategy and this recently assault to those on the One Plan.

[david16]

Delete

[MTUK1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by david16

Unlimited data and unlimited tethering with no restrictions is what 3 offered.

3 have suddenly now come to realise they made a big mistake offering the unlimited tethering among the AYCE sim only plan.

As the unlimited tethering unrestricted along with the unlimited data was considerably cheaper and more convenient than signing up to a fixed line wifi broadband inevitably people were attracted to 3's offering. Of course 3's sim only plan may have been the only option that met people's home internet requirements as poor credit rating stops them taking out fixed line broadband altogether.

You're ignoring my point entirely. They never marketed this plan to customers saying unlimited tethering you're welcome to use hundreds of gigs of data every month. So it's really a bit rich of people who were taking the pi$$ to start moaning about it. I repeat it was never a home broadband replacement service.

[Steve™]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTUK1

You're ignoring my point entirely. They never marketed this plan to customers saying unlimited tethering you're welcome to use hundreds of gigs of data every month. So it's really a bit rich of people who were taking the pi$$ to start moaning about it. I repeat it was never a home broadband replacement service.

They never said it wasn't though did they.

They have known for years this is how it is being used. And quite frankly, even if I used it just for watching some BBC iPlayer on my iPad in my lunch hour I would very very quickly use up more than 4Gb a month. As it is, at home and when out and about I use about 50Gb a month. Not hundreds of gigs, but more than 4Gb. All that will happen is that Three will lose me as a customer and I will go to EE and pay for one of their high data packages.

The fact is, Three are withdrawing what I consider to be a key ingredient of their claim "Made for the Internet".

I think Three could have been a little more reasonable and set a limit of say 70Gb and perhaps a Throttle of 10Mbps after 50Gb has been used.

But I think they really should have rewarded customer loyalty and allowed existing customers to continue being able to Tether unlimited and applied the new rules to new customers only.

[binary]

Quote:

Originally Posted by david16

...
As the unlimited tethering unrestricted along with the unlimited data was considerably cheaper and more convenient than signing up to a fixed line wifi broadband inevitably people were attracted to 3's offering. Of course 3's sim only plan may have been the only option that met people's home internet requirements as poor credit rating stops them taking out fixed line broadband altogether.

A poor credit rating might have stopped them taking out a 3 contract too.

[nafanny29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve™

I think Three could have been a little more reasonable and set a limit of say 70Gb and perhaps a Throttle of 10Mbps after 50Gb has been used.

Never get anywhere near 10Mpbs here, even on so called 4g lol

[Daveoc64]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prof-x

I've never heard or experienced this from any service provider

Three has never operated like other companies.

Other companies say and do things that are excessively pro-consumer, yet damage themselves financially.

So-called "Grandfathering" of plans is one of them. It makes no sense for a company to say - "we can't afford to offer this service at this price anymore", yet to continue offering it to existing companies.

[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve™

I think Three could have been a little more reasonable and set a limit of say 70Gb and perhaps a Throttle of 10Mbps after 50Gb has been used.

But I think they really should have rewarded customer loyalty and allowed existing customers to continue being able to Tether unlimited and applied the new rules to new customers only.

Set a limit of 50gb or 60gb, even that isn't sustainable for a package that was priced at £25pm at its peak and £15pm in the recent year. You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think any network can sustain that anount of usage at a small price point. Three is doing what it needs to do, to ensure the stability of its network, I don't agree with the approach but people did take the piss when using that much. Those using it as a landline replacement I frankly have no sympathy for and probably have had their comeuppance. Its no secret mobile infrastructure is incredibly expensive to install and maintain, and I would argue those that ave been using it heavily will be those who are more technically astute than other 3 customers. I think it was mentioned in this thread that the top 10% account for over 2 thirds of the traffic on the network.

Three is not handling this all that well, sadly there is no alternative. The boil of unlimited data/tethering was just going to grow and grow, finally they have the balls to finally lance it and bring every customer to an equal footing. In the long term I also think AYCE data will be at risk, networks need to price data in such a way that its beneficial for both them and the customer. If you look at the big 3 they allow tethering on their price plans, in effect you get to dictate how you allowance is used. Three doesn't seem to be doing that as yet....I suspect once the yearly review happens after MWC in February, this will all change.

[heidtheba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by binary

A poor credit rating might have stopped them taking out a 3 contract too.

Not really.

[maverickjesus]

Some incredible freeloaders coming out of the woodwork here, as per usual. Reminds me of every other time a network tries to do something good for the market, you get absolute wasters dropping 1TB+ 'watching neflix' or 'testing linux distros' or whatever shite they can come up with. In the end everyone pays the price, yet they still have the gall to moan about it to all and sundry.

[Richard_T]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maverickjesus

Some incredible freeloaders coming out of the woodwork here, as per usual. Reminds me of every other time a network tries to do something good for the market, you get absolute wasters dropping 1TB+ 'watching neflix' or 'testing linux distros' or whatever shite they can come up with. In the end everyone pays the price, yet they still have the gall to moan about it to all and sundry.

Freeloaders? those who fall into the high or extremely high usage category were only using a service as it was - unlimited

You may say that it was never marketed as such, but when Three themselves said this

Quote:

"We’re calling it All-you-can-eat Data, and it’s not like anything you’ll see from anyone else. Unlike other data plans, there are no restrictions and no crafty ‘fair usage’ policies containing hidden data caps. We’re leaving behind the ‘old mobile’ world of limits and allowances in favour of a new world that gives you the freedom to use your smartphone to do everything it was designed for without the worry of cost.

Our new world has no data restrictions, you can use as much as you want and we’ll never charge you a penny more.

If you’ve been to all-you-can-eat restaurants before, you’ll already be familiar how this works. You pay once, you get as much as you want the first time round, and you can still keep coming back for more. And yes, if you want to use your phone as a dongle (also known as tethering) then you absolutely can.

While it may date back to December 2010 the die was cast and three stuck by it until recently

[jabbamk1]

Anyone remember when Dangetti did that thing with Three where he used as much data as he could to see if the one plan was unlimited? I remember Three told him to do that haha and people thought he was nuts and there was no way he could use 40GB in a month on Three.

http://www.coolsmartphone.com/2011/0...ata-challenge/
http://www.coolsmartphone.com/2011/0...llenge-part-2/

[heidtheba]

The comments are lolz.

[dangetti]

hahahahaha i remember doing that.

Even the stores used to talk about it

Good times

[shaggy_x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooler

It is ridiculous the tethering limit of 4GB. It's only suitable for people for very light use like occasionally reading an email or watching a short video.

Im not even interested in 4G as 3G is already easily fast enough. Bloody 4G.

What planet are you on. 4gb tethering is plenty for the majority and you can read more than an email on that lol.

Personally I'm happy they're putting a limit on tethering. Its those users who hog the network thinking it's a replacement for their home broadband connection.
Good riddance to those users and personally I'll also be looking elsewhere if they raise their prices

[cooler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaggy_x

What planet are you on. 4gb tethering is plenty for the majority and you can read more than an email on that lol.

Personally I'm happy they're putting a limit on tethering. Its those users who hog the network thinking it's a replacement for their home broadband connection.
Good riddance to those users and personally I'll also be looking elsewhere if they raise their prices

Mobile networks should cater to more than just the majority of people. Some people tether more regularly than others, so 4gb doesn't suffice. EE have the right idea by allowing data allowance to be used on either the handset or via tethering.

[Richard_T]

Three would have been better gradually weaning the high users off, and reducing limits bit by bit, first of all stopping users at 100GB, throttling them to death ( data wise ) at a certain point and then just gradually eroding the tethering limits.
Going from unlimited to 4GB is a bit of a steep decline throttling at 10GB, and limiting at 20GB would have been a better move

[Faust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by david16

Indeed if you offer it you can't blame the customer for using it to the maximum possible to their requirements even if it does badly impact on the network for other much lighter data users.

I don't see the heavy data and tethering use as deliberate abuse of the network.

It's somewhat academic as to what you do or don't see it as. What matters is what Three see it as, which is - abuse of their network.

I doubt these people are going to get much sympathy of Mr and Mrs/Miss Fairuser. The gorgers are fast running out of options as the industry as a whole close down these offers. They will have to do what the rest of us do now i.e. subscribe to a proper BB package from one of the providers.

[Faust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooler

Mobile networks should cater to more than just the majority of people. Some people tether more regularly than others, so 4gb doesn't suffice. EE have the right idea by allowing data allowance to be used on either the handset or via tethering.

So you have the solution then - go to EE, simples. No one is forced to stay with Three so I don't see an issue here.

[Richard_T]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust

It's somewhat academic as to what you do or don't see it as. What matters is what Three see it as, which is - abuse of their network.

I doubt these people are going to get much sympathy of Mr and Mrs/Miss Fairuser. The gorgers are fast running out of options as the industry as a whole close down these offers. They will have to do what the rest of us do now i.e. subscribe to a proper BB package from one of the providers.

Although Three did sell it as unlimited use as much as you possibly can tethering

Quote:

If you’ve been to all-you-can-eat restaurants before, you’ll already be familiar how this works. You pay once, you get as much as you want the first time round, and you can still keep coming back for more. And yes, if you want to use your phone as a dongle (also known as tethering) then you absolutely can.

- Three on the One plan unlimited data etc December 2010.

if thats not an invitation to gorge your self silly then i dont know what is.

[Faust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard_T

Although Three did sell it as unlimited use as much as you possibly can tethering

- Three on the One plan unlimited data etc December 2010.

if thats not an invitation to gorge your self silly then i dont know what is.

You can bleat about it until the cows come home but it's not going to change anything. Consider the invitation as withdrawn, you and the others will either have to suck it up or move on.

[japaul]

I think longer term AYCE data will go too. Not because of any concern about it being technically unsustainable but more because at some point it will become a drag on growth. It's fine for now whilst Three is still growing through customer additions which it supports but as Three matures and customer additions slow down how can it grow with unlimited data? The other option would be continuous price increases but that's a tough ask if you keep asking for more money for nothing extra.

[WelshBluebird]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust

It's somewhat academic as to what you do or don't see it as. What matters is what Three see it as, which is - abuse of their network.

I doubt these people are going to get much sympathy of Mr and Mrs/Miss Fairuser. The gorgers are fast running out of options as the industry as a whole close down these offers. They will have to do what the rest of us do now i.e. subscribe to a proper BB package from one of the providers.

So everyone who uses more than 4GB of tethering (which is what the new plans allow) on the one plan is abusing the network? Cos that seems to be what you are suggesting. What about someone who never tethers but uses 100GB plus on their handset? To me that is more "abuse of the network" than someone who uses 10GB on the handset and 5GB tethering, but Three will allow the 100GB handset use but not the lower usage with tethering.

[Silent No More]

Perhaps this is just a preemptive strike, before BT buy 3?

Maybe BT told 3 to take the heat from the people whose contracts will be affected/removed, as they didn't want to have to do it as the new owners?

[Steve™]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

Set a limit of 50gb or 60gb, even that isn't sustainable for a package that was priced at £25pm at its peak and £15pm in the recent year. You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think any network can sustain that anount of usage at a small price point. Three is doing what it needs to do, to ensure the stability of its network, I don't agree with the approach but people did take the piss when using that much. Those using it as a landline replacement I frankly have no sympathy for and probably have had their comeuppance. Its no secret mobile infrastructure is incredibly expensive to install and maintain, and I would argue those that ave been using it heavily will be those who are more technically astute than other 3 customers. I think it was mentioned in this thread that the top 10% account for over 2 thirds of the traffic on the network.

Three is not handling this all that well, sadly there is no alternative. The boil of unlimited data/tethering was just going to grow and grow, finally they have the balls to finally lance it and bring every customer to an equal footing. In the long term I also think AYCE data will be at risk, networks need to price data in such a way that its beneficial for both them and the customer. If you look at the big 3 they allow tethering on their price plans, in effect you get to dictate how you allowance is used. Three doesn't seem to be doing that as yet....I suspect once the yearly review happens after MWC in February, this will all change.

Yes except that those using the large amounts (and I don't count 50Gb as a large amount of data (if I had time to take a lunch break every working day of the month I could probably use 70% of that just watching iPlayer)) are fully aware of the workaround to enable them to continue to use data unlimited and hide the tethering activity, so its not like Three will have done anything except drive away the genuine user and lose a customer to EE. And its not just Three that offer unlimited data, there are others.

I just don't understand how anyone thinks 50Gb a month is large. HD quality on demand will eat through that in no time.