It's a phased withdrawal of the one plan (of all old plans according to some), so it's actually still early in the process. Only the first batch of customers has been contacted so far.

You can check the new plans at http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones

Having looked at that I guess i'm on well dunno (I do know it's all you can eat everything but it's for 24 months) signed up august. I hazard a guess i'm on the £25 plan or something god knows. I'll keep watching see if anything happens I mean as I said tethering is no biggie for me (wouldn't even know how to tether to be fair)

There is no need for 3 to hack the maximum data limit to 2 to 3GB. That would just be crazy from 3

Who on earth would seriously want to be restricted to check a few e-mails periodically or catch up with the travel news going to and from work and read the latest news headlines now and again by virtue of 3 hacking the data limit down to a puny low single GB's data per month on their sim card.

Well if 3 do that on PAYG I will just have to take the multisim approach with 3 sims because to go suddenly from paying £15 per month to £70 per month for just using 10GB of data would really hit PAYG customers very hard.

I haven't seen anyone suggest they would, it's pointless speculating on what the figures might be or might not be. I was posting to correct the average data usage, not suggesting that any allowance would include that amount.

2 to 3 gig would probably last me 6 months. Not everyone uses data like you assume. Most people I know use very little of their data plan using their wireless in the home or hotels and restaurants etc.

It depends on your lifestyle I suppose but most adults with a family tend to be home most evenings or in the office during the day.

To all those that use around 10GB of data and are panicking about £70 bills...

Three have offered broadband SIMs with 15GB of tethering for some years now. I pay £11 per month for mine. There is a lot of needless complaining.

Those who use more can switch to EE or wait for the new BB tariffs from three.

You will have to pay more, but that is life. You can have 1TB of data on EE, you just have to pay for it!

Looking forward to all the whiners moving to their ee capped data packages, sounds like it could be the Three equivalent of "Double Speed" with a huge increase in capacity for the normal users!

I've moved from 3 to EE, but I've gained 4G, which was always "coming soon" with 3.

I've gone from unlimited data & unlimited tethering to tariff with a 10 gig allowance.

Whilst it was nice having unlimited in both areas, I looked into my usage and realised I only use a few gig per month (max was 6 gig 1 month this year), so 10 gig will be more than enough.

The big plus for me is EE's network, I had no real complaints with 3's 3G and had been with them for a few years now, but having used EE's 4G where I live/travel (which of course is always subjective), it was a real game changer for me and made my decision easy.

I use Spotify Premium, so all off my music is offline and doesn't use my data allowance.

Also, if I listen to the radio on my phone where I walk the dog (which I do daily!), I used to lose voice and data reception at various spots around the route (which is really irritating), but I don't with EE and that makes a big difference.

How are you only paying £11 per month for a 15GB broadband sim?

Possibly some kind of discount. I pay just £9 for 15GB EE 4G

What did you do to be eligible for such a big discount?

I had EE data sim for tablet at £8 for 5Gb but discount only lasts 12m, so I cancelled and move to PAYG as I tether my phone normally. Watch the end of discount as they don't tell you unless you call up.

Well back in May or so (Maybe Feb) I wanted to get my hands in a mifi. Ee had a promotion on 24.99 for the device on a £16 3GB plan. 30 day rolling.I signed up with the intention of leaving straight away as to get the device for quite a cheap price.
I rang up and cancelled just hours after signing the contract in store.
I also had the T-Mobile sim only contract which was featured in hot uk deals last year. As I wasn't using it I too wanted to cancel that. I was however told that an etf would apply. I enquired as to whether my discount could be carried over to ee. I got through to the real retentions and was advised it would be best to just let the contract run out. I accepted there was no other alternative as they said they just couldn't cancel it without me incurring charges. He then asked me if I was interested in any ee additional lines at a discount. He offered me the at the time the £16 for 3gb plan with £11 discount to make it £5. I gladly accepted. All was well and discount was applied. Then come June the new price plans came into effect at ee. Iirc I heard about it from a post by Jabba on here (yes I have been following this thread from the start! Sorry for being so quite!) I saw the £20 for 15GB and asked to change tariffs by going through to retentions. They allowed me to keep the £11 discount without too much arguing. Leaving me where I am today.
Sorry for extremely long post but it does explain the situation.

Also Jabba do you know anything in regards to the discounts on the AYCE min/txt/net that I and others have received. I did ring up without ever receiving the text in fear of the discount being pulled. I got the plan for £15. Bill confirms too. Can you shed any light as to why it appears to have stopped being offered? Iirc I heard that customers were to pay full price

This will answer your question as to why Three are no longer doing loyalty discounts anymore.

Official Three spokesman:

http://i.minus.com/ibcwEzn2XHddRy.gif

I used to get 25% off from Three on their discount scheme to journalists and friends/family. That ended a while ago, and was never available if you got an iPhone at all.

Three are no longer aiming to be a value for money network. The problem is people might go else where. Now Three can look at it as a way of getting rid of low value customers and those pesky bandwidth hogs. If you are paying a premium price you might as well go to EE which some forum member have said they will do. Whilst this forum is no way representative of the general public it certainly shows that people will shop around. I do feel that Three customers are more likely to look else where if they no longer feel they are getting good value.

Lets look at what's happened in the market:-

giffgaff stamped down heavy on it's unlimited deal moving it to 10-15GB and then you got banned from buying more unlimited data, at the same time the price has gone up from £10, then to £12, then to £18 and from March £20. All the Giffgaff threads were saying "I'm going to Three, blah blah".

Three need double the amount of capacity next year, and with the expectation that speeds will increase through expanded 4G and that was never going to happen with users using 100-300GB a month for £15 on a discount deal and paying £12. As stated on O2 or Vodafone that would be making tens of thousands of pounds of annual revenue coming in from 150+ customers for the same usage as the single heavy user like Jack using 300GB a month tethering on Three.

Either HWL will buy up another network over the next few months (discussions are taking place) and therefore they are aligning Three with typical market offerings, but keeping on the budget / lower end, or they are going to have to invest £1BN in the existing network to rollout enough capacity and comparable performance to stay in competition.

So either of the above things need to happen, but it is no longer sustainable for them to keep bringing in low revenue, doing cut price deals and to put the level of investment needed into the network.

Whilst its no secret Hutchison is on the prowl for another operator in this country, their likeliest prospect is O2, I don't think there is a cat in hells change of them capturing EE, that would cause too many competition concerns in respect of frequency range and market share. I don't think Three or its parent company will be allowed to gobble another provider in the UK market, I think consensus is that it works effectively with 4 providers. I should think it reluctant the government would allow any further diluting of the market plurally.

Three are still seen as the network with the three things:
Crap signal
Crap customer support
Crap network

things may be improving form years back ( when three phones were sold in superdrug next to the paracetamol )

As long as the perceptions remain charging a premium or full market price for what is perceived a s a budget brand is a not going to work, customer will be happy to accept a few rough edges, such as a crap customer support desk based in a foreign call centre together with poor reception indoors ( particularly in older think walled buildings ) as long as the price is right.

As for the sudden withdraw of legacy plans such as the one plan, Three would have been better off weaning the heavy users off the plan by gradually lowering the tethering limits etc to the current ones

Around here the majority of people who have Three on a phone are those who want a cheap vendor with reasonable reliability. (GiffGaff is potentially cheaper but round here the O2 network is awful and voice quality always sounds muffled).

In your opinion. I will never defend three for this latest tactic. I actually think its two faced and very anti consumer. I couldn't care less if they need more cash for investment. It's their fault for introducing something they couldn't support. They are within their right to terminate it but that doesn't make it an acceptable business practice. It's simply bad management and they've made a radical decision at the 11th hour.

I happen to agree with you about the premium charge for a budget network. Three are still a no frills network. There are downsides and limitations to three but one thing is they certainly have a good if not the best 3G network and apart from pockets of congestion very decent speeds.

I have no doubt I'll be back to Three in 12 months or so. My move is more of a protest vote than anything else.

To be fair, loads of people do think Three are crap because when they launched they were.

Ive been paying £8 for 5gb of data for my ipad since the launch of the first ipad...

Not on double speed 4G I suspect