DS Forums

 
 

Three Network Speeds


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 20-01-2015, 20:43
dylanhere
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 5

Considering changing to Three due to their great network speeds and unlimited data plans. I intend to go on pay as you go, however please can someone confirm that the data speeds are the EXACT same on both pay as you go and contract? Thanks.
dylanhere is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 20-01-2015, 21:19
Yossi
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 164
Considering changing to Three due to their great network speeds and unlimited data plans. I intend to go on pay as you go, however please can someone confirm that the data speeds are the EXACT same on both pay as you go and contract? Thanks.
in my experience it's gone downhill in the last 2-3 months. I really don't know why but speeds are pathetic and 4G coverage has actually decreased in the Cambridge area.

I was so very happy with Three before..
Yossi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2015, 22:04
jchamier
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: This forum
Posts: 3,392
Used to be good, but dropped dramatically in Dec and Jan but that could be a fault or an influx of new customers.
jchamier is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2015, 22:04
Aetnla
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: England
Posts: 293
Data on Three pay as you go gets less priority than contract so is usually slower.
Aetnla is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20-01-2015, 23:19
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,993
I intend to go on pay as you go, however please can someone confirm that the data speeds are the EXACT same on both pay as you go and contract? Thanks.
No, I always saw a difference in speeds between my contract sim and PAYG sim.

It's in the networks interest to give priority to its more important customers (those that are giving the network money every month by being contracted) so you can't really blame Three. Also, as others have said, I saw a deteriotion in speeds over the last 3 months of 2014, speeds arent quite as fast anymore.

Still worth it if unlimited handset data is important to you, I suppose.
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 00:22
JFC
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: London
Posts: 538
3G appears to have gone rather slow and laggy recently. 4G however is fast and furious so if you are in a 4G area you will be fine.
JFC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 08:51
bikerlad
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London
Posts: 391
3G appears to have gone rather slow and laggy recently. 4G however is fast and furious so if you are in a 4G area you will be fine.
Not always true. 4G in E14 is terribly slow.
bikerlad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 09:42
secretmsgs
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 100
It depends where you live, tw3 gives approx 14mb down and ub3 near heathrows gives upto 8mb where as EE giving 70mb at tw3 and 45 at ub3, And yes paygo is slower compared to contract sims,i tested few months ago on 4g.
secretmsgs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 10:33
rasseru16
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Suffolk, East Anglia
Posts: 667
I Wonder if there is a difference in speeds then between EE Pay as you go & pay monthly?
rasseru16 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 10:41
moox
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 14,646
Not always true. 4G in E14 is terribly slow.
I've never had great 4G speeds in Reading, but still a lot better than the horribly congested 3G network in the same area, and this is a town that got it first
moox is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 11:17
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,993
I Wonder if there is a difference in speeds then between EE Pay as you go & pay monthly?
As you can opt for double speed on EE PAYG it seems they handle it differently, I havent seen any real difference between my contract sim and the Dan and Phil sim I ordered.
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 11:49
omnidirectional
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 10,880
I thought speeds on 3 might improve following the phasing out of The One Plan (that's what was expected on this forum anyway) but having tried a PAYG SIM it's still no better.
omnidirectional is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 14:46
Yossi
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 164
I thought speeds on 3 might improve following the phasing out of The One Plan (that's what was expected on this forum anyway) but having tried a PAYG SIM it's still no better.
It's actually worse. Had I known this last month when I upgraded phone, I would have gone with EE instead. All thoughout the last 3 years I've been extremely happy with three. I just don't know what the heck is going on now.
Yossi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 15:10
Zee_Bukhari
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 1,319
give them a little time, things will get better, just not overnight.

I don't get the best of speeds but I can still use my mobile for doing mobile things just fine.
Zee_Bukhari is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 15:40
zigthedog
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 336

I think it will depend a lot on where you live. If, like us, you live in an urban area then it's worth considoring. Why not simply try it out, get a Three Sim Card and stick a tenner on it and see what happens. I assume you have a phone that's not locked to a particular network? What I can certainly recommend is their "Feel At Home" service. I used it last year in Australia and it worked a dream. We phoned home on it and as they advertise it came straight out of your allowance. As for Data that worked a dream. I was a bit iffy about it working but it did. And of course if you're overseas in one of their selected countries and want to make a local call you connect to a service for free like Viber and then make it low cost call via Viber. And that works too. I even used it to set up a local Hot Spot so my wife could use her tablet.

I must admit I have an exceptionally cheap contract with Three, 300 minutes and 2.5GB for just £7.24 per month. Not going to get cheaper elsewhere. Every so often Three phone and try and get me to "Upgrade" but I would be crazy to do so. When I need a new phone I buy a pay as you go unlocked phone from Carphone Warehouse and put in my Three simcard.
zigthedog is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 16:41
moox
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 14,646
I thought speeds on 3 might improve following the phasing out of The One Plan (that's what was expected on this forum anyway) but having tried a PAYG SIM it's still no better.
I wonder how many they've actually moved currently. I'm still on my One Plan and no one has contacted me.

Some might deny the existance of any such prioritisation, but I went from being a heavy tethering user to a very light user, so perhaps they aren't dying to get me off it when there are people that are much more of a nuisance to the network
moox is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 17:20
SkipTracer
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: The City and County of Bristol
Posts: 2,623
Considering changing to Three due to their great network speeds and unlimited data plans. I intend to go on pay as you go, however please can someone confirm that the data speeds are the EXACT same on both pay as you go and contract? Thanks.
If you’re going the 3-2-1 way just get a free sim and suck it and see.

I’ve been using 3-2-1 now since it started with no problems with speed but I will refrain from doing a new speed check here because I have good 4G and a typical speed test cost me about 80p.
SkipTracer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 17:30
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,993
give them a little time, things will get better, just not overnight.
I'm presuming that's just your guess rather than any knowledge?

TBH, you could make exactly the same statement about Vodafone or O2...
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 21:28
jchamier
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: This forum
Posts: 3,392
As you can opt for double speed on EE PAYG it seems they handle it differently, I havent seen any real difference between my contract sim and the Dan and Phil sim I ordered.
I had an EE PAYG data SIM in my tablet to try 4G when it launched, and managed insane speeds, so upgraded my phone contract, and got the same insane speeds. Then dropped the PAYG data SIM and just connect tablet to my phone.
jchamier is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-01-2015, 22:39
toofast
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,198
It's actually worse. Had I known this last month when I upgraded phone, I would have gone with EE instead. All thoughout the last 3 years I've been extremely happy with three. I just don't know what the heck is going on now.
Same here, speed were fine till October 2014 then it went to pot in brighton. 3g speed has been .02mbps ever since,!!!!
I will be moving to see in a month. Three have gone way downhill for some unknown reason.
toofast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22-01-2015, 15:29
shaggy_x
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Deep South (Yorkshire)
Posts: 3,416
It's always been a bit rubbish here in Sheffield unless you're in the city center or meadowhall. Thank God my contract is up for renewal so weighing up my options
shaggy_x is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22-01-2015, 16:35
jaffboy151
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Woore, Cheshire/Shropshire
Posts: 1,675
I was all set to switch to EE in March when my contract is up but was a bit shocked to find when I tried my Dan and Phil sim in my phone that it sits on 2g for almost half my work journey (30miles) before being on 4g where as my three will stick with the 1bar 3g and happily stream my radio station..
So I'm a bit confused what to do right now, also is EE like three where it will switch down from 4g to 3g but not back up whilst streaming, as I'll probably be still stuck on 3g most the time if this is still the case.
Sadly I'm finding many areas with barely enough speed to stream a 48k aac station at the moment on three..
So still confused...
jaffboy151 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22-01-2015, 17:50
toofast
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,198
I had great reception and service from Three for years, then when the 4G roll-out began here in Brighton towards the later half of 2014, 5 bars on my phone when to nil-one indoors and my internet speed went down from 2-3mbps to 0.12mbps!

I gave up listening to the empty promises from their CS, both abroad and in Glasgow, that the problem would be fixed. I will be moving to EE next month.
toofast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22-01-2015, 18:00
The Lord Lucan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Scotland
Posts: 4,966
It would seem they are having capacity issues at a core level like EE did early last year. In the office complaints of dropped calls, poor speeds and weird on goings. Sound familiar?
The Lord Lucan is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 22-01-2015, 18:15
toofast
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 2,198
It would seem they are having capacity issues at a core level like EE did early last year. In the office complaints of dropped calls, poor speeds and weird on goings. Sound familiar?
Yep, Sounds very familiar.
toofast is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:57.