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Old 22-01-2015, 18:16
enapace
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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?
yeah very familiar but Three have already lost mine and a few others loyalty. I can see a fair few moving to EE at end of there contracts.
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Old 22-01-2015, 19:53
mupet0000
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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?
I would agree with you there.

I'm in a 4G area, every MBNL mast around here is 4G'd by EE and Three. On Three, I'm getting 1.5mbps down and 6mbps up. On EE, getting lows of 20mbps down but usually higher, and around 6mbps up also. Forget about using 3G, even though it's DC-HSDPA you'll be lucky to pass 1mbps.

I'm even having problems receiving calls, I've never experienced this before but sometimes when people try to call my Three number, sometimes the call doesn't connect and goes straight to voicemail when my phone is sitting there with a good signal. Multiple people have told me they couldn't get through to me, using O2 & EE so it's gotta be Threes fault. Strangely enough, I never have issues making phone calls.

Three's network has become progressively worse since I left Giffgaff to join them just under a year ago. Although my area has gone from no 4G to complete 4G coverage, the actual data speeds haven't improved, 3G has just become slower.

It was a shock using an EE sim on 4G from the same mast and seeing huge differences in speed. Using EE's 4G feels like I'm using wifi.

The only reason I'm still with Three is the price.
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Old 22-01-2015, 21:51
jaffboy151
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Yes, totally agree, using ee 4g is like wifi with pings in the low 20's and fantastic speeds, and I'm not even in a official 4g area, just overspill from crew, yet three's 4g whilst more responsive then there 3G still feels slow with pings these days nit much different from a good 3G signal.
Every network gets congestion and at events like silverstone and football matches three often performs better then my friends on ee, what I can't forgive them for is the way they've let the network grind to a halt in many areas without doing much about it. I know they have put 1800 4g in many congested areas but it's so weak most people will never stay connected to it if mobile or indoors,
I expect slow speeds and poor backhaul on rural masts as there are less users and often challenging conditions so to get internet in some places is almost a gift, but to leave masts in busy urban areas on poor backhaul for years in a bit of a joke, there's one araa in the ketley area of telford shropshire that has never been upgraded, no matter what time of day or night you go through the araa you get 0.1mbps download if any data throughout at all, not really exceptable in a highly populated area of town.
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Old 22-01-2015, 22:26
d123
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Three rolled out 4G in my area around 6 months ago and I think I only saw 4G being faster than 3G on a handful of occasions (even in the same location).

I don't think their 4G roll out has been as efficient as it could have been.
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Old 22-01-2015, 22:57
jonmorris
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Three has got worse for me since mid December and it's disappointing.

I now have a weaker 4G signal at home, as if they tweaked it to match a reduced 3G signal (cell breathing perhaps kicking in?). Now it will swap from 3G to 4G and back a lot more, and at times I can be left with no service.

And in London and on the train I am now getting more incidents (where before I can't remember any) where I have signal, but no data. And I've turned 4G off to test, and still have problems.

Finally, I can get pathetic download speeds but still excellent upload speeds. 5 down, 20 up? Very odd.
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Old 23-01-2015, 09:49
FlouryBread
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I wouldn't recommend anybody switching to Three. I live in an urban area of a city and I just did a speed test and I'm currently getting 0.41Mbps. So yeah, their network is pretty terrible. Plus, if this O2 deal goes through, it's likely to get worse.
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Old 23-01-2015, 10:37
moox
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I wouldn't recommend anybody switching to Three. I live in an urban area of a city and I just did a speed test and I'm currently getting 0.41Mbps. So yeah, their network is pretty terrible. Plus, if this O2 deal goes through, it's likely to get worse.
If people live in the same city as you, sure. Meanwhile where I am I can get 10 or 20Mbps and I wouldn't stop people from moving to 3.

The only problem I have with them is their constant lies and breaking of promises over the 4G rollout
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Old 23-01-2015, 19:12
jchamier
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If people live in the same city as you, sure. Meanwhile where I am I can get 10 or 20Mbps and I wouldn't stop people from moving to 3.
I've been to 4 different big cities in the UK (several hundreds of miles apart) and since early/mid Dec the Three network has been amazingly slow. Before that it was quick (e.g. 6mbps minimum on 3G).

Something big has broken or been overloaded and it will be fixed, but today I would suggest avoiding three if you're a data fan.
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Old 23-01-2015, 19:14
moox
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I've been to 4 different big cities in the UK (several hundreds of miles apart) and since early/mid Dec the Three network has been amazingly slow. Before that it was quick (e.g. 6mbps minimum on 3G).

Something big has broken or been overloaded and it will be fixed, but today I would suggest avoiding three if you're a data fan.
If one of those places is Reading I can agree

But around here (Devon and Cornwall) it's still not too bad in the towns/cities and very nice in rurality. 20+Mbps is still common for me.
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Old 23-01-2015, 19:44
jchamier
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If one of those places is Reading I can agree
I was there, but didn't do a speed test

But around here (Devon and Cornwall) it's still not too bad in the towns/cities and very nice in rurality. 20+Mbps is still common for me.
Makes sense that in areas of low usage that the network copes better, and that implies its a mast by mast congestion issue (or a regional centre) rather than a central core.
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Old 24-01-2015, 01:20
Graeme89
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I have to agree with others before christmas I got 15-20meg easy at my work now I hardly get 6-7 but on the other hand they fixed the congestion issue at my home and 4G speeds when I acually get them no better than 3G.

Glasgow area
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Old 24-01-2015, 10:03
Icaraa
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I'm finding 4G fairly slow on my mast and we only went live a couple of months ago for 4G.

I just can't contemplate switching to EE though as I use Feel at Home a lot (using it now) and EE are much more expensive for the amount of data I'd need, as I'm on unlimited with Three. I think a lot of people will be in my position where they'd like to switch to EE from a technology point of view but in other respects it wouldn't make sense.
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Old 24-01-2015, 11:10
jonmorris
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Three has AYCE data, which means no risk of bill shock or simply running out and being asked to buy more. That's a real plus, but of late the speed problems and lack of data at the worst possible moment has been a real downer for me. Unlimited data is great, but when I can't even do a simple search on Google Maps while looking for something, it's not much use.

It wasn't a problem for me before, so I'm confident it will be fixed - but for the time being, Three isn't looking good.

Feel at Home is great, as is the £5 Euro Internet Pass for those places not yet included, but the majority of users are probably only interested in that for a few weeks a year - if that. However, it IS a unique feature and a reason why some people will stay, just as they do for the AYCE data even if their usage is within the offerings of other tariffs elsewhere.

EE is still too expensive. It's the premium brand that knows it can charge more as it does offer more (like Vodafone, some of its subscribers will even feel that they're on a better network and that it's worth paying for). Data roaming is expensive though, but users don't necessarily care or convince themselves it's okay to buy some data at high rates, or stick to Wi-Fi. Mind you, Vodafone does offer the £3/5 a day option for using your data allowance abroad (not quite as good as Three, but still pretty good).

Vodafone also offers 4G roaming (I think EE might too now?) which could improve the experience of using data when roaming. Three has this on some of its networks, but not Three UK. Having unlimited 4G data when roaming would suddenly give Three the edge again, but I have no idea if that's going to happen anytime soon. Does Three?

What EE does have is a superior 4G service. Both in terms of coverage and speed. It has a huge head start over everyone else, and when Cat 6 LTE rolls out further, it will be way ahead yet again. Once everyone catches up with LTE enabled sites, future upgrades will of course be on a level playing field - but we're talking about the end of 2015 or 2016 before this happens.

For the time being, Three just needs to fix its issues with data that has me thinking there's no point having unlimited data and free roaming if I can't use it day to day at home and work.
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Old 24-01-2015, 11:51
Icaraa
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I think the unlimited data is the main plus for me. Although as jonmorris says I may fall within some of EE's tariffs, the price for the amount of data I would need would push the price up to silly amounts compared to what I pay now. Also I wouldn't use my phone in the same way as I do now as I'd worry about usage, so I'd most likely turn some features off and stop using certain apps.
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