Three (UK) Home Signal

I'll be another person saying Three is great (other than the call centres, infuriating but managed to do what I wanted)

Switched to GiffGaff for a month to keep my number and get a new contract with Three, and the O2 network is TERRIBLE, I rarely have 3G, and when I do I have Wifi anyway, Three I almost always had 3G.

It's not the network thats terrible, it's the coverage in the area, Three's coverage is useless where i work and where i live and O2 is good. But the tables turn in different areas, thats the way it is and we have to sallow it.

I have to agree, Three are great when you're covered but when you're not its bloomin frustrating. Especially when you previously had received good signal in the particular area!

I have to say though, I had no real issues with the Three customer services, they are always very polite and friendly, often too friendly.. especially when you're ringing with a problem, I don't have time for small talk, just fix my problem or pass it to someone who can.

I'm still contemplating whether to keep the Three sim or not because as I'll now have sky bb at home where I faced the most problems with 3G internet, its still useful to have the unlimited tethering for when I'm out and want to use my iPhone for hotspotting the iDevices like my wifi iPad.

Got to agree with if you have coverage its great, I can get 15-20mbs down by the seafront, but at home i'm lucky if i can get a signal for phone calls let alone 3G. Customer service are useless called them and they told me 3 different dates for new towers, then admitted they cant do anything and offered me a PAC code.

My experience with Three

I am glad this post is ongoing. I have been with 3, 3 months or so now and I live in London, SE to be exact. I am coming from Orange and T Mobile whom I had no end of problems with, I saw the deal 3 were offering on iPhone 5 and decided I could afford it and the unlimited data was the attraction as well as the ultrafast speeds. Well I must say I am disappointed the signal on 3 is so hit and miss, so sporadic, ultrafast does not exist it is just a fancy name they have come up with, because in London ultrafast isnt wildly available which is strange considering it is our nations capital.

On another note, the customer service staff just like Orange and T Mob are incompetent, when 4G comes I wonder if I will see any improvement, as there are so many blank spots that the unlimited data is useless. I have tried everything, even now I have my network selected to manual setting to force a connection to 3(3G). Have removed the sim countless times, rebooted the phone countless times. I am starting to get fed up. I am paying for a service which I cant even use, when you dont need it usually seems ok but when you do you notice how many times the signal bars drop up and down

Christiangaz777 said:

I am glad this post is ongoing. I have been with 3, 3 months or so now and I live in London, SE to be exact. I am coming from Orange and T Mobile whom I had no end of problems with, I saw the deal 3 were offering on iPhone 5 and decided I could afford it and the unlimited data was the attraction as well as the ultrafast speeds. Well I must say I am disappointed the signal on 3 is so hit and miss, so sporadic, ultrafast does not exist it is just a fancy name they have come up with, because in London ultrafast isnt wildly available which is strange considering it is our nations capital.

On another note, the customer service staff just like Orange and T Mob are incompetent, when 4G comes I wonder if I will see any improvement, as there are so many blank spots that the unlimited data is useless. I have tried everything, even now I have my network selected to manual setting to force a connection to 3(3G). Have removed the sim countless times, rebooted the phone countless times. I am starting to get fed up. I am paying for a service which I cant even use, when you dont need it usually seems ok but when you do you notice how many times the signal bars drop up and down

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I am always surprised when I hear anyone on here with good service from three. I heard such horror stories from friends in London that when I got their SIM only plan for 12 months, I insisted they give me a three day cancel option. I took the SIM back and cancelled my contract within 24 hours.

I Live in E1W and the best data rate I ever got was 300 kbps download. I am presently using T-Mobile with no coverage problems and previously used O2. Got excellent 3g service from both of them.

They reason they offer good deals is that they have a very bad reputation.

Another more or less happy 3 customer here. The unlimited data and tethering saved me a while back when I didn't have a broadband connection and was going to move. Other networks would have charged me enough to finance the CEO's limo or a cute ad of a cat playing frisbee.

Five years ago, they were often ridiculed as having very poor coverage. I work in the NHS, and I have even worked in one hospital where for a while on-call doctors were instructed to use another network. But now, I find that they are no worse than any other carrier.

But if you don't have coverage at home, none of this matters. You have far more options if you are in the first 14 days of your contract, as most of the time you can just return the phone and end the contract. Outside of that, I think you have to be both persistent and polite. Stress that you want to stay with them, but just need some help - signal booster, whatever works. If you still can't get a signal, then see if they can at least reduce the monthly payment, unlock the phone and get a sim-only plan from someone else.

I drive all round the country and use Vodafone, my wife is on o2 and I use three in my iPad.

I have to say that overall 3 is easily the best.

You will always make your decision on what signal you get while at home and at work.

But with the Home Signal and Sure Signal (Vodafones) that makes little difference these days, unless you use your handset for all your broadband of course.

But Three for me has the best coverage as an overall.

Having switched recently to the one plan on 3 (12 months SIM only) (from O2) I knew the signal was iffy at home. It turned out to close to unusable downstairs with no 2G fallback.

So I called 0800 358 4828 (Home signal support) who are very good. They explained it was the wrong number for seeing if I was eligible, but did transfer me to the right bit of 333 support. Answered about 5 questions and they dispatched a home signal box which works like a charm on BT Infinity. Called Sunday, box arrived Tuesday with good DPD tracking.

What, why have I never heard of this and why do I not have one??

Dialling 333 now.

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Wonder if you can use this abroad with a UK VPN…

Obviously would break all sorts of T&C and regulations..

JazzG said:

Their data download rates are brilliant compared to others and when you are out and about it fine but indoors their coverage is rubbish. I know about 10 people on three, all with them as they are cheap but moan like hell about how poor the coverage is.

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I have no coverage issues with three. Vodafone or O2 are a different story. No O2 3G here and Voda have been slammed by Ofcom because they failed to reach their 3G coverage target.