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Three to Launch UK 4G Service in December
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I moved to Three several years ago when the iPhone 4S came out. Before them I was with O2 and the service is like night and day.
O2 just awful. Slow speeds, terrible customer service, very high prices for anything over 500MB of data. Overall just crap.
Three by comparison are just brilliant. The 3G speed I get today is 20Mb/s that is not an exaggeration just look at this speed test I did earlier this month: http://i.imgur.com/5fRTRiS.jpg (19.37Mb down / 2.42Mb up on iPhone 5 over 3G on Three).
The customer service is great I was even able to cancel a previous contract I had through an automated service without having any sales people or retention staff try to talk me out of it, the prices are great I get unlimited data, hundreds of minutes and thousands of texts a month for £12.50 - Bargain.
This network is just fantastic for the first time I'm with a telephone company that I don't feel is out to rape me of every penny I have and actually invests in their network properly.
O2 just awful. Slow speeds, terrible customer service, very high prices for anything over 500MB of data. Overall just crap.
Three by comparison are just brilliant. The 3G speed I get today is 20Mb/s that is not an exaggeration just look at this speed test I did earlier this month: http://i.imgur.com/5fRTRiS.jpg (19.37Mb down / 2.42Mb up on iPhone 5 over 3G on Three).
The customer service is great I was even able to cancel a previous contract I had through an automated service without having any sales people or retention staff try to talk me out of it, the prices are great I get unlimited data, hundreds of minutes and thousands of texts a month for £12.50 - Bargain.
This network is just fantastic for the first time I'm with a telephone company that I don't feel is out to rape me of every penny I have and actually invests in their network properly.
There is a whole lot of horse poop in this thread - I live in rural Scotland, got an OK signal outside (at least as good as o2) but rubbish inside. Home signal box cured that one.
In cities (well good cities anyway - not NW England) the 3G is excellent & I get 4G for no extra cost. Winner.
Customer service is really good - not a problem they couldn't solve in a friendly, informed & helpful way.
AND I get truly unlimited data, a sensible roaming package (verging in unbelievable for some countries) and all from a company who actually understand how we use our smartphones.
I really can't understand the negative comments on two counts - firstly not in my experience & secondly who the **** is better. O2 not a chance, EE (Orange or T-Mobile) no way, Virgin (don't make me laugh) - maybe Vodafone? Have you seen their prices?
Give it a rest - these guys are good IF you know what you are doing & can be bothered to research and/or google stuff.
OK rant over but
In cities (well good cities anyway - not NW England) the 3G is excellent & I get 4G for no extra cost. Winner.
Customer service is really good - not a problem they couldn't solve in a friendly, informed & helpful way.
AND I get truly unlimited data, a sensible roaming package (verging in unbelievable for some countries) and all from a company who actually understand how we use our smartphones.
I really can't understand the negative comments on two counts - firstly not in my experience & secondly who the **** is better. O2 not a chance, EE (Orange or T-Mobile) no way, Virgin (don't make me laugh) - maybe Vodafone? Have you seen their prices?
Give it a rest - these guys are good IF you know what you are doing & can be bothered to research and/or google stuff.
OK rant over but
I'm glad to see Three have finally unveiled their LTE plan. They've been talking about it for long enough!
Although it doesn't look like they're going to roll it out where I live in 2013 or even 2014, it's being rolled out in almost all of the major cities in Scotland (which I frequent quite a bit) so at least I'll get to try it out sooner rather than later!
I do have to agree that for the money, they offer a really good service and the signal and speed where I live is pretty darn good!
Although it doesn't look like they're going to roll it out where I live in 2013 or even 2014, it's being rolled out in almost all of the major cities in Scotland (which I frequent quite a bit) so at least I'll get to try it out sooner rather than later!
I do have to agree that for the money, they offer a really good service and the signal and speed where I live is pretty darn good!
I think the signal depends greatly on the network in each city. As far as I'm aware Three and T-mobile (now EE) share 3G network in some locations. I live in Cambridge and used to live in Milton Keynes and the signal in these two places is excellent and the internet connection is super fast already.
But in Brighton last week the connection was pathetic. Coincidentally I have a data only sim from tmobile for my ipad and I had exactly the same connectivy issues on my ipad, which looks like a hint to me that Three uses Tmobile network in Brighton.
Maybe it's the same situation in Glasgow?
With LTE that should not be the case as I think EE and Three are NOT sharing LTE, only legacy 3G and EDGE.
I moved to Three about a month ago and am so impressed with the network. When you read the horror stories about their customer service you do worry, but having spoken to them on a few occasions now I can say that it is not bad at all. They are always very polite and helpful.
The best network, IMO.
The best network, IMO.
erm.. probably I missed something but where do you get that information from? All i've read is that current customers don't pay extra and just need to wait for the software update to enable LTE...
I have opposite experience to you. Was on O2 for years, got an ok signal for calls and texts. When the iPhone came out I stuck with them through original iPhone, 3G and 4 and barely saw a 3G or EDGE signal unless I was in city centre where I neither stay or work.
Changed to three, now get a 3G signal at home and work and have unlimited data for phone and tethering. Since Sept. 2012 I have sent 9.6GB and received 98.9GB, data that would have taken decades to use at the GPRS speeds that I got with O2.
Definitely best to chose a network based on performance where you want to use it but have been very happy with change to three. Other than lack of visual voicemail. Why is that O2 only? Is it apple only letting O2 use it or is only O2 that is willing to pay cost of using it?
I was with Three for over a year until about six months ago. Their central London network was getting so congested that while I had full bars I could often not make or receive calls in the evenings. Switched to O2 and all was well again.
It will be interesting to see how they have dimensioned their 4G network.
Matt
It will be interesting to see how they have dimensioned their 4G network.
Matt
It says it quite clearly in the article posted by Macrumors....
Existing customers on Three's network will get 4G service at no extra charge upon launch, with plans for new customers being priced competitively against other carriers.
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In the article...
Existing customers on Three's network will get 4G service at no extra charge upon launch, with plans for new customers being priced competitively against other carriers.
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REMEMBER
With Three, there is no 2 or 2.5G fallback. If you can't get a 3G signal you can't make calls.
With EE, they have the best 2/2.5G network so if 3G/4G isn't available you can still make calls.
When I was on Three, call quality was often poor. I've been on EE since January and its excellent.
I've used Three when working in the UK. The service is generally very good in the larger cities and towns. It's generally pretty lousy in the smaller towns and villages as you'd probably expect. You really need to weigh up how much time you need service in these smaller populated areas to determine whether Three will work for you.
http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/29/get-ready-for-4g/
Nothing about existing customers. So it's just macrumors doing creative writing.
And regarding fallback, the other networks (namely EE but also O2) rely too much on this legacy network and failt to upgrade/improve 3G networks so often I have full 3G on three and I'm only able to get full EDGE (2.5) service on my tmobile sim card. Similar thing with O2 (I used o2 before three).
Three is the only provider that consistently gives me full internet and excellent signal pretty much anywhere I go. Signal for others (again: EE-O2) is patchy very often, and yes you can receive calls on their legacy networks but pretty much nothing else.
EE are investing millions of pounds into their 2, 2.5, 3, 3.9 and 4G network. EE also have the most spectrum of any UK network.
Time will tell, but EE are getting better all the time.
I changed to Three when I bought my iPhone 4S and to be honest was a bit skeptical (was originally with O2) and didn't really want to lose visual voicemail but frankly I had quite enough of O2. Since that time I've never looked back, not only am I incredibly happy with the service but they seem to be improving all the time.
I bought my iPhone 4S outright so I wouldn't be tied to a contract (like I was with O2) but I'm so happy with Three I intend to start a 24 month contract once the iPhone 5S is released.
I personally think they have completely shaken up the market, no others can compete, take at look at their new PAYG prices....brilliant.
Gotta love Three and it's good to hear others appreciating them too...
I bought my iPhone 4S outright so I wouldn't be tied to a contract (like I was with O2) but I'm so happy with Three I intend to start a 24 month contract once the iPhone 5S is released.
I personally think they have completely shaken up the market, no others can compete, take at look at their new PAYG prices....brilliant.
Gotta love Three and it's good to hear others appreciating them too...
Yes, so is everyone else, really. And as LTE becomes more popular, the fallback network will be 3G, not 2G, so all 2G services will probably be switched off in a few years anyway.
My "real life" test is easy: Three is the only network that allows me to play online radio all the way from home in East Anglia to London without a SINGLE dropout. That is completely impossible with both o2 and EE, I spend a good part of the journey on their EDGE network which obviously cannot stream any online radio.
Exactly true, Vodafone I only get edge whereas Three I get 3G, do although they don't have 2G/Edge they always usually have 3G/3.5G!
I was under the impression that although Three don't have 2g capabilities, they 'buy in' 2g connectivity from other providers when 3g is unavailable. Which is why there's no setting to switch off 3g on the iPhone, and if you do do it, they give you a telling off.
Three to Launch UK 4G Service in December
Having lived in Brighton in various locations, it's not Three it's the topology. The TV signal is a
pain in the neck too!
I work in the city center and get an excellent data connection the majority of the time.
My personal experience on three is an excellent one, and I'm happy to trade a little signal for unlimited data and tethering for £15/month!
The only slightly annoying thing is it taking longer to reconnect to the network when it's been in a dead spot / in building propagation; but by all accounts this is a wavelength problem and there is naff all they can do about that...
Having lived in Brighton in various locations, it's not Three it's the topology. The TV signal is a
pain in the neck too!
I work in the city center and get an excellent data connection the majority of the time.
My personal experience on three is an excellent one, and I'm happy to trade a little signal for unlimited data and tethering for £15/month!
The only slightly annoying thing is it taking longer to reconnect to the network when it's been in a dead spot / in building propagation; but by all accounts this is a wavelength problem and there is naff all they can do about that...
it makes sense. I think it's also a side effect of architecture in the UK. In countries like Spain almost everyone lives in apartment blocks so the mast density has to be much higher to cover the building "topology". In countries like the UK and US, the majority of ppl live in houses so the density of base stations doesn't need to be as high. The side effect of course is that you have more problems indoors or in places like Brighton with lots of hills and valleys!
Three used to do this when they first launched. I was actually a customer on 3/3/2003 when they launched and bought the NEC e606 they had on offer for £200 (Reduced from I think £470). Anyway back then they piggybacked on the O2 network so if there wasnt 3G avaiability your device would use O2's 2G infrastructure.
Three stopped doing this a few years ago, possibly in 2009 or 2010. Now if you don't get a 3G signal you get nothing, cannot even make telephone calls. There is no longer any 2G or 2.5G fallback.
Now this may seem like a problem but I get 3G signal with Three everywhere I go. I can't think of a single moment over the past 3 years that I've had no signal in the UK, I will say though when I was in Greece this June I had no service at all, no roaming nothing. Maybe that was my fault for not calling Three and arranging it first hand but when I was in Greece in 2009 using O2 I had no need to setup any arrangement and the phone just worked..
Yes. Wildly overpriced. Their data caps are ridiculous too. Check out their website I'm seriously surprised at just how poor their offers (if you can call them that) are. We are literally talking 2-3x more money than Three for data caps of up to 20GB max when Three has plans for peanuts that are unlimited.
When EE first came about (before pricing was announced) I was sure they would be the best new thing with the best pricing. It just made sense, two very large established networks merging all their infrastructures and customers and yet all they did was raise prices to deliver 4G prematurely. Honestly it shocked me how much they charge for the pitiful amount of bandwidth you get a month, totally unexpected.
It seems like the faster the speeds we get the smaller the data caps become soon we'll all be on 1Gb/s 5G with 1MB data caps for £50 a month.
Great voice signal, but data is terribly terribly spotty in my house which is not the same for ALL other networks who seem to cover me just fine.
Frequently clock 200kbs with Three and sometimes randomly it jumps to 3-7mbs.
Still living with it though because
a) Its the cheapest i've ever paid for a tariff and i get 1TB of data with Tethering included.
b) Voice signal good so i can still make calls/text
c) Home broadband is solid enough that i don't need my phone for data access.
But i miss O2, whilst not as fast, they were vastly more reliable in terms of data access and it was unlimited data too...plus there was the Visual Voicemail bonus.
If i had to choose again i'd stay put with O2 but alas i'm stuck with Three now so...yeah...
Frequently clock 200kbs with Three and sometimes randomly it jumps to 3-7mbs.
Still living with it though because
a) Its the cheapest i've ever paid for a tariff and i get 1TB of data with Tethering included.
b) Voice signal good so i can still make calls/text
c) Home broadband is solid enough that i don't need my phone for data access.
But i miss O2, whilst not as fast, they were vastly more reliable in terms of data access and it was unlimited data too...plus there was the Visual Voicemail bonus.
If i had to choose again i'd stay put with O2 but alas i'm stuck with Three now so...yeah...
Which in itself is competitive. When you compare current plans from Three with EE for example, you'll be always better off with Three. Current customer get 4G for free so compare high bandwidth 3G of Three and 4G plans of EE and others. That will be highly competitive.