Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Hope 3 has better coverage in UK then over here in Sweden. As soon as you get out of the cities you are bound to get dropped calls, and you cant switch to the old trusted gsm/2g to get coverage either. Think twice b4 u go w 3!
 
Everyone wants good coverage, no-one wants a cell tower nearby. The default for local planning departments is "no", unless you can really, really convince them otherwise.

(I recall reading a while back that 65% of people on a petition objecting to a cell tower left a mobile as a contact number)

Very true, I have one just a short distance over from my house and it's not exactly attractive, rather that than no signal however!
 
Can you order one of these (how much?) or is it only sent out to those in need?

I'm trying to get the SWMBO onto iPhone/Three, but reception at her place is bad, I'd need a box from day one there.

It was pretty easy for me to get a box from them. They checked the signal I was getting at home, they could see that my phone wasn't connected to their network for the periods of time that I explained was at home and every where else was great. They passed it to the network team. A manager phoned me a day later and the box arrived two days later free of charge. Have it connected to my router and it's amazing full signal in my house. Even managed to add the other two people that have since moved to Three in my house since I got the box.
 
Where I live IS a rural area - nothing but fields in all directions

Well that does sound rural. I was basing my post on your location being North Berwick as it says in your profile.

According to the Scottish Government 2 fold Urban Rural Classification, North Berwick is actually an urban area. But now I'm being pedantic and off topic so I apologise.
 
Was on 3 a few months ago and the signal was appalling. Lost all bars as soon as I went inside any building. When I went back outside - full bars. Tried it on several phones with several SIM cards and no dice, same results. Not expecting any change with the 4G roll out so unless they can convince me then ill stick to O2.

----------

Who Three? Not from my experiences.

I had a problem with reception at home, rang them up, they found a fault with the local transmitter, said they'd get someone out to fix it and credited my account with a month's line rental without me even asking.

Kept getting text messages and phone calls until I confirmed it was fixed, which took about a week. If anything they need to tone it down a bit, their politeness and the continual contact was a bit over the top.

That just sounds like any normal customer service route. Nothing special there.
 
Geez Louis, we've had all u can eat and 4g since five years ago. UK really is behind Asia

But can you get unlimited 4G for a little over £10 a month (with cash back)?
I do agree with you though. We are still struggling to provide homes with good home broadband.
 
Was on 3 a few months ago and the signal was appalling. Lost all bars as soon as I went inside any building. When I went back outside - full bars. Tried it on several phones with several SIM cards and no dice, same results. Not expecting any change with the 4G roll out so unless they can convince me then ill stick to O2.

----------



That just sounds like any normal customer service route. Nothing special there.


4g is much better at indoor penetration especially in the 800mhz range they bought into. Their problem has been having only relatively high frequencies available Until now (no 2G). However it's still going to be a couple of years before 4G is well rolled out so probably best to sit tight anyway. For me I get a good 3 signal all over my town, but then all our buildings are only a couple of stories high and made of the thinnest material the builders could find. I personal cant wait to switch as Vodafone don't seem to have bothered about 3G at all around here.
 
Good deal if you live under a cell tower.

Three offers great unlimited data. Tethering to my iPad at no cost. Loads of minutes and SMS. That is, until I close the blinds.

Main advantage of Three compared to other carriers: automatically switches to "Do Not Disturb" mode when I get back home.
 
Everyone wants good coverage, no-one wants a cell tower nearby. The default for local planning departments is "no", unless you can really, really convince them otherwise.

(I recall reading a while back that 65% of people on a petition objecting to a cell tower left a mobile as a contact number)

In the UK you don't need planning permission to erect a coms tower for Mobile communications (or cells as you call it in the U.S), there is a much used part of legislation that permits towers to be erected as a national infrastructure policy.
 
Spotty reception in my area with 3 otherwise I would go with them as their prices are fantastic. Fun to watch my mate try to use his iPhone on 3 in my street as he literally has to hang out of a window to send a standard SMS let alone make a call.

I stick with O2 (iPhone) and Orange (iPad). Gives me full data coverage across the whole of Scotland.
 
Spotty reception in my area with 3 otherwise I would go with them as their prices are fantastic. Fun to watch my mate try to use his iPhone on 3 in my street as he literally has to hang out of a window to send a standard SMS let alone make a call.

I stick with O2 (iPhone) and Orange (iPad). Gives me full data coverage across the whole of Scotland.

Same here... in my suburb of SW London, O2 gives me around 6 Mbps on average, easily. When I try 3 (I have a payg sim so I can check it once in a while), I get no signal at all in my house and around 0.5 Mbps when outside. In Central London where I work O2 goes up to 12-15 Mbps which is nice, 3 is similar but I'VE never been able to get the much higher speeds that some others seem to... I've also been trying an orange payg sim and get 5 Mbps max, at either location...
 
Have been waiting for this as 3 is still the only network to offer unlimited data plans. I'm hoping this will be fast enough and reliable enough to replace my crappy Sky home broadband.
 
thank god! vodafone is the quickest adapter, three should learn to adapt quickly. i hope their LTE coverage wont be as bad as vodafone's.
 
I thought the UK was ahead of the US in terms of cell service but it sounds like the UK was behind and is now catching up ?
The UK is way behind the US on the sheer quantity of towers and consequent unbroken blanket high signal coverage, in my experience of several months spent in NJ and NY over the last couple of years anyway. It may be different in Hicksville of course, but I never have anything less than full signal where I go (PA, CT, MD etc also). Over here in the UK, not so much. Which is why US automakers can be planning Internet radio in cars, whereas here it would be a complete joke. Networks are primarily fixated on offering the highest headline speeds in the big cities, without concerning themselves with the fact that outside of those areas, coverage and speeds can be awful.

On the other hand... maybe you get what you pay for. You can't get a monthly contract in the US with 200 mins/5000 text/unlimited 3G data for £10.75 ($16.75) a month plus tax, can you? Things like cable, broadband, cellphone contracts are generally very expensive in the US compared to the UK.

On the original topic, after a year with EE I just switched to Three recently and am pretty happy so far with the 3G data performance. EE was not a good experience. Neither was O2 prior to that. Three seem to be doing the right things with infrastructure investment. I don't see any particular need for 4G/LTE though, when DC-HSPA which we have already can give 42mbps on 3G.
 
What's the point of having 4G five years ago?

Only that there was no 4g five years ago..

Hi you need to read my post, London rocks! Probably the most important city culturally in the world and has been for a very long time. All the 4G in the world can't compensate for having to live away from the wonders of London!
(Apparently the rest of the world agrees according to the latest IPSO-Gallup poll):)
 
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

Can't agree at all.

I live and work mostly in London and my experience is in line with the many detractors.

A couple of employees bought iPhones on 3, because frankly they are the cheapest and best value for money. This is good if you do not mind standing in the garden of your house to take/make a call, or calls going straight to voicemail if your phone is not close to the exterior window of the building.

In this part of London O2 is king. I have been on T-mobile [pre-iPhone] which had a similar service to 3 now and experience of Vodafone which was also [very surprisingly] not very good in buildings.

3 are good for Data and deals and I will consider giving a Nano sim a try in my new 128GB, Cellular & Retina iPad mini when it comes out....(wishful thinking..?;)).

I would give it a miss if you actually use your phone for talking or business. I know many people don't really do that anymore and so I can see why it suits the text and twitter generation.
 
when i can get 25 MBps download speeds on my iPhone on 3s 3G network, im seriously considering just tethering to my iMac at home and using it for internet access, its WAY better than the best home broadband i can get (currently maxing out at around 7MBps.)

Only downside with 3, our office has just moved , and the new location, in a field near manchester airport, has shockingly bad phone reception, back to dial up speeds in the sticks sadly.

i also miss Visual Voicemail, not had that since i had my "iPhone 1"
 
Spotty reception in my area with 3 otherwise I would go with them as their prices are fantastic. Fun to watch my mate try to use his iPhone on 3 in my street as he literally has to hang out of a window to send a standard SMS let alone make a call.

I stick with O2 (iPhone) and Orange (iPad). Gives me full data coverage across the whole of Scotland.

Sorry but that's just nonsense. Maybe you get full coverage everywhere you go but that is different to the whole of Scotland having data coverage which is not correct.
 
Hi you need to read my post, London rocks! Probably the most important city culturally in the world and has been for a very long time. All the 4G in the world can't compensate for having to live away from the wonders of London!
(Apparently the rest of the world agrees according to the latest IPSO-Gallup poll):)

Hi, Manchester calling, you know, the place that invented everything , was the centre of music in at least the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s,was and is a centre of science and study... With other important places like Liverpool and leeds nearby helped fuel the industrial revolution,

London may think its important, but its just full of self important people who got northerners to invent stuff and do all the hard work, then ponced of back down south and spent the money and congratulated themselves

:rolleyes::D:p
 
No, it just seems like the in thing to bash EE these days.
It was awful for me - to the extent that I just cancelled my 12 month contract after 8 months due to No Service half the time at home, and no data half the time at work despite a 3G signal. It was fine when I first got it, but it went downhill a couple of months after.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.