New Three plans, unlimited tethering dead

lamboman

lamboman

lamboman

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Just as a heads up on this. Arguably quite a bit worse than before, depending on your requirements.

All plans with limited data can now tether within their limits, while all AYCE data plans are limited to 4GB of tethering. Before, this was limited to the One Plan (now dead) unless you bought an add-on (restricted to 2GB).

Prices for the most part are the same (the cheapest £6.90 contract is now £7, same but includes tethering), however AYCE data tariffs now start at £15 rather than £12.90. As above though, this includes 4GB tethering.

The closest plan to the old One Plan now costs £23. AYCE everything, 4GB tethering. Looks pretty poor compared to the old tariffs, but still cheaper than anyone else AFAIK.

Shame that unlimited tethering has gone, but we knew it was inevitable.

You can see them all here: http://store.three.co.uk/view/searc...rue&deviceType=SIM_ONLY&priceplan=PAY_MONTHLY

EDIT: For phone customers, the tethering limit (2GB) will be increased to 4GB at some point next year. Source: http://www.threemediacentre.co.uk/P...gs-free-0800-calls-to-SIM-only-plans-36f.aspx
 
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challengedavid said:
what about if your already on the one plan and you renew your contract?
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When you say renew, do you mean on a phone plan? If so, this doesn't apply to you. If not...why'd you renew? Just keep it rolling.

hartgeh3 said:
My contract is up next month thank god, going back the O2/Giffgaff!
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As Glaucus said, why would you do that? Unless you're getting poor signal, giffgaff's service is vastly inferior, and extremely unreliable. O2's 4G is pretty good from what I gather though, when this comes around to giffgaff.

Three's plans are still the best value out there, despite these changes.
 
hartgeh3 said:
My contract is up next month thank god, going back the O2/Giffgaff!
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GG are good for some things but their data quality has dropped through the floor - last time I did a speed test I was lucky to get out of the 10s of kbit/s on 2G or 3G even with a full HSDPA plus signal and barely into the mbits with an ok 4G signal. (Can straight swap to an O2 sim in the same place and see 40Mbit/s on 4G and 3+Mbit on 3G).
 
Rroff said:
GG are good for some things but their data quality has dropped through the floor - last time I did a speed test I was lucky to get out of the 10s of kbit/s on 2G or 3G even with a full HSDPA plus signal and barely into the mbits with an ok 4G signal. (Can straight swap to an O2 sim in the same place and see 40Mbit/s on 4G and 3+Mbit on 3G).
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They already have 4G? Well that answers my previous point :D

They were terrible when I left them back in April last year, and they've become significantly worse since then, from what I've read.
 
Not sure if its a general thing - I sometimes see the LTE icon light up in some areas though and the speeds are then faster than 3G but not by much.

EDIT: GG page still says "coming" hmm.

EDIT2: Not 100% sure its 4G then, I have a 4G sim and 4G enabled tablet and can put an O2 sim in and get 4G speeds in places where the LTE icon comes on and there is a definite difference between speedtests on GG with LTE disabled and enabled in those areas i.e. 100-3000ms ping, <1Mbit down - usually anywhere from 20-500kbit V <80ms and 1+Mbit down.
 
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I used to be on O2 and the signal was much better than 3, which is why I want to move back. I was tied into a 18month contract so couldnt leave unless I paid it off! 1 month contract from now on. Probably be awhile before I even get 4G in my area.
 
hartgeh3 said:
I used to be on O2 and the signal was much better than 3, which is why I want to move back. I was tied into a 18month contract so couldnt leave unless I paid it off! 1 month contract from now on.
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As Rroff said though, the biggest issue isn't signal, it's giffgaff's systems that are crap, it seems. I can't really compare O2 and giffgaff, however when I was on giffgaff, I'd say that 3/4 of my calls, even with great signal, would be dropped, and quite a few areas with full signal, I'd get no connection whatsoever. Whether that was down to giffgaff or O2, I'm not sure.

Might be worth looking at Tesco, they may be better and I think they're competitively priced against GG?
 
Well of course this was going to happen. Quite a few people used 50GB+.

With LTE it would have got much worse.

Three already had severe congestion in residential areas.
 
lamboman said:
As Rroff said though, the biggest issue isn't signal, it's giffgaff's systems that are crap, it seems. I can't really compare O2 and giffgaff, however when I was on giffgaff, I'd say that 3/4 of my calls, even with great signal, would be dropped, and quite a few areas with full signal, I'd get no connection whatsoever. Whether that was down to giffgaff or O2, I'm not sure.

Might be worth looking at Tesco, they may be better and I think they're competitively priced against GG?
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Can't say I've had that bad call quality with GG but recently I've only used them for data - currently got 500MB gigabag on GG for my tablet, O2 sim in my older phone (which I sometimes stick in the tablet) and voda sim in my new one.

O2 is the best by miles for actual call/data quality if you get any signal at all but doesn't seem to have as good coverage as voda but voda is very very hit and miss quality wise regardless of how good or bad the signal is. Often on voda I will have a full H+ signal but call quality is ropey and web browsing times out 9 times in 10 trying to load a page.
 
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im on unlimited tethering but my signal at home is poor and still no 4g here so not much use at the mo :(
 
Good riddance. Way too many people are using tethering as a home broadband replacement and adversely affecting the service for others.
 
Agree with the GG comments, data speeds have got terrible. I was actually considering switching to 3 for that reason but not so sure now, I don't want to tether just want unlimited data, so would have gone for the £12.90 one, but if that's now £15....
 
lamboman said:
As Rroff said though, the biggest issue isn't signal, it's giffgaff's systems that are crap, it seems. I can't really compare O2 and giffgaff, however when I was on giffgaff, I'd say that 3/4 of my calls, even with great signal, would be dropped, and quite a few areas with full signal, I'd get no connection whatsoever. Whether that was down to giffgaff or O2, I'm not sure.

Might be worth looking at Tesco, they may be better and I think they're competitively priced against GG?
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Yeah I think I will just try it for a month and see how it goes, I had a spare sim anyway that I can try.
 
Unlimited phone use and 4GB tethering for those odd occasions where there's no Wi-Fi is more than reasonable - that's a bigger allowance than most contracts come with these days, which is shameful.

Three would be perfect for me if the contracts came with access to the London Underground Wi-Fi.
 
Been tethering on PAYG Three £15 month all you can eat for about 9 months now, never had any issues (apart from slow in the evenings) some may arise now though!

I chop and change between Three and GiffGaff both are terrible speeds in the evening, about time 4g got rolled out for me!!
 
asim18 said:
This.

I think mobile data should be bursted, sustained throughput shouldn't be allowed.
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Problem is there is no middle ground - I don't have a problem with a proper high use package at a reasonable appropriate price but cheap "unlimited" packages getting thrashed in an unsustainable way does no good for anyone in the long run.
 
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