Three vs EE

[sansnom]

Gents

I'm currently on Three and I have the following packages (me and wife):
£18 a month - unlimited data, 600 mins
£15 a month - unlimited data, 200 mins

I recently tried to get a third line for a family member and was basically offered nothing unless I took out 3 new contracts which would each be:

£15 a month - 4GB data, unlimited mins

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Three's data speeds or reception but I do like that it's at least unlimited and I love the "feel at home" thing where if I go to some countries in Europe or US I can use my plan as normal without having to buy a new sim or worry about costs.

The other option is, I could get with EE:
£19 a month - 6GB data, unlimited mins

The only real advantages would be coverage and data speed I suppose but I'd be losing the Three 'Feel at home' roaming capabilities. (EE's just doesn't match at all)

Sooooo, I'm wondering, is EE's data that much better in reality than Three's? If it's only marginally better, then I'd rather just stick with Three. I only use about 2/3 GB a month anyway, same with the wife so not too fussed about unlimited data plan, but more about the quality and speed. It would be a bummer to lose the unlimited roaming data though, even as slow as it is

 

[Sui]

I regret changing from Three to EE....Three's data was hugely faster for me, 3G that is though.

 

[Mr Jones]

I changed from EE to Three, from Contract to PAYG.

Three is definitely more price friendly for me with the amount I use - low minutes, medium texting (no more than 1000/Month) and medium data (No more than 2GB).

Only reason Three is poorer than EE is the lost of coverage in certain towns (e.g. Leiconfield, just outside of Beverley, I get 0 coverage there. Total blind spot)

I am now on Dual Sim with O2 as a backup and no issue since.

WRT to Speed of Data, Three was my first delve into 4G and whenever I get 4G, the connection is spot on. 3G is fine for apps, but slow for webpages with high images, not much different from EE when I was with them.

So from my personal experience, Three Wins.

 

[tek2k]

Tough call, on the one hand having three roaming has been awesome even if it's **** slow it is nice to be able to land, switch on your signal and get emails, texts, whatsapps etc without paying a penny or even just flicking on your maps to find something nearby or check Google etc. Bear in mind this is actually capped. USA is 25 GB per YEAR, Europe is like 10 or 12 GB. That being said, I had edge everywhere I went with three roaming so I doubt you'd consume even a fifth of that allowance but still.

However, in my experience, Three's signal is rubbish unless you're on the street in London. And generally, browsing is so slow it's frustrating so you never really end up using your unlimited data plans, probably some scroungers are using VPN's to bypass the tethering cap and just downloading all day long. That's ultimately why I left three but I went to Vodafone which I really regret and should've gone to EE.

So I would say local coverage and speed with EE is worth the loss of unlimited data plan and roaming once in a year or less. That being said, they're being taken over by BT and I'm very dubious about how that's going to play out

 

[sansnom]

Tough call, on the one hand having three roaming has been awesome even if it's **** slow it is nice to be able to land, switch on your signal and get emails, texts, whatsapps etc without paying a penny or even just flicking on your maps to find something nearby or check Google etc. Bear in mind this is actually capped. USA is 25 GB per YEAR, Europe is like 10 or 12 GB. That being said, I had edge everywhere I went with three roaming so I doubt you'd consume even a fifth of that allowance but still.

However, in my experience, Three's signal is rubbish unless you're on the street in London. And generally, browsing is so slow it's frustrating so you never really end up using your unlimited data plans, probably some scroungers are using VPN's to bypass the tethering cap and just downloading all day long. That's ultimately why I left three but I went to Vodafone which I really regret and should've gone to EE.

So I would say local coverage and speed with EE is worth the loss of unlimited data plan and roaming once in a year or less. That being said, they're being taken over by BT and I'm very dubious about how that's going to play out

Thanks, I did see the caps on roaming but as you point out - it's so slow I doubt I'd ever get anywhere close to those caps unless I was stationed in one of those countries for a long time and in which case the speed of the data would frustrate me too much.

I am considering taking the 3 contracts with EE through topcashback though does anyone know how good EE's retention policy is after 12 months? I wouldn't want to switch over only to find out the next year I'm paying RPI uplift and no discount etc.

I also did an analysis of our usage over the last 12 months and it worked out to this:

Me:
Average Mins / Data Usage per month = 492 mins / 1.6GB
Lowest Mins / Data per month = 168 mins / 384 MB
Highest Mins / Data per month = 817 mins / 3.2GB

Wife:
Average Mins / Data Usage per month = 519 mins / 1GB
Lowest Mins / Data per month = 186 mins / 470 MB
Highest Mins / Data per month = 1,070 mins / 1.9GB

Based on that, the way I'm looking at it is, I should take my highest or peak usage at any point in time and double it and that's the package we should in theory need. Is that a good way to look at it?

In other words it means:
6GB / unlimited mins should work fine for both of us