What is the signal actually like? Always thought it was poor, but according to their website it.s now improved a lot! The deals they are offering are brilliant!

For me it's been fine. I switched from O2 a couple of weeks back and overall I'm happy with the service levels.

i live in the middle of no where high in the hills and it is the only networks which works.

I've been with 3 for about 6 years. plenty of times I have a signal when friends phones on other networks have nothing. they do very good deals too. go into a shop for customer service though, let them make the calls for you as the call centres are rubbish…

I get better coverage than most of my friends on other networks. They were crap years ago.

I've been with them for 8 years. I always get a signal, everywhere. The only issue is sometimes it's not a very strong signal, but it's always there.
The internet speed is fantastic, especially compared to orange which I tried recently

Still as crap as they were before the 'upgrade' for me.

Three's customer service call centres are probably the worst I have ever had to deal with

I will be going back to Orange when my contract is up as I had no signal issues with them

Been with them for 6 years now. I have never had a problem with the signal, and the amount of inclusive stuff you get on their contracts is hard to beat.

Sounds good to me, cheers guys!

I will be going back to Orange when my contract is up as I had no signal issues with them

three is now owned by Orange and they will be sharing a network shortly – they'll begin automatically switching between networks based on signal strength shortly I believe.

I have been with them for 4 or 5 years and they have been pretty good.

Only found two places where the signal is poor. The first was down at my Mum's in the middle of Devon and the second is where I am sat now in my rubbish office.

Been with 3 for a year now. Apart from one building at work, in which no-one gets a signal, I've never had a problem with getting a signal in town.

Out in the sticks, it's as patchy as any mobile network.

Do they do cheap/99p PAYG SIMs? If so, you can check your regular haunts yourself.

Leicester town center is/was a blackspot (presumably the guys in the shop there must use another network!)

Their network boost/upgrade was when they signed up with T-mobile to share transmitters.

I'm still with them after 2 years so not that bad, 2nd the idea of going into the shop to let them deal with customer services, its an uninteligable system of press 1 for………… untill your connected to someone who barely speeks english called "bob from coventry" (I dont need your name, why lie to me about your life story as well?)

That good about sharing a network with Orange, as i'm currently with them!

I'd like to stay with orange, so will be going into a shop and having a word with them, if they can't come close to Three then i'll swap.

iPhone4 on Three – £100 and £30 a month
iPhone4 on Orange – £119 and £35 a month

All the Mobile Network Operators are now embarking on RAN / mast sharing operations to reduce the cost and replication of all 5 putting the same kit on the same sites to offer the same service to the same area, so coverage will start to improve once these programmes come online.

Any idea when that will happen Mr Flaps?

been with them for about 5 years, no problems at all. I get signal at my parents which is in deepest darkest dorset, and never had reason to call customer service so can't comment on that so much.

Three is not owned by Orange.

Orange and T-Mobile merged (to give the catchily named "Everything Everywhere", though they will still be using the Orange and T-Mobile brands), and will be working on consolidating the two networks into one.

T-Mobile had a network infrastructure sharing agreement with Three, which I think continues – hence elements of the Orange/T-Mobile/Three networks will be common.

"three is now owned by Orange and they will be sharing a network shortly – they'll begin automatically switching between networks based on signal strength shortly I believe. "

Not quite. Three is wholly owned Hutchinson Whampoa. Orange is owned by France Telecom.

T-Mobile and Orange are merging into "Everything Everywhere" and as part of the merger, their 2G networks will offer reciprocal free roaming. Orange already provides Three customers with free 2G roaming in places where Three don't have coverage. Seperately, Three and T-Mobile are merging their 3G networks.

Which is all pretty complicated but means that by early next year, Three customers are likely to be able to roam on to the combined Orange / T-Mobile 2G network and will use the combined Three and T-Mobile 3G network currently operated by Mobile Broadband Network Limited.

No idea on the actual dates, it always takes far longer to work out the actual details than everyone expects and previous network sharing mergers have come undone before they got anywhere over T&Cs.

I'd not expect any improvement this year.

i bought an iphone 4 on 3 last week, been working out in the sticks with one bar at best and occasionally dropping out but then so did my o2.

asked my 18 year old niece if any of her mates were on 3, she said "no, none of them, 3 is rubbish" so if they're not on 3 how do they know?

i wonder how many other people comment based on what they've heard rather than what they've experienced.