Considering a move to the Three network…

has anyone any idea of the general coverage these days and or data speeds/quality of phone connections?

I’ve found 02 to have good general coverage, limited 3G coverage, but fast 3G where you can get it.

Orange have been widespread 3G, but very slow when you have it (compared to O2).

Mate was on Three shortly after they started and they were pants… dropped calls and crap coverage… I assume they are better these days???

No complaints here. Good 3G coverage, downloads seem pretty nippy.

Haven’t 3 and Orange merge or slowly merging anyway?

SdB blast from the past or what.

not had much of an issue with mine.
then again, i rarely make calls.
but i have made calls, and they have been fine
i text and internets mainly.
its raaather fast.
i ran speedtest.net on my wildfire, and it came up as a 2mb connection!
neowm!

you cant look at smut on their default browser, they just dont allow it, you cant even unlock it.
you have to go through the opera browser, which puts everything through a proxy by default, thus hiding the limited sites. (i only found this out by looking at thefixfixfix.com, not real smut! honest!)

you get a 14 day cooling off period apparently, whereby you can cancel our contract if your not happy.
(though i never tested it)

and if you move house, and have no coverage, APPARENTLY, they monitor your phone for 10 days, checking its location and reception, and will cancel your contract at any time if its not up to scratch (so the bloke in the shop said)

Phone in a crisp packet for 10 days if you want to get rid of it?

Haven’t 3 and Orange merge or slowly merging anyway?

3 had a deal with orange, whereby, if you couldnt find 3 reception, they would piggy back you onto the orange towers at 3s cost.
however they have a MUCH wider network coverage now, and dont need to, so that deal between the two networks got cancelled.

from what i have found, you cant get more texts/calls/data for your money with any other network.

im on 20 quid a month

1000 mins of calls cross network
1000 texts
5000 calls to another 3 phone
and 1GB of data a month.

i cant even dent that, and kind of wish i had got the 12 quid for half that package.

3 had a deal with orange, whereby, if you couldnt find 3 reception, they would piggy back you onto the orange towers at 3s cost.
however they have a MUCH wider network coverage now, and dont need to, so that deal between the two networks got cancelled.

Absouloute b*llocks..

3 & T-mobile have merged, but are not part of the Orange & T-Mobile have merger that is to become Everything Everywhere…

Their agreement is more like he O2 & Vodafone Cornerstone collaberation, where both companines roll out their netowrks independantly, but also consolidate thier network where possible.

I hope this is right, otherwise I’ve been doing my job wrong for the last 18 months… 😳

Was on 3 now on Orange, will be going back to 3 as soon as my contract is up. Orange signal at home is pants , it was very good but most of the time signal is only SOS, waste of my money.

Absouloute b*llocks..

WOAH captain aggressive.

On 3 here (PAYG) – seems to work OK…

wow, all sounds good!! Have found potential cheap Desire HD with Three 🙂

Been on 3 for 4 years, coverage is not as good as my work mobile on Vodafone but in cities its fine, and for half the line rental of voda its good enough for what i want.
I have 4 contracts, mine, Mrs’s and Daughters, + mobile BB.

The customer support in appauling though.!!!

Ah cheers Teetosugars that’s what I was thinking of clearly.

If you’re not sure about coverage, I think that 3 will send you a free SIM card. Pop that in your current phone and see whether you get coverage at home/work/down the shops/etc. I found that I got great reception in our living room, but if I moved to the back of the house, it dropped to zero which would mean that I couldn’t wander around the house whilst on the phone f I went with them.

Was on O2 with works phone and recently had to swap to 3 pay as you go.

The coverage is not as good as O2 (Dumfries area) and signal strength is weaker. However I have not found it to be much of a problem. The 3 G speed seems to be pretty good when it has a signal.

The PAYG rates are good 300 mins for 15 quid when you convert cash purchase to an add on which is valid for 30 days.

Me, the wife and the 3 kids are all on three.

Main reason is that you get free 3-to-3 calls, so there is no excuse for the kids not to ring/listen to voicemails etc. I have the kids with a restriction so they can’t overspend.

Customer services are always good (Indian based, but trained by the UK – my wife use to work for them).

No problem with coverage.

Olly – Member
Absouloute b*llocks..
WOAH captain aggressive.

Yeah, apologies for that… Was unintentional…

Sorry chap.

I have 2000 mins
5000 texts
1gb internet

30 quid with 3

3 had a deal with orange, whereby, if you couldnt find 3 reception, they would piggy back you onto the orange towers at 3s cost.
however they have a MUCH wider network coverage now, and dont need to, so that deal between the two networks got cancelled.

Which means that coverage now completely sucks in Derbyshire, at least in our part. I got my contract cancelled for free and moved away.

Moving away from Derbyshire is a bit extreme, just because you can’t get a phone signal

My experiences were incredibly poor, customer service poor, signal poor, technical support poor (lack of signal and phone overheating). This was 3 years ago but I would not go back. ymmv