Yet another mobile phone thread, soz. Upgrade time and my Galaxy S2 is playing up a bit after 2 years. Have seen the 16GB Nexus 5 on Three for £29 a month with £50 up front, plenty of minutes and texts and unlimited data which is mainly what I use my phone for. I also read that if you are an existing customer Three aren’t going to charge any extra for 4G when they start rolling it out in December so now is the time to get on board so all seems pretty appealing.

However I was with Three a good 5+ years ago and dealing with their customer services department was such a nightmare that I swore never again. Has this improved? Coverage wasn’t great then either, is that any better now?

Any other ideas for Android deals around the £30 a month mark welcome. Would just go for an S4 as my S2 has been so good but they don’t seem to come cheap anywhere.

It is a wonderful irony that ALL the UK’s mobile phone companies are completely incapable of providing any kind of useful assistance of the phone.

That said, I’m a big fan of Three and make very good use of their unlimited tethering via my iPhone…

Rachel

That said, I’m a big fan of Three and make very good use of their unlimited tethering via my iPhone…

+1

As with any potential network switch, it makes sense to get a free SIM and stick it in your phone to see what the signal/coverage is like in the places you most use/need your phone.

EE and 3 share the same infrastructure now.

Buy the phone from car phone warehouse for £295 (equivalent to 12.29/month over 2 years) and do 3 sim only at £15 a month 12 month contract for the same package, cheaper and with the flexibility to move in 12 months.

3 does include 4g at no extra cost… Seems good if you can get any 4g

You cant buy the nexus 5 sim free from cpw anymore, but the principal is the same buyingfrom google play.

EE and 3 share the same infrastructure now.
Really?
So,why is orange so much worse at my house than 3? (Same phone swapping sims)

3 are fine had no issues with customer service quite easily reduced my monthly bill form £30 to £12.50 when complained about signal issues when I moved house
Most of the time my signal is no worse than my work phone on orange or the wife’s on o2

don’t buy it on contract. Looking at 3 myself at the moment and it will be the £15 One plan as I want tethering too.

Kicking myself for not picking up a Nexus 4 as I don’t want to spend £300 on a Nexus 5 but cost wise you are looking at:

£49 + 24 x £29 = £745 over 2 years

Or £299 + 24 x £15 = £659 and the freedom to move after 12 months

I’ve been with 3 for 18 months. Unlike Vodafone they have never made me weep with frustration. I have unlimited internet including tethering and have been very pleased with it. For instance, we used my phone to download an entire Grand Prix while we were staying in Capel Curig. Played it on the laptop. Smooth as.

As above. Three are very good.
If you can’t stretch to £300 upfront to buy a nexus 5 from the Google play store then I wouldn’t bother with a nexus. Maybe go for a HTC one, LG G2 or the S4 which are all around the same price with 3 and you will have a £500 mobile that should have some resale value come the end of the contract.

EE and 3 share the same infrastructure now.
Really?

I think they’re still in the process of merging everything.

From their Chief Architect:

We have an ongoing RAN refresh program, which is replacing legacy GSM basestation equipment with the latest “Single RAN” equipment serving both 2G and 4G. Our 3G network is, in the main, shared with 3 UK, this uses a technical approach known as MORAN (Multi-Operator Radio Access Network) in which certain elements of the base station are shared, we do however deploy dedicated carriers. The EE 4G network is a unilateral deployment.

http://www.thinksmallcell.com/Femtocell-Interview/thinksmallcell-interview-with-andy-sutton-principal-network-architect-at-ee-uk-on-their-future-small-cell-plans.html

3 Does not appear to work in Wales, or at least in Wales anywhere near Brecon and Sennybridge.

Which was bloody annoying when I went there last month…

before you switch use this app to check the coverage of other networks in your area:

Coverage Map by Rootmetrics

As suggested above I also bought my Nexus 5 outright and have a £8 a month contract from orange. Rarely out of wifi range and 100 minutes and 500? texts is more than enough for me. I will need to be a little careful with only 100mb a month but with a sensible setup it seems to be fine so far. Turn off app upgrading over mobile network and stop BBC News and Facebook updating constantly and there isn’t much else to worry about. If I need to spend a few quid on more data occasionally I’m still way ahead.

100mb per month! I think I’d struggle with that allowance per day, especially once the ashes start. 3s all you can eat data is a god send.

As has been said Three are one of the better ones now. Got my galaxy s3 through them earlier this year and I’m not looking to swap, athough I’d go on the one plan if I could change now. I have tethered and not been busted, but I’d like to be able to do it without worrying.

There have been a couple of places where I’ve had no reception but not many, and to be honest it’s improved over the course of the year.

About 4 years ago I was on 3 and swore I’d never go back, but it seems they’ve really improved

I’ve just moved to Three. New customer but the plan I’m on (can’t remember the name of it – £29 a month / free Xperia Z / unlimited (with no fair usage policy unlike other companies) data / more than enough minutes and texts than I’ll ever use.

That also includes the ability to get 4G when it launches in your area. I think Three are only running it in a few places at the moment but Bradford (where I work) gets it in January I think.

That said, the 3G signal is excellent. A million times better than the Talkmobile/Vodafone one I was on before. So far, price, network, service, phone etc has been 100%.

Oh, and I was torn between the S4 and Xperia Z. On Three, the Sony was a few quid a month less and no upfront cost. Also felt like a nicer (more manly with its square edges and stuff – grrrr!) phone to hold and use. Really cannot fault it in any way.

I would buy the phone direct from Google and then get the sim only goodybag from GiffGaff that I’m on, £10/m for 500 mins, unlimited texts and 1gb of data. And no contract so you aren’t tied to anything. Very bargainous.

I get referral points if you order via this link, just as an aside… 🙂 http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/apj77

The 3 network is really good for data/3G signal…i spent 12 years with O2 (including when they were Cellnet and BTcellnet) and found call coverage good but data coverage was poor….it wasnt a problem pre smartphones but these days its the data functions i use more of than actually calling people and the unlimited data and tethering on 3 is great….if they merge with EE and combine their 3G coverage with the new 4G stuff then i’ll be chuffed to bits, their £15 SIM only deal is brilliant (Nexus-4 here).

Three used to not allow any data transfer on their ‘borrowed’ 2G network – i.e. if you had no 3G signal and the phone dropped down to 2G you could not use your smart phone to check the weather forecast, email or news. The blurb at the time used some bollox about how this was because they were committed to only providing customers with an excellent service, not a slow one. Personally I’d rather have something rather than nothing, no matter how slow!

This was 2 or 3 years ago and they could have changed it now but as a non city dweller who likes to spend his down time in more remote parts it made them an irrelevance.