The End of My One Plan and Unlimited Tethering!!

[Paul C]

We'll do explain?

Regards kris

 

Basically, where Three could obtain 3-4 Mbps with one of my mifi units and 8 or more Mbps with the other, EE could only do around 1Mbps. Admittedly this was only in one location - where the boat was at the time - I didn't try it out in other locations to see if it was just that area, or a more general issue. I did a bit of reading around before trying it and it was inconclusive, hence I had to at least get an EE data SIM and try it out for myself. Might be worth obtaining a free EE SIM before committing to them and cancelling Three or ditching another provider.

[oarfish]

I regularly get 20Mbps on EE when in an area with good signal. This is with a 3g router / high gain antenna rather than a tethered phone but their network does deliver.

[Machpoint005]

The bit rate would be brilliant everywhere if it wasn't for all these b*ggers watching video content. Haven't they got tellies?

[kris88]

 

Basically, where Three could obtain 3-4 Mbps with one of my mifi units and 8 or more Mbps with the other, EE could only do around 1Mbps. Admittedly this was only in one location - where the boat was at the time - I didn't try it out in other locations to see if it was just that area, or a more general issue. I did a bit of reading around before trying it and it was inconclusive, hence I had to at least get an EE data SIM and try it out for myself. Might be worth obtaining a free EE SIM before committing to them and cancelling Three or ditching another provider.

Thanks for that, I find that with most networks that the coverage can vary greatly from place to place

Regards kris

[Mike Tee]

De unde știi că nu sunt român și o mamă singură ?

[Richard10002]

I seem to use about 20Gb a month, so would have been happy with a 20Gb or 25Gb cap on tethering, rather than unlimited.

 

I suspect their problem is the fact that they didn't get much 4G bandwidth, so can no longer fulfill the unlimited tethering obligation. I would have been equally happy to be restricted to 3G for the unlimited, or larger allowance, but it wasn't to be.

 

Giffgaff seem to be able to offer some at one price for 3G only, and a slightly higher price for 4G, so it is obviously possible to differentiate.

 

Anyway.... we are where we are.

[pomkitanner]

This is for me quite an interesting topic even though I am not a resident. For those on a contract with a fixed Data , if any of that allowance is unused, does it roll over to add to the next months allowance ? My phone contract here in NZ, I get 1.5 Gb /month on my plan for equivalent of £20/ month . Most months I have a surplus and it rolls over to the following month. So currently I have about 6Gb in reserve .

I am in no need of tethering as I have a home internet. We do feel however that mobile cost are high here in NZ.

 

on another topic , I shall again be home in May and intend buying a SIM only card for a month. Any suggestions which company may be best for my stay ?

[Paul C]

I seem to use about 20Gb a month, so would have been happy with a 20Gb or 25Gb cap on tethering, rather than unlimited.

 

I suspect their problem is the fact that they didn't get much 4G bandwidth, so can no longer fulfill the unlimited tethering obligation. I would have been equally happy to be restricted to 3G for the unlimited, or larger allowance, but it wasn't to be.

 

Giffgaff seem to be able to offer some at one price for 3G only, and a slightly higher price for 4G, so it is obviously possible to differentiate.

 

Anyway.... we are where we are.

 

Does Giffgaff allow tethering or their SIM work in a MiFi?

[Richard10002]

Does Giffgaff allow tethering or their SIM work in a MiFi?

They allow tethering on their capped contracts, so 1Gb, 3Gb and 5Gb options. On their unlimited contracts, they don't allow tethering.

 

I dont think their phone sims work in a mifi, but they do offer data sims - not necessarily competitive or large enough allowances.

 

I'll be using Giff Gaff for my phone, probably £10 per month which includes 1 Gb of 3G data. I'll be using EE for data in my mifi... Probably 15Gb per month for £20.

 

I currently have an EE data sim that I bought for £45 and which is supposed to have 15Gb per month for 10 months. If it keeps working, I won't need another data sim until December - there seems to be something dodgy about it, so I'm not holding my breath

[ThePiglet]

Three moved me off The One Plan (was using over 200GB a month tethering) at the start of this month onto a Sim Only plan with 4GB Tethering and unlimited handset data.

From what was about £15/month I now only pay £8/month and so far, none of the data I've used through tethering (about 2.5GB) has been deducted from my personal hotspot allowance .

My heavy data usage has shifted from my PC to a mobile app, so I've still used over 170GB this month and remained within the terms of the package, but Three now get paid less for delivering the same amount of data!

[DeanS]

If you have a Samsung phone, with a Samsung smart dock station (with HDMI port), what's on your phone screen (movies) automatically appears on the TV. If you have a SamSung tablet, it will share screens from mobile phone to tablet wirelessly. That just leaves a need for using tethering for email really doesn't it. All the streaming (bandwidth) stays on the phone.

 

I've been looking at satellite internet too. £12 rental for 2yr contract, and £69/mth for unlimited up and down bandwidth. (cheaper if you take a capped contract). There is some leeway finding the satellite with a Sky dish, so I'm thinking the same leeway may exist for internet. Also useful when moving the boat to Europe one day....so it's tempting.

[Richard10002]

My heavy data usage has shifted from my PC to a mobile app, so I've still used over 170GB this month and remained within the terms of the package, but Three now get paid less for delivering the same amount of data!

What are you using all that data for, and what mobile app have you moved it to?

 

The best deal they would offer me was £14 per month for AYCE data with 4Gb tethering. How did you get it for £8 per month?

[ThePiglet]

What are you using all that data for, and what mobile app have you moved it to?

 

The best deal they would offer me was £14 per month for AYCE data with 4Gb tethering. How did you get it for £8 per month?

 

iPlayer video & radio, Netflix but mostly nzbMobile (scheduled between 00:00 ad 06:00 as the battery will be on charge and not a strain on the network).

 

The package is £18, but I've had a monthly '£10 loyal customer discount' for the last 18 months or more which continues on.

[Paul C]

 

iPlayer video & radio, Netflix but mostly nzbMobile (scheduled between 00:00 ad 06:00 as the battery will be on charge and not a strain on the network).

 

The package is £18, but I've had a monthly '£10 loyal customer discount' for the last 18 months or more which continues on.

 

What stuff are you downloading with nbzMobile to need all that bandwidth?

[ThePiglet]

 

What stuff are you downloading with nbzMobile to need all that bandwidth?

 

TV, It's easier and more reliable to download shows overnight that stream from iPlayer / 5 / ITV / 4OD / Netflix in the evening.

Edited February 22, 2015 by ThePiglet

[junior]

It would be interesting to know what sort of data usage the folks had who have had their unlimited Tethering removed. I wonder if Three are going after the highest data users first.

[Alf Roberts]

 

TV, It's easier and more reliable to download shows overnight that stream from iPlayer / 5 / ITV / 4OD / Netflix in the evening.

is it your opinion that everybody who wants to should be able to achieve such high data usage on the mobile networks or are you just taking the p?

 

in my opinion unlimited should come with some sense of responsibility. I am by no means a light user but I would expect to pay (a lot) extra if I was bringing in that kind of bandwidth.

 

it will seriously piss me off if I lose my unlimited data - which to me simply means don't worry about it, not start archiving the TV channels - because of the selfish actions of a relative few.

 

and especially those who boast about it.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Alf Roberts

[kris88]

It would be interesting to know what sort of data usage the folks had who have had their unlimited Tethering removed. I wonder if Three are going after the highest data users first.

We'll my unlimited tethering was removed, my usage was 15-20gb a month, moderate usage

By modern standards. When I pointed out to the three operative, that I hadn't abused the data usage over the 4years I'd used there network, I was able to get it reduced to £8 a month, but not upping of the tethering limit

Regards kris

[ThePiglet]

It would be interesting to know what sort of data usage the folks had who have had their unlimited Tethering removed. I wonder if Three are going after the highest data users first.

 

Three have completely scrapped unlimited tethering packages.

As people come to the end of their unlimited tethering contracts, they are being moved on to other plans. Those whose contract had already expired (such as myself) were moved at the start of Feb.

 

 

is it your opinion that everybody who wants to should be able to achieve such high data usage on the mobile networks or are you just taking the p?

 

Yes, anyone that buys a service offering something is entitled to receive that something. As a consumer, do you not think that is fair? (You'd think there would even be a law about it)

 

 

in my opinion unlimited should come with some sense of responsibility. I am by no means a light user but I would expect to pay (a lot) extra if I was bringing in that kind of bandwidth.

 

Three crunched the numbers and came up with an unlimited plan for £xyz. They would have known to expect a range of customer usage types, some probably never used more than 10MB a month, some probably use "Only 1,000GB a month".

 

Responsibility on whose part? The party offering the service, the consumer, or both? As the consumer, I'm in no position to judge Three's capability to provision the service. If Three sell it as unlimited, should I be expected to manage my usage? How am I supposed to know how much is too much?

 

If you lose your unlimited data, it's because Three have formulated the wrong products at the wrong price, not "because of the selfish actions of a relative few".

[junior]

 

Three have completely scrapped unlimited tethering packages.

As people come to the end of their unlimited tethering contracts, they are being moved on to other plans. Those whose contract had already expired (such as myself) were moved at the start of Feb.

 

 

Not strictly true as I have unlimited Tethering on The One Plan at the moment so they haven't scrapped it completely, although I appreciate it is only a matter of time.

Like Alan F said above, I also have been receiving almost daily calls from various 0800 numbers which I believe to be Three Mobile. I never answer them and don't intend to, so it will be interesting if I manage to keep my unlimited Tethering until my contract is up for renewal in September, or whether they will give up trying to contact me and do it sooner.

 

The reason for me asking if perhaps they were targeting the highest tethered data users first was that they must be using some sort of strategy and not just doing it when contracts are up for renewal as I have heard a few reports of people loosing it mid-contract.

Are they going by Alphabetical order, shortest time customers first, highest bandwidth users, those who answer their calls, or is it completely random? Figuring this out would give me an idea how much longer I can expect to be left alone.

 

Incidentally I use about 10GB per month of data, of which about three quarters is used on tethering, so I'm hardly a high user.

[alan_fincher]

Incidentally I use about 10GB per month of data, of which about three quarters is used on tethering, so I'm hardly a high user.

 

Having had a quick look at billing info, (as I already knew), our usage is massively variable. Typically under 1Gb data overall in months where we are hardly on the boats, seldom even 5Gb per month where we are on board quite a bit, but where we were on board continually for an entire month rising to about 9Gb.

 

So rather annoyingly I'm doing peanuts compared to what some are claiming, but I'm sure from the many 0800 number calls from them that I'm managing not to answer that they still have me firmly in their sights.

 

I'd be happy to come to some arrangement with them based on (say) a 10Gb cap on tethering, but if they are only going to offer 4Gb maximum, it will not do for us as our total internet solution.

 

I suppose we will be back to ruddy PAYG dongles, as well as having a phone contract that can no longer meet our data needs.

[Alf Roberts]

 

Three have completely scrapped unlimited tethering packages.

As people come to the end of their unlimited tethering contracts, they are being moved on to other plans. Those whose contract had already expired (such as myself) were moved at the start of Feb.

 

 

 

Yes, anyone that buys a service offering something is entitled to receive that something. As a consumer, do you not think that is fair? (You'd think there would even be a law about it)

 

 

 

 

Three crunched the numbers and came up with an unlimited plan for £xyz. They would have known to expect a range of customer usage types, some probably never used more than 10MB a month, some probably use "Only 1,000GB a month".

 

Responsibility on whose part? The party offering the service, the consumer, or both? As the consumer, I'm in no position to judge Three's capability to provision the service. If Three sell it as unlimited, should I be expected to manage my usage? How am I supposed to know how much is too much?

 

If you lose your unlimited data, it's because Three have formulated the wrong products at the wrong price, not "because of the selfish actions of a relative few".

I'm fully aware of the justifications for such piss taking and I tend to agree that it would have been better if Three had an iron cap of 20gb per person but they didn't and it could have (did) work very well until people like you cocked it up for everybody.

[Ange]

My two year One Plan contract expired last summer, and is still running at the moment (though I expect to hear from them at some point). We use 25-30 GB per month

 

Not everyone with an expired contract has been moved.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Ange

[ThePiglet]

Edit: Waste of time.

Edited February 23, 2015 by ThePiglet

[Machpoint005]

Not being a Three customer I don't know, but I'd be very surprised if somewhere in the terms and conditions of contract there wasn't a clause to the effect that the supplier may vary the terms whenever it wants to -- which is what is now happening.

 

And lo and behold, the 'something for nothing' people find out that there is actually no such thing.