The End of My One Plan and Unlimited Tethering!!

[Alf Roberts]

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.

Exactly. And at the expense of those who signed up in good faith.

[Machpoint005]

Exactly. And at the expense of those who signed up in good faith.

 

Good faith has nothing to do with it if it was in the Terms and Condition.

[Alf Roberts]

it's not rocket science to realise that if unlimited Is seen as an opportunity for greed that the offer won't last very long.

there's a real difference yo anyone with half a brain that unlimited can mean, don't worry about it but don't take the piss rather than the childish and absurd everyone can have as much as they can download

[Paul C]

I am personally amazed at some of the data usage reports I am hearing. I would say I'm fairly average in my internet use, I don't do an awful lot of watching films etc and occasionally use iPlayer but I have an actual TV with Freeview+ which is much more convenient (for me). Whilst on broadband at home, my usage was around 7-8GB/month. With a little effort, I got it down to around 6GB/month so I could go over to using mobile broadband only. I tried the Three One plan, it was pathetically low speed at times of congestion, so it was soon ditched. I was going to go for their 5gb/month but I found and went for an O2 package with 8gb/month which suited. I also tried EE - too low speed around here to be useful.

 

Given that Three's network seems to be throttled or congested at peak times, the only way one could get 20+ GB/month must have been to be downloading a high amount of videos/films using some kind of file sharing through the night - probably more downloaded than you could ever watch????

[Alf Roberts]

I am personally amazed at some of the data usage reports I am hearing. I would say I'm fairly average in my internet use, I don't do an awful lot of watching films etc and occasionally use iPlayer but I have an actual TV with Freeview+ which is much more convenient (for me). Whilst on broadband at home, my usage was around 7-8GB/month. With a little effort, I got it down to around 6GB/month so I could go over to using mobile broadband only. I tried the Three One plan, it was pathetically low speed at times of congestion, so it was soon ditched. I was going to go for their 5gb/month but I found and went for an O2 package with 8gb/month which suited. I also tried EE - too low speed around here to be useful.

 

Given that Three's network seems to be throttled or congested at peak times, the only way one could get 20+ GB/month must have been to be downloading a high amount of videos/films using some kind of file sharing through the night - probably more downloaded than you could ever watch????

This is essentially my experience. I do from time to time, with a critical eye, download TV and movies but you have to be dedicated to get over 20Gb or so especially, as you say, as it has to be done between 0000 and 1500.

[Lady Muck]

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.

I don't think its 'piss taking' as you term it. My brother (who works for a Japanese mobile co. Owned by EE) says its because their unlimited contract breached EU law. Because it wasn't truly unlimited, something to do with the throttling, I think, we could never use 3 for work, because of this.

We use about 50gb a month. Its incredibly easy to achieve this on 4g. i watch no tv, my partner watches very little.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Lady Muck

[Paul C]

I don't think its 'piss taking' as you term it. My brother (who works for a Japanese mobile co. Owned by EE) says its because their unlimited contract breached EU law. Because it wasn't truly unlimited, something to do with the throttling, I think, we could never use 3 for work, because of this.

We use about 50gb a month. Its incredibly easy to achieve this on 4g. i watch no tv, my partner watches very little.

Im not sure it ia (easy) - do you have an idea of what the bulk of the data in the 50 is?

[Lady Muck]

Im not sure it ia (easy) - do you have an idea of what the bulk of the data in the 50 is?

Dropbox syncing, website database back ups etc.

 

Incidentally, my brother totally caned his 3 sim this year - moved house, no broadband, two boys who play x box online, 200GB a month. AFAIK he's not been contacted yet, at least he hadn't last week when we were discussing why 3 had stopped this plan.

[Paul C]

Dropbox syncing, website database back ups etc.

 

Incidentally, my brother totally caned his 3 sim this year - moved house, no broadband, two boys who play x box online, 200GB a month. AFAIK he's not been contacted yet, at least he hadn't last week when we were discussing why 3 had stopped this plan.

 

Good point, and one I had not thought of. I tried Google Drive (still have it) but dismissed it as too slow partly because I have around 100+GB of pictures - to do a first sync would take hours/days even on a fast connection; and partly because retrieval seemed much slower than storing "locally". I use it for the occasional transfer between devices, but not as my main storage area. I can see how semi-intensive use of this might clock up the data rate.

 

How does 4G speeds compare with normal (ADSL2+) home broadband, or fibre broadband? I know it would be a bit of a disaster on a 3G connection, even a reasonably good one (we get around 8Mbps).

[Alf Roberts]

I don't think its 'piss taking' as you term it. My brother (who works for a Japanese mobile co. Owned by EE) says its because their unlimited contract breached EU law. Because it wasn't truly unlimited, something to do with the throttling, I think, we could never use 3 for work, because of this.

We use about 50gb a month. Its incredibly easy to achieve this on 4g. i watch no tv, my partner watches very little.

Yes, 4G does change the ballgame completely.

 

As for Dropbox, it's been dropkicked off of my computer after using 1GB in a day - I have nothing on my local computer to justify this, my shared folders (with 2 small exceptions) are all on the web. I still don't know what it was doing to use such bandwidth.

 

I think it pays absolutely no attention to bandwidth. I know a lot of people who have been caught out having dropbox installed.

 

We will, one day, live in the world where data and bandwidth keep up with our desire. Until then, it's more a case of what you need rather than what you want.

[Machpoint005]

>> it's more a case of what you need rather than what you want.<<

 

Not "what you are prepared to pay for", then?

[Alf Roberts]

Not "what you are prepared to pay for", then?

Presumably, from now on, data will be per GB with providers trying to undercut each other.

 

Someone recently suggested £1 per GB which seems to me about right.

 

I know that 4GB per month is only going to be any good for occasional users, even moderate users go over that, especially when 4G is common.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Alf Roberts

[Lady Muck]

I've got half a dozen clients using it, it's industry standard, so I just had to find a contract that would be enough in order to use it. You can switch off the sync on different folders, but sometimes you forget and because of the 4G, it's burned through your data by the time you notice.

Funny because when we first moved onboard - 3GB was enough - but I used to print things off and mail them, then after that, we sent cd roms, then, I used to use Yousend it - I don't do any of that now.

[Ricco1]

I'm staggered. I buy an EE 6gb card good for 3 months, costs £16 or so. It usually lasts me around 10 weeks. I spend hours on the internet every day but if I want to watch moving pictures I used my t.v. Mind you I'm not into surfing porn and the like for half my life, so maybe that explains it.

[carlt]

Mind you I'm not into surfing porn and the like for half my life, so maybe that explains it.

 

Nowt up with the good old top shelf is there?

[notts_alan]

I'm with Virgin £15 a month rolling contract , unlimited calls , unlimited text , unlimited internet.

Tether everything to phone.

Very happy with it since service started , I think it has gone up to £20 now for new customers.

Edited February 27, 2015 by notts_alan

[Richard10002]

I'm with Virgin £15 a month rolling contract , unlimited calls , unlimited text , unlimited internet.

Tether everything to phone.

Very happy with it since service started , I think it has gone up to £20 now for new customers.

In the General Mobile Terms it says you can't use your sim for tethering. Whilst it might work, I'm not prepared to take the risk.

[Lady Muck]

I'm staggered. I buy an EE 6gb card good for 3 months, costs £16 or so. It usually lasts me around 10 weeks. I spend hours on the internet every day but if I want to watch moving pictures I used my t.v. Mind you I'm not into surfing porn and the like for half my life, so maybe that explains it.

 

The easiest way to break a laptop is to watch loads of porn as those sites are virus and spyware ridden - my partner is sick of having to fix his dads laptop for that reason ( hes quite a goer at 83) . So, I'm pretty confident that none of that have been viewed on our tech as I know how precious him indoors is about it.

What canes the bandwidth - its mostly me - just uploaded five identical albums of shop window photos (1 for each client) from my Milan trip at 3gb an album. i can't share the same album as I'm under NDA with some of them, not allowed to tell anyone else that I'm working for them. Just sent a load of tech drawings out yesterday, that was another 1gb. I burn through data.

[jim and pat dalton]

Just asked for the Pac codes and gave the tethering as the reason for leaving. Three didn't at any stage attempt to offer me a new deal

it would also seem that whilst my contract ended nov14. I'm limited on tethering but my wifes contract ended Sept14 yet she is still on unlimited tethering

 

I asked why the difference? and It would seem that they are working their way through the customer list and I suspect Pat uses less data than me and they haven't got that far yet.

Due to unreliability of signal, we have recently gone to EE mifi at 25gb per month for £30 and the service is quite good.

A number of the above posters have wondered why or how folk have high(ish) usage, so to properly explain:

We are not slaves to soap operas or strictly come novelty TV programs that mainly populate the TV schedule. So we find we mainly want to use BBC iplayer and other stations catch up services to specifically watch programs we are interested in etc

Also watch Netflix to also view what "we want", especially as I work long and odd hours driving from Northampton to Scotland and back and I find being constrained to the dire TV schedule somewhat uninspiring . We always play back directly from mifi now through to apple TV plus some you tube where as before it was from iPhone to apple TV.

The most usage I ever had was 20gb on three when watching back to back "Orange is the new Black" on Netflix last June

Edited March 5, 2015 by jim and pat dalton

[Machpoint005]

>> I find being constrained to the dire TV schedule somewhat uninspiring . <<

 

 

Video recorders are still available, are they not?

[jim and pat dalton]

Just asked for the Pac codes and gave the tethering as the reason for leaving. Three didn't at any stage attempt to offer me a new deal

 

it would also seem that whilst my contract ended nov14. I'm limited on tethering but my wifes contract ended Sept14 yet she is still on unlimited tethering

 

I asked why the difference? and It would seem that they are working their way through the customer list and I suspect Pat uses less data than me and they haven't got that far yet.

 

Due to unreliability of three signal and possibly choking??. We have recently gone to EE mifi at 25gb per month for £30 and the service is quite good.

 

A number of the above posters have wondered why or how folk have high(ish) usage, so to properly explain:

 

We are not slaves to soap operas or strictly come novelty TV programs that mainly populate the TV schedule. So we find we mainly want to use BBC iplayer and other stations catch up services to specifically watch programs we are interested in etc

 

Also watch Netflix to also view what "we want", especially as I work long and odd hours driving from Northampton to Scotland and back and I find being constrained to the dire TV schedule on days off somewhat uninspiring . We always play back directly from mifi now through to apple TV plus some you tube where as before it was from iPhone to apple TV.

 

 

The most usage I ever had was 20gb on three when watching back to back "Orange is the new Black" on Netflix last June, an experience that is still keeping me going now!! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2015 by jim and pat dalton

[mrsmelly]

My contract with Three for The One Plan costs £31 per month, as it included a phone. I called them today to ask if they would reduce my payments as my 2 year contract ended last month, and they offered to reduce it to £14 per month but, as expected, I would be restricted to 4Gb of tethering.

 

I asked if they would do 200minutes, not many texts, AYCE data, inc. 4Gb tethering, for £8, and they stuck at £14. So I've got my PAC Code, and will be switching to Giff Gaff on 16th March.

 

If necessary, I'll get a £20 15Gb mobile Broadband sim from EE to provide my onboard internet.

 

My costs would be the same, but I would be rid of Three, who were reasonably good while they lasted, but I think they may have shot themselves in the foot.

 

Hi all

 

Without trawling thro this entire thread can anyone possibly answer me this................

My One plan runs out in august and I am hoping they will not notice as I am a low data user but its nice to have. I pay 36 quid a month including the fone, now when the 2 years is up I dont care two hoots about the so called " upgrade " term I will be more than happy to keep the old fone and still pay the 36 quid a month for the one plan I dont want a reduction in price I am happy to pay what I pay now without a new phone..........will they let me do this?

 

Tim

[Mike Tee]

In answer to ^^^^ without 'quoting' it all - probably, but nobody knows. It seems some are sliding under the radar after their contract is up, others are being told they will be limited to 4gb at various prices.

You seem to be in the enviable position that you could change to a much cheaper sim only deal as 1) you are happy with the phone and 2) you don't use a lot of data (what do you call 'not a lot'?) - but you seem happy to pay your current monthly fee!! Perhaps they will insist that you MUST change to a cheaper deal.

My sim only deal with unlimited tethering ended in January, but so far................! (I use about 12-15gb per month, so it could be more expensive to change).

[mrsmelly]

In answer to ^^^^ without 'quoting' it all - probably, but nobody knows. It seems some are sliding under the radar after their contract is up, others are being told they will be limited to 4gb at various prices.

You seem to be in the enviable position that you could change to a much cheaper sim only deal as 1) you are happy with the phone and 2) you don't use a lot of data (what do you call 'not a lot'?) - but you seem happy to pay your current monthly fee!! Perhaps they will insist that you MUST change to a cheaper deal.

My sim only deal with unlimited tethering ended in January, but so far................! (I use about 12-15gb per month, so it could be more expensive to change).

Hi Mike

 

I never use more than 7gig a month BUT you never know as I am off cruising soon and may use more. I never use alll the minutes and text but the one plan suits me and I tether to my fone for instance for this forum. The tethering is much faster than a lanldine bt hub jobby which I am on at this moment as I type.

I just hope they will leave me on it if I keep paying.

 

Tim

[Woodstock]

Hi Mike

 

I never use more than 7gig a month BUT you never know as I am off cruising soon and may use more. I never use alll the minutes and text but the one plan suits me and I tether to my fone for instance for this forum. The tethering is much faster than a lanldine bt hub jobby which I am on at this moment as I type.

I just hope they will leave me on it if I keep paying.

 

Tim

The OH finished his phone contract with 3 18months ago and went onto a contract for £18 with 3- unlimited calls, texts, data etc- only difference is he doesnt pay for the phone bit. We have started to get calls from 3 though and avoiding them. We have found that if you ring 3 the staff are useless, but the young guy in the Burton store was brilliant- saved us money and didn't try to sell us a package with a phone that we didn't need