Three (3UK) change to unlimited data usage policy

cainez_2

500mb isnt a lot of data when using a smartphone. If you have a lot of apps that update using the internet a few times per hour it all adds up.Without even using a web browser you can use a good part of that just from updating over a month.

I went to a few web sites, downloaded a couple of apps and watched 2 or 3 youtube clips and had a message saying you are near the 500mb limit. I wouldnt consider that fair use of a smartphone, thats nothing really, thats a few days of usage and my monthly allowance is gone.

I could probrably argue that case over the phone if i went over as its resonable. With this new wording i cannot, its a hard cap, if i go over i pay for it, surely this is a change of terms and warrants a break of contract?

gjchester

cainez wrote: »

500mb isnt a lot of data when using a smartphone. If you have a lot of apps that update using the internet a few times per hour it all adds up.Without even using a web browser you can use a good part of that just from updating over a month.

Like it or not thats the limit. Go over it and you have to pay.

Yes Unlimited has been misleading, and the fact fair use policies were never really implimented meant most people though they were unlimited, but the fact remains, there has *ALWAYS* been a fair use policy opn broadband, be it home or mobile. Use too much and you will have to pay extra for it. Home broadband has been sold as umlimited for years and that too is limited by a fair use policy.

Your contract *HAS* not chaged, it's just been clarified to say what is and is not fair use, and what the cost is if you go over it.

All the networks have put in hard limits because there were people taking the hiss. Sporedudes right if some people had not decided to do p2p constantly this policy may never have been implemented.

On the other hand as the EU stuck it's snout in and forced roaming call and text charges down then something had to go up, and this is the latest thing.

Personally (and I realsie people may not like me for saying this), I'm rather glad this change has come in, because there are people slurping data as much as they can and impact everyone else. It's a shared service, if you use too much you should pay.

amh15

I don't think that really makes any sense, gjchester. If the problem is a few people doing p2p, set the caps to exclude just those people and make their lives difficult. Don't set a limit that impacts everyone. There are so many ways to give a bit of flexibility on this: monthly rollovers of data limits, allowing people to exceed their cap several times a year, no application of caps outside peak hours...

I signed up with 3 partly because they had an "unlimited" policy as compared to a fixed cap with others. For me, that implied that there would be no cap applied unless your use was unfair, and that a warning would be given before action was taken or charges made - as has traditionally been the case with fixed broadband. Those terms have now changed materially.

gjchester wrote: »

Like it or not thats the limit. Go over it and you have to pay.
Personally (and I realsie people may not like me for saying this), I'm rather glad this change has come in, because there are people slurping data as much as they can and impact everyone else. It's a shared service, if you use too much you should pay.

cainez_2

Well just to add some helpfull info.

I gave 3 a ring today asking about the 3 alert sms they sent saying theres important changes to the way they word the contract.
They didnt have any info on the sms or records they said. I said that the sms told me there are changes to the wording, and that i noticed on my 3 account info that instead of saying unlimited it now has a fixed value of 500mb and asked if this was what the sms refered to. He then said yes, but there were no changes. He also told me that if when i got the contract i was told i was having unlimited, i was able to get a extra 2 gig:T. I told him straight away that yes this was the case and that it also used to say unlimited in the my 3 account details page.
He then put me on hold to talk to the manager and came back saying within 4 hours i would have a extra 2 gig. After about 3 hours i noticed on my 3 account page that there was a extra unlimited addon in there, this must be the 2 gig.

So basicly if you have had the 3 alert message saying wording has been changed you can ring up and get a extra 2 gig if you enquire, my brother has also now done this and has the extra 2 gig addon free also.:beer::j:p

gjchester

amh15 wrote: »

I don't think that really makes any sense, gjchester. If the problem is a few people doing p2p, set the caps to exclude just those people and make their lives difficult. Don't set a limit that impacts everyone. There are so many ways to give a bit of flexibility on this: monthly rollovers of data limits, allowing people to exceed their cap several times a year, no application of caps outside peak hours...

I signed up with 3 partly because they had an "unlimited" policy as compared to a fixed cap with others. .

Most people never hit the limits, and it's a non issue. It we polled all of the MSE readers I suspect only a few would have hit the limit in a month. Friends have iPhones on PAYG and get a tiny allowance of a few tens of MB a month and they never go over the limit.


It's when people say "I use x hundreds of MB a day every day" you think they are taking the hiss. FUP have always been in place and because they were never enforced people ignored them, thats a fault of the network they should have enforced the FUP, but thats all they are doing now.

None of the MobileCo's have ever been unlimited, they have always had a fair limit policy, it's just never been enforced.

cainez_2

gjchester wrote: »

Most people never hit the limits, and it's a non issue. It we polled all of the MSE readers I suspect only a few would have hit the limit in a month. Friends have iPhones on PAYG and get a tiny allowance of a few tens of MB a month and they never go over the limit.


It's when people say "I use x hundreds of MB a day every day" you think they are taking the hiss. FUP have always been in place and because they were never enforced people ignored them, thats a fault of the network they should have enforced the FUP, but thats all they are doing now.

None of the MobileCo's have ever been unlimited, they have always had a fair limit policy, it's just never been enforced.

I never ignored the fup nor my brother, we had no previous knowledge of such a thing. We are not born with this info implanted in our brains, its info you have to gain or be given.

I thinks its the networks fault and noone elses. I understand english and the word unlimited, so does everyone bar the mobile networks it seems. My landline adsl provider zen has always had a fixed cap, they are no1 in the uk and what they say is what you get, ive never strayed or needed to.

How am i supposed to know about the fair use policy without going through all the smallprint which i dont have when ordering a contract over the phone. If the sales person says unlimited thats what i expect, i dont expect a fair use policy because i have never heard of such a thing.

Im not ignorant, nor stupid, i just didnt have this info previously and it seems i wasnt the only one or why would they now be changing the wording? Well because of numerous complaints i bet from a lot of people not just a handfull who probrably went over the cap and found a nice little charge for something they thought was free and unlimited.

Also 500mb is not a lot of data in my opinion for a smartphone or anything else. Anyone watching media will go over this straight away, and anyone under the impression that they have unlimited data allowance will be looking at media rich content such as youtube and iplayer. Your friends on iphone must be just browsing web pages because i think 10 mins of youtube is over 50mb of data . So basicly watching 1 youtube vid a day will eat your data allowance for a month within 10 days. Thats not excessive usage of data, its just one vid a day.

Theres no excuses for the networks, since looking around recently ive found a lot of campaigns to get rid of the word unlimited and fup's, even the gaget show has a web page about this and how misleading it is.

amh15

With respect, that is not a realistic view of typical usage. 500Mb must be only slightly above the median usage when on contract and does not allow for much month-to-month variation.

I was an iPhone user. While I managed to stay under 500Mb most months as far as I know, I did check my usage occasionally and found myself regularly in the high 400s. Note also that as an iPhone user one doesn't routinely download podcasts over 3G (podcasts being one of the heaviest data applications, particularly if you watch a video podcast). With a few podcasts, usage would have been a lot higher. Had I not had wi-fi available at home, in my habitual Starbucks, or at work, my usage would have been much higher.

I think I will avail myself of the 2Gb option that 3 have apparently been offering... it seems even they recognise that they have acted unfairly.

gjchester wrote: »

Most people never hit the limits, and it's a non issue. It we polled all of the MSE readers I suspect only a few would have hit the limit in a month. Friends have iPhones on PAYG and get a tiny allowance of a few tens of MB a month and they never go over the limit.

gjchester

cainez wrote: »

I never ignored the fup nor my brother, we had no previous knowledge of such a thing. We are not born with this info implanted in our brains, its info you have to gain or be given.

I'm sorry it wasn't meant that you personally use that much internet, just some people do.

It also in your hands to read the contract, if you don't read the contract then you have no comeback. Ignorance of the contract is no defence. I can understand you may not get the full terms and conditions in a phone sale but they do send them to you, and you should at least read them once.

I know the term unlimited is misleading, I don't disagree, but the ASA does, and consider it acceptable as an advertising term. The faur use policy has been in contracts for at least 4 years I know of as thats how long I've had a smart phone that made me check. Zen may have a set limit but most providers don't. However they all have fair use limits.

I know many people say 500mb is not enough for a smart phone, the telecoms company don't limit you to 500mb but they do charge you, no different to Zen. If you want to watch videos on your phone or stream music, fine, you just have to pay for it if you go over your limits, if they didn;t the data network would crack up under the strain. Networks have had a fair use policy and now poeple are caning the networks they have to limit it somehow. The could cut you off they prefer to charge. You only need to look at the 500MB . HTC desire thread (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2446159 people are boasting how many GB they are downloading a day to try and get out of a contract to see why the networks have to put some policy in place to limit this.

Most people will not hit the limit, and with the advent of more free wifi spots (cafe's pubs, libraries etc) they are unlikely to


Data is not free, someone has to pay for the bandwidth and it's only right the heaviest (ab)users have to.