"Three" to offer truly unlimited 3G??

S0litaire

if you're up for an upgrade soon and need lots of data usage, then you might want to hold off till later this week...

In the world of mobile broadband Internet, “excessive use” is a phrase that we’ve all come to be too familiar with. For the 1.5 million mobile Internet customers on 3 UK, that term just flew out the door. The UK’s 4th-largest mobile carrier has just introduced truly limitless mobile broadband packages, replacing the previous 1 GB cap for £25 plan.


According to what we’re reading over at the New York Times, the company is including tethering in the plan. The Times brings up the fair point that this could overwhelm 3′s network, which covers the vast majority of the UK population. However, it’s worth mentioning that the 3G speeds are certainly no substitute for a dedicated, broadband connection in the home.

http://thenextweb.com/uk/2010/12/15/3-uk-is-set-to-deliver-truly-unlimited-mobile-broadband-tethering-included/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/technology/15mobile.html?_r=1&src=busln

jayme1

I really like 3 mobile, they have always allowed you to use your past data limit on teathering, after all 1GB of data is the same whether it is on the phone or on the computer so the argument the other networks saying 'it costs us more money to give you teathering' was always complete bull.

JJ_Egan

A whole £25 a month .

jje

cgk1

http://blog.three.co.uk/2010/12/15/new-all-you-can-eat-data-on-the-one-plan/

So on a 12 month sim only contract, you get:

12 month plan
2,000 any network minutes
5,000 Three-to-Three minutes
5,000 texts
unlimited data

or the same on a 24 month contract with a phone.

S0litaire

Kicker is I just took out a Contract with 3 last month! but not a "One-plan" tarrif!

Think it's gonna cost me to jump over...

vixmony

i know giffgaff are the only ones who have been truelly unlimited at present but every bit of competition is good for the consumer so i hope the uk mobile companies go back to unlimited data again soon. Lol imagine if vodafone would also change and go the unlimited data route, that would be comical considering the fight they had just a few month ago regarding this.

tazdevil01985

I would read the T's and C's it has to be capped somewhere, otherwise would be very surprised if any network would offer unlimited as it would cause crashes on the PS side of the network with capacity

MillicentBystander

Truly unlimited 'anything' can never work over the long term. What happens is the mahoosive abusers just move to the network that decides to make theirs truly unlimited until the system is creaking enough (and they are losing money) for the company to hurriedly bring in an FUP. Then the mahoosive abusers just move to the next company to decide to offer a truly unlimited and the same thing happens again...and again.

S0litaire

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Truly unlimited 'anything' can never work over the long term. What happens is the mahoosive abusers just move to the network that decides to make theirs truly unlimited until the system is creaking enough (and they are losing money) for the company to hurriedly bring in an FUP. Then the mahoosive abusers just move to the next company to decide to offer a truly unlimited and the same thing happens again...and again.

Or Three have seen only a tiny minority hammering the 3G network,
The average user (which may account for about 90% of total users) probably rarely hits 2Gb (4Gb at a push during the odd month).

Also they might start moving voice over to the T-Mobile/Orange network as standard, that leaves their 3G free for VoIP/data calls.
They may sell T-Mobile/Orange access to some of that extra 3g data bandwidth.

Hey! You never know, they may know how to actually manage a data network more efficently than the other networks.

MillicentBystander

S0litaire wrote: »

Or Three have seen only a tiny minority hammering the 3G network,
The average user (which may account for about 90% of total users) probably rarely hits 2Gb (4Gb at a push during the odd month).

Also they might start moving voice over to the T-Mobile/Orange network as standard, that leaves their 3G free for VoIP/data calls.
They may sell T-Mobile/Orange access to some of that extra 3g data bandwidth.

Hey! You never know, they may know how to actually manage a data network more efficently than the other networks.

What is happening now is immaterial - it hasn't been unlimited. Make it truly unlimited and you end up with the drongos that no other network wants! i was reading on the giffgaff forums the other day that they have had to modify their 'goodybags' due to people abusing the system - one bloke readily admits to using his mobile for 12,500 mins a month talking to his bird for hours on speakership whilst he played on his Xbox!! Giving the public truly unlimited anything is a bit like locking Amy winehouse in a room full of booze and telling her to behave herself.

tazdevil01985

[QUOTE=S0litaire;39386976

Also they might start moving voice over to the T-Mobile/Orange network as standard, that leaves their 3G free for VoIP/data calls.
They may sell T-Mobile/Orange access to some of that extra 3g data bandwidth.

[/QUOTE]

As they only use the orange 2G network and they are turning this off as they are in a RAN (Radio Access Network) share with T Mobile then this wont be the case. The only thing I can see is pain for H3G customers their network is in a bit of a better shape than it used to be as they are now sharing T Mobiles 3G Masts but only thing I can see is slow speeds and downtime