MSE News: Three Mobile scraps roaming costs in seven countries

DJC50

I visit the Isle of Man regularly. It is not in the UK or the EU. I have an Apple i-phone on the 3 network. I usually turn off roaming when I am there and try to use wifi. Does anyone know the cheapest method of using my phone on the island, apart from getting a new sim card from Manx Telecom?

Ghostlike

DJC50 wrote: »

I visit the Isle of Man regularly. It is not in the UK or the EU. I have an Apple i-phone on the 3 network. I usually turn off roaming when I am there and try to use wifi. Does anyone know the cheapest method of using my phone on the island, apart from getting a new sim card from Manx Telecom?

I am in the very same boat as my mum lives on the island (I live in London). I go around five times a year and during that time I can't use my phone as I normally would. The best thing I have found is to connect to my mum's WIFI and communicate using WhatsApp, which lets you send texts over WIFI, not as part of your SMS allowance, therefore you aren't charged 10p a time (or whatever it is). I also use email a lot, especially to talk to work colleagues. The key is never to take or make calls.

flossy_splodge

Tony5101 wrote: »

But you don't need to roam onto the 3 network though. You can roam onto any network in the designated countries.
That's the big difference between the old 3 like home, and the new roaming 'deal'.

Thanks, yes, I did realise this but it seems the reality is proving to be somewhat different.
Am waiting for an update from the Australian end but if you go onto the Vodafone Australia facebook page where posts are responded to by a company rep, it seems they are having a fair number of problems with Three or migrated Three customers not being able to connect.
Don't understand why if, as you point out, the system was supposed to be that you did not need to connect to the Three network itself and indeed any connection was supposed to be automatic on reaching land in Australia!
Any other thoughts would be welcome.

flossy_splodge

OldGreyFox wrote: »

Three dont even say you have to use their Network when roaming in OZ or the other 6 countries currently covered.

"What do I need to use Feel At Home?
You don’t need to do a thing. It all happens automatically as soon as you arrive in an eligible country. Just wait for your phone to pick up any local mobile network and you’re good to go."

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

Thanks, yes, I understand this is the theory but I am told that it is not the reality. Will await further info but thanks anyway.:)

flossy_splodge

redux wrote: »

It's becoming slightly difficult to work out whether your outburst is on behalf of Three UK or Three AU customers, or both. Even reading this a couple of times I'm not sure.

I say this for the third time: your assertion that Three Australia went broke, which you still aren't quite fully retracting, is wrong.

And I say this too, which is why I'm at pains to correct it:

The phrase went broke is commonly taken to imply that creditors and customers lost money. Thus an assertion that someone or a company went broke, and thus deprived others, when they actually did not is potentially defamatory, in this case of the Three network owners Vodafone, Hutchison Whampoa and minority shareholders in HTAL.

If you are talking of Three Australia customers who might be upset at the closedown, this isn't the place to discuss it. Vodafone has said it thinks people were given fair notice by several means. Anyone who disagrees ought to make their feelings known there.

If you're talking of Three UK customers visiting or likely to, Three UK at the moment seems to suggest that people will have roaming on other networks in the roamed country.

If this is an error, to be later corrected, we will have to wait and see, but they do also say they are hoping to extend Feel At Home to other countries without Three networks

So maybe, given Three UK's comments as they stand, it is quite likely that arrangements have been made with Vodafone Australia.

In the reciprocal direction, Three Australia customers visiting other countries while it still existed, a recently Google cached page shows that they had Like Home roaming on the Three networks, and on any Vodafone networks amongst the same countries, i.e. Vodafone in UK Ireland Hong Kong and Italy

Thus, if Three and Vodafone have made those arrangements for one country's customers, and if Vodafone Australia is jointly owned by Vodafone and Hutchison, and if Three UK says Feel At Home roaming in Australia, let's assume until proved otherwise that they are correct.

You say no, but it's clear from your comments that you don't actually know this for fact.

You say you've contacted Vodafone Australia for confirmation. So I assume that you've only made this query very recently, perhaps only since reading other people's comments here, and thus haven't yet had a reply.

Why post this alarmism before finding out?

What a charmer you are.

ZhugeEX

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Thanks, yes, I did realise this but it seems the reality is proving to be somewhat different.
Am waiting for an update from the Australian end but if you go onto the Vodafone Australia facebook page where posts are responded to by a company rep, it seems they are having a fair number of problems with Three or migrated Three customers not being able to connect.
Don't understand why if, as you point out, the system was supposed to be that you did not need to connect to the Three network itself and indeed any connection was supposed to be automatic on reaching land in Australia!
Any other thoughts would be welcome.

You're really confusing us here. Are you talking about Three Australia or Three UK?

Becuase this roaming deal only applies to Three UK customers. Basically you can use your Three sim in Australia on either Vodafone or Optus at no extra charge.

I think you've been misinformed or are confusing this deal for something else.

flossy_splodge

The people who are visiting Australia for a month took out and paid for this new deal with Three UK on the strength of its benefits to them when away.
Now they are out there they seem to be having problems with various functions not working eg email.
I understand fully that it seems illogical that the absorption of Three Australia into Vodafone should make any difference as the deal is supposed to let them connect to any network out there.
However, I am being told that this is not what is actually happening and 'someone' has told them the problem is to do with the cessation of Three Australia as a Brand.
Vodafone Australia seem to be acknowledging that there are indeed some problem areas that they have not resolved since the merger.
None of this should be relevant if the Feel at Home package they signed up to in the UK was in fact functioning as we are all led to believe it is intended to function ie they SHOULD be able to connect through ANY network.
Hope this clarifies.
I do not get either why there is a problem but I'm in the UK and they are out there most definitely experiencing problems.:o

ZhugeEX

flossy_splodge wrote: »

The people who are visiting Australia for a month took out and paid for this new deal with Three UK on the strength of its benefits to them when away.
Now they are out there they seem to be having problems with various functions not working eg email.
I understand fully that it seems illogical that the absorption of Three Australia into Vodafone should make any difference as the deal is supposed to let them connect to any network out there.
However, I am being told that this is not what is actually happening and 'someone' has told them the problem is to do with the cessation of Three Australia as a Brand.
Vodafone Australia seem to be acknowledging that there are indeed some problem areas that they have not resolved since the merger.
None of this should be relevant if the Feel at Home package they signed up to in the UK was in fact functioning as we are all led to believe it is intended to function ie they SHOULD be able to connect through ANY network.
Hope this clarifies.
I do not get either why there is a problem but I'm in the UK and they are out there most definitely experiencing problems.:o

A bit vague.

What do you mean various functions not working? Is it a coverage issue? Can they make calls and texts? is it just data not working? etc....

grant32

I'm now in Perth roaming with a three uk sim. At the airport, it the city, in the suburbs am getting 4-5 bars of signal in iPhone, great quality calls back to the UK but data is abysmal. I have almost given up trying it is so slow. Haven't seen more than about 0.2Mbps and ping rates of close to 3000. I also see 3 have updated their roaming pages and it now only lists Vodafone as roaming partner. And for data it's Vodafone regional whatever that is. I'm sure Optus was listed a few weeks back. In any case have bought prepaid Vodafone sim to compare and it works great. Are roaming customers being throttled?

NFH

grant32 wrote: »

I'm now in Perth roaming with a three uk sim. At the airport, it the city, in the suburbs am getting 4-5 bars of signal in iPhone, great quality calls back to the UK but data is abysmal. I have almost given up trying it is so slow. Haven't seen more than about 0.2Mbps and ping rates of close to 3000.

That's because outgoing calls go directly from point to point but data always passes via the home network. Therefore if you visit an Australian web site, it goes back to the UK and then back to Australia. If you go to www.displaymyhostname.com you will see you're connecting from a UK IP address.