3 Mobile phones

[sky9]

Does anyone have experience with 3 mobiles. There are some superb deals on at the present ( 750 minutes x network a month) for £17.50 for the first year.

Vodafone told me that 3 is using the O2 network as a virtual network and that the service could be patchy.

Any actual views about the reality of the service?

[BEagle]

It's ****e.

And pricey, with poor coverage.

And what's the point of it? What does it do that an 802.11b/g enabled laptop doesn't do far better?

[Sensible]

I have a 3 mobile as a second phone, it's cheap, mine is £12.50 including 500 minutes but, if you use video, it's expensive, you also pay for recovering voice messages and the price quoted is not the price you pay because a rebate has to be claimed after 6 months and if you don't claim the rebate in within a timescale, you lose it! I also pay for making 0800 calls and finding out how many minutes are left is also charged.

I also have an Orange mobile and the coverage is far superior in my particular area.

[BEagle]

So - if you use it like any normal phone, it could be good if the coverage wasn't so poor. But if you use the clever-clogs facilities which 3G is supposed to offer, then it's expensive?

I recommend sticking to GPRS! Although I suffered when immature technology (Vodafone Mobile Connect card) was rushed onto the market and didn't work properly - and the only use I have for most WAP sites is to get TAFs and METARs!

Personally,

I use a mobile phone to talk to people - Nokia 6310i, the businessman's phone of choice.
I use a digital camera to take photographs.
I use a WLAN-enabled ultralight notebook PC for roaming Internet and e-mails - with a GPRS VMC card as a last resort.

A gimmick-ridden mobile phone which does all of the above will invariably be worse than standalone devices for most of them. I do NOT wish to try to watch video on a tiny little screen, nor listen to music on a mobile phone. I guess that 3G probably hope that yoof will though......

And a PDA to me means a Public Display of Affection!

[sky9]

I was intending to use it only as a mobile.
Interestingly vodafone offered me 400 mins x network for £25 which is half the pulished rate to remain, although no doubt there are incentives around.

[Sensible]

I hadn't mentioned the "clever-clogs facilities which 3G is supposed to offer" simply because the only things which I use are the telephone, address book facility and send a text very occasionally. Technology is wasted on me I'm afraid!

[sky9]

I've just ordered a 3 with 500mins anytime for £50 for the year!! It's a bargain even if it doesn't work.

[take_that]

You asked about 3.

Well I recently signed up with them and would say that you need to work out what you want from your phone.

I get a very good deal for £9.99 for 9 months with the first 3 months costing only £3.99, It gives me 500 ANY network ANY time minutes and 100 texts a month - bargain. BUT..... It comes at a price:

1. It's on a rebate system as one of the previous posters mentioned. You actually pay £30 most months by direct debit but then claim it back after months 3, 6, & 9. Failure to do so within a time limit voids your rebate, so beware. Some may say that there lies the rub but if you use you brand new sparkly phones calander to set a reminder on the first day you use it you shouldn't have a problem.

2. Network coverage is on the whole a lot better than I thought it would be. Heard lots of people complaining but on a 90 minute drive to London it dropped the call twice. My Vodaphone always drops it once at a particular cutting. I'm told its's due to the phone being set-up to run on 3g ad doesn't always switch cells as well as the old non 3g networks (odn't know how true it is). Twice in the last 3 months I have gone to make a call and found the network busy. It cleared after 5 mins.

3. Major gripe - India or some other subcontinent. The operators of 3 are based here. When you ring up with a problem (which is a free call) you end up on the phone for half an hour trying to explain something that is really basic to the native operator. They do try but it is sometime so frustrating that I end-up losing my rag with them as often the problem could be rectified in 30 secs had it been a UK operator.

4. This one drove me to distraction. Initially I had my doubts as to international coverage. I explained my longhaul occupation to the person placing my order and they ran through which countries did and didn't have coverage. It would appear that probably 95% of countries are covered. So I signed-up. After the phone arrived and was activated I called 3 (India) to say that I want my International roaming lifted before I went off on duty. Whilst away for 4 days I had no signal. When I came back to the UK I called India again. This time I was told that I was required to pay £250 to credit my account due to my credit scoring. This realy got my goat. I have recently had my credit checked and was told by the agency that it was as high as it could possibly be! Had many fruitless arguments with them about how this is a scam to generate cashflow and how I had no intention of using £250 as I only intended to use my 500 minutes & 100 texts in UK and receive texts when abroad. As I said earlier - Waste of time!! Got to the point where I was going to cancel my contract (still inside 14 days) but eventually came around to the idea that at the end of the contract I'd get my money back and whilst I was in credit 3 would not use my direct debit facility, instead they would take my line rental from my £250.

5. None of the other crew members ever have a LG charger when I'm downroute as opposed to my Nokia where I would always find one hotie who could oblidge.

6. My partner sent me a picture message and it cost me to see it. Her Vodaphone mms doesn't cost her anything to see but on 3 it does!

So in summary - Use it in the UK, use your 500 mins & 100 texts per month only and nothing else and you will find yourself saving a lot more compared to any other network.

Hope thats of some use?

[sky9]

Thanks all, I've gone ahead and brought as the deals seem outstanding.