News - Three will upgrade customers to 4G LTE for free

[Brewster0101]

I love the way you can now get mobile internet speeds faster than my home broadband...

My parents live in the country side in Somerset getting 1mb broadband. My three 3g hits about 8mb in the same spot - bit sad

Come on EE!! Customers demand more or unlimited data these days. 500mb on 4G is a complete joke.

They do a 20GB data package if your that bothered - be willing to sell a kidney though.

Shame it's Three.

Horrendous experience, will not use them ever again.

Their customer service is pathetic, even in shops they are not that helpful.

[strike-down]

This is assuming you can tolerate their shockingly bad customer service but at least it should push the prices of EE down!

[MmmmGalaxy]

I'd ways wondered what 3's stance on 4G would be, seeing as they are pretty much the only UK network that offers good deals on data currently. Been meaning to move over to 3 once my contract has come to an end. 4G doesn't bother me hugely but I'd consider a little extra for better speeds and coverage, for free its great.

I always thought it was a brave decision for EE to sell part of the spectrum to Three, the pricing won't even be comparable.

[miniyazz]

This would be interesting if Three's 'Unlimited' data plan were truly unlimited. The reality is that it's not - it's subject to the same fair usage policy that most other providers set, which will probably mean that the fun is over before it's even started on a 4G connection.

It's also worth pointing out that Three are dreadful. My mum lost all phone signal for over 2 weeks before Three did anything about it (apparently a mast problem), then didn't even offer any compensation. When I tried Three, it took me over 35 minutes on the phone to cancel my contract. In the end, I had to demand that my contract be cancelled else I would hang up the phone and cancel the Direct Debit myself. Never again - not for all the 4G in the world.

Customer services are indeed a joke. However, which fair usage policy are you referring to? I managed to use just over 128GB in November and didn't hear anything from them. O2, on the other hand, blocked my internet on my 'unlimited' policy one month at around 1.5GB.

[Stringent]

I'm with 3 but with no LTE phone ... This is a good thing, 3's tariffs seem to be a lot better than the other companies. I have found their signal isn't quite as good as when I was with O2, but its within tolerance levels.

[harryj1995]

Haha EE wont be very happy

[crossy]

(Shame it's Three. Horrendous experience, will not use them ever again.) Their customer service is pathetic, even in shops they are not that helpful.

Actually to be fair, the quality of Three shops is very patchy. For example my local one resembles the comments made against Argos in the first minute of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYSdQ0IZ0x0

On the other hand I tried two in one of those retail parks and they couldn't have been more helpful.

That said, I'm still very impressed with my local EE/T-Mobile store (as opposed to the EE/Orange one five minutes walk away) - had a couple of billing related issues with a uFix contract and they've fixed them everytime (last time using the "old boy network").

Not sure what others think, but personally I prefer traffic shaping to hard limits - it just seems a fairer setup to me. One thing I like about my current T-Mobile contract is that even if I do break the limit I'm still going to be able to do web browsing/email - which is what I use my phone for most of anyway.

I suspect that the current very small data allowances on 4G is the carriers being cautious about the hit to their networks if all these iPhone's etc suddenly start wanting to do streaming tv and all those other "essentials" that 4G enables. In which case, it's possible that we'll see announcements of bigger limits in about six months when the panic's died down.

[scaryjim]

Only had to deal with three twice while I was with them. First time my Nokia's screen just broke in my pocket. They directed me to a service centre, I dropped the phone off, and got it back the same day fully repaired (although I did have to go to Oldham to get it done ). Second time I tried to get my PAC, and it took me about half an hour (while standing in the vodafone shop waiting to start my new contract!). The bloke on the phone didn't even seem to know what a smartphone was and kept offering my alternative deals that were worse than the one I'd already told him I'd been offered!

As to mobile data speeds, 4G will only be of benefit if there are few enough people where you're using it to avoid contention. I had a Three dongle as well as my phone contract: in Salford Quays it was appalling - rarely got above 300kbps downstream, and often dropped the connection randomly. When we moved to Longsight, it suddenly flew up to a completely stable 4+mbps. Contention - dontchya just love it...