News - Unlimited tethering no longer available to new Three customers

[[DW]Cougho]

Disappointing, I like many use the one plan tethering for when I'm working away from home, either at a customer site or for browsing the internet and avoiding paying for hotel wifi, I can probably manage with the 2GB but it was nice to have unlimited just for piece of mind.

My contract is up at the end of April, and whereas before I was almost certain to stay with three, that may not be the case.

[CampGareth]

Just saying, they could if they want and had the resources (since a mobile phone doesn't push all that much data they might be able to do it) just use deep packet inspection to spot you tethering. A phone will have one MAC address (ideally unique to that device) and anything connecting through the phone will have a different one, that MAC address is stamped on every packet you send. Certainly this is how some ISPs do it like mine, though a VPN can get around that.

I am also disappointed at the loss of unlimited tethering, I normally use maybe 500MB/month of mobile data for google music on my phone and so on, but I've been on holiday to places with no internet connection and in that week I'll use 20GB or so tethering. I guess I could buy prepaid tethering sims but those are so darned expensive.

[MaddogPepper]

The thing is the people downloading 2TB per month are most likely to be downloading movies or tv shows illegally too usin bit torrent or the like. I cant think of many genuine uses which would need to pull down 2TB per month. Having said tgat 2GB is stingy perhaps 10 or 15 GB woulld still offer most people an alternative to a fixed line whilst stopping the illegal download hogs

[Steve A]

I'm on a one month rolling contract so does that mean I lose my unlimited tethering at the end of the month?

From what i'm reading no .. it states that Sim-Only customer remain unaffected which i hope it true as that's what i on.

[Biscuit]

Well 3 just lost my business. I had a oneplan contract purely for use in hotels and whilst on site. Yeah it added up to a lot of data, probably adding up to 10-20GB a month... i dunno im guessing as it is unlimited i didnt check.

[dcwt2010]

Classic case of tragedy of the commons; a few selfish individuals have ruined it for everyone. Granted, they shouldn't say it is unlimited but there should be some common sense. If you went to an all you can eat buffet and stayed there all day, I'm sure the owners would quickly put up new rules...

Also, 4G isn't going to save us; the advertising tells us to watch movies in HD. A typical hour of HD streaming uses about 1 to 2GB so it's all a big joke.

To those who say they're leaving Three for this change; where will you go? I know most networks had far harsher limits on tethering a few years back.

[crossy]

From what i'm reading no .. it states that Sim-Only customer remain unaffected which i hope it true as that's what i on.

My understanding too - from the item that I quoted in post #13.

Just checked - for interest - my data usage this month. I've got just over a week left before my new allowances get applied and I've used over a gigabyte over my 3G/wifi combo. Now bearing in mind that I've only been doing some light web browsing and email, along with program updates, I'm thinking that the 2GB limit looks a bit miserly for the "wonders" of 4G if, for example, I was on holiday and wanted to use my tablets larger screen to maybe do some tweets and/or G+ postings. It's probably laziness on my part but I really don't like the idea of having to very carefully ration my usage in that set of circumstances.

Personally, and this is controversial, I would have preferred to be traffic managed - say a 25% reduction in download speed at 4.5GB+/month, and a 50% cap at 8GB/month. Unless, of course, you stump up for a PAYG style "capacity upgrade". Seems fairer to me that the folks abusing the system by downloading tens of gigabytes (as stated in the article?) per month don't screw it up for the rest of us.

[Biscuit]

Classic case of tragedy of the commons; a few selfish individuals have ruined it for everyone. Granted, they shouldn't say it is unlimited but there should be some common sense. If you went to an all you can eat buffet and stayed there all day, I'm sure the owners would quickly put up new rules...

Also, 4G isn't going to save us; the advertising tells us to watch movies in HD. A typical hour of HD streaming uses about 1 to 2GB so it's all a big joke.

To those who say they're leaving Three for this change; where will you go? I know most networks had far harsher limits on tethering a few years back.

EE have no tethering limitations on their 4G packages. Yes they are still quite expensive but that price should come down.

I actually got an extremely competitive deal with EE and 6GB a month of 4G data. I may well just contact them and increase it, maybe ill just start using the hotel internet? Maybe 3 wont lose my business and ill just get one of their MIFI devices. Im really not sure at the moment but its clear that the One Plan is of no use to me anymore.

Edit: I just contacted their customer services and the representative told me that: despite being on a month by month rolling contract, my one plan would remain as it is until i decide to cancel/change. He also suggested this would be the same for anyone currently in a 12 month contract, if you leave everything as it and that contract ends do nothing and it it will remain as it is.
I cant imagine this is going to be the way it is forever but might aswell make the most of it now and hope prices have come down on 4G data by the time we get shut down.

[dcwt2010]

EE have no tethering limitations on their 4G packages. Yes they are still quite expensive but that price should come down.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be limits (I think unlimited is silly) but you can't say there is no tethering limitations if EE has a data cap and a relatively small one at that. So yes, EE let's you do what you want with your data but you pay a premium; 500MB starter...like wtf?

[SNYPER E]

Just when I thought Three were slowly taking over

[Biscuit]

I'm not saying there shouldn't be limits (I think unlimited is silly) but you can't say there is no tethering limitations if EE has a data cap and a relatively small one at that. So yes, EE let's you do what you want with your data but you pay a premium; 500MB starter...like wtf?

But there isnt a limit to tethering, there is a limit to data. You can pay for 50GB if you want which is a pretty serious package. Like I said, its expensive but it will come down in time.
Some people just don't use any data besides the occasional Facebook check so 500MB Is more than enough as a starter package. I do agree that unlimited is perhaps a touch unrealistic however 3 still offer that, they just limit tethering to 2GB which is disproportionate. Tethering should have been limited to 10-20GB and the package would have still been appealing.