News - Unlimited tethering no longer available to new Three customers

[HEXUS]

But as some consolation the network makes 0800 numbers free to call on new plans.

Read more.

[wyte_w0lf]

Well this is utter poo. The few ruin it for the many. And looking at the new contracts they have really stripped it back. Not as much value as before, o2 offer 4g cheap now.

Will need to do more research but saddened at this move.

[MonkeyL]

I forsee a lot of customers jumping ship. Everyone I know on 3 have the One Plan specifically because it's unlimited tethering.

[Slivver]

I forsee a lot of customers jumping ship. Everyone I know on 3 have the One Plan specifically because it's unlimited tethering.

Typically I rarely send any SMS messages or make a single phone call each month, the only reason I have a One plan is for the unlimited data and as I work away during the week tethering to my laptop.

I was just about to renew my contract when it is due for renewal at the start of April but now it looks like I'll have to start looking around at alternatives.

[Hicks12]

I loved the unlimited tethering but I wont leave just because of this, when I come to renew my 12 month contract I will just use it as a haggling point I do wish they left it to something high like 10gb because sometimes my internet goes down and I do like tethering my pc to it but never to do insane stuff its just mostly streaming videos and some downloads, 10gb would be plentiful and would stop the abuse but I agree a lot of people took the utter piss downloading several TB (know a few ....) still atleast they have truely unlimited mobile data! And 4g is free(relatively anyway) cant wait for 4g to arrive in plymouth .

[Dooms]

The terms for the plan will now be limited to a maximum of 2GB of tethering data for all new contracts whilst existing customers will continue to receive unlimited tethering until the time that their deal expires

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

[crossy]

I've got a couple of questions:
1. Are these limits 3G only, or are they also going to apply to their "free" 4G upgrade?
2. If you've got an Android phone and an Android tablet tethered to it - how can they tell? I mean the article etc makes it plain that your AYCE plan will still allow you "unlimited data" from your phone so it stands to reason that there must be some mechanism to allow Three to distinguish between native and tethered data usage.

If the limits also apply to 4G then there goes a reason to switch from where I am now to one of their contracts. That said, it'll be months (/years?) before I get 4G locally, so it's likely that the "ball game" will have changed again.

[kingpotnoodle]

The terms for the plan will now be limited to a maximum of 2GB of tethering data for all new contracts whilst existing customers will continue to receive unlimited tethering until the time that their deal expires

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

Probably yes, but they'll have to notify you IIRC.

It's a shame but they do have to apply sensible usage limits otherwise light users are in effect subsidising the insane users, it helps to smooth a bit that everyone paying an equal amount for unlimited usage isn't really a fair model for mobile data, some people do an awful lot better out of it than others. It's pretty annoying when you need a quick map download and the network is congested, its safe to assume that a lot of congestion is streaming media etc.

[Netvyper]

Well Damn
My contract is up in June or July - I've been using my phone as a primary broadband source for 100-200GB/month depending on how much I'm at home. I'm in (fairly central) Bristol... and it's faster than the ~2Mbps fixed line broadband I can get

I don't see how 2GB can be considered a viable amount of data... I routinely pull that by tethering my tablet while I'm away from home...

I fully admit I'm not a light user, and I'm willing to pay for the privilege - but there simply isn't a provider in the UK for me any more - unless anyone has suggestions?

[aidanjt]

1. Are these limits 3G only, or are they also going to apply to their "free" 4G upgrade?

4G gets screwed as well.

2. If you've got an Android phone and an Android tablet tethered to it - how can they tell?

They can't. They also can't tell if it's a HTTPS or basically any other non-HTTP connection, or a browser spoofing it's user agent to that of your phone. Basically it's crappy DRM to shaft customers who don't know better.

[kingpotnoodle]

2. If you've got an Android phone and an Android tablet tethered to it - how can they tell? I mean the article etc makes it plain that your AYCE plan will still allow you "unlimited data" from your phone so it stands to reason that there must be some mechanism to allow Three to distinguish between native and tethered data usage.

There are a lot of ways, a lot of traffic through mobile networks is proxied and inspected so they can look at things like the user-agent, other headers, the nature of the traffic. A lot of networks block things like VPNs because its a way or circumventing some of their "optimisations".

[virtuo]

I've only tethered once a few days ago when my broadband went down, basic web browsing/email, so I doubt that this will affect me. I did want to tether my tablet to my phone if I was out and about, but I still don't think I'd eat through 2GB in a hurry.

I'd be interested to know how exactly they can identify traffic that originated from a tethered device and traffic that did not. By inspecting packets/request headers? Not that reliable in my opinion.

Edit: just did some quick research, safe Stackexchange links:

http://android.stackexchange.com/a/48408
http://android.stackexchange.com/que...lock-tethering

In short, they can't 100% reliably identify tethering, and there's things you can do to make it even harder (VPN, Encryption, changing various settings, not visiting stuff like Windows update servers over a tethered line). You might want to check if your phone notifies the network that it is being used to tether.

[crossy]

I've only tethered once a few days ago when my broadband went down, basic web browsing/email, so I doubt that this will affect me. I did want to tether my tablet to my phone if I was out and about, but I still don't think I'd eat through 2GB in a hurry.

You'd be surprised - after all Voda were pushing their 4G as being ideal for video-on-demand - iPlayer and the like. And from the brief try I had on 3G, that can use a heck of a lot of data - but obviously I'll bow to those who've actually tried it on 4G, don't know if there's some compression available etc.

In short, they can't 100% reliably identify tethering, and there's things you can do to make it even harder (VPN, Encryption, changing various settings, not visiting stuff like Windows update servers over a tethered line). You might want to check if your phone notifies the network that it is being used to tether.

Can't see me every wanting to contact the Windows update servers except over my normal broadband, so I'm okay there. No idea how to check if my S3 notifies the carrier of being used for tethering - time to go to Google.

In search of some clarification I popped over to http://blog.three.co.uk/2014/03/18/t...monthly-plans/ and there's something interesting to see

We feel very strongly that all-you-can-eat data is something we want to continue to be able to offer as many customers as possible. But when that data is used for Personal Hotspots, it can put a strain on our network. We need to protect the network experience for all customers and this is why we’ve taken a decision to put this limit in place.

Our SIM only plans remain unchanged.

To summarise our new 24 month Pay Monthly plans;

• Free 0800, 0808 and 0500 numbers

...

Now I have zero interest in a phone+plan from Three, preferring to get a better deal by going SIM only. So - from that fragment - it looks like if I went for an AYCE plan then I'd get my tethering with no limits.

By the way, interesting the way that Three are "shouting from the rooftops" that you're getting the freephone 0800 numbers for free, while whispering that they're also putting a limit on tethering. Sorry "Personal Hotspot" (Which sounds like something from a sexual relations manual to me)

[Saracen]

I'm split on this.

On the one hand, yes, I sympathise with the "few ruining it for the many" argument.

But on the other hand, unless you are prepared to put up with some people taking "unlimited" at face value, you shouldn't offer it. It's absolutely predictable, not least because of previous "unlimited" deals that have been over-used, that some people will take unlimited to mean, well, unlimited.

So, if you want the marketing benefits of "unlimited", it's implicit that some people will take you up on it. Live with it.

Personally, tethering would be useful for those occasions when I'm away from home, and the only thing I'd expect from "unlimited" is that, first, I have a connection when I need it, and second, I'm not going to get clobbered with unpredictable usage charges for exceeding my "allowance". In other words, 2GB might be enough, but there's no peace of mind in it, because it might not. If I'm away from home, it might be oevernight or a couple of days, or it might be weeks, and I don't necessarily even know when I leave home how long it'll be for. I went for 4 or 5 days over Christmas that ended up as a month, near enough. Summer before last, an unexpected trip (the wife dudn't know when she left for work in the morning, that I'd collect her two hours later, and we'd be gone from home an hour later .... for 6 weeks.

It's the predictability and peace of mind that's useful to me, and now it's gone.

[wombat]

I've been tethering mine a lot on the recently using my payg with the £15 all you can eat.

I rarely attempt to watch youtube as they already restrict the speed to around 100kb most of the time. Rarely use the more than a few of the bundled minutes. The speed will often bump up to a meg after midnight though.

Sure hope when they switch on 4g here that they don't throttle so much.

[Nikumba]

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

Says in the article "Current SIM-only contract customers will remain unaffected, retaining their tethering options."

So I would assume you wouldnt