Three HSPA+

Recently moved from o2 for my iPhone contact to Three with the release of the 4S.

To say I'm impressed with the service is an understatement. Amazingly good value -- £99 upfront on the 'one' plan when I signed up, but £150 quidco back which was paid swiftly. For 2000 minutes, 5000 SMS and unlimited data it's a steal.

This compares very favourably with what o2 was wanting -- I was on a grandfathered unlimited plan for £40/month for 900 minutes and unlimited texts. o2 wanted to charge me £51 (!) for 900mins/unlimited texts and 1GB data.

Coverage is *vastly* better than o2 in Edinburgh and on the main train lines (to Glasgow; east coast and west coast). I wasn't expecting such an improvement with it being 2100MHz vs 900/1800 for o2, but they've obviously done something right.

I've also not had a single dropped call on three yet, something which was a massive issue at peak times on o2.

And the speeds on HSPA+ are very impressive indeed. I'm currently using my iphone as a hotspot (which is inclusive in the package as far as I can tell) as o2s home broadband service is horrendously congested. Getting over 950kB/sec vs 20kB/sec on o2.

I'm also using my iPhone 4S as a hotspot - connection speeds in my area are up to 10Mbit off-peak.

I have to agree with you, I live right in the city centre of Aberdeen and get ZERO O2 signal, moved to 3 about 18 months ago and get full bars at home now.

Download speeds in excess of 7mbps and not uncommon! and I travel all over over Aberdeenshire for my job and even find myself getting HSPA+ signal in the middle of nowhere when my work phone cant even get 2G (O2)

The one plan is amazing value for money, the might aswell just call it unlimited everything as I can't really see anyone using more than 5000 texts of 2000 minutes (+5000 3 to 3 minutes). I pay £35/month and £88 upront for my 32GB iPhone 4S and love it!


Cant wait for LTE to start rolling out, looks like 3 may be a late starter, but I'm confident that they'll do it right!

In reply to a post by connormill:

I have to agree with you, I live right in the city centre of Aberdeen and get ZERO O2 signal, moved to 3 about 18 months ago and get full bars at home now.

Download speeds in excess of 7mbps and not uncommon! and I travel all over over Aberdeenshire for my job and even find myself getting HSPA+ signal in the middle of nowhere when my work phone cant even get 2G (O2)

The one plan is amazing value for money, the might aswell just call it unlimited everything as I can't really see anyone using more than 5000 texts of 2000 minutes (+5000 3 to 3 minutes). I pay £35/month and £88 upront for my 32GB iPhone 4S and love it!


Cant wait for LTE to start rolling out, looks like 3 may be a late starter, but I'm confident that they'll do it right!

When i was on o2 i used to use about 6000 mins a month give or take on there unlimited plan but 80% of that was to people on three so i switched onto the one plan to take advantage of the three to three mins i agree with every one three is by far the best network in the uk currently and exceptional value for money the net on the one plan is worth the money alone

with o2 i was paying £60 a month for unlimited texts unlimited mins and 100mb of net on the one plan im paying £32 for the 2000/5000/5000 with unlimited net so almost half the price and still getting just as much use out of it

plus with even more net i no longer have to have wifi enabled draining the battery on my phone in fear of going over my net amount.

Ash

Really? i live on geroge street cant get any signal with three/o2/orange/EE ect only vodafone -_-

Edited by epyon (Tue 27-Mar-12 14:09:08)

Enjoy these speeds while you can.

I was seeing those speeds on 3 in December 2011 but now 3 is horribly congested in Central London at all times on HSPA+. I typically see 0.5mbps.

I have heard that 3 has 50% of the UK's 3G capacity. The other mobile networks have the remaining 50%.

I have heard that 3 has 50% of the UK's 3G capacity. The other mobile networks have the remaining 50%.

If that was true once, it's not any more as O2 are now running 3G on 900Mhz as well as 2100Mhz and I think EE have 3G running on 1800Mhz, 1900Mhz and 2100Mhz!

Three haven't been given any more bandwidth while their competitors have been allowed to use 2G frequencies for 3G.

3G spectrum.

'3' 2100Mhz
O2 2100Mhz and 900Mhz
vodafone 2100Mhz and 900Mhz
Orange / T-Mobile 2100Mhz

Orange / T-Mobile want to deploy 4G LTE services in 1800Mhz.

Three should be getting the 800 band for LTE (unless O2 Stop the preallocation of the 800 band before its even sold to Three) as Three do not have as much 3h spectrum compared to the other networks

if three can get VOIP working under LTE wall issues should go away

but Three Need LTE like last 2 years ago (more like LTE 100mb at least to take on the load of the network but first every one has to wait until they upgrade there 2 year contracts)

In reply to a post by epyon:

Really? i live on geroge street cant get any signal with three/o2/orange/EE ect only vodafone -_-

Yep, getting over 7mb/s download speed on Rosemount Viaduct.

I work on George Street a lot too and get fine coverage there, don't see why you shouldn't. there is a mast on top of the phone exchange on Charlotte Street!