It’s a subject that’s caused a fair bit of debate and discussion over the last year or so. Lots of you want more of it, mobile networks seem to be reducing it, some of you are scared of it, but on the whole, the vast majority of us just don’t understand it.
If you hadn’t guessed, I’m talking about data. And today we’ve announced something that we think is going to tip the idea of data on your mobile completely on its head.
Before I go into the ‘what’, here’s a bit on the ‘why’.
We know that not understanding data, is one of the biggest barriers to really making the most of what you can do on your smartphone. We all know what a minute feels like, or roughly how many texts you might send, but the world of gigabytes, megabytes and fair usage policies is still a mystery to most of us.
And as more and more of us start using smartphones that can stream, download, upload, browse, surf and all that other data related stuff, the problem’s only going to get worse.
So to give you complete peace of mind when you’re using data on your mobiles, we’re making a change to The One Plan, our market-leading price plan that we launched back in July.
From now on, we’ll be removing the 1GB data allowance currently available on The One Plan and replacing it with something completely different.
We’re calling it All-you-can-eat Data, and it’s not like anything you’ll see from anyone else. Unlike other data plans, there are no restrictions and no crafty ‘fair usage’ policies containing hidden data caps. We’re leaving behind the ‘old mobile’ world of limits and allowances in favour of a new world that gives you the freedom to use your smartphone to do everything it was designed for without the worry of cost.
Our new world has no data restrictions, you can use as much as you want and we’ll never charge you a penny more.
If you’ve been to all-you-can-eat restaurants before, you’ll already be familiar how this works. You pay once, you get as much as you want the first time round, and you can still keep coming back for more. And yes, if you want to use your phone as a dongle (also known as tethering) then you absolutely can.
So how is this going to work?
Well, All-you-can-eat Data on The One Plan kicks in now. It’s for new customers, upgrading customers, and customers that are part way through their contracts.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s only for customers on The One Plan at the moment. It doesn’t apply to Mobile Broadband, Pay As You Go, or any of our other Pay Monthly plans. If you’re a mobile customer on any of our other tariffs and you’re tempted by All-you-can-eat Data, you can move to The One Plan at any time.
We’re doing our best to make sure that all of the places we refer to our previous 1GB data limit on The One Plan are updated as quickly as possible, but we can’t tackle them all at once, so please bear with us. If you’re a One Plan customer, you might continue to see 1GB on your bill or on My3 for a little while still, but that’s just because we haven’t been able to change the wording yet. All One Plan customers now have All-you-can-eat Data.
So I hope you like our changes.
We’re taking a bold move and bucking the trend in an industry that seems to be scaling back, not giving more. We’ve invested heavily in our 3G network to make sure it’s in the best position possible to be able to support you in this new world; to make sure that we’re not only giving you quantity when it comes to data, but quality too.
We want to give you complete peace of mind when you’re using data on your phone. And if you’re in the camp that is so scared of ‘bill shock’ that you avoid data altogether, hopefully this will give you the reassurance to give it a try.
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@Sam Crisford – Hi there, do you know if you have the Blackberry services addon? You’d need to have a specific Blackberry addon to use BBM or the internet.
i brought this to use with my blackberry but my internet and bbm still wont work
@Clarissa – I can confirm that tethering is allowed on the One Plan and there is no limit on the amount of data you use. All we ask is that it’s for personal use only.
Hi. I wish to get the One Plan with an iPhone 3gs, with the intention of tethering it to my netbook. I read somewhere that there is in fact a data limit specifically on tethering, even on the One Plan. Can 3Mobile confirm this? I currently use a 3 Mobile dongle with 15gb per month and I would like to increase this to around 20 -30gb per month by changing to a tethered iPhone 3gs. Until I know for certain I will be able to tether on the One Plan (24 month contract) with no restriction applied by 3 Mobile, either in speed, or data amount, I cannot contractually commit. Even if there IS a tethering limit, I may well take up the One Plan anyway, because it still offers a decent contract, but I need to know the specific terms of the contract and having spent days and hours researching this matter of clarification, I am not yet secure in the contractual terms, which in itself is a flaw in the 3Mobile contractual descriptions and therefore a little offputting to a customer wishing to commit.
Much obliged.
CV
@pab – The only issues we’ve had in the past similar to what you’re saying is when customers try to use 2G phones on our network. As a 3G only network any 2G phones are blocked and you can’t use your sim in it.
We’ve never hid our traffic management policies – they’ve clear to view at Three.co.uk/traffic
@sparrow – Cheers for posting that. I moved away from Three a couple of years ago when they started a crusade blocking phones from connecting to the data network simply because they weren’t Three branded. I chuckled when their support team tried to tell me it was because my PDA wasn’t “compatible” despite working as expected for the better part of a year. Since I’m due a change a phone, I was tempted to give them a second chance considering a truly uncapped data plan but if they’re hiding throttling and rate adaptation then clearly I’m better looking else where. Lol; comment approval – let’s see how long my comment stays up.
@DJ – I’ve dropped you an email so we can look into this for you.
Hi, I’ve just got AYCE on my Text 500 1GB plan for about a month now, however just recently I couldn’t access the internet when I connected my phone to the PC. I kept getting a tethering block info site. Has the terms changed without us knowing? I thought you can always use it via USB.
@Sue – I’m afraid you can’t upgrade to The One Plan mid-contract, as advised without paying an early upgrade fee. It was possible at one time, which is why you may have spotted it. If it’s all you can eat data you’re after, you can get that added to your account for £3 a month by calling 333.
Hello,
I have a monthly contract on my phone, Text 500 with 1GB data. No add ons. I phoned today to see if I could upgrade to The One Plan as I had read on three and elsewhere that I could move to that tarrif part way through my contract.
I have now been told that because my Text 500 contract doesn’t finish until Jan 2013 that I will have to pay over £150 to change to The One Plan.
Shouldn’t Three tell their customers that they will have to pay to do that mid contract?
“If you’re a mobile customer on any of our other tariffs and you’re tempted by All-you-can-eat Data, you can move to The One Plan at any time”?
Is all you are saying.
@Sparrow – Sorry to read that you are having issues, I can arrange for someone in our social media care team to contact to discuss this in more detail. I will email you a request for more account details.
hello all. I am a month into a One Plan 24 month contract, I have been using 3 mobile broadband for a few years now and am have been realy happy with it, I decided to sighn up for one plan after very carefuly looking into this unlimited data or AYCE. I have been paying 60 pound a month for 2x 15gb mobile broadband deals as my bussines means I need a lot of data and I am always moving. So the one plan looked perfect. All was well for first week, and I felt reasured by the 3 team on the phone that my data was truly unlimited after I recived a text telling me I was down to 20% of my alowence (this aparently was a relic of my old phone contract).
I decided to put it to the test, so I downloaded a couple of movies, about 5GB in total. Next day I noticed that my data conection was droping at regular intervals..10-15 mins, its been that way ever since. I am in a great reception area, line of site to the mast and very few neighbours, also I can have a laptop conected on one of my 3 Mobile BB sims and no loss of conection. The phone (HTC Sensation) shows a HSPA signal but is not conected. Its nothing to do with my computers or conection method, have used wifi hotspot on phone and USB teathering both behave exactly the same. To get the conection back I have to turn off the mobile data on the phone and restablish the teather, speed test shows between 5-7 MBs conection. Only thing I can asume is that my One plan conection has been in some way moderated due to me using P2P downloading. At present I am waiting 48 hours for a call back from ‘networks team’ to ‘look into’ this. Unless its resolved I will be taking legal action to terminate this contract on the grounds of it being NOT AS SOLD. (I have had to reinstatem my conection 2 times while typing this) Not happy
@Paul – Hi there, yep tethering is included in One Plan sim only as well. As it’s a one month rolling contract you’ll be able to upgrade this to a 24 month contract with phone at a later date if you want
Hi there,
I’m looking to move to Three, sim only on a rolling monthly contract. Can you confirm whether tethering is included with the 1 month sim only ‘One Plan’?
Also, I’m assuming I can switch this to a 18 or 24 month contract at a later date should I wish?
@abbas – Just to confirm the One Plan comes with All You Can Data and does not have any limits on how much you download, even if you use 100GB. Hope that answers your question and puts your mind at rest.
hi.i recently took out the one plan contract.i use my phone interent to download stuff..but i am constantly worried that how much data i can use,,one plan says that it is unlimited internet,,but even if i use 100GB to download ??/ is there any charge??
@Chris Bird – Hi there, unfortunately you cannot use a One Plan sim in a dongle.
Hi, can i put the One Plan sim in a 3g usb dongle? as effectively your using it for the same reasons as tethering its just i have a dongle but i dont want to keep swapping sims over in my current contract phone which im reluctantly paying for
@Phil – Yes, that’s true. BlackBerry services are a different package and cost an additional £5 per month.
Hi all, just recently took out a three contract on the one plan. It came with a Galaxy Smartphone however I already have the latest Blackberry Torch. However when I called to switch my number the guy said if I wanted to use my BB phone I would need to purchase BB internet package does this not make the whole one plan thing kinda useless if I have to purchase an extra internet pack on top? Is this true that I have to get it?
@Callum – yep tethering is included in your plan
Im on the one plan, can I tether my iPhone 4s to my iPad 2 for free.
@Phill – It really is AYCE! If you want to tether on your smartphone then make sure you get The One Plan or One Plan SIM-only.
@Jazz – Glad you’ve decided to stick with The One Plan
We’ve removed the adult content filter across all contract phones so you shouldn’t experience the same issue. If for any reason the content filter reappears, there’s a simple free fix 
Hi,
Just about to get on the smartphone ladder, from using numerous wifi gadgets. (iPod touch, HP Touchpad) I use the web alot, and loads of the sites I visit are not mobile websites. Everyone else seems to have lowish “fair usage policies”. Is yours really “all-you-can-eat”?
Not going to get stung am I?
Hi, Kaz. I took out the One Plan last year (Feb 2011) and had some problems with it which you helped sort out for me. This was in regards to Three’s Internet filtering of many websites (i.e., Urban Dictionary, B3ta and… ahem… many others). Three’s adviser told me over the phone that I would need an add-on, which cost around £5, in order to bypass this. But according to you moderators on this blog, One Plan customers shouldn’t have to have this add-on to have full internet access, as that was one of the perks of the One Plan I guess. So anyway, Kaz, you helped me (as well as many others at the time) sort this issue out. The add-on was added to my account and £5 was deducted from my bill every month to counter it, thus solving the problem.
Thank you again for helping me.
Anyway like I said my contract is coming to an end so after shopping around for a new plan, I’ve decided to stick with Three renewing my 12 months on the One Plan over the phone today, which is due to start in April. It seems still no other company comes close to beating your One Plan package a year on — a testament to Three. But the lady operator told me the add-on will be removed when the new contract comes into affect! She tried reassuring me that I would not face the same problems I did a year ago (before Kaz sorted it out), but I am not so sure.
So Kaz, are new customers still having this problem or has it been looked into and sorted by the higher ups? Please tell me I won’t have to go through the same rigmarole I did last year with the whole add-on thing?
@James Mitchell – if you call the team on 333 they may be able to provide more detail…
Yes, I am using an iPhone 4s, which I believe is an HSPA+ device. Is there really no way of finding out if there has been a local upgrade and when it was implemented. Don’t Three keep a record of upgrades somewhere?
@James Mitchell – I’m afraid we can’t check back to see what upgrades have taken place, we can only look to the future! Fantastic news that you’re speeds are so good. If you’re using an HSPA+ enabled device, it may be that you’ve just had HSPA+ rolled out in your area.
Hi all – I wonder if it’s possible to check my local transmitter and let me know if there has been an upgrade recently. I have been getting around 3 to 4 megs on the One Plan, which I have been very pleased with (as I am in the sticks and can only get about half a meg broadband). However, this morning, I noticed that my speed had rocketed to an amazing 8 to 9 megs. I didn’t think this sort of speed was possible with 3g. I am downloading a new map for my TomTom (tethering using USB from my iPhone to my PC) – the file is about 1.5GB, and it’s nearly half way complete after about 40 minutes!
My Postcode is GU[removed by Mod] – according to your website, I shouldn’t be getting a data service at all. Needless to say I am highly delighted with this new development. So, has there been any recent upgrade to my local mast?