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.
1,823 Responses to New All-you-can-eat Data on The One Plan.
Moderator: Lauren 23/04/2013
@Joe – sorry to read this, if you post your full postcode (we won’t publish it) I can check for issues in your area.
joe 22/04/2013
hi
been losing data on and off all day, and now its totally gone. managed to get it on for a while after doing network reset. i know its not my phone as everybody else on three had the same issues
checking online its says theres no plans for any work in my area wv14 seems to be the same everywhere i go
any help please….
joe
Moderator: Nicki 22/04/2013
@kenny – Hi there, sorry you’re having issues in your new address. What’s your full postcode and I’ll check for any planned improvements. Don’t worry we won’t publish it
kenny 20/04/2013
I have recently moved from just outside Maesteg to Maesteg town and my signal has vanished. I used to have download speeds of 250-300 kbps to 2-25 kbps and i can’t talk on the phone without it cutting off. Apart from moving again is there anything i can do?
Ros 11/04/2013
@Caleb – Hi there. The team have checked based on the details provided and it looks like your parcel was delivered and signed for on April 8th by your Concierge. So it may be that it’s with your front desk.
Caleb 11/04/2013
I ordered a phone from you as at Friday morning last week. A sony Xperia Z and I was told it would be delivered on the next working day. Up till this moment I have not received my package and no words from you guys. My name is Caleb Okobia and my address is [removed by Mod]. I would like to ask for a refund of my money and cancel this order because this is clearly not the way to do business. I have lost 3 days of work waiting for the delivery man to deliver and my time is money. If you guys have logistics problem it shouldn’t be meted out on the customers. I would lay my complain to the appropriate channel if the situation doesn’t change today. Thanks
Jamie 28/11/2012
Paragraph that starts ‘We’re doing our best…’
‘Bear with us’… As in big grizzly bear with us? Lol!!
Any who that made me laugh so thanks for that. Also. Thanks for the data. I’ve used about 15gigs this month, banterrrrrr.
Moderator: Johanna 09/07/2012
@Simon Tucker – We’re pleased you’re loving AYCE
I’m afraid we don’t have any plans to introduce it for mobile broadband, as our packages are already pretty competitive in-line with the rest of the market. You can however tether with AYCE if on The One Plan.
simon tucker 07/07/2012
all you can eat data absolutely amazing!!! love it. question, ,, will a similar plan be rolled out for mbb customers too the mbb network is man enough to stream hd etc. love threre x
Moderator: Johanna 05/07/2012
@ford – Yep the One Plan has All you can eat data, with no fair usage policy – you can also tether inclusively on The One Plan
ford 04/07/2012
is the one plan truly an unlimited data plan with absoloutely no restrictions?
Moderator: Nicki 18/06/2012
@ Faz – Hi there, yep the One Plan was changed from 1GB data allowance to the All You Can Eat data allowance. I’d need to check your actual account to see how we were informing customers of this change. I’ll email you separately for your account details so we can have a look for you.
Faz 16/06/2012
Hi
I have had the iphone 4 from new on a 24 month contract from release in July 2010. Now, coming upto Upgrade time, I have been looking through my price plan and eligibilities etc and have come across this blog.
Going back now to a few months after starting my contract I quickly realised the 1,000MB allowance wasnt enough soo sensibly opted for the internet allowance add-on, giving me a few extra Gig to use..
So from this dated blog what i understand is all original One plan customers were converted to an ‘all you can eat/unlimited data’ tariff automatically. I have still continued to pay til this day £5/month for a couple of Gig allowance which I was automatically entitled to.
Was I not made aware and why was the Internet add-on not automatically cancelled by Three which would have been a service actually showing that you care about your customers rather than merely being a network with Phone Masts and foreign call centres. Hence, now at the end of my contract I am seriously considering another network.
regards
Moderator: Kaz 13/06/2012
@Reymund – Sorry to read this and would like to try and help. I’m going to send you an email asking for more account details so we can arrange for one of our social media care team to contact you and discuss your issue in more detail.
Reymund 12/06/2012
Hi, im on the one plan but with some glitch i was put on the ultimate internet 300 which i could not tether. I was on the phone on 333 for 1 1/2 hours for 3 days now but no one can help me. I spoke to 4 departments but theyre saying im on the one plan and not on ultimate 300 but on My 3 it says in on the ultimate 300 and i could not tether it blocks me saying i could not teher in my current plan. Can you arrange a call for me from your high up dept based in the uk. So that i could get a proper response. (REMOVED). Thank you
Moderator: Johanna 08/06/2012
@Pleomax – No it shouldn’t cost a thing… If you give the team on 333 a buzz they’ll remove it for you and you can chat through your options. Come back to us if you need to.
Pleomax 06/06/2012
Just been reading back through these blogs and notice that the adult filter should not cost be anything. I’ve been paying £5 for the privilege since I got the ayce contract when it first came out.
Moderator: Lauren 06/06/2012
@Pleomax – There’s a mast due to be activated in your area within the next month, there’s also some capacity upgrades due as well. The service should hopefully improve within the next few weeks.
Pleomax 06/06/2012
Have recently moved to [removed by mod] and signal is abismal. Sitting by a window I get 1 bar on iPhone 4 3G. If I move I take a pot luck chance of the signal drops all together. Any ideas?
Moderator: Lauren 04/06/2012
@Kadir – We’ve recently started to better enforce our terms and conditions. These say that we only allow tethering on the One Plan, or on other Pay Monthly plans with a tethering Add-on. If you’re on Pay As You Go, we don’t allow tethering on your phone.
If you’re trying to tether without a tethering Add-on and your terms and conditions don’t say that you can, even if you’ve been able to do it previously you’ll find you won’t be able to use this service.
Moderator: Lauren 04/06/2012
@Jamie – We have a duty to give all our users the best experience possible by making sure everyone gets fair access to our network. We use TrafficSense™ to do this. TrafficSense™ identifies and manages types of usage that can prevent other people from enjoying a fair share of the network.
We’ve been trialling a number of different types of high data use management. This particular trial ran from Friday 25 May until Saturday 2 June. We’re now evaluating the results from all of these trials. TrafficSense™, our intelligent approach to our network still exists, but one element of it which was being run as a trial has ended for the time being. We’re now evaluating the results to develop how we implement the highest data user element of TrafficSense™ in the future.
Kadir Bir 04/06/2012
HI,
I have called 3 customer support and received their good word ” Canceled’ ” if this people can not offer any support. only using this word. I was using eat-u-can data with my laptop last 2 months with out any issue. However 3 make an changes and this also effect old customer policy as well, Which is ILLEGAL. but they said they did not put any info on contacts. So they are RIGHT now. My advise is go to Other networks. Maybe their contract is not cheap as 3, but use all will receive normal service which is clearly showing under your contacts.
Jamie 01/06/2012
@(Moderator: Kaz) So your saying that the all you can eat data, which is defined in the post above as:
“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.”
is a lie.You are in fact using crafty ‘fair usage’ policies containing hidden data caps. I’m wondering what advertising standards and trading standards will say about this? However you choose to justify it you do now have a ‘fair use policy’ and a data cap. You have effectively signed customers up on false pretenses.
The “making sure that everybody has the best possible experience using their fair share of our network” excuse is a joke as well. You can provide as much capacity as you like if you are willing to invest it. Three have obviously decided they aren’t willing to invest in increasing capacity (making sure everybody has the best possible experience) and instead are going to renege on customers contracts and their advertising promises hoping no one will notice.