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Advantages:
Cheap good quality phones (at least in my experience . . . ) AWESOME Value - for money, range of advanced services
Disadvantages:
Per minute billing, top up lost after thirty days, variable coverage and network quality (though this has improved recently),0800 and 0845 numbers NOT included in your regular allowance .
I'm back on the net now with access virtually 24/7 so be expecting new reviews and the same old att...
I'm back on the net now with access virtually 24/7 so be expecting new reviews and the same old attitude. Regards-Peter.
Member since:25.07.2004
Reviews:64
Members who trust:6
I first had a brush with 3 back in January 2004 when I purchased a Motorola A835 on Videotalk 500. It was a mixed experience and to cut a long story short I terminated my account with them.
Well things change and due to absolute necessity, I purchased an NEC e616v on 3 PAYG and I've been pleasantly surprised by the major improvements I've experienced. I joined a queue of about twenty in my local Superdrug store just before Christmas and purchased it for £44.95 inc 50 mins of airtime and £5 woth of extras inc video downloads ringtunes etc. Give-away or what?
Of course 3 have priced their handsets so that they offer outstanding value for money and they are confident they will make up the subsidy over the lifetime of the handset with the customers call spen, but thats fair enough in my opinion.
Ok, so what does Three offer regarding tarriffs?
£5 purchases 75 text messages
£10 purchases access to a wide range of Three services auch as Video downloads, GPS locator (pinpoints your location to within 10 meters-and it DOES work), downloading of emails, calls to numbers not included in the regular call plans eg 0800, 0870, international and premium rate numbers, MMS etc
£15 purchases 100 anytime mins cross network+ £1.50 to use on other Three services eg Videocalls
£25 purchases
EITHER
500 anytime min cross network + £1.50 to use on other Three services.
OR
50 anytime mins cross network and 500 text messages+£1.50 to use on other Three services.
£35 purchases
EITHER
750 anytime mins cross network + £1.50 to use on other Three services.
OR
75 anytime mins cross network and 750 text messages+£1.50 to use on other Three services.
A pretty comprehensive list with lots of choice available virtually anywhere nowdays.
In my experience, Three had a truly dreadful network performance with loads of dropped calls, poor area coverage and more black-spots than a leopard.
I would hasten to add that recently this situation has improved dramatically in the Wolverhampton area and is now perfectly satisfactory-i've been told that this now also applies elsewhere eg Barry in South Wales, in and around Cardiff etc so it's a fair bet Three are getting it sorted at long last.
As you can see, Three have absolutly unbeatable tarriffs, a good choice of plans, advanced services, a steadily improving network and they also have a range of handsets ranging form £44.95 to about £200 (for the spectacular Motorola E1000).
Excellent news.
And the Drawbacks?
Well the billing is done per minute not per second, there is no roll-over (something Three ought to provide though the idea with ThreePay is to get people to use Three as per it's contract customers without the contract), 0800 and 0845 numbers are NOT included in your 500 mins etc call allowance (this caught me out once as I couldn't call my land-line supplier to pay my bill -thanks Telewest!), no direct-debit option as per Virgin, a thirty day validity peroid-use it or lose it! and the handsets are still considered bulky with mediocre battery life compared to the 2/2.5G (T-Mobile, O2, Virgin, Vodafone, Orange etc) competition.
Overall though I can live with the drawbacks and am inpressed with the improvements to the network sufficiently to make me want to say with ThreePay for the forseeable future.
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Comments about this review »
mirrah 22.09.2005 02:57
We got the same phone for our daughter incase she gets lost and she can use the locator system, she also loves the music down loads and texts all of the time so her £15 credit is always used up before it has a chance to expire. She also has fun with the video recording ability on her phone and has a blue tooth ear piece to go with it.
Excellent review, very balanced.
hmd3 31.03.2005 15:12
I stick to orange most of the time although many reviews are starting to convince me otherwise. good review
TomlinsonSE 30.03.2005 23:41
I've heard bad things about 3 infact they have been on watchdog a couple of times.
Sue
3 brings together video calling, video clips, location based services and amazing content to browse and download. 3 has great offers and a huge range of the 3G handsets. Visit the 3 Shop to find more info. on offers
Advantages: Potentially very cheap, easy and fast to top up, and the 3-live service is excellant Disadvantages: Does not come with free games, reception is generally poor, and unless you have a debit card the above are not true
anthonychan07 05.06.2007 (05.06.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of 3 ThreePay Pay As You Go
Mar 30th, 2005
exceptional by (8%):
very helpful by (75%):
helpful by (17%):
