3 (Three mobile)

You can forgive consumers for being slightly sceptical of a newcomer to the mobile phone market place. After all, with such trusted giants as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2 all delaying their 3G networks, despite paying gargantuan premiums for the licenses, what could possibly be the advantage of Hutchison Telecom bringing their 3G network to the masses so early.

In fact, with all those recognised brands out there, who was going ...
...company that, to UK retail consumers at least, was a complete unknown?

But launch their service Hutchison did, under the auspicious brand name Three. Or “3”, if we want to be pedantic. The parent company's hopes were that, while the big High Street names were umming and ahhing their way towards a 3G service, “3” could steal a march and pick up new 3G customers – and hopefully some loyalty – while the others were trying to figure out ... more

You can forgive consumers for being slightly sceptical of a newcomer to the mobile phone market place. After all, with such trusted giants as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and O2 all delaying their 3G networks, despite paying gargantuan premiums for the licenses, what could possibly be the advantage of Hutchison Telecom bringing their 3G network to the masses so early.

In fact, with all those recognised brands out there, who was going to put their trust into a service provided by a company that, to UK retail consumers at least, was a complete unknown?

But launch their service Hutchison did, under the auspicious brand name Three. Or “3”, if we want to be pedantic. The parent company's hopes were that, while the big High Street names were umming and ahhing their way towards a 3G service, “3” could steal a march and pick up new 3G customers – and hopefully some loyalty – while the others were trying to figure out if the billions they'd paid for their 3G licenses had really been worth it.

After a year in service, Hutchison had told investors that they would have at least 100'000 subscribers and a competent, stable, national 3G service. The reality was worse than expected. In fact, at the end of their first year “3” only had 10'000 subscribers and a barrage of complaints from existing and prospective customers that the 3G network didn't work and that their new phones were late in arriving, cumbersome and unreliable.

I found this hugely disappointing. I was a big fan of the “3” network. I loved the idea, the branding and the prospect of streaming adult movies readily available on my mobile phone. The ability to ring up my wife, as long as she was on another “3” phone, and see her tantalisingly naked while I was away on business trips filled me with relief; hotel rooms are boring to the extreme and TravelLodge's do not allow you to access mucky channels. It's hard enough getting an Internet connection from one of their rooms.

But porn aside, the idea of video news, video messaging, games, sports reports and much more all appealed to me. The future of mobile phones was upon us, and I really wanted “3” to work. If I could have, I would have signed up on the spot but my company were tied into a Vodafone contract and, as they paid the mobile bills, it would have been foolish of me to take out another contract just to have a “3” phone. So I waited.

The first thing I did when I left my last job was to hand back my old phone and head straight out to get myself a phone on Hutchison's network. As I was doing this, Vodafone were launching their 3G service and Orange were rapidly marketing that theirs would be available by the end of the year (2004). It was, therefore, in my interests to compare networks, but pound-for-pound “3” still came out on top.

You see, today the “3” service is fully up and running. They might be behind on their subscribers still, but Vodafone and Orange haven't seen as good a take up of their service as they would have liked and O2 have abandoned their 3G service in favour of a partnership with Japan's DoCoMo to bring the i-Mode service to Europe instead.

In the early days of Three's approach to the market customers complained that network availability was poor and calls were dropped regularly. The main problem here was that, as Three's coverage grew, they still shared their network bandwidth with other providers for voice and text calls. The idea behind this was that a “3” customer outside of the home network could 'roam' to another network (as you would when travelling abroad) and still be able to make calls. The trouble was that if you started a call on the “3” network and then walked, or drove, outside of the “3” area the call would be dropped and you'd have to redial, picking up the third-party network to complete your call. Today, however, modern 3G phones can pair up networks at the same time. Make a call from your phone while in a “3” area and the phone will open up a connection on “3” and a.n.other network. Should you then stroll out of the home network's area your call is still open on the other network's line. “3” carry the cost for this – it does not implicate your bill in anyway and, having used the service extensively for a couple of months now, I've not noticed any of the hidden charges that so many early customers complained bitterly about.

Three, therefore, have grown up. And fast. The first thing they realised they needed to do was make their phones more attractive, and there's now a plethora of smaller, more pocket friendly 3G phones on the market, with many more coming soon. People moaned extensively that Three's network coverage was poor, but look at it today and you'll see a different story. Certainly, their full 3G service (providing video calling, streaming video, news and games downloads etc.) is still restricted to major towns and cities, but their coverage for voice calls and text services is now quite extensive, with much of the UK covered. Only small pockets are unavailable on the “3” network today, and even these are still accessible via Three's unique roaming capability.

But what about cost? Surely, as their service improved and the competitors finally came to the market with their own services, now was the time for Hutchison to start putting up prices? I'd set my heart on the new Motorola E1000, fresh to the market, and reckoned on needing a tariff that could provide me with about 500 minutes of network talk time and around 150 texts a month. Three offered me a good tariff, exactly what I wanted, and after some searching around online mobile providers I came across the tariff I wanted, with the phone I wanted, at a price I couldn't argue with: 500 minutes any network any time talk time per month, and 100 texts (slightly under my usage, but certainly acceptable) for just £30.00 per month. The phone was included free, insurance was free for three months and I got half price on my line rental for the first six months.

Compare that to a standard mobile phone contract and it's pretty good; compare it to exactly the same tariff on Vodafone's new 3G service and it was unbelievable: 500 minutes, any network any time on Vodafone 3G, with 100 texts and a Motorola E1000 equated to £179.00 for the phone and £75 per month for the contract. You do the maths.

(See my Ciao reviews on the Motorola E1000 for information on the phone and on E2Save.com for information on the company I used to purchase the phone from.)

Vodafone's argument was that you were paying for going with one of the World's largest and most successful mobile phone service providers. My argument was that they were just too damned expensive and if their network coverage on 3G was as poor as I'd found it on the standard phones, then Hutchison's baby was a much better bet.

So how have I found it? Exceptionally satisfying, to be honest. The network coverage, and therefore availability, has left me with little to complain about. Whilst at home on a standard Vodafone contract my trusty old T610 would often have limited signal capability; the same with my previous Nokia 6210i. My wife has been on several providers, including T-Mobile and O2 and is now on BT Mobile – not one of them ever gave a sufficient signal in the house. Three, on the other hand, regularly provides nearly full signal in this area and I've rarely been in a location where it has dropped out of complete signal range. (Except the London Underground, of course.)

Hidden charges were always something early customers complained about, yet I've just received my third bill and so far the only excess charges I've had to pay have been my over-indulgent texting and a couple of games I've downloaded when in a full 3G service area. The bills are clear and easy to understand and, if you're a little unsure as to how much of your complementary service you have remaining, MY3 is available as long as you are in Three's network coverage (standard or full 3G) and provides you with information on how much your last month's bill was (useful if the bill itself hasn't arrived yet) and how many minutes and texts you have remaining for this month. No reason for exceptionally large, scary bills to arrive on your doorstep then.

One thing I have discovered, however, is that “3” users aren't actually that fussed about the 3G services available to them, however. The novelty has worn off for me too. In my early days, whenever I was within a full 3G area I would download news broadcasts, games, music and so on, simply because I can. Now I don't bother. Unless I'm stuck on a train, there's no real need for me to use the full service that “3” offers. When I'm at home I can pick most of it up off the Internet; when I get back to work I'll be able to pick most of it up off the Internet; while I'm travelling between an office and home, most of it'll be done in the car and so the phone will simply be docked in its handsfree cradle.

Similarly, video calling appears not to be something that “3” users are overly interested in. Simply because we have the facility, those friends of mine on Three and I have video called each other once in the last three months, just to be able to say we've done it. A good policeman friend of mine called me one day and it was amazing to see him appear on my screen, smiling at me. Similarly, he could see me.

“You look like you're driving,” he said suddenly.

“I am,” I smiled back at him, before turning the phone so the camera was facing the speedometer. “But I'm not speeding, see?”

This aside, the 3G services available haven't really been that useful to me at the end of the day. The call tariffs, however, are so much better than any of the traditional providers out there that I'm lead to only one conclusion:

If Hutchison add a range of standard “2G” phones (such as the normal Nokias or Sony Ericssons) to their network and offer just voice and text packages without any of the fancy 3G paraphernalia, at the prices they currently offer, “3” will clean up. 

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