This has cropped up in some other threads, but I'm after some first-hand experiences with 3 - good or bad. I need a new phone, and, being a sad geek, I'd like an N95. However, my usage is erratic, with varying amounts of calls / SMS / MMS / data / roaming so the traditional £35/£40 a month for millions of minutes/texts doesn't really suit me.

So 3 is looking good:

- £24 per month with free N95

- 300 mins/texts is more than enough.

- 3 Like Home means I can use inclusive mins/texts when roaming in Ireland and Australia (and some other places)

- free skype and msn (although I can't see me making much use of these)

Downsides I can see:

- no daily cap on data costs (shouldn't bother me too much)

- overseas call centres which I object to... but my wallet may win over my ethics here

So, if you have any horror stories, please share before I sign away 18 months of my life

I did have 3 a few years back, biggest problems then were signal quality (even though they piggyback o2) and the call centre in India (very much a case of if its not on their script, they don't know). I believe they have improved quite a bit though lately.

I tried 3 about three years ago.

Plenty of minutes, but I never seemed to stay connected long enough to use them.

Ended up keeping my existing number and reverted back to using that as soon as my contract was up.

I have 2 contracts with 3 coverage is good and I don't get many dropped calls like I did with O2. Saying that Orange have some good deals at the moment.

I've got a 3 mobile at the moment. Can't say that I've experienced any problems. I quite like the deal I'm on, even though that I don't use it to it's full.

i have had 3 for 4 years, used to drop calls all the time,bit more rural in scotland anyway, but is much better now ,hardly ever drop a call, you are right with the call centre "it's a nightmare" thankfully though i have not had to call them all year,and if it's sales ,call centre is uk based.

No problems with 3 to date

I did have 3 a few years back, biggest problems then were signal quality (even though they piggyback o2) and the call centre in India (very much a case of if its not on their script, they don't know). I believe they have improved quite a bit though lately.

3 now piggyback on Orange's network for area's where they don't have coverage.

I've been told that since they moved service has improved alot. I have a friend that was with Orange from launch he moved across to 3 12 months ago and doesn't regret it for a second.

I'm also tempted by 3 as well atm... just need to decide on a phone.

3 =

No problems at all even with the call centres which I have used. Better than T-Mobile IMHO.

Go for it.

Thanks for the input guys. 3 is looking good.

A couple more questions to those of you on current contracts if I may...

1) I'm a little confused by their data offerings which seem to consist of "Internet", "Broadband" and "X-Series". I don't intend to sign up to a pay-per-month add-on straight away, so I seem to have the choice of "Internet casual" at £2/MB or "Broadband casual" at £1/MB. Anyone know how it works?

2) I think the answer to this is "no", but can anyone on a mix&match talkplan tell me if picture messages come out of the bundled text message allowance?

Cheers

I'm on 3 now, have been since the summer. the only thing i dont like is the fact that you're billed for picture messaging, i think its about 30p per message. Its a tad annoying because i dont use all my texts and would rather they took 3 texts off me per picture message instead of charging me. Overall though, i'm very happywith the service

They must have changed the contracts a bit then. Per month I get 1000 texts, 300 mins, 50 mins video calls, 50 multimedia messages and £5 of downloads from the 3 site. All for £30 per month. Also get fre MSN messenger for life.

I think I'll be staying with them forr a while yet.

Looking at getting a 3 phone for my son now

I was with 3 for a few years, never had any probs with them. X-series should be careful tho - just got the missus to sign up to 3 for an x-series phone and you have to purchase £5/month of internet stuff to use skype (and pos other services too).

B.

It says on their web site that msn, skype, yahoo and ebay are free on all plans - no need for an Internet add-on...

My waters have been muddied. T-Mobile have dropped the price of the N95 to £9.99 up front on a £25/month plan. The £1 a day max charge for Internet might just make them better than 3 for me now.

Sigh.

Just got my son a phone for £20 a month K850i free

Well done mate. Glad someone has found the info useful.

Well done mate. Glad someone has found the info useful.

Well I took the plunge and signed my soul away for 18 months. Got a N95 for me and a K850i for the missus. Will do a like-for-like camera comparison at the weekend.

All OK so far, but still getting to grips with the N95. I keep havng this fear that my web surfing is using the phone network rather than WLAN

Oh, and having used a SE for several years I can't get used to having "space" on the 0 rather than the # :(