Three apologises again as some still without mobile service

[Java Jive]

Three apologises again as some still without mobile service
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68243283

"Three has again apologised to "a small number of customers" without
service after it fixed the "vast majority" of issues affecting its network.

Downdetector, which tracks outages, showed more than 12,000 of the
telecom firm's customers reported calling and mobile data were not
working on Monday.

It is the latest outage to hit Three, after it apologised on both
Saturday and Sunday over similar incidents."

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

[Andy Burns]

Java Jive wrote:

> It is the latest outage to hit Three, after it apologised on both
> Saturday and Sunday over similar incidents."

I was using my MiFi on threembb without issues over the weekend, they're
basically the only provider that gives me coverage when visiting
lincolshire ..

[Java Jive]

By contrast, several times in recent days I've been wondering WTH is
going on, and whether I am going to have to buy a new phone, because
I've found it displaying the "Emergency calls only" logo, but when
manually I've set it to search for networks, it's found Three and
'logged on' without problems. Yet my broadband, which is based on a USB
dongle with a Three SIM plugged into my router, has not showed any
obvious problems. <Manuel>Que?</Manuel>

The above linked BBC report suggests that the problems are with Three
rather than my phone or anything else local, such as the masts, so I
guess I'll have to wait & see if things manage to sort themselves out.
However, I'm still curious as to why there should have been different
behaviour between the phone & the dongle.

[Theo]

Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
> By contrast, several times in recent days I've been wondering WTH is
> going on, and whether I am going to have to buy a new phone, because
> I've found it displaying the "Emergency calls only" logo, but when
> manually I've set it to search for networks, it's found Three and
> 'logged on' without problems. Yet my broadband, which is based on a USB
> dongle with a Three SIM plugged into my router, has not showed any
> obvious problems. <Manuel>Que?</Manuel>

I've had that in the past with an Android phone. Usually rebooting the
phone fixes it. The problem being that you need to notice that you have no
connection, which you might not do for some time.

(the phone was running a third party OS and this was a known bug with this
specific build, but it only lost connection every few weeks so it wasn't too
bad)

Theo

[Java Jive]

It's an old phone, or rather phablet, anyway, still on its last Samsung
upgrade to Android v7.0. I did try rebooting it yesterday, and the
problem has not happened since.

[notya...@gmail.com]

Three have NOT apologised for reneging on 3-2-1 nor their very public promise not to revert to EU roaming charges....

[Chris]

They said they had "no plans". Anyone who believed we'd keep free EU
roaming forever after brexit needs their head examining.

Having said that ID mobile still includes it for free.

[Andy Burns]

Chris wrote:

> Mark Clayton wrote:
>
>> Three have NOT apologised for reneging on 3-2-1 nor their very public
>> promise not to revert to EU roaming charges....
>
> They said they had "no plans". Anyone who believed we'd keep free EU
> roaming forever after brexit needs their head examining.
>
> Having said that ID mobile still includes it for free.

And O2.

I don't think voda/ee/three have introduced roaming charges for
customers on pre-2021 contracts, just new contracts?

[Dave Royal]

"notya...@gmail.com" <notya...@gmail.com> Wrote in message:

3 are pretty determined to get rid of ex 3-2-1 PAYG customers. I
left months ago for giffgaff. My wife stuck with it until
January. She used monthly bundles which she usually renewed, but
sometimes postponed the renewal for a while. She said they
removed the ability to renew a bundle in advance - the day
before, say: she had to let it expire. And they removed the 444*
balance enquiry - she had to log on and find it in their
inpenetrable website. So she moved to Smarty. (I'm surprised 3
didn't suggest that, and make it easier.)

BTW, I notice that in wikipedia Smarty is not listed as a MVNO
like 1p Mobile but as a brand of 3:
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_UK#Virtual_operators>
Is there any technical difference between Smarty and an MVNO?

(*One thing I like about giffgaff is *100# balance feature.)

I have a German FONIC PAYG SIM which still includes GB in its EU
tarriff.
--
Remove numerics from my email address.

[Tweed]

Vodafone do have new contracts with included overseas roaming - I have one.
They’ve just segmented their market offerings into cheaper without
inclusive roaming and a bit more expensive with inclusive roaming.

[Chris]

Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Chris wrote:
>
>> Mark Clayton wrote:
>>
>>> Three have NOT apologised for reneging on 3-2-1 nor their very public
>>> promise not to revert to EU roaming charges....
>>
>> They said they had "no plans". Anyone who believed we'd keep free EU
>> roaming forever after brexit needs their head examining.
>>
>> Having said that ID mobile still includes it for free.
>
> And O2.

I thought O2 had introduced per day charges.

> I don't think voda/ee/three have introduced roaming charges for
> customers on pre-2021 contracts, just new contracts?

It's been forever since I've been on a contract. Does the above mean that
as long as you don't move your contract you'll keep the same terms as when
it started? Although, they'll get expensive with the annual price
increases.

[Woody]

My wife was on O2 Classic (the O2 version of 3-2-1) and still is even
though she uses here phone maybe only a dozen times a year. Since I am
on unlimited with GG she just uses mine instead!
Have said that and in her defence she is an intelligent woman (retired
Physio) but she cannot stand smartphones and touch screens - her own
phone is a Doro 612 clamshell which she loves albeit 2G only!

[Andy Burns]

Chris wrote:

> I thought O2 had introduced per day charges.

"Travelling to Europe? Whether you’re on Pay Monthly or Pay As You Go,
use your data (up to 25GB), minutes and texts at no extra cost across
over 45 countries in our Europe Zone."

>> I don't think voda/ee/three have introduced roaming charges for
>> customers on pre-2021 contracts, just new contracts?
>
> It's been forever since I've been on a contract.

What do you mean by that? That you're beyond the minimum contract term,
or that you're on PAYG, I'm on SIM only, and I still regard that as a
contract ...

> Does the above mean that
> as long as you don't move your contract you'll keep the same terms as when
> it started?

I think so, unless they phase out the plan you're on and bump you to a
different one.

[notya...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday 14 February 2024 at 18:36:21 UTC, Chris wrote:
> Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> > Chris wrote:
> >
> >> Mark Clayton wrote:
> >>
> >>> Three have NOT apologised for reneging on 3-2-1 nor their very public
> >>> promise not to revert to EU roaming charges....
> >>
> >> They said they had "no plans". Anyone who believed we'd keep free EU
> >> roaming forever after brexit needs their head examining.

They actually said: -
https://www.threemediacentre.co.uk/content/go-roam-after-brexit/
and here is their bus outside parliament: -
https://cached.imagescaler.hbpl.co.uk/resize/scaleWidth/743/cached.offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/news/OMC/Three-1-20190313122924174.jpg

I am not sure if it was a "me too" campaign because Three knew that this suckered 17.2M people the first time it was used, or extreme irony - believe this too and you will believe anything.

Anyway however you slice it Three will NOT stick to a deal. I bought 3-2-1 SIMs for tablets and old phones, thinking "at £10 what do I stand to lose?" answer £9 each!

O2 have stuck to their classic deal (same as 3-2-1).

> >>
> >> Having said that ID mobile still includes it for free.
> >
> > And O2.
> I thought O2 had introduced per day charges.

Nope, I extended for 12 months only today and it is definitely included.

Amusingly there is a window of opportunity that if you upgrade one can avoid the RPI increase.
2013-22 BT Business "Small Biz" deal, with £5pm incentive, not much data, £2.30p pm to start, but £4.90p pm by 2022, so in September I migrated to BT consumer £6pm 4GB
2022-23 monthly fee increased to £6.70p in April 2022
2023-24 monthly fee would have increased to £7.9?p pm in April 2023, so I upgraded the contract to 15GB for £7.99p
2024-25 estimate the RPI increase to at least £8.60p, so today upgrade the contract to 32GB pm for £8.00p
Some indication that they might charge a small termination fee on the contract to April 2024.

> > I don't think voda/ee/three have introduced roaming charges for
> > customers on pre-2021 contracts, just new contracts?

Dunno. After just over a year with them Voda doubled off-peak call charges in 1987, so I switched to BTC losing Voda IME over £10k since.

> It's been forever since I've been on a contract. Does the above mean that
> as long as you don't move your contract you'll keep the same terms as when
> it started?

Usually, but not with Three.

> Although, they'll get expensive with the annual price increases.

Indeed, which I why I jumped eventually.

[Chris]

Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Chris wrote:
>
>> I thought O2 had introduced per day charges.
>
> "Travelling to Europe? Whether you’re on Pay Monthly or Pay As You Go,
> use your data (up to 25GB), minutes and texts at no extra cost across
> over 45 countries in our Europe Zone."
>
>>> I don't think voda/ee/three have introduced roaming charges for
>>> customers on pre-2021 contracts, just new contracts?
>>
>> It's been forever since I've been on a contract.
>
> What do you mean by that? That you're beyond the minimum contract term,
> or that you're on PAYG, I'm on SIM only, and I still regard that as a
> contract ...

I was on PAYG for a while and am on a 30 day SIM now. I don't consider that
equivalent to a contract where you are tied in for at least 12 months.

[Andy Burns]

Chris wrote:

> I was on PAYG for a while and am on a 30 day SIM now. I don't consider that
> equivalent to a contract where you are tied in for at least 12 months.

Yes, the 1month flavour are as close as yu'll got to no ongoing contract.

[Mark]

On 14/02/2024 09:09, Dave Royal wrote:

[snip]

> 3 are pretty determined to get rid of ex 3-2-1 PAYG customers. I
> left months ago for giffgaff. My wife stuck with it until
> January. She used monthly bundles which she usually renewed, but
> sometimes postponed the renewal for a while. She said they
> removed the ability to renew a bundle in advance - the day
> before, say: she had to let it expire. And they removed the 444*
> balance enquiry - she had to log on and find it in their
> inpenetrable website. So she moved to Smarty. (I'm surprised 3
> didn't suggest that, and make it easier.)
>

444 still reports the current credit balance of both my 'true' 3-2-1
Three SIMS.

However 444 no longer reports the active balance of the Data Reward SIMs
that also used to charge 3-2-1, for which you have to check online to
find the credit remaining.

[Dave Royal]

Mark <codv...@yahoo.co.uk> Wrote in message:

> On 14/02/2024 09:09, Dave Royal wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> 3 are pretty determined to get rid of ex 3-2-1 PAYG customers. I
>> left months ago for giffgaff. My wife stuck with it until
>> January. She used monthly bundles which she usually renewed, but
>> sometimes postponed the renewal for a while. She said they
>> removed the ability to renew a bundle in advance - the day
>> before, say: she had to let it expire. And they removed the 444*
>> balance enquiry - she had to log on and find it in their
>> inpenetrable website. So she moved to Smarty. (I'm surprised 3
>> didn't suggest that, and make it easier.)
>
> 444 still reports the current credit balance of both my 'true' 3-2-1
> Three SIMS.

It was an ordinary long-time 3-2-1 SIM. Maybe it a temporary
failure. For my wife it was the final straw. She used 444 to
check she had enough credit to be able to buy the next bundle (or
whatever it was called).

[Mark]

Using 444 you do now have to press 1 to confirm the enquiry relates to
the phone you're calling from.

In the past it used to be the default announcement and no further button
pressing was needed, so a credit balance-check took just seconds.

[David Rance]

On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 13:43:20 Mark wrote:

>On 19/02/2024 10:29, Dave Royal wrote:
>> Mark <codv...@yahoo.co.uk> Wrote in message:
>>
>>> On 14/02/2024 09:09, Dave Royal wrote:
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>>> 3 are pretty determined to get rid of ex 3-2-1 PAYG customers. I
>>>> left months ago for giffgaff. My wife stuck with it until
>>>> January. She used monthly bundles which she usually renewed, but
>>>> sometimes postponed the renewal for a while. She said they
>>>> removed the ability to renew a bundle in advance - the day
>>>> before, say: she had to let it expire. And they removed the 444*
>>>> balance enquiry - she had to log on and find it in their
>>>> inpenetrable website. So she moved to Smarty. (I'm surprised 3
>>>> didn't suggest that, and make it easier.)
>>>
>>> 444 still reports the current credit balance of both my 'true' 3-2-1
>>> Three SIMS.
>> It was an ordinary long-time 3-2-1 SIM. Maybe it a temporary
>> failure. For my wife it was the final straw. She used 444 to
>> check she had enough credit to be able to buy the next bundle (or
>> whatever it was called).
>
>Using 444 you do now have to press 1 to confirm the enquiry relates to
>the phone you're calling from.

Huh! And they charge 35p for the privilege! I use the Three app which
costs nothing.

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK