Details of 3's tariffs - opinions?
Mobilescape
Customer pre-orders begin online February 22nd 2003
London, February 6th 2003
3 UK today unveiled its highly competitive pricing options designed to
bring the UK's first commercial 3G mobile video and multimedia service
to mass-market consumers and announced that its third-party retail
partners will begin taking pre-orders online from customers signing up
from February 22nd.
In early March customers will also be able to pre-order in-store in 3
UK's flagship 3Store outlets in London and Birmingham and in selected
branches of Dixons, The Link, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U and via
a range of independent retailers across the UK. Fulfilment of
confirmed pre-orders is expected to begin in mid-March.
3 UK also revealed details of tariffs and handset options which will
offer compelling and highly competitive voice, multimedia and mobile
video services at prices which are well within reach of the
mass-market.
The company announced it will offer a price plan for customers looking
for the flexibility of 'pay as you use' tariffs with no monthly line
rental, in addition to offering two generous 'bundle' pricing options
for customers looking to pay a fixed monthly cost for a large number
of voice calls, video calls, multimedia downloads and multimedia
messaging.
All of 3's price plans are based on a simple and transparent
event-based charging system linking payment to specific items of
content downloaded by the customer - in contrast to existing mobile
data services where access is charged by the megabyte. Additionally
there are no complex peak and off-peak charges: voice and video calls
are billed according to fixed tariffs, regardless of the time of day
or day of the week
Prospective customers can find out more and pre-register online at
www.three.co.uk.
3 UK Managing Director Colin Tucker said: "We are looking forward to
bringing 3's unique products and services to the UK market. 3 will
bring about a fundamental shift in the mobile communications
landscape. We are offering consumers the kind of services that were in
the realm of science fiction just a few years ago - but at pricing
which is highly competitive with existing mobile voice and text
services. This is an incredibly exciting time for all of us at 3 as
our vision finally begins to become reality."
The price plans are:
Option 1: 3ToGo
No monthly line rental
Send emails and explore news reports, sports news and fixture
listings, share prices, Lotto results and more for FREE until June
30th 2003
Voice calls on 3's network to other 3 customers charged at 5p a minute
Other voice calls start from 10p a minute
Video calls charged at 50p a minute
Video downloads from 50p each, depending on content, including FA
Premier League action, cartoons, comedy and more
Text messages charged at 10p each, picture messages at 25p and video
messages at 50p
Up to £10 worth of video downloads free each month for your first
three months
Buy two handsets and get £100 off the total price, plus a 20% discount
off the price of your video calls.
Other rates apply to international calls, usage while abroad,
directory enquiries, premium rate calls and certain other special
telephony services.
Option 2: Kit On 3
Generous 'bundle' of voice calls, video calls, video downloads and
interactive content, including:
1,000 minutes of voice calls a month
100 video call minutes a month
250 text messages, 50 downloads, 60 picture messages and 40 video
messages
Send emails and explore news reports, sports news and fixture
listings, share prices, Lotto results and more for FREE until June
30th 2003
Fixed monthly cost of £59.99 for a minimum 12 month contract
Voice calls above the allocated 1,000 minutes a month are charged at
15p a minute, and video calls above the allocated 100 minutes a month
are charged at 50p a minute. Other rates apply to international calls,
usage while abroad, directory enquiries, premium rate calls and
certain other special telephony services.
Option 3: Caboodle On 3
Double the Kit On 3 'bundle' for less than double the price!
2,000 minutes of voice calls a month
200 video call minutes a month
500 text messages, 100 downloads, 120 picture messages and 80 video
messages
Send emails and explore news reports, sports news and fixture
listings, share prices, Lotto results and more for FREE until June
30th 2003
Fixed monthly cost of £99.99 for a minimum 12 month contract
Voice calls above the allocated 2,000 minutes a month are charged at
15p a minute, and video calls above the allocated 200 minutes a month
are charged at 50p a minute. Other rates apply to international calls,
usage while abroad, directory enquiries, premium rate calls and
certain other special telephony services.
Special promotional offer for Kit On 3 and Caboodle On 3
3 also announced that the first 20,000 customers to register on either
the Kit On 3 price plan or the Caboodle On 3 price plan before 31st
March 2003 will be eligible for a 50% discount off the RRP of any
handset.
Handset prices (RRP before discounts) begin at £399. See online at
www.three.co.uk for more details.
- ends -
NOTES FOR EDITORS AND CSEs
About 3
Hutchison 3G UK Limited will deliver third-generation mobile
multimedia and communications services under the 3 brand in the UK,
offering a convergence of media, information and telephony to enable
live video calls, multimedia content and entertainment while on the
move.
3 services will be available from sister companies in Australia,
Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Israel and Sweden.
For further information, please visit: www.three.co.uk
3 contacts:
tel 020 7010 9312
me...@three.co.uk
Sausage Fans
con...@mobilescape.co.uk says...
> Option 1: 3ToGo
>
> No monthly line rental
> Send emails and explore news reports, sports news and fixture
> listings, share prices, Lotto results and more for FREE until June
> 30th 2003
> Voice calls on 3's network to other 3 customers charged at 5p a minute
> Other voice calls start from 10p a minute
> Video calls charged at 50p a minute
> Video downloads from 50p each, depending on content, including FA
> Premier League action, cartoons, comedy and more
> Text messages charged at 10p each, picture messages at 25p and video
> messages at 50p
> Up to £10 worth of video downloads free each month for your first
> three months
> Buy two handsets and get £100 off the total price, plus a 20% discount
> off the price of your video calls.
> Other rates apply to international calls, usage while abroad,
> directory enquiries, premium rate calls and certain other special
> telephony services.
This must be the way the whole market will move...no subsidies on phones,
no line rental..pay for calls.
Excellent
--
The Sausage Network, connecting you with
sausages locally www.sausagefans.com
gbnews
>> Send emails and explore news reports, sports news and fixture
>> listings, share prices, Lotto results and more for FREE until June
>> 30th 2003
>> Voice calls on 3's network to other 3 customers charged at 5p a
>> minute Other voice calls start from 10p a minute
>> Video calls charged at 50p a minute
>> Video downloads from 50p each, depending on content, including FA
>> Premier League action, cartoons, comedy and more
>> Text messages charged at 10p each, picture messages at 25p and video
>> messages at 50p
>> three months
>> Buy two handsets and get Ł100 off the total price, plus a 20%
>> discount off the price of your video calls.
>> Other rates apply to international calls, usage while abroad,
>> directory enquiries, premium rate calls and certain other special
>> telephony services.
>
> This must be the way the whole market will move...no subsidies on
> phones, no line rental..pay for calls.
>
> Excellent
I'm all for it, the only problem I can see is that it may bring the theft of
these new mobiles higher, as people will have to fork out the cash for a
decent phone. I hope the networks and manufacturers make it extremley hard
to un-blacklist a phone.
gbnews
Jackal
>
> This must be the way the whole market will move...no subsidies on phones,
> no line rental..pay for calls.
>
> Excellent
i.e - Pay as you go!
Adrian Smith
wrote:
>In early March customers will also be able to pre-order in-store in 3
>UK's flagship 3Store outlets in London and Birmingham and in selected
>branches of Dixons, The Link, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U and via
>a range of independent retailers across the UK. Fulfilment of
>confirmed pre-orders is expected to begin in mid-March.
A launch late 2002, then early 2003, then 03/03/03, now for practical
purpose "mid-March". I wonder what problems they still have with the
handsets and network?
Perhaps the next press release will state handset shipment on
2003-04-01?
Sausage Fans
says...
> i.e - Pay as you go!
Good point, simplification, prepay or post pay...
Sausage Fans
ma...@btinternet.com says...
> I'm all for it, the only problem I can see is that it may bring the theft of
> these new mobiles higher, as people will have to fork out the cash for a
> decent phone. I hope the networks and manufacturers make it extremley hard
> to un-blacklist a phone.
3 are on it when it comes to security.
Sausage Fans
usenet...@hadrian.ws says...
3/3/3 would seem logical though...
Chimp
"Adrian Smith" <usenet...@hadrian.ws> wrote in message
news:3e4242eb...@news.claranews.com...
Seriously unless you are a gadget freak, I wouldn't buy a 3G phone for over
a year as it will be riddled with problems and they are mucho bigger than
2.5G phones
Stevie
> 3 UK reveals highly competitive pricing options
> Customer pre-orders begin online February 22nd 2003
>
>
>
> Double the Kit On 3 'bundle' for less than double the price!
>
Caboodle on 3?
Sigh - how let the crazy wacky marketing guy choose the name.
Actually, it might be fun just to pop into CPW or Phones 4U just to see
how many times you can get one of their sales guys to say 'Caboodle'.
Maybe get your mates together and run a sweep stake on it before you go
in....
Adrian Smith
<infor...@sausagefans.com> wrote:
>> >In early March customers will also be able to pre-order in-store in 3
>> >UK's flagship 3Store outlets in London and Birmingham and in selected
>> >branches of Dixons, The Link, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U and via
>> >a range of independent retailers across the UK. Fulfilment of
>> >confirmed pre-orders is expected to begin in mid-March.
>>
>> A launch late 2002, then early 2003, then 03/03/03, now for practical
>> purpose "mid-March". I wonder what problems they still have with the
>> handsets and network?
>>
>> Perhaps the next press release will state handset shipment on
>> 2003-04-01?
>
>3/3/3 would seem logical though...
Yes - but by their own admission they have now missed that deadline.
Stuart
"Mobilescape" <con...@mobilescape.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eff04b2e.03020...@posting.google.com...
>
> All of 3's price plans are based on a simple and transparent
> event-based charging system linking payment to specific items of
> content downloaded by the customer - in contrast to existing mobile
> data services where access is charged by the megabyte.
This worries me - does data access not include ordinary net access? If so
how do they 'event' net access if not by data transfer?
Are they going to define 'events' like a SSH session or a DNS lookup?
10p texts is also pretty disappointing. A missed opportunity to damage the
profitability of their competitors...given that data services are supposed
to be the USB of 3G - the offer looks decidely old fashioned.
--
Stuart
http://bizzy.net - $6.99 .biz/.us & $8.75 .com/net/org domains
groovybaby
> 3 UK reveals highly competitive pricing options
> Customer pre-orders begin online February 22nd 2003
Not that competitive. I'll be sticking with trusty 2G for a while yet!
groovybaby
Simon C
On the whole it looks very competitive to me (the bundle packs anyway).
The only things that worry me are the lack of info on data rates (i.e.
linking up via bluetooth for checking email/browsing web etc.) and the
ambiguity about voice call prices...
For PAYG it says 5p/min to call other 3 mobiles, with other voice calls
starting from 10p - which I guess is calls to landlines. Great if it's to
other mobile networks too, but I suspect that they will be more expensive.
And for some reason the bundle packs voice rates are higher, at 15p/minute -
or perhaps this is a flat rate for all calls (even to other networks?)
Also they don't specify whether the bundle pack inclusive minutes are
x-network or not, but bearing in mind *alot* (if not most) of the other
networks' tariffs are now x-net ones I would assume they probably are. So
if they are then I'm sorted because there is no way in a month of sundays
that I will get through 1000 voice minutes in a month!
--
Simon C
"A closed mouth gathers no foot"
(Remove My Pants to reply by e-mail)
Simon C
> ambiguity about voice call prices...
>
> For PAYG it says 5p/min to call other 3 mobiles, with other voice
> calls starting from 10p - which I guess is calls to landlines. Great
> if it's to other mobile networks too, but I suspect that they will be
> more expensive. And for some reason the bundle packs voice rates are
> higher, at 15p/minute - or perhaps this is a flat rate for all calls
> (even to other networks?)
Cool! 3 have now updated their website to include the new tariffs. Indeed
on PAYG the x-net calls are more expensive - but at 25p it is still one of
the cheapest around.
And for the kit and caboodle bundles the 15p is flat rate including on-net,
landline and x-net (but not international and premiums fairly obviously).
More details on three's site:
http://www.three.co.uk/explore/howmuch/option1.omp for the kit and caboodle
details and:
http://www.three.co.uk/explore/howmuch/option2.omp for the 3togo PAYG
details.