I think it was the beginning of a turning point in the industry, something the more established players could no longer ignore, people wanted genuine internet access on their handsets – and this signalled the end of the walled garden.

Thinking about it – to this day what other networks offer 1gb of data for just £5 – I can't think of any.

Cheers for now,

Trevor.

I think it was the beginning of a turning point in the industry, something the more established players could no longer ignore, people wanted genuine internet access on their handsets – and this signalled the end of the walled garden.

Thinking about it – to this day what other networks offer 1gb of data for just £5 – I can't think of any.

Cheers for now,

Trevor.

I think it was the beginning of a turning point in the industry, something the more established players could no longer ignore, people wanted genuine internet access on their handsets – and this signalled the end of the walled garden.

Thinking about it – to this day what other networks offer 1gb of data for just £5 – I can't think of any.

Cheers for now,

Trevor.

For Three to launch a product that wasn’t billed as “Unlimited” when others already do so would be corporate suicide.

By all means complain to the ASA about the use of the word “Unlimited” but word your complaints so it covers the entire market and doesn’t single out Three because a big fine and bad publicity may well put them off any further innovative ventures!, especially when they seem to be trying hard to shift that “walled garden” image.

However.. trying to justify that Three are within their rights to boast ‘unlimited’ on everything just because it is ‘in line with existing offerings in the UK mobile data and broadband markets’ is, IMHO, a rather weak argument.

Have a look at this article that Guy Kewney wrote not that long ago:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/08/unlimited_broadband_ads_dishonest/

It’s nothing personal against you, Three, or anyone – but I just get peeved off when something gets advertised as unlimited when it’s clearly not.

Maybe I should fire out a load of premium SMSs to random punters, telling them they’re free but really charge them £1.50 – which of course would be in the small print somewhere. Same thing?

You harp on and on about how unreasonable mobile data charges are and as soon as the operator does something about it you jump all over their use of the word “Unlimited” and talk about getting on to the ASA… yeah, that’s a really nice way of showing that you appreciate that the operator has listened to your feedback.

I have to say that I feel their use of “Unlimited” is in line with existing offerings in the UK mobile data and broadband markets. On a personal note I found their “small-text” to be easy to understand and non-threatening – which is a breath of fresh air.

So yes, please by all means go to the ASA and complain. It’s a right you have and I won’t ever try to take that away from you. But next time I see you moaning about high data costs or the lack of innovation in the mobile industry you just might find some four letter expletives coming your way.

Instead, they will perhaps milk their contract-trapped subscribers for a little longer, watching closely their models and cummulative churn curves (while preparing their technical and operational capability, and commercial proposition).

Then some may be tempted to phase it in, by initially stealth-launching: offering only as a ‘churn-save’ special offer to terminating customers – until word-of-mouth makes it the norm for 100% (or near) of expiring contracts. By that time they won’t need massive marketing budgets to promote it and can just add it as another line/section on their tariff pages.

Makes sense for management and shareholders, not great for locked-in customers (like yours truly). But will be itneresting to watch, nonetheless -

V.

This needs refering to the Advertising Standards Authority.

steve

lets do everything 3 times today!!!

a few Q’s though. In no way am I knocking this because I think a new world order is in progress and the other networks must be sat right at this minute messing their pants as they read the above press release. So good on 3 but lets dive a little bit into the detail…

- who agrees that 1GB/month isn’t very much to surf the web?

- how is there enough capacity on their network to handle us all watching tv/slingbox for 80 hrs per month, probably at the same time?

- does it include Skype-OUT?

- if I go abroad can I use the skype facility and if so any extra costs?

- if I go abroad can I use the slingbox facility and if so any extra costs?

- why can’t I simply pay for extra skype minutes rather than be blocked?

- so does this offer full and unrestrained access to the grown-up world wide web?

- If this is as it seems then given Vodafone catastrophic network outage this morning I’m moving over (as long as I can unlock my treo 750!).

steve procter