Bathe me in jelly and call me Melinda!
Have you seen this deal? I got a picture message (well, a movie message, actually) from Three this afternoon announcing it. It’s a piece of genius.
£15 quid a month buys you unlimited calls (ok, 3,000 minutes a month) to 23 countries. (I’m sure the list will be extended soon).
Really, really, really wicked!
All you have to do is prefix any calls with 388. I’m not sure why. Probably helps them route the call correctly. This is a stonkingly good deal from Three. If you have any relatives abroad or if you do business with anyone in their nominated 23 countries, this could be phenomenally useful.
This compares rather well, from memory, with the shite offerings from other networks. Like the one where you pay a few quid a month and you get ‘cheaper’ international calls — you know, instead of 3 quid a minute, it’s something like 75p a minute. Still shite.
So well done Three. Phenomenal.
[…] Ewan has just tipped us off to a new addition to 3 the UK based cellphone company. Call all you like to 23 countries for 15 GBP a month. This is totally amazing, put 388 in front of your international number and you are good to go. All the Irish mobile providers has similar style deals but nowhere near that type of pricing. Well done 3 for another great initiative. Technorati Tags: 3, pat phelan, roam4free, smstextnews, telecomsShare and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
Is it true that you need a 3G phone to use the special sim card that 3 uses? I was told this on Howard Forums and believe them, but I have just never heard of this.
A friend of mine is going to Eurpoe and touring to probably about 15 different countries. He wants to be able to call the other people in his group and also back the the USA to speak with his wife. What do you think?
I think the Three deal will only be useful if he’s IN the UK, Jeb. Although Three offer zero roaming charges for countries where they have their own networks (e.g. Australia), your friend would most probably have to pay international rates when he was in, say, Switzerland or Belgium.
But if he’s just in the UK, a Pay As You Go Three sim, with the £15 ‘unlimited’ international calls option, would definitely be the way to go.
As for the Three sim card — it works perfectly fine in my unlocked devices. It’s when you try to take a Three handset and use it with another network that you run into problems.
Wow, Three Australia actually beat the UK to something. Three launched “Talk International” packs here a few months ago.
Naturally, the deal isn’t as good here. $7.50/month (err 3 pounds?) for 100 minutes to your nominated country (there are only 5), plus 25% off the rest of your international dialling.
Ewan,
Thanks so much for the info. I think I’m going to suggest to my friend that he uses United-Mobile.
Now it sounds like your saying that you can put a 3 sim into any gsm phone but not any sim into a 3 handset?
Thanks again for the info and you have a great blog.
Its been available for over 6 months now so its hardly new guys .
Its also available on 3 PAYG as a £15 monthly bolt on.
Must be the cheapest 3000 minutes you can buy on any UK Network.
It was even better when you could dial Pat Phelan,s now defunct USA Dial Through Number from it because it gave you a gateway back to UK Landlines. (Get it?)
Woo Yay,
This is really going to start rocking the boat for mVOIP business models. Let the race to zero begin…………………….
Now the focus wil have to start changing to differentiation with functionality and community. Mind you walled gardens area bit ancient, will 3 ever move on from that?
Thank you Ewan,…
Don’t now what I am going to say to the people at Rogers (Canada’s GSM monompoly). I have just realized they sell the Nokia E62 which is a Nokia E61 guess what …without Wifi.
Unlimited calls to 23 countries from a mobile phone for 15 pounds/month…far better than telephony over ADSL and Câble offers over here in Montréal.
Yeah I just came across this, my girlfriend is Canadian and in the USA at the moment so it’s gonna be amazing for us. Can I use my old Nokia 6610i with a 3Mobile sim card though? I currently have an O2-3G contract which is finishing and I am using that in my Nokia 6610i – which works fine, I am guessing it will be the same for 3Mobile’s 3G sim too?