[BlueChopper]

Seems to me you can get the best deals for phones with 3 but I am told the network is not that great. Specifically they buy capacity from other nets but if the host needs the capacity the poor 3 customer gets the boot.

Is this true? Does anyone have experience of 3? How does it work?

[Banksie]

I have been with 3 for a long time and have not noticed getting the boot mid call, I run all over the south of England in my truck and the cab phone is on o2 and the coverage is comparable. I have just upgraded my tarrif, 900 any time any net mins or texts £24. However if you want a really fancy phone it will cost extra, if you for instance want an n95 the only way to get it from 3 is to take out a video tarrif also sim free phones will not work with 3 sim cards you have to have one of their phones.
But they do have the best tarifs at the moment.

[itsamac]

3 use Orange to provide voice services to their customers in areas that they currently do not have coverage. Three coverage is pretty decent for the price you pay. I have never had a problem nor have I had any dropouts/boots even when I am roaming onto Orange

To see what the coverage is like in your area, first have a look at Three's coverage map. I would then grab a PAYG sim and see what the reception is like. That way you know for sure.

[BlueChopper]

Thanks for the replies lads. One more thing, what is the deal with getting 3 phones unlocked, is it a problem? Banksies comment about 3 sims being different is something I hadn't been aware of...

[itsamac]

Not sure as I have sold on the phones that I get on 3. A quick search on the web points to having to get 3 to give you an unlock code in the last month of the contract. I am sure a deeper search might reveal more information.

[oksamionay]

I am a 3 customer - and have had very little coverage problems. My hassle is getting internet (pay £5 pper month access and get only 15% on sites I want).
Is it the phone (shop suggested this) or is it just 3?

I heard that they buy coverage (as suggested above) for calls from e.g. orange but NOT for internet....

[Turlough]

T-Mobile and 3 have a network sharing agreement for 3G.

[Sir Arthur]

I requested my PAC code from 3 yesterday, with two weeks remaining of my 18 month contract.

For the first 7 months I lived in East London and had no problems at all. So much so that I refered my wife to the network. The 15 minutes of video calls in order to get a N95 8gb was a bit of a joke (probably made four video calls ever), but the free 3 to 3 calls were very handy. My wife took a free Nokia 6300 Slide om a cheap contract and was happy too.

Then last year we moved to Essex and kablooie - appalling coverage. Coverage in most of Epping is between no bars and three bars. In the house we live in our phones have been unusable downstairs for 90% of the time and a little better upstairs. The most usual chain of events is - switch on - three bars - write a text message - send - two bars - one bar - no bars - message not sent - switch off - go upstairs - switch on - no bars - make phone call to landline - phone grudgingly connects with one bar - hang up - message sends. Unfortunately we found this out once we had moved and also had bought a PAYG mobile broadband from 3 as well. Never saw more than two bars of coverage while we were renovating the house.

However despite this happening on two phones and a BB dongle, 3 refuse to acknowledge that we've payed for a set of nearly useless products. And this is a shame, because I really like their marketing, their branding, their overall style in bringing a different approach to mobile services. I really enojyed being a 3 customer for seven months but if it wasn't for the recycling money to be made on the handset, I'd have scratched off their poxy logo ages ago...

My O2 iPhone arrives on Friday.