Thoughts on the Three network

[Remy]

Though I've still got another 11 long, hard, painful months until I am finally free of the torture that is a 24 month Optus contract, I'm very much looking forward to being able to choose another carrier when "iPhone 4" is announced at WWDC 2010.

One that has so far impressed me in terms of price and plans is Three, so I'm asking all you iPhone owners out there on Three's network for your thoughts and opinions.

I'm going to assume here that they support Visual Voicemail and Tethering (thanks to their big brother Vodafone), but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers, Rémy.

[Exocet]

I'm going to assume here that they support Visual Voicemail and Tethering (thanks to their big brother Vodafone), but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'll stop you right there. 3 and Vodafone merged, neither took over the other. In fact I heard that Vodafone was ready to quit the Australian market if the merger didn't go ahead. As it goes now, the two companies are still separate brands and separate networks. I work closely with our business sales representative for Three and he's said that so far it's just been administration that's merged, and the merger of networks isn't even on the horizon.

That being said, you still get free tethering and quasi-visual voicemail. Your 3 voicemail is powered by an email-inbox system and you can set this account up on your iPhone. Voicemail messages are delivered as WAV attachments to emails which you can play back on your iPhone.

Our business operates iPhones and datacards on 3. By our nature we don't leave the metro area of Brisbane, so regional coverage is not an issue. Furthermore, for this reason our financial controller doesn't see the point in paying for a national network (a la NextG) which we have no use for. If we go outside of the metro areas, we cough up 50c/mb during the months we need it rather than paying an extra $20+ every month we don't use it.

I can only talk from the perspective of Brisbane, and haven't got much of an informed opinion of the coverage in other cities. There are only two places where I roam to Telstra's 2G network - the multilevel carpark behind our building which is right next to a distribution station for the rail line which runs behind the carpark, and a deep rail cutting between Park Rd and South Bank station. Everywhere else I have 3 coverage.

My roaming charges last month were $1.81. The month before that it was $0.32. People will scare you with "OMG YOU'LL GET REAMED BY ROAMING CHARGES" and from my experience (and the experience of others in the company) it simply isn't true.


Honestly - I couldn't be happier with 3. I've never had to call customer support (this is a very good thing), my bills have been on time, the expected amount, and $20 for 1GB of data is great value.

[Remy]

Your 3 voicemail is powered by an email-inbox system and you can set this account up on your iPhone. Voicemail messages are delivered as WAV attachments to emails which you can play back on your iPhone.

Interesting, I never knew about that. That's certainly far better than Optus' (and other carriers) rather dodgy voicemail system.

Furthermore, for this reason our financial controller doesn't see the point in paying for a national network (a la NextG) which we have no use for. If we go outside of the metro areas, we cough up 50c/mb during the months we need it rather than paying an extra $20+ every month we don't use it.

I also rarely go out of metro areas in Sydney, but I agree that 50c per MB is a relatively low cost for using Telstra's network.

There are only two places where I roam to Telstra's 2G network - the multilevel carpark behind our building which is right next to a distribution station for the rail line which runs behind the carpark, and a deep rail cutting between Park Rd and South Bank station. Everywhere else I have 3 coverage.

In terms of switching to Telstra's network, is this shown up top in the carrier bar or do you have to check yourself some other way?

$20 for 1GB of data is great value.

Perhaps the biggest reason why I'm so enticed in the first place! Thanks for replying.

[Exocet]

The carrier bar changes from "<signal> 3 3G" to "<signal> Roaming E". Its very clear when you're in roaming coverage.

[Artin]

I am with Three and couldn't be happier. I moved to optus when I wanted the iPhone 3G since Three didn't have the iPhone at the time. Then cancelled my contract and came back to three when the iPhone 3GS came out!

Artin

[harrisonx]

Been using my iPhone with Three for over a year, and have been very, very happy with it.

It's a little annoying when I go out of the city (we have a beach house about 100km out of Melbourne) but it's definitely not a dealbreaker, and should I need it and be willing to pay for it, I have Telstra's NextG network as a backup, which is great.

[The_Hawk]

I use Three for my wireless data and it's pretty good, although when it's cloudy it tends to get slower, but generally I'm happy.

When I was testing with the iPhone 3G I found that Three's SIM was consistently the lowest ping, but there speeds were generally not up to Vodafone, having said that I would take Three over Voda since that low ping just made it the far better service.

[scruffie]

generally i am quite happy. of course, no network is perfect, but its the best performance/cost for me.

i'm one of those people who are completely phobic about roaming on telstra. but its only going to cost a few dollars more, i'll give it a shot.

[Byron Creek]

The carrier bar changes from "<signal> 3 3G" to "<signal> Roaming E". Its very clear when you're in roaming coverage.

It also roams onto 3G now in certain areas, so you can get "<signal> Roaming 3G" displayed on your screen.
This started a few months ago when the roaming charges dropped from $1.65/mb to 50c/mb.

[drzeus]

I agree too. Yes I roam sometimes in blackspots in the city but even with a very minor data use on roaming you are still better off paying $5 in roaming charges than coughing up $29/mth to Telstra for 250Mb and poor call rates.

It is also much faster than any of my mates who are with Optus. Three also seems to have more dense coverage in the Melbourne CBD with 5 Bars everywhere (whereas Optus sometimes goes to 'No Service')

[tintinaujapon]

's great.

[incanspyder]

BRILLIANT. Just switched from Optus to 3 around 2 hours ago, and I now get full speed 3G inside my house. YAY!

[Abaddon]

Switched over from Telstra so I could afford an iPhone and so far no complaints. Yes the coverage is not as strong as Telstra (ie signal strength is weaker compared to what I would get on Telstra) but I've only noticed that it roamed once or twice in the 4 weeks I've owned it, and certainly never when I've needed the coverage. (This has been in Canberra only so-far, heading down to the NSW South Coast in October so it'll be interesting to see how it works there).

And I discovered there's a free wi-fi I can hook up to here at work....so no data usage! Very Happy!!