3 network and internet access

ifconfig

Is it *still* the case that 3 (www.three.ie) offer very limited
access "off portal" .. ie all their price plans in Ireland have what
is generally referred to as a walled garden ?

I know there is an X-series data price plan in UK and elsewhere
which removes these restrictions.

I ask because I saw their slick advert on national airwaves
last night and it shows a chap on a bus clearly accessing
the google website and giving the impression that it would
be possible to surf more freely than might be the case.

When is the X/series price plan mooted for 3/ireland ?
Is it already here ...

-ifc

Solair

Once you subscribe to a mobile broadband add on you have access to the full interent. There's some kind of an age verification process that has to be done if you're on prepay, but if you're on bill pay it's just a case of picking the add on.

The unlimited add on, on bill pay anyway, can be used for laptop data access using your handset as a modem.

ifconfig

So - with 3 is the walled garden restriction that folks mention a thing
of the past (or a restriction when you subscribe to the basic plan only?)

Just to understand the broadband add-on. Are you saying that once
you pay for that option you have unrestricted internet access on
both phone &/or handset used as modem for laptop.. or only
where the phone acts as a modem.

-ifc

Solair

In my experience on 3 Bill Pay with the broadband unlimited add on, yes ,that is the case.

There are reasonable usage restrictions.

From what I gather, prepay users are connected via a proxy server and need to do age verification before they fully lift the walled garden restrictions.

podgeandrodge

Solair wrote:

The unlimited add on, on bill pay anyway, can be used for laptop data access using your handset as a modem.

Solair, can you clarify for me what this entails? when you say laptop data access do you mean using the laptop to surf the net as well? how does the phone connect to the laptop?

thanks!

culabula

podgeandrodge wrote:

Solair, can you clarify for me what this entails? when you say laptop data access do you mean using the laptop to surf the net as well? how does the phone connect to the laptop?

thanks!

Cable or Bluetooth, which is what I'm doing right now, to post this.

Urban Weigl

A word of warning to anyone who is thinking about signing up with 3: they were completely incapable of provisioning mobile broadband for me. When it did work, it only worked some of the time, and was painfully slow (significantly slower than Vodafone). Take that as one experience, I have heard other customers have had better luck.

1huge1

^^ after reading a review of the two in the magazine pc live which compared both it seems the general idea is that 3's offering is far superios in speed and reliability
Sorry Urban but you have just been unlucky

godskitchen

1huge1 wrote:

^^ after reading a review of the two in the magazine pc live which compared both it seems the general idea is that 3's offering is far superios in speed and reliability
Sorry Urban but you have just been unlucky

Rubbish, there is a reason Three have 1.6% market share, I have yet to meet someone who has been happy with their service when something goes wrong, or even when everything is working as it should people still have big issues. Firstly these reviews could not have had anything go wrong and if they did they would have said who they were or known who to talk to.

Secondly where did these guys use the service, rural? city? at what times of the day? for how long? over what time period?

I have both Vodafones and Threes data plans, i have two 3G routers, i have 2 external antennas, I have the E620 data card, i have the E630 data card, i know what i am talking about and am pretty sure i know more than the guys in these mags reviewing them. Vodafones service is 10000x better than Threes, not just in terms of the product but also the customer service. Its fine having a Rolls Royce and it being the best car in the world, but what happens if it goes wrong and no one can fix it? What use is it then? I travel across this country every week, so my experience is not just in my area either.

I have had problems with the vodafone service but they have been sorted out within a day of me calling, sometimes over the phone. Words can not describe Threes service, the only way you can truly see how rotten it is, is by signing up......................you wont have to wait long before you want to beat yourself to death with one of their handsets.

Just have a look on the boards, you will see how many times "Help with Three Broadband" "three are poo" threads come up................I cant remember the last time someone had a major problem with Vodafone for Broadband, and remember Voda have a much bigger market so more people to complain..............The fact is their customers are happy.

legs11

happy with 3,me???????:rolleyes:

culabula

legs11 wrote:

happy with 3,me???????:rolleyes:

I think he meant Vodafone, d'oh! Anyway, your unhappiness belongs in a new thread!

legs11

no cula,

a sticky;)


i am at breaking point over them, in fact i have resigned to facing up to the fact calling them or emailing them is pointless from now on.

i even, through my good christian values decided to pay aprils bill today. 39.99, i deducted 1,460e...

but the bank couldnt process it.

them gobshytes cant even set up a bank account it seems.

culabula

legs11 wrote:

no cula,

a sticky;)


i am at breaking point over them, in fact i have resigned to facing up to the fact calling them or emailing them is pointless from now on.

i even, through my good christian values decided to pay aprils bill today. 39.99, i deducted 1,460e...

but the bank couldnt process it.

them gobshytes cant even set up a bank account it seems.

Breaking point? I thought they refunded you in full?

rogue-entity

I have been a 3 customer since 2005, a month after they went live. I have never had a problem with them with one exception, the appauling way they handled unlocking, they outright refused to unlock my phone until I had bought another one from 3, and then had the nerve to charge me for it as well, a charge they eventually waived when I complained.

I use 3's broadband when I am away from a wifi hotspot and want to use the internet, and it works well. I have never had a problem with accessing the internet from my mobile or from my computer when using them. Three's 3G coverage is far better then Vodafone's in my area at least.

I refuse to use Vodafone, because they are a complete rip off, Meteor has no 3G network, and O2 is stuck in the land of 3c/Kb, so i am sticking with 3 for the forseeable future.

I will say this though, their current customer care are utterly useless. I much preferred dealing with the guys in Scotland.

Sam Vimes

rogue-entity wrote:

I will say this though, their current customer care are utterly useless. I much preferred dealing with the guys in Scotland.

this is true. i phone the 3pay section and had a woman swear to me that there'as absolutely no difference between 3pay and bill pay internet and anything that can be done on one can be done on the other.

quintron

I have given out **** about 3, a lot, in the past.
I expect a lot from a network it seems. And as phonecalls and texts are now only *part* of the reason for owning a smartphone, one should expect a lot from them.

Having said that, beyond some teething problems with 3 (where I couldn't access my frikkin mail for gods sake, as they hadn't provisioned pop/smtp outside of their laughable 3mail proxy, and I admit I lost the rag with having to deal with new untrained 3 customer "care".. repeatedly) recently their service has been excellent.

The broadband addon's are great value, even if we are not on a par with our EU counterparts.
Yes, I'm disappointed we have this middle ground instead of a promised x-series but, bottom line, the service has been working fine for me consistently, blogging (vox), IM (fring), web (3's yoke when necessary), RSS reader, mail (both gmail and work mail), general web browsing (get Opera to really get a decent browsing experience if on an N73), so... I've bitched and moaned in the past and will continue to do so when phone companies make stupid decisions or fail to deliver.. but for now all I say is the service works fine so don't let others sway your opinions too much.

You need to test if for yourself. Its month to month. Don't like it? Don't use it. Simple.
Only active/current users of the services should rightly comment on its benefits/shortcomings in fairness. For example, I stopped using 3 broadband for 3 wks in my N73 because I couldn't get my mail. I was pissed off. Read any post by me from that period and I would have told you 3 were a shower of ****.... I had to take out my 3sim and use it in my XDA exec to get my mail in the meantime.
I then read that smtp service had been ironed out and fring now worked, meaning all ports open, so I again took out the sim from my XDA and put it back into the N73.
It now works so I'm not complaining. Haven't looked back since.

Finally, a lot of threads posted with regard to questions about 3 (and other networks to be fair) can be down to user error or laziness at the end of the day, read into a thread beyond the headline and its not necessarily doom and gloom, just a glitch the user is having. I say not all, but some.

I'm not an advocate for any particular network. I use Voda for work and 3 for personal use, and you know what, they're both fine.

Sorry for thread ramble.. tis late

god's toy

Back on topic, kinda with a question...


My wife has a 3 phone and the price plan of 'Talk 200' that has internet access on it AFAIK. The problem is when she clicks a link on the three homepage something comes up telling her she needs to buy broadband but when she tries to the phone says she already has it.

The question I'm asking is does 'internet access' mean she HAS the broadband or is that extra??


If anyone can answer this it would be cool.

Sam Vimes

god's toy wrote:

Back on topic, kinda with a question...


My wife has a 3 phone and the price plan of 'Talk 200' that has internet access on it AFAIK. The problem is when she clicks a link on the three homepage something comes up telling her she needs to buy broadband but when she tries to the phone says she already has it.

The question I'm asking is does 'internet access' mean she HAS the broadband or is that extra??


If anyone can answer this it would be cool.

she has to buy the add-on. three has their own walled garden that she can access for free but to use the full internet she needs to buy the add-on. €6 a month for 100MB data

god's toy

Ah yes that clears it up for me (and her!)

Thanks so much for your help!!
Didn't want to give 3 CS a call as I've heard all about them...

Top man!

The_Hustler

Commander Vimes wrote:

she has to buy the add-on. three has their own walled garden that she can access for free but to use the full internet she needs to buy the add-on. €6 a month for 100MB data

That free walled garden doesn't exist anymore, at least I can't find it anyway.

Sam Vimes

The_Hustler wrote:

That free walled garden doesn't exist anymore, at least I can't find it anyway.

how do you mean? its the main focus of their business. on my phone i go to web and then click a predefined bookmark called "3" and then "go to services". you can get news and sports clips etc

if you can't find it you can go directly to it by going to the following web address:
http://mobile.3ireland.ie/hb/HutchKey

1huge1

basically the walled garden exists if you dont buy the broadband add on
the walled garden has gotten better but are charging for more stuff than they used too, I miss happy tree friends
As more TV channels come out (this xpose thing doesnt interest me) ill be using it a lot more

The_Hustler

Oh yeah sorry, I love the walled garden access. I thought the walled garden meant that crappy selection of sites you could go to before they introduced this add on.

I wasn't happy that they got rid of movies, I still have it bookmarked but it hasn't been updated. Unlike that brief 2 day period when they got rid of RTE news (it was still being updated), I'd say that was an accident when they added the mobile tv symbols, as it came back so quickly.

These new tunes and pics sections aren't new at all, they just used to use one symbol for both sections, they must be trying to market them as new so people will check them out.

I'm looking forward to a better selection of mobile tv too, but I find the ITN news updates great. I used to be a whole lot less informed about what's going on in the world!