Three Ireland V Three U.K

Three U.K 30 Pounds PM = 2000 mins and 500 texts and all you can eat data


Three Ireland 40 Euros PM = 350 Units and all you can eat data.

These are smart phone plans!


Is that a rip off or what? :mad:

pigeonbutler

We'll ignore the fact that the UK has far higher population density than Ireland and thus much lower infrastructure costs per user in putting a communicatons network in place.

If you think it's a rip off go set up a rival phone company and watch the profits roll in...

pigeonbutler

pigeonbutler wrote: »

We'll ignore the fact that the UK has far higher population density than Ireland and thus much lower infrastructure costs per user in putting a communicatons network in place.

If you think it's a rip off go set up a rival phone company and watch the profits roll in...

Well the U.K is a fair bit bigger than the Republic, and would have a lot more infrastructure to install in the first place? And it has it's remote population too!

They could still do a lot better than 350 LOUSY units that is us being shafted in my opinion!

Even 1000 units would be a lot nicer, but no give the Irish the minimum possible!

ScouseMouse

With the economies of scale involved, you havent got a hope in hell of them doing packages like that here.

They would have more users in the London area than they would have in the entire island of Ireland. Do you really expect them to do deals like that?

Its simply not possible or realistic.

whippet

superscouse wrote: »

They would have more users in the London area than they would have in the entire island of Ireland. Do you really expect them to do deals like that?

Its simply not possible or realistic.

actually make that Manchester rather than London. Totally different markets and as you said economies of scale.

maxer68

Things like this are purely down to economies of scale.

Population density Ireland = 63 per km sq
Population density UK = 255 per km sq

If you wanted to buy 100 shirts, you'd expect to buy them cheaper than if you were buying 25 shirts. Simple economics and nothing else involved.

maxer68

maxer68 wrote: »

Things like this are purely down to economies of scale.

Population density Ireland = 63 per km sq
Population density UK = 255 per km sq

If you wanted to buy 100 shirts, you'd expect to buy them cheaper than if you were buying 25 shirts. Simple economics and nothing else involved.

Okay, well if three offered say 1000 units for 40 a month instead of 350, wouldn't that encourage more people to three?

That is a bit like the Pubs charging nearly 5 Euros a pint, because they say there is less people going to pubs these days and blaming the smoking ban, do they ever stop to think that the price of a pint might have something to do with it?

maxer68

Deleted User wrote: »

Okay, well if three offered say 1000 units for 40 a month instead of 350, wouldn't that encourage more people to three?

That is a bit like the Pubs charging nearly 5 Euros a pint, because they say there is less people going to pubs these days and blaming the smoking ban, do they ever stop to think that the price of a pint might have something to do with it?

There are only 4.5million people in Ireland and over 60 million in the uk, so economies of scale can never catch up with the UK.

You do have other options. Emobile have unlimited calls, texts & data for €67, Three have it from €85. The reality is not many people use this amount. Average is 200 min per month.

as for Pubs - there's an economic cost to the service they provide. A city centre pub charging €3.50 would probably close due to losses fairly quickly, even at €4 a pint, there would be little profit and certainly they wouldn't afford any extras such as entertainment / late bars etc. - In Paris, you'd be hard pressed to find a pub selling apint for under €7, in London its about £4 (and their pubs are sooo dreary)

Retail / service trade is not about throwing a product on a counter and running away with money. If you get a chance watch Britain's next big thing on BBC2 Tuesday nights 8pm - Theo Paphitis goes through all the emements that make up a retail price and how something that cost $10 to mak, retails at £49.99 and still only about 5% net profit to the retailer.

keithclancy

Move to the UK.

CiaranC

Another one of these stupid threads. Businesses should operate at a loss and go out of business as not to upset the sensibilities of economically illiterate Boards posters. Why does this forum even exist, the rip-off culture died with the Celtic Tiger.

maxer68

keithclancy wrote: »

Move to the UK.

UUUUrrrrggghhhh:P

maxer68

CiaranC wrote: »

Another one of these stupid threads. Businesses should operate at a loss and go out of business as not to upset the sensibilities of economically illiterate Boards posters. Why does this forum even exist, the rip-off culture died with the Celtic Tiger.

I disagree. The poster asked a valid question and queried the initial answer mannerly and has been given valid reasons for the difference.

People ask questions. If they are answered well and they accept the reasoning behind the answer & the reason why some things are more expensive (some things are cheaper here too), then its good and people become more knowledgeable about economic reasoning behind the price paid for goods & services.

Of course, there the other types who simply don't want to know the reasons, but thankfully there are not too many of them.

MonsterCookie

I don't really follow data charges as I have a corporate phone and although I'm very aware of the charges I run up, I don't know what is good value in the personal mobile phone Market.

However, I had a nasty experience with three Ireland recently and would not recommend them to any of my friends for under any circumstances.

maxer68

maxer68 wrote: »

There are only 4.5million people in Ireland and over 60 million in the uk, so economies of scale can never catch up with the UK.

You do have other options. Emobile have unlimited calls, texts & data for €67, Three have it from €85. The reality is not many people use this amount. Average is 200 min per month.

as for Pubs - there's an economic cost to the service they provide. A city centre pub charging €3.50 would probably close due to losses fairly quickly, even at €4 a pint, there would be little profit and certainly they wouldn't afford any extras such as entertainment / late bars etc. - In Paris, you'd be hard pressed to find a pub selling apint for under €7, in London its about £4 (and their pubs are sooo dreary)

Retail / service trade is not about throwing a product on a counter and running away with money. If you get a chance watch Britain's next big thing on BBC2 Tuesday nights 8pm - Theo Paphitis goes through all the emements that make up a retail price and how something that cost $10 to mak, retails at £49.99 and still only about 5% net profit to the retailer.

Do you not think that if Publicans lowered the price of drink that that would encourage a lot more people to go out instead of buying cheap drink in the off license? Surely that would reduce the so called losses in revenue, and if more people go out might actually increase profits?

I can get a pint in Germany for 2.50! A lot nicer than that watered down Budweiser crap they sell here, and don't tell me they don't water it down, it tastes sh**e compared to bottles. And the Germans don't drink nearly as much as the Irish so how can they do it if even less go to pubs there than here? Though I suppose they are not really pubs as we know them!

Sorry gone completely off topic, my fault! LOL I don't drink much anyway!

MonsterCookie

MonsterCookie wrote: »

I don't really follow data charges as I have a corporate phone and although I'm very aware of the charges I run up, I don't know what is good value in the personal mobile phone Market.

However, I had a nasty experience with three Ireland recently and would not recommend them to any of my friends for under any circumstances.

Ah In fairness to Three, I have only had a few problems, no more than 02, and their customer support is lacking mainly because of language barriers, accents or whatever!

The Irish customer support is much better and they are sound!

Their mobile broadband where I live has greatly improved ping 70 ms, and over 6 meg sometimes, mainly 2-4 mb, beats the hell out of the 500k -1 meg a year or 2 ago! And they are upgrading to 4G and 100 mb/s. Bye Bye land line when that happens!

CiaranC

CiaranC wrote: »

Another one of these stupid threads. Businesses should operate at a loss and go out of business as not to upset the sensibilities of economically illiterate Boards posters. Why does this forum even exist, the rip-off culture died with the Celtic Tiger.

DiD it really, and what about Ireland being one of the most expensive places for food in the E.U? That's just one example! Farmers say they are not making money, yet I have never seen a poor farmer, and Kildare is full of them!

There is a greed culture in this country and it makes me sick, profit is never enough, it always has to be more!

Like dell pulled out Of Ireland despite the fact they made over 1 Billion profit that year, and moved to Poland, saying the Irish factory was not making profit, but of course we were good enough when they came here when people worked for nothing!

Businesses blame the minimum wage as an excuse to raise prices, and would gladly force employees to work for 100 Euros a week, to maximise profits! as the evidence showed before the minimum wage came in! While they live the high life!

Anyway this is getting ridiculous folks, I didn't mean this thread to go so off topic

Moderators please close thread!

pigeonbutler

Deleted User wrote: »

Well the U.K is a fair bit bigger than the Republic, and would have a lot more infrastructure to install in the first place? And it has it's remote population too!

They could still do a lot better than 350 LOUSY units that is us being shafted in my opinion!

Even 1000 units would be a lot nicer, but no give the Irish the minimum possible!

This makes no sense... Essentially the marginal cost of handling a mobile phone call or text message is very close to zero. The bulk of the costs is the capital cost of setting up the network. So whether you have 100 customers per tower or 20,000 customers per tower will largely determine what your minimum cost per customer should be.

Whether they should offer 350 units or 1,000 units for a given price depends on whatever they consider will maximise their revenue, not keep Mad_Lad feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

If another operator offered 700 exactly comparable units for the same price as 3 and all other things were equal, then nobody would join 3 obviously. But the packages always have funny differences so as not to make them directly comparable. They have obviously examined their competitors and set the packages at this level for a reason. If there's an influx to 3, the other operators will change their pricing, if there's an influx away from 3, 3 will change their pricing. That's how it works.

If you still think they're just being mean or stingy or hating on the Irish, then you're economically illiterate.

maxer68

Deleted User wrote: »

Moderators please close thread!

you can't just close a thread becasue you've not received tha answer you wanted.

Ireland USED to be far more expensive for food etc, but this has changed since we had a period of defaltion and almost zero inflation and europe specifically UK had high food inflation.

On a purchasing power scale, we are one of the cheapest countries in the world for food as per Big Mac index.

maxer68

Deleted User wrote: »

Do you not think that if Publicans lowered the price of drink that that would encourage a lot more people to go out instead of buying cheap drink in the off license? Surely that would reduce the so called losses in revenue, and if more people go out might actually increase profits?

I can get a pint in Germany for 2.50! A lot nicer than that watered down Budweiser crap they sell here, and don't tell me they don't water it down, it tastes sh**e compared to bottles. And the Germans don't drink nearly as much as the Irish so how can they do it if even less go to pubs there than here? Though I suppose they are not really pubs as we know them!

Sorry gone completely off topic, my fault! LOL I don't drink much anyway!

It must be a very rural part of germany - a few weeks ago in munich, I was charged €4 for a 400ml glass in a bog standard bar and most places outside munich were about €3.50 - €4 for the same size. Bottles of becks dark were also €4.

The drink driving laws were the biggest cause of a drop in business. - A pint costs about €1.70 + vat and most normal out of city pubs sell for €3.35 + vat. Rents, rates, insurance, heat, light, staff -

Pubs sell what customers ask for - I prefer Smithwicks.

Anyway its way off topic, but there are very few retailers / pubs / restaurants making a profit these days.

Danno

Costs of building 3's network was covered alot by the Irish Govt... via the National Broadband Scheme... over €100m IIRC.

maxer68

Danno wrote: »

Costs of building 3's network was covered alot by the Irish Govt... via the National Broadband Scheme... over €100m IIRC.

The only part subsidised was the broadband for areas no-one else wanted to put the infrastructure in. It was also done by competitive tender and Three offered the lowest price. - This part will always be loss making as the population in these areas is very sparse. - Same system operates for bus routes to rural areas.

keithclancy

Deleted User wrote: »

Do you not think that if Publicans lowered the price of drink that that would encourage a lot more people to go out instead of buying cheap drink in the off license? Surely that would reduce the so called losses in revenue, and if more people go out might actually increase profits?

I can get a pint in Germany for 2.50! A lot nicer than that watered down Budweiser crap they sell here, and don't tell me they don't water it down, it tastes sh**e compared to bottles. And the Germans don't drink nearly as much as the Irish so how can they do it if even less go to pubs there than here? Though I suppose they are not really pubs as we know them!

Sorry gone completely off topic, my fault! LOL I don't drink much anyway!

Its more like 3.50 to 4.00 euros for a 500ml Koelsch, Pils or Alt Bier here in Duesseldorf.

I would say the Germans drink as much if not more than the Irish, especially in Bavaria. FFS .. our Munich office sold beer in the canteen

Perhaps somewhere in Berlin, maybe in the East would sell a 500ml for 2.50

JayeL

I'm a 3 Ireland customer and I know I pay more than a UK customer for less units. I pay €40 a month for 350 units, unlimited 3 to 3 calls (3,000 is the fair use limit), unlimited landline calls (no limit stated so I'll presume the same 3,000) and unlimited data.

So if I was so inclined, I could make 6,000 minutes of calls (most of my calls are to landlines or to my wife, sister or parents, all on 3) and send 700 texts (one unit = two texts) along with my unlimited data (ok, it's 15GB but I don't use that much on my home broadband). That's 66% more minutes, 40% more texts and (let's presume) the same amount of data AND free roaming (3 UK pulled out of 3 Like Home, so they can't roam for free anywhere like 3 Ireland customers) for 16% more money.

Not quite a rip-off.....

SOCOM

Lol love that line, Unlimited Calls* Fair usage applies!!!
Oxford dictionary says otherwise.
Why not just say “3000 Free minutes a month!!" instead of bull****ting us, unlimited my ars*!!!

By the way the free land line minutes expires in December 2011!

Three have come on a long way I admit, even their hsdpa is getting 3-6 meg here, up from 0.2meg. Peak speed seems to be 1.3-3 meg. and 1.5 meg up!

The only thing 3 should really do is increase their GB allowance which at 25 GB is bad!

I long for the day the regulator insists that broadband have an absolute minimum speed rather than advertising "up to" we all know they can not guarantee and exact speed but the "up to" is a license for crap slow speeds, and not having to upgrade!

But they are upgrading to 100mb which will probably be 50 meg lol but still much better than any dsl and if they can offer a fixed phone service they will make a mint.

The future in Ireland is wireless I'm sick of crap dsl 6mb, I wouldn't consider that to be broadband in this day in age!

sorry for the off topic!

I can say positive things about 3 too ye know!

Run_to_da_hills

I have been using 3 Broadband since 2007, its the only service provider that doesn't hit you with extra roaming charges when you travel to a corresponding 3 network abroad.

I have been on line both in the UK and up North regularly and my bill still remains at e20.

Try roaming with 02 or Vodafone on their networks abroad and watch your bill at the end of the month. :eek:

patar

Vodafone gets a really bad rep... Buttttttttt I'm on ready to go and for €30 a month I get free calls and texts to vodafone and free internet with all you can eat data

Walkman

patar wrote: »

Vodafone gets a really bad rep... Buttttttttt I'm on ready to go and for €30 a month I get free calls and texts to vodafone and free internet with all you can eat data

All you can eat data on Vodafone ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its 250mb per 30 days hardly all you can eat lol

patar

Walkman wrote: »

All you can eat data on Vodafone ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its 250mb per 30 days hardly all you can eat lol

Is it? Oopsies my bad ;D

Mylow

superscouse wrote: »

With the economies of scale involved, you havent got a hope in hell of them doing packages like that here.

They would have more users in the London area than they would have in the entire island of Ireland. Do you really expect them to do deals like that?

Its simply not possible or realistic.

Denmark has a very similar population to Ireland. Three DK offer 360 minutes, free sms and mms and 10 gb of data for 399kr, a little over €50 a month. The iPhone 4 (16gb) is €25 on contract, unlike here where its free.

whiterebel

Don't all the UK operators such as o2 and VF offer way, way better deals than their Irish counterparts? I don't think this is restricted to just 3.