"WePay prices"

The new WePay top-ups are easy to understand, all-cash vouchers available in
?10, ?15 and ?20 denominations, with no expiry date.

5p per minute cash credit for each minute of calls received
2p per text for texts received
10p a minute to call a 3 mobile anytime
30p a minute to other networks anytime
15p a minute to landlines and non-geographic numbers anytime
10p per text to any network
25p for a picture message to any network
50p per video message to any network"

From 3's Price Guide - Previous cash Top-Up Rates

10p a minute to call a 3 mobile anytime
10p a minute to landlines numbers anytime
20p a minute to other UK Mobile Networks
10p per text to any network
25p for a picture message to any network
50p per video message to any network

Well, Uk customers seem more mature than italian ones :)

From uk.mobile.telecom : http://tinyurl.com/du7yo

It's a loopy idea - it proves that 3's rates are too high, and should be cut to the same as the other networks

If they have more revenue for received calls than other networks so they can pass this on to their customer, then what stops the other networks from charging their customers higher amounts to call these numbers? Maybe the regulators would prevent it, but clearly 3 is no longer a naive start-up operation that needs to be subsidised by the others.

Next thing is I won't phone you to put my money in your pocket. Is that what friends are for? Why don't you get a phone on a sensible network like you used to have? Goodbye 3

I reckon phone nerds on forums will hate it, and ordinary customers will think it's great

That's what's happening in Italy... consider me a nerd! :D

hee hee :D

but the question is - what do you say to your friends on 3?

The question should be "what do your friends on 3 say about you?" They think I'm crazy, a "Cassandra" who is always pessimist for the future about tlc in Italy... and they collect hundreds (when not thousands) of euros on their prepaid simcards. I think there is now some sort of inflation of the "mobile euro" for prepaid cards, due to these autorecharging tariffs. And now 3 asks 33 cent/min to call the customer service, their portal is very expensive, they seldom answer to e-mails and they keep on offering sim-locked phones (locked to the single simcard, and to the operator) at rather cheap prices, asking for a mobile number portability from TIM or Vodafone. Unlocking a phone with 3 costs 200 euros after 13 months... their operator-locked phones are more expensive than the sim-free ones from TIM, and other nonsense things happen around the world of 3 in Italy...
And they will be quoted at the stock exchange very soon, so I'm really curious to see what will happen next... some people say they could merge with Wind (Sawiris bought first Wind, and now some % of Hutchison), I really hope not.

It's very odd here too. They have been so keen to buy up market share that you could get an post-pay contract of 500 minutes a month for only a few pounds a year after cashback of most of the dealer commission. So I can't understand why they think prepay will be popular. I will be on pre-pay when my contract ends in a few days, but I don't expect to use it

It is sometimes expensive to unlock the phones. Some people recently cancelled contracts early when 3 proposed that calls after the 500 minutes would cost 10p instead of 5p, but they then found that some new Nokias cannot be code unlocked yet, and 3 were not helping. Mine is a 7600 and I've already done it for free.

I wonder about their speed at building the network. At my house Orange has better 3g coverage, and my 3 phone roamed on O2 2g as there was no 3 coverage. Recently 3 contracted the network out to Ericsson (like Italy it seems), much of the UK CS is in India, they don't have their own shops but in Superdrug which is owned by Hutchison, so there isn't much body to the company itselff

I can't understand why Hutchison ever sold Orange if they were that keen to be in the market.


I've just read about some skeptical responses, or maybe cynical or funny ones - read about Romanian students
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/25/wepay_readers/

i myself have been a customer of 3 for 2 years now and sometimes regret not dropping them before :ranting2:

They are great value, and they give good fones which cannot be unlocked (first got the 6680, then the N70... sold them on ebay for peanuts). But the whole point is that they are not a bad network as long as you dont have to talk to them or get them to do anything for you..


Example: after month 6 i asked to be dropped down to the lowest tarriff... low and behold, you can drop one tarriff at a time. Nobody ever told me that! anyways i waited two months to ask them to drop me to talk 100, and it turns out they DONT offer it anymore, so i had to go on a ?20 price plan...


On top of everything else, they forgot to chance my plan on month 7 , and left me on talk and text 900.. Imagine to my surpised when the bill came and they had actually changed my price plan without telling me (or updating my3) ... and had charged me ?60 for using the minutes which i was told i had...


I HATE THREE !!!

The same happens every day here in Italy, so Romanian students didn't do any revolutionary thing as well! :D But the problem is that here all operators started to have autorecharge plans...

It seems this is being introduced on 1 Feb, and all new customers will be on it.

It is possible to call a 3 phone via a cheap call provider from a landline for 2p per minute at weekends - some things just don't add up!