* The monthly contracts (and higher value pay-as-you-go top-ups) come with "Feel at Home" roaming -- in about 12 countries worldwide you can use your inclusive minutes, texts and data with no international roaming fees, i.e. you get that all-you-can-eat data overseas. Countries listed include the United States; on one recent 2-week trip to the USA I was able to use my iPhone for data as if I was at home with no added charges.
* British phone tariffs do not charge you for receiving text messages.
* The all-you-can-eat is capped (small print) at a "fair usage" of 25 Gb/month. Tethering is disabled while roaming overseas on "feel at home", but not prevented at home.
* If you buy a smartphone from Three, they'll unlock it at any time, for free, on request.
* In non "feel-at-home" countries they'll give you 24 hours' data (capped at 500Mb) for £5. Not as good, but better than typical international roaming fees (at £0.5/Mb in the EU and up to £3/Mb outside the EU).
Those of us who are used to this kind of cell service boggle in amazement about how backward the US carriers are.
The final irony? Three is pretty backward and expensive compared to what Estonians get from their cellcos ... the UK is by no means the best world-wide, it's just a handy point of reference.
There is no 25GB limit on the AYCE. I've pushed nearly 500GB one month tethering on 4G (my old apartment had very slow upload and could get about 20mbit up on 4G - great for server restorations and bulk data transfers) and many times over 25GB and have never got a letter.
From the Three 'small print': So in essence there is a limit of how much data you can actually consume which is up to 1000GB. All this means that you can have absolute peace of mind and enjoy all the internet you need on your smartphone, without worrying. Basically, the limit is about 1TB/month.
> The all-you-can-eat is capped (small print) at a "fair usage" of 25 Gb/month.
I can tell you that this is wrong, I've personally had months where I've used 100GB+ of data over 3G and had no problems (this is on a £15 top-up). I don't know if they throttle or not, I've never really noticed it.
> Tethering is disabled while roaming overseas on "feel at home", but not prevented at home.
I didn't get my handset from Three but I've been able to tether in Paris and used at least 2GB when I was there.
The limit only applies when roaming with Feel at Home (free roaming). Data is capped at 25GB, and I think calls are capped at 300 mins and texts at 3000, too.
When not roaming, there is no limit on data:
> "Does all you can eat data come with any limits? The limit is how much your device can consume – if you were to actively use data or the Internet on your phone every second, of every day, in every month (and we would be worried if you were !!!!) you would, subject to the current traffic management requirements (which vary from time to time), use up to 1000GB per month. So in essence there is a limit of how much data you can actually consume which is up to 1000GB. All this means that you can have absolute peace of mind and enjoy all the internet you need on your smartphone, without worrying."
* The monthly contracts (and higher value pay-as-you-go top-ups) come with "Feel at Home" roaming -- in about 12 countries worldwide you can use your inclusive minutes, texts and data with no international roaming fees, i.e. you get that all-you-can-eat data overseas. Countries listed include the United States; on one recent 2-week trip to the USA I was able to use my iPhone for data as if I was at home with no added charges.
* British phone tariffs do not charge you for receiving text messages.
* The all-you-can-eat is capped (small print) at a "fair usage" of 25 Gb/month. Tethering is disabled while roaming overseas on "feel at home", but not prevented at home.
* If you buy a smartphone from Three, they'll unlock it at any time, for free, on request.
* In non "feel-at-home" countries they'll give you 24 hours' data (capped at 500Mb) for £5. Not as good, but better than typical international roaming fees (at £0.5/Mb in the EU and up to £3/Mb outside the EU).
Those of us who are used to this kind of cell service boggle in amazement about how backward the US carriers are.
The final irony? Three is pretty backward and expensive compared to what Estonians get from their cellcos ... the UK is by no means the best world-wide, it's just a handy point of reference.