3 have 1.6% of the market

Solair

I was just reading a report from one of the sunday papers and it seems that 3 has only taken 1.6% of the market in their first 18 months - 77,000 customers at the beginning of 2007.

Just wondering if anyone knows why they're not pulling in more customers?

is it price?
or is it just that people don't care about 3G services yet?

nodger

Solair wrote:

I was just reading a report from one of the sunday papers and it seems that 3 has only taken 1.6% of the market in their first 18 months - 77,000 customers at the beginning of 2007.

Just wondering if anyone knows why they're not pulling in more customers?

is it price?
or is it just that people don't care about 3G services yet?

I think that the average Joe Soap doesn't want the hassle of changing providers . Also, their customer service had a really bad rep when they launched first, and that sort of impression sticks in peoples heads.

I've been with them since September 2006 and I have to say I'm 95% happy with them. The only downer is that if you're in an area where the 3G signal is weak, it can sometimes mean that you're left with no service until your phone connects to the Vodafone 2G network. My SE K800 was very slow to do this, but I'm using a Nokia 6233 now, and it seems to be better at managing the change-over.

hermit

I've been with 3 for almost a year now and once my contract is up (in 3 weeks) I will be switching providers - I find them extremely expensive and are poor value for money in relation to their packages particularly when compared with Meteor. ( I am speaking about Bill Pay - don't know what their Pay as you go prices are like in comparison to other providers)

Blaster99

If all the people you're talking to are on Meteor then Meteor might be better value, but I have yet to see anything from any other provider that matches 3's minute bundles for value. Meteor 200 is €40, the same thing with 3 is €25 for existing customers and for some reason €30 for new customers. Then there's the not insignificant issue of Meteor's coverage.

Sam Vimes

Blaster99 wrote:

If all the people you're talking to are on Meteor then Meteor might be better value, but I have yet to see anything from any other provider that matches 3's minute bundles for value. Meteor 200 is €40, the same thing with 3 is €25 for existing customers and for some reason €30 for new customers. Then there's the not insignificant issue of Meteor's coverage.

the reasoning is that before, 100 minutes and 100 texts was 25 and now with the €19 tariff and a 100 text add on for 24.99, basically the same price and you have the option of taking off the add-on if you don't want it.

200 minutes and 200 texts is now 39 instead of 45. but you're right, for the "just minutes" tariffs, they are now more expensive.

the idea that meteor has bad coverage is a myth btw

their coverage map:
http://www.meteor.ie/cgi-bin/ni_map_final.pl?x=0&y=0&z=0

dave oc

Im interested in switching to three(3pay). Can I just switch my number and account(from vodafone payg) to 3pay without buying a phone from them?

Sam Vimes

Dave6195 wrote:

Im interested in switching to three(3pay). Can I just switch my number and account(from vodafone payg) to 3pay without buying a phone from them?

nope

Blaster99

Commander Vimes wrote:

the reasoning is that before, 100 minutes and 100 texts was 25 and now with the €19 tariff and a 100 text add on for 24.99, basically the same price and you have the option of taking off the add-on if you don't want it.

200 minutes and 200 texts is now 39 instead of 45. but you're right, for the "just minutes" tariffs, they are now more expensive.

Sure but 200 min talk was €25 and is now €30.

Commander Vimes wrote:

the idea that meteor has bad coverage is a myth btw

their coverage map:
http://www.meteor.ie/cgi-bin/ni_map_final.pl?x=0&y=0&z=0

You can look at maps all day long, in reality Meteor's coverage is much worse than any of the others. It's pretty evident when travelling around with a Meteor phone.

Urban Weigl

I, for one, am not surprised at all. Perhaps once they figure out how to run a mobile phone network they'll get some customers.

rogue-entity

Considering that the Voda-O2 cartel has an estimated 94% of the market between them, the fact that 3 pulled in 1.6% is rather impressive, given all the problems thay have had with a minority of customers, and the bad rep they build up because of it. I have been with them since September 2005, and I have no intention of leaving them for now, for what I am getting from them, they are still cheaper then Meteor (€25 200mins on legacy tariff). Asside from the faffing over getting my old nokia unlocked (not such a deal until I got my new handset), I havent had a single problem with them, and i use my phone, a lot.

Sam Vimes

Blaster99 wrote:

Sure but 200 min talk was €25 and is now €30.

i said that in my post

Blaster99 wrote:

You can look at maps all day long, in reality Meteor's coverage is much worse than any of the others. It's pretty evident when travelling around with a Meteor phone.

i do that as does pretty much everyone i know and i never lose coverage. my 3 phone often loses coverage indoors because 3g signals don't penetrate as far so i take out my more reliable meteor phone to make a call. i carry both around btw because its much cheaper that way

ciaran76

Blaster99 wrote:

You can look at maps all day long, in reality Meteor's coverage is much worse than any of the others. It's pretty evident when travelling around with a Meteor phone.

I travel alot and have a Meteor phone and have had no problems. I do be in alot of rural areas too and found had a good signal and recieved all calls and have been able to ring who ever I wanted to.

Dellas

I actually ditched my 3 phone as the service was crap outside Ireland, roaming at crazy prices and bad customer service. Thats why they only 77,000 customers!!! I will never stray from Vodafone again as I get VF Passport for abroad which im always using and its a great service. Also webtext is handy and agreements with nearly all mobile providers worldwide.

Sam Vimes

Dellas wrote:

I actually ditched my 3 phone as the service was crap outside Ireland, roaming at crazy prices and bad customer service. Thats why they only 77,000 customers!!! I will never stray from Vodafone again as I get VF Passport for abroad which im always using and its a great service. Also webtext is handy and agreements with nearly all mobile providers worldwide.

i have a vodafone sim for when i go abroad but they're way too expensive for ireland

1huge1

rogue-entity wrote:

Considering that the Voda-O2 cartel has an estimated 94% of the market between them, the fact that 3 pulled in 1.6% is rather impressive, .

not true they have a little over 80% between them, meteors market share is rocketing at the moment with almost 18%

I don't think 1.6% is all that bad considering they entered a saturated market and I remember meteor having no customers at the start either for a good few years

laoisfan

Blaster99 wrote:

Then there's the not insignificant issue of Meteor's coverage.

eh? this may have been true when they started up first but i doubt it is now. i travel a lot around various parts of the country and i have never had a problem with coverage with meteor. e.g anytime i am in swinford, mayo i sometimes (only sometimes) lose meteor coverage, when i do, my phone immediately switches to O2 (they have roaming agreement, so i am still charged my normal rates, no change).

slightly off topic, if you analyse all the plans offered by vodafone, o2 and meteor they are all relatively the same. where you save money is by analysing how you call/txt people!! if u call vodafone number a lot then it makes sense to stick with vodafone. if you call/txt meteor customers a lot, likewise it makes sense to stick with meteor.

however, if you are like me , and have a fairly even distribution of calls/txts to vodafone, o2 and meteor (the odd 3 number too) then chose one of the plans with either provider that offers bundles of mins and bundles of txt.

i was thinking of switching to 3 in 2 months times but i will see about sticking with meteor, i will look at vodafone and o2. vodafone plans are ok but they are really mean for phone prices and upgrades imo.

and also this idea of "free voicemail"....free my ar**....they have it factored into the rental and tariff plan....you do not get anything for free in this world...there is always an angle!!

just my 2-cents guys!!

Slippin Jimmy

Solair wrote:

I was just reading a report from one of the sunday papers and it seems that 3 has only taken 1.6% of the market in their first 18 months - 77,000 customers at the beginning of 2007.

Just wondering if anyone knows why they're not pulling in more customers?

is it price?
or is it just that people don't care about 3G services yet?

Well their phones maybe that little bit cheaper. But they are not a cheap network to be on at all. Compared to meteor, with the free texts offer, meteor are much better value. That be just my opinion as a young enough person. I use the free texts a lot, so for me it is excellent value. I don't think that 3 are as cheap as what people thought they would be. And they did only start selling sim cards recently, well a while ago. But they aren't the greatest compared to any of the other networks. I would be interested to see who are the top in the mobile market.

The_Hustler

I think they are cheap, but Meteor are cheaper. Meteor are not 3G (yet) so 3 will have to start promoting the advantages of 3G.

When did they start selling sim cards? I thought this was one of the complaints that you could not do.

Sam Vimes

DonnybrookGhost wrote:

. And they did only start selling sim cards recently, well a while ago.

they still haven't

FrankGrimes

rogue-entity wrote:

Considering that the Voda-O2 cartel has an estimated 94% of the market between them, the fact that 3 pulled in 1.6% is rather impressive.

I read the same article as the OP and I'm pretty sure it indicated the next provider up from 3 (Meteor) has 10 times the amount of customers that 3 has, making it a total of around 800,00 between Meteor and 3. That means O2 & Vodfone do not have anywhere near 94% of the market and Meteor's relative success makes 3's performance even worse.

The article also mentioned the amount 3 have invested in their Irish setup and the amount was pretty staggering (can't recall exactly), and given they've been here for a decent amount of time, their figures represent a very poor return.

rogue-entity

1huge1 wrote:

not true they have a little over 80% between them, meteors market share is rocketing at the moment with almost 18%

I don't think 1.6% is all that bad considering they entered a saturated market and I remember meteor having no customers at the start either for a good few years

My mistake, but you have to admit, they still have a massive share of the market, and neither O2 nor Vodafone is remotely competitive. I admit I am biased against Meteor, because I strongly dislike their owner, but, I would love Meteor and 3 to steal a lot more market share from Vodafone and O2, competition is always a good thing.

Agreed.

7.Ronaldo

Yeah, I think Meteor have a 17% market share at the moment.

The coverage always puts people off Meteor but I think this has a lot to do with first impressions. When the network was first set up the coverage was poor but it took a while to roll out the network. This network is upgraded constantly to improve coverage and in area's where theirs a known coverage issue Meteor pay other companies so Meteor customers can roam onto their cells. This is mostly throughout the west of Ireland though. Their was a National Roaming agreement in place between Meteor and 02, this has now been changed to Vodafone which should boost coverage in these area's even further.

1huge1

rogue-entity wrote:

My mistake, but you have to admit, they still have a massive share of the market, and neither O2 nor Vodafone is remotely competitive. I admit I am biased against Meteor, because I strongly dislike their owner, but, I would love Meteor and 3 to steal a lot more market share from Vodafone and O2, competition is always a good thing.

Agreed.

Ya I agree the more competition the better and I also strongly dislike meteors owner but meteor have done a lot for the irish market no doubt
Things certainly are heading in the right direction at the moment with a serious amount of people joinging meteor though the same cannot be said for 3...
Tesco mobile this summer

rogue-entity

1huge1 wrote:

Ya I agree the more competition the better and I also strongly dislike meteors owner but meteor have done a lot for the irish market no doubt
Things certainly are heading in the right direction at the moment with a serious amount of people joinging meteor though the same cannot be said for 3...
Tesco mobile this summer

Agreed, and it will be certainly interesting to watch, pity we couldnt have the same luck with the broadband market ¬_¬

Slippin Jimmy

Does anyone have any information on Tesco mobile at all?

Urban Weigl

DonnybrookGhost wrote:

Does anyone have any information on Tesco mobile at all?

Tesco Mobile will launch this summer. That's it really.

By the way, I rang up O2 yesterday, and they told me that they are NOT increasing the peak hours for Night Owl or Early Bird customers. Looks like all this could be a belated April's Fool joke. Wouldn't it be funny if we all fell for it?

1huge1

Info on tesco mobile well I can't see them offering the most top of the range phones by any standard even making meteors offering look advanced but what they will excell in is their prices (thats the tesco brand for ya)

Slippin Jimmy

Urban Weigl wrote:

Tesco Mobile will launch this summer. That's it really.

By the way, I rang up O2 yesterday, and they told me that they are NOT increasing the peak hours for Night Owl or Early Bird customers. Looks like all this could be a belated April's Fool joke. Wouldn't it be funny if we all fell for it?

Just thinking about it there. I forgot all about April Fools day lol. I wonder will the prices be much better than the other companys at the moment.

nick23

Solair wrote:

I was just reading a report from one of the sunday papers and it seems that 3 has only taken 1.6% of the market in their first 18 months - 77,000 customers at the beginning of 2007.

Just wondering if anyone knows why they're not pulling in more customers?

is it price?
or is it just that people don't care about 3G services yet?

Theyre not pulling in the customers because theyre the worst mobile phone network on the market at the moment. Their customer service is disgraceful and are nothing but needless headaches. Im leaving them as soon as possible

Urban Weigl

The reason 3 don't have more customers is that so far, they haven't been able to get their act together. And when they do release a new service, it takes them months to actually get it working like it says on the tin. When things don't work, their customer service isn't able to offer any help either, beyond saying that the reason for the latest problem is that "we're still so new" etc etc.

1huge1

Urban Weigl wrote:

The reason 3 don't have more customers is that so far, they haven't been able to get their act together. And when they do release a new service, it takes them months to actually get it working like it says on the tin. When things don't work, their customer service isn't able to offer any help either, beyond saying that the reason for the latest problem is that "we're still so new" etc etc.

Thats the reason people who join them don't like them but not the reason people aren't joining them in the 1st place
the reason people aren't joining them is market awareness people now have heard of 3 but don't really know what they can do for ya
A intense marketing campaign like meteor have been doing for the last year or so
bring in corny characters with somethig like a cast jumping out a window not just info
something that will stick to your minds (my bit of knowledge in advertising...)

Random

Is it the lack of own brand stores that makes people a little uneasy about shining up? It's nice to know you can go and vent at someone in a shop even if it doesn't solve whatever issue you have.

The_Hustler

They do have a few own brand stores now.

I just think they assume people know the benefits of 3G etc. but not that many do

FrankGrimes

Surely if they got the finger out and finally realeased x-series in Ireland with suitable high-profile publicity, they'd get a big increase in new customers (I'd be tempted to risk all the potential problems I might face in joining them to get the benefits of x-series).

hosi

Everyone knows that Three is not really popular in Ireland. In view of this fact I really don't understand why Three pays for porting your previous 087, 086 or 085 number when you sign up for 3Pay. What's the point??? Isn't it better for Three to have customers with 083 numbers???

Sam Vimes

hosi wrote:

Everyone knows that Three is not really popular in Ireland. In view of this fact I really don't understand why Three pays for porting your previous 087, 086 or 085 number when you sign up for 3Pay. What's the point??? Isn't it better for Three to have customers with 083 numbers???

yes but people want to keep their numbers. think of all the customers they'd lose if you couldn't port your number. to this day, some people look confused when i tell them i have an 083 number

The_Hustler

Yes, I find that all the time. Some even think you've made the number up.

rogue-entity

Try ordering a pizza and giving them your 083 number..

I wonder, am I the only happy, content 3 customer on boards? I likewise wish they would get their act together and release X-Series.. its been 5 months after the UK for christ sake..

plonk

Im happy with 3, they have made a few mistakes with me but I usually find customer care pretty good. Im not too sure about the x-series going ahead as they probably realised that they are not making much money in the uk and going a different route here. But thats only a guess

hermit

The_Hustler wrote:

Yes, I find that all the time. Some even think you've made the number up.

Yeah my number starts with 083 333**** - everytime I give this number to someone I have to repeat it bout 4 times and answer the question "Yeah but what network, is it 087, 086) - No Its "083" just kike I said. They write down the number and still look totally confused.

Sam Vimes

hermit wrote:

Yeah my number starts with 083 333**** - everytime I give this number to someone I have to repeat it bout 4 times and answer the question "Yeah but what network, is it 087, 086) - No Its "083" just kike I said. They write down the number and still look totally confused.

yeah. i hate having to repeat it. especially since they moved the customer care to india. you'd think they of all people would be used to hearing them

hosi

On the one hand Three want to win more customer's by paying for porting numbers, but on the other hand people will always keep wondering when they will hear 083 numbers...
How do Three want to became popular? By adverising, TV ads? IMO people think: "Hmmm... no one has 083 so this must be a small network with poor coverage for sure, I will better stay with voda, o2 or Meteor".

Sam Vimes

hosi wrote:

On the one hand Three want to win more customer's by paying for porting numbers, but on the other hand people will always keep wondering when they will hear 083 numbers...
How do Three want to became popular? By adverising, TV ads? IMO people think: "Hmmm... no one has 083 so this must be a small network with poor coverage for sure, I will better stay with voda, o2 or Meteor".

it is true that giving out 083 numbers would make them better known but you can't force people to change their numbers. i worked in a phone shop when 3 first launched. for a month or two they couldn't port numbers.

"can i keep my number" was pretty much always the first question i was asked and when i said no, more often than not they walked out

hosi

Commander Vimes wrote:

it is true that giving out 083 numbers would make them better known but you can't force people to change their numbers. i worked in a phone shop when 3 first launched. for a month or two they couldn't port numbers.

"can i keep my number" was pretty much always the first question i was asked and when i said no, more often than not they walked out

Hmmm... thats something, Three has to deal with: become popular with small amount of 083 numbers in use...

Jonathan

ciaranfo wrote:

Is it the lack of own brand stores that makes people a little uneasy about shining up? It's nice to know you can go and vent at someone in a shop even if it doesn't solve whatever issue you have.

Ha ha. So true. Although in my experience a hell of a lot of people are under the assumption that Eircom's 3G are actual 3 stores!

Sam Vimes

jmccrohan wrote:

Ha ha. So true. Although in my experience a hell of a lot of people are under the assumption that Eircom's 3G are actual 3 stores!

and a lot of people are under the impression that 3g is owned by eircom

they do eircom stuff but they're a separate company. they bought all the old eircom stores

Urban Weigl

I was just gonna say, I wasn't aware that Eircom owned the premium Apple reseller in Galway.

1huge1

rogue-entity wrote:

Try ordering a pizza and giving them your 083 number..

I wonder, am I the only happy, content 3 customer on boards? I likewise wish they would get their act together and release X-Series.. its been 5 months after the UK for christ sake..

ive been with them for almost 2 years and im generally happy
your not the only one, once upon a time vimes was a fan of 3 would you believe

1huge1

Commander Vimes wrote:

and a lot of people are under the impression that 3g is owned by eircom

they do eircom stuff but they're a separate company. they bought all the old eircom stores

more annoying is that people think that 3G is that aul video calling yoke :rolleyes:

Sam Vimes

1huge1 wrote:

ive been with them for almost 2 years and im generally happy
your not the only one, once upon a time vimes was a fan of 3 would you believe

i know. shocking isn't it

plonk

Just rang them there to unlock my 6680 and it seems I need a credit card to do it. What a shower of dicks, I dont have a credit card so now I have to borrow someones. I know its not that big of a deal but why cant they just add it to my next bill