3 Network In Ireland

litirspam

Well went to CPW to buy yesterday but didn't realise that you had to trade in an old phone or pay €20 extra so I said no thanks as I didn't have phone charger or booklet with me and I wasn't going to be ripped off. So going to order off webstie.
Anyway had a look at 6680 while I was there. Lovely phone but one thing I was wondering about was that the keys seemed to be very close together.

Anyone that has one. Do you find this awkward or do you get used to it?

paulm17781

I didn't have to pay extra or trade in my ol phone in 3G.

The keys on the 6680 are a bit close together. It is slightly annoying but I am getting used to it.

Dellas

Hi I joined 3 at the start and opted for Motorola V975. Nice small smart phone but had same problems with it as my old V980 on Vodafone!!! Screen kept going blank and sometimes when I plugged in charger it wouldnt charge. Called 3 and they told me that they would send me new one. I asked customer relations if I decided that I wanted to pay the difference and upgrade to the Nokia 6680 could I do it. Got a call back after it had been passed onto a manager and that was fine. Next day a courier called to me gave me new Nokia 6680 and took back my V975. I was very impressed by the service. I have only been with them 2 months. The Nokia 6680 is great and I know the keys are close together but you get used to it aswell as the different menus. The bigger screen is great for watching News,MTV and Video calling. I think Ive finally found the best phone Ive ever had!!!

Anyone getting a new phone I can highly recommend the Nokia 6680. Battery life is good and camera is good too. Great quality pics.

Hats off to 3 for allowing me to upgrade also.....

litirspam

Got my phone yesterday (6680) and I am well impressed. Customer service is top notch also. Can anyone confirm what is free and what is not free please?
ie is the web free?

rymus

whats the speed like when browsing the menu in the 6680? I have a 6600 and was going to port & upgrade but if the lag in the menu's is anything like in my 6600 I'll go for something else.

Dellas

Hi well most stuff is free except ring tones,music vids and wall papers etc...
It tells you always on the menu if there is a charge and if its free it says €0.
ITN News,Jaydee,Weather,Horoscopes,Setanta GAA,Sport,most comedy clips etc..are free so a good selection there.

Browsing speeds are dependant on your local 3G network. It can sometimes be a bit slow but on the whole I have no complaints. The only thing is you have to exit out of the pages you are in by pressing options and scrolling down to exit then press it. Holding down the clear key does not exit you out of the pages you photos you have viewed but its ok when you get used to it.
You can also turn phone side ways and view widescreen which is cool. Speaker sound is not as good as I thought it would be but headset fine.

Menus take some time to get used to but theres so much technology on the handset so its only to be expected.

Dellas

litirspam wrote:

ie is the web free?

I dont think you can access the web??? Its a walled garden as they call it. It comes up Web on the phone screen but thats just 3's web for downloaded and streaming 3's web content ie: ITN News etc.... if you view ITN News it is free but the web icon still shows in top left of screen but its free. If you have got other non 3 websites up on it let me know

cheers

kazzer

Some questions for anyone already on a 3 contract:

1. Can you only pay your bill by direct debit? (I prefer to use online banking)
2. Is voicmail included as part of your monthly minutes?
3. Are you charged WAP/GPRS charges for accessing the free video content, I assume so?

Dellas

kazzer wrote:

Some questions for anyone already on a 3 contract:

1. Can you only pay your bill by direct debit? (I prefer to use online banking)
2. Is voicmail included as part of your monthly minutes?
3. Are you charged WAP/GPRS charges for accessing the free video content, I assume so?

Hi mate well as far as I know you can only do it by DD but you could set it up and cancel it no problem at all and when you do call them and tell them you want put on invoice!!!!

Voicemail 171 calls are included in your minutes. I got it confirmed when I got my bill in last month and it was included.

You dont pay for WAP/GPRS its free when looking at the 3 services. you only pay if it says there is a charge ie: ring tones etc...it will show on screen as €3 or €2 etc..before you buy. Watching ITN News,looking at weather etc... is free.

kazzer

hi Dellas,

Id be very grateful if you could answer a few more questions for me.

1. Do you get an itemised bill? Paper or online?
2. Can you look up your current balance (minutes and texts used etc) on your account online?
3. Can you get 'balance on screen'?

Cheers

paulm17781

1. Itemised paper bill
2. Not that I am aware
3. Not that I am aware

TOPDAWG

litirspam wrote:

Customer service is top notch also.

Being involved in the industry myself and having to deal with the customer care of all irish networks i can honestly say the setup at 3 is pi$$ poor! Anytime i contact them they cant find customer details, ports are having to be re-faxed through and refaxed again and again and again.

OH YEAH! And do any of ye know that once your usage hits a value of 160EUR in one month your account locks and you cant make anymore calls until the next month!! You cant even pay your bill up until then to get it lifted!!!!! Best of luck to anyone using it for business purposes!!

It took me three (no pun intended) phone calls and over an hour to help a customer get a 14 day cancellation sorted.

Impressive tarriffs,yes. Impressive setup,maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Honestly at the moment, Meteor are the way to go! Prepaid and postpaid!

Dellas

kazzer wrote:

hi Dellas,

Id be very grateful if you could answer a few more questions for me.

1. Do you get an itemised bill? Paper or online?
2. Can you look up your current balance (minutes and texts used etc) on your account online?
3. Can you get 'balance on screen'?

Cheers

1. Yes fully itemised shows all calls and texts even texts included in you bundles.

2. No online billing but you can dial 333 and it tells you how many minutes and or texts you have. This is a free call.

3. Balance can be seen on 'My 3' on your phone.

Hope this answers your questions any more dont hesitate to ask....

Dellas

OH YEAH! And do any of ye know that once your usage hits a value of 160EUR in one month your account locks and you cant make anymore calls until the next month!! You cant even pay your bill up until then to get it lifted!!!!! Best of luck to anyone using it for business purposes!!

Well I know there are some problems but I have to say mine have been sorted out quite well. As previous posts I was overcharged for roaming and calling abroad. After a week these were all refunded and I was given goodwill credits on top of this.

You can pay your bill up as I did it by laser last week!!!! I know that for a while you couldnt do it as an Irish Laser machine had to be set up in Glasgow but it is working now.

There is a credit limit of Eur 160 on all accounts until you build up a credit history with them . I as a customer think that this is fair enough. This was increased to Eur 250 after me being a month with them.

I still think they have to get more roaming partners and international SMS agreements in place but out of 10 I give them 8 !!!!!!!! Im happy with them in general.

I have been with O2/Vodafone/Meteor etc..... Meteor was the worst!!!!! Vodafone were good....O2 are behind in technology.

Dellas

RTE news video bulletins now working!!!!!! very good

TCamen

The only thing is you have to exit out of the pages you are in by pressing options and scrolling down to exit then press it. Holding down the clear key does not exit you out of the pages you photos you have viewed but its ok when you get used to it.

With the 6680, if you hold down the menu key, you can see all active applications, and stop them with the 'c' button.

3. Balance can be seen on 'My 3' on your phone.

Just wondering how you get to see your balance on screen? I had another look there in 'My 3' and I don't see anything? It'd be really handy to do this!

RTE news video bulletins now working!!!!!! very good

Yeah, not that I go crazy for the news, but at least there's Irish content up now.

There is a credit limit of Eur 160 on all accounts until you build up a credit history with them . I as a customer think that this is fair enough. This was increased to Eur 250 after me being a month with them.

I don't think €160 is a particularly low limit, it's four times my first month's bill on 3. I do think they should make it more obvious that there is a limit though.

Slice

€160 seems very low as credit limits go - compared to say how much of a credit limit a credit card company might offer - though I know you can't really compare a mobile phone company with a credit card company.

Additionally some of their hidden charges seem extortionate - like you have to pay extra each month if you want itemised billing. You also have to pay extra each month if you don't want to pay by direct debit, and there are more charges for 1) a late payment and 2) reconnection charge if you're barred for a late payment - so that's effectively a reconnection charge and a late payment charge if you get barred given that you wouldn't be barred if you're not late paying.

I don't think any other network has any of these charges except for reconnection fees

Dellas

My last two bills have been itemised and I havnt paid extra for it!!! So Im not sure why they say they charge (if they do). Maybe I will keep my mouth shut incase I supposed to be charged for it!!!Lol


The downsides still are :::


No SMS agreements to allow you to send texts messages to UK for people on O2 and Vodafone UK this is a pain.

Crazy prices for roaming and international calls . 3 are the most expensive for this and they should sort it out.

The rest of the service is very good value and quality though. If they got the above sorted out they would be brilliant!!!!

Dellas

The pre paid service from 3 Ireland (ThreePay) is due to launch in the next 6 to 8 weeks according to a mate of mine. My bill hadnt gone through yesterday and I had already reached my credit limit so when I went to buy a MTV video it came up with a screen saying "If you are on ThreePay please top up" ...."If you are on a monthly plan please call 333"....so they must be getting ready.

Dellas

Dellas wrote:

RTE news video bulletins now working!!!!!! very good

Yeah noticed that the other day.

They don't update them very often though.
They are exact clips from either the 6 ,9 or 1 news.
So if you log on at noon, you are getting yesterdays news and in fact sometimes they only put clips on for 1 so you are getting very old news the next day.

I suppose RTÉ think nobody could be watching these new fangled things so why bother :rolleyes:

It's ok I suppose if you are holed up away from TV and radio coverage for a day or two and you need to catch up...

But then if you are in a three service area, it's unlikely you are going to be so isolated that you havent seen a tv news in nearly 48 hours.

ITN have some cop on though-they regularally update.

Dellas

Yeah I thought that myself but its better than nothing. The thing is if you are on holidays in UK or Austria,Australia or another country that has 3 you can watch all these things for free. I was in London last week and it actually worked!!!

RTE are supposed to be updating 3 times a day so maybe this is just teething problems. I have to admit though it is a good idea to have local news other than foreign news....time will tell I guess if it will be useful.

ferryman

Dellas, were you charged for browsing the RTE/ITV video content while in the UK? The site says that "all 3 services will cost the same as in Ireland" when selecting Australia/Austria/Hong Kong/Italy/Sweeden, but no sign of it on the UK page. Just wanted to double check.
Would I be right in saying that access to the majority of 3's Internet content (apart from ringtones/music videos/commedy clips etc) is free both in Ireland and in any country in which 3 have a presence? Seriously thinking about "making the move", from Meteor!
Are you still happy with the service? Any improvement on the SMS to foreign networks situation? I notice the list of roaming partners isn't growing too quickly, it's been stuck on 34 for nearly 2 weeks now. In most cases they seem to have an agreement with just one operator in each country, it's about time they got the finger out, lots of money to be made from roaming IMO. I see that 3 UK have agreements in around 150 countries, and not just with non O2/Voda operators.

Dellas

Hi Ferryman,
You are right at the beginning there was a problem with using the 3 Ireland services in the UK so it was taken off but in the last few weeks it is working I have tested it in both Belfast and London and I was not charged for any ITN/RTE video news etc....

You pay for ringtones ,MTV videos etc.....

The roaming is getting better but im not that bothered about that Im more bothered about the SMS agreements which enables you to send a text from Ireland to other countries and networks..this seems to be slow but it will eventually come in place. O2 UK and Vodafone UK are dragging their heels as usual so I have my old Sagem MYV65 to use on Vodafone PAYG to combat this in the meantime. All in all I would still stay with 3 the services and video calls are very good from a personal opinion!!!

Sam Vimes

paulm17781 wrote:

I didn't have to pay extra or trade in my ol phone in 3G.

The keys on the 6680 are a bit close together. It is slightly annoying but I am getting used to it.

you didnt pay extra, the ppl who trade in in cpw pay less they get 20 quid off the 149, 199 or 239 you paid

Sam Vimes

kazzer wrote:

Some questions for anyone already on a 3 contract:

1. Can you only pay your bill by direct debit? (I prefer to use online banking)
2. Is voicmail included as part of your monthly minutes?
3. Are you charged WAP/GPRS charges for accessing the free video content, I assume so?

1. you can pay your bill by cash but they charge 4.50 a month extra

2. voicemail is 15c and not included in your minutes. unless its like the itemised bill thing where theyre supposed to charge but they dont

3. your not charged for anything that doesnt have a price on it

flodis79

Dunno if this has been queried before in this thread. What is the per kb cost for GPRS connections via 3ireland? What about EDGE per kb? And ordinary 3g data connections, per kb?

Dellas

there is no per KB charge as you cant access any other webpages other than whats offered on the 3 menu and 3 content and to view that it is free unless it has a price next to it and then you have to click to buy item,,

flodis79

You cannot access other things?? Seems very strange. 3 in other countries can do that, why not here?

Dellas

3 have only recently allowed UK customers to view non 3 content. My sisters on 3 in London.

TCamen

Four new handsets on 3 for Christmas [UK]

So what're the chances that 3 will introduce these new handsets for their Irish customers before Christmas? I know a few people that would definitely move network if the N70 or V3X were on offer.

I just wonder if 3 will be like Vodafone/O2 over here and be slower than the UK for getting handsets on their networks.