3 Network In Ireland

SF1

An update on threes website to register for information.

plastic paddy

Hi I live in NE London & work in central London and in both areas the coverage and quality is worse than original analogue? mobiles in the early 90's. Their phones are generally poor and basic (latest Nokia phones are only available from Dealers like Carphone Ware house and are NOT supported by 3 themselves).

Simply put, their service only really works on their back-up network O2 2.5G, but everytime there is a 3G signal it kills the better 2.5 one, dropping the call. Finally, think of the worst Indian call centre experience you have ever had and that is about the best you can expect from 'Customer Services'.

I currently have contracts on Vodafone, T-mobile (also poor quality) and Orange. Nothing is as poor as 3. Please check out the Forum http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/ for the UK experience.

20 Times 20 Times

plastic paddy wrote:

Hi I live in NE London & work in central London and in both areas the coverage and quality is worse than original analogue? mobiles in the early 90's. Their phones are generally poor and basic (latest Nokia phones are only available from Dealers like Carphone Ware house and are NOT supported by 3 themselves).

Simply put, their service only really works on their back-up network O2 2.5G, but everytime there is a 3G signal it kills the better 2.5 one, dropping the call. Finally, think of the worst Indian call centre experience you have ever had and that is about the best you can expect from 'Customer Services'.

I currently have contracts on Vodafone, T-mobile (also poor quality) and Orange. Nothing is as poor as 3. Please check out the Forum http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/ for the UK experience.

very interesting , i think this company COULD make a big impact on the irish mobile market , remember there a brand new company coming into a market that has reached its peak , its about keeping the customers rather than trying to gain more . they are going to hit the market next few weeks DEFO ! when the 3g licence was sold this company bought the full rights

jesus_thats_gre

Ireland is a strange one though. People don't seem to move solely because something is cheaper. Convenience is a massive factor and moving operator seems to be too much hassle for us, i.e. stick with what we know. Competitors to Vodafone/O2 and Eircom in the Mobile and Fixed line industries respectively probably know this all too well..

Conor S

3 are now giving out a contact number aswell as the web address on their ads.it is 1800330333.I rang them and was talking to a nice scot who took my details and told me they would be in touch with me before their launch (which he said was happening very soon) with info on phones,tariffs.etc

jesus_thats_gre

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Ireland is a strange one though. People don't seem to move solely because something is cheaper. Convenience is a massive factor and moving operator seems to be too much hassle for us, i.e. stick with what we know. Competitors to Vodafone/O2 and Eircom in the Mobile and Fixed line industries respectively probably know this all too well..

Totally agree with you here. Lots of people still have eircom for their fixed lines, and will go for eircom broadband if they want BB. The excuses I usually hear is "I have eircom for my phone and don't want to change that" (which is unnecessary) or "I don't want two bills."
Back to mobiles, looking here in Listowel I'd say that 90% of the town are on Vodafone. Hence why VF have four sites while O2/Meteor only have one.

SaltySeaDog

3 will be live before November, they will be live soon, at the moment they are testing the network and about 200 or so users are testing the network for the trial. I have a friend who is part of this trial as she is working on this rollout.Content is up and running, so goal downloads, music, news games etc is on.

The phones are coool enough but because it's 3g, the battery life is no where near as good as GSM so if u do buy a 3g phone, be warned of this, u may need to charge ur phone at least every 2nd day and that would be on min usuage.

Coverage is obviously best in Dublin but all towns around Ireland now are getting sites put in.

It will be interesting to see how they attack the market here,in the UK, they have ripped it wide open, they basically give u a top of the range phone for free if u sign up on a contract and contract includes a serious amount of voice minutes and txt messages and content.

I think the launch may be a quietish affair but expect major push for the xmas market.

JTMan

It will be at least 45 days before they launch (well 40 days now) cause full number portability for the 083 network will not start till July 15th. Unless they choose to launch without FNP been in place which would be a mistake.

I think they will be almost as agressive as the UK market the email they send me seemed to hint that the focus would be on value.

I think the launch may be a quietish affair but expect major push for the xmas market.

I agree. They will probably target the early adopors first with heavy usage packages and a little later launch tarrifs aimed at the mass market.

JTMan

Seems that Vodafone are really holding up the launch

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=5395-qqqx=1.asp

BuffyBot

I was with 3 in the UK. The call costs were quite reasonable, the phones were good and support...well so-so, but no worse than any other mobile companies I've called. I didn't have any coverage problems either. The only thing I did think was a bit steep was their line rental charges, but time will tell how the price themselves here.

plastic paddy

BuffyBot wrote:

I was with 3 in the UK. The call costs were quite reasonable, the phones were good and support...well so-so, but no worse than any other mobile companies I've called. I didn't have any coverage problems either. The only thing I did think was a bit steep was their line rental charges, but time will tell how the price themselves here.

Hi BuffyBot. I took out a £30 a month contract through CPW on the Nokia 7600. With cashback the line rental is £2.99 a month and phone rebate of £20 means I would have paid £16 for the year for 500 mins and 100 texts a month. However the coverage even in Central London is poor, I had an incredibly rude CS guy who refused to put me through to a supervisor to complain about him and technical support is very inconsistent with different employees giving different advice.

The Corporate Office in Scotland is a different matter and they have given me 2 credits of £30, a free Motorola E1000 and finally they are now replacing that with a Motorola V975. So they are paying me £44 and the cost of the phone to be a customer. Also the employee I have dealt with has said that if I'm still not satisfied with the call quality I can cancel my contract without any cost. However, unless I'm making a call on the O2 backup 2.5G service it is the most frustating experience trying to hear & be heard on the 3G service. So despite the fact I'm being paid to be a customer I still think I'll probably cancel and go to a company that has a genuine network.

I know these issues are very subjective and even on the 3G forum I've referred to, in an earlier post, there are fans of 3 (although some are 3 employees) but I feel that any potential customer should check out the kind of problems people have consistently experienced in the UK. Finally, it's very subjective but of about 10 people I know who've been on 3, only 2 have said it's ok compared to Orange, O2 & Vodafone.

Good Luck

BuffyBot

However the coverage even in Central London is poor

Worked fine all over London for me. As you say, these things are very subjective...

plastic paddy

Hi,

Maybe it is worth me getting a replacement sim then; I'm also going to strawpole anyone I see on 3 before I finally decide.

Out of interest the price advantage of 3 is being eroded by their competitors & O2 is offering sim only service of £30 for 400 mins. Finally, EasyMobile (which has been perceived as failing) has made Fresh (CPW service) and Tesco Mobile respond. The latter's going to launch under their 'value' brand & with call costs dropping to aboout 7.5p a minute most people will never need contracts, if they don't want upgrades.

All academic as it's not Ireland, but with Walmart Asda getting involved in a JV with Vodafone presumably Supermarkets in the republic will follow as well.

paulm17781

plastic paddy wrote:

I know these issues are very subjective and even on the 3G forum I've referred to, in an earlier post, there are fans of 3 (although some are 3 employees) but I feel that any potential customer should check out the kind of problems people have consistently experienced in the UK. Finally, it's very subjective but of about 10 people I know who've been on 3, only 2 have said it's ok compared to Orange, O2 & Vodafone.
Good Luck

I had a look at that forum. One thing about it is though, people rarely go to a forum to say "I'm so happy with my telecoms provider..." They go to complain about bad service. I would imagine there are many people who are happy with 3 in the UK too. They just don't post about it.

spanner_head

Theres an article in yesterdays Sunday Biz Post saying that they will launch before the end of the month. I just registered my interest this morning.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=MORE%20COMPUTER%20NEWS-qqqs=computersinbusiness-qqqid=5269-qqqx=1.asp

plastic paddy

paulm17781 wrote:

I had a look at that forum. One thing about it is though, people rarely go to a forum to say "I'm so happy with my telecoms provider..." They go to complain about bad service. I would imagine there are many people who are happy with 3 in the UK too. They just don't post about it.

It's a tricky one as there are so many areas where we have no power that being complaining consumers probably makes us feel better. However it's quite soul sapping and after getting lots of money and goods from Dell, Logitec, T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and various other companies I'm sick of bothering.

Today is a case in point as my V975 was delivered at work today, instead of later in the week as advised, but I have also had an NEC 338 delivered to my home address that I know nothing about. Now I'm not complaining, just bemused; why do so few companies ever know what's going on with themselves and their own customers?

Harry Corry

dookie wrote:

083 is prob the number just bcos of "3"...i remember they launched in the uk on the 03.03.03 <- nifty eh!?

They're not exactly keeping with tradition in Ireland. I imagined they would have had www.three.ie - just like three.co.uk / com.au etc. but there's a photography website there. Go figure!

MiCr0

it was gone before they got here

Harry Corry

Someone smarter than they were eh?
I think their ad is stupid. And to add insult to injury they're using 3ireland.ie. Amateur at best. Looks like the buzz has gone from the 3G market for sure when you see someone like Hutchinson not even making an effort in the likes of Ireland.

BuffyBot

What, in the heavens are you on about?

The ad is the same one as they've used elsewhere. It's a teaser ad, it gets the three brand in the public conciousness. Of course they are using 3ireland.ie because they can't travel back in time and take three.ie before the present owners. How is it "amateur" and how does it signify the "buzz" is gone?

optiplexgx270

well as you can see www.three.ie is taken. i know the current 3ireland online shop url but tap tap that a secret, offers seem decent enough but im not into bill pay phones.

They were supposed to go live on early this month as you can see with all the advertising should be this week.

woody

aw go on tell us where it is and I will give you a bag of bullseyes:)

Harry Corry

BuffyBot wrote:

What, in the heavens are you on about?

The ad is the same one as they've used elsewhere. It's a teaser ad, it gets the three brand in the public conciousness. Of course they are using 3ireland.ie because they can't travel back in time and take three.ie before the present owners. How is it "amateur" and how does it signify the "buzz" is gone?

Wooh! Didn't mean to ruffle feathers but seeing as you have asked. The 'buzz' being the 3G buzz. We'll less of a Buzz and more of a really slow fizzle.

Re: Time Travel - come on. we both know that the government have the equipment. All Hutch have to do is rent it

woody

not that much of a secret when I worked it out for myself:


http://www.3ireland.ie/shop.html

woody

tis weird all uk stuff on irish site looks like the template

cgarvey

tut tut, both of 3ireland.ie's nameservers are unreachable via eicom DSL at the moment.. so much for redundancy

Sponge Bob

Lots of cheapo asian handsets in there, all priced at £0 , eg

http://www.3ireland.ie/handsets/handsetoverview.omp?subleft=2&header=PAYMON&cid=1103643344308

Not a single natty Nokia to be seen anywhere.

BuffyBot

I think they're just the ones which have been copied over with the site. I'm not sure that it will be the selection when they launch

vibe666

if they keep showing that stupid advert people aren't going to go near them!

AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

make it stop, please!

paulm17781

There was something in the Business section of the Irish times today. They are going to launch next month apparently.