Three is today removing the limit on mobile data on its One Plan tariff, which already offered an impressive 1GB allowance on top of a generous bundle of calls and texts.
The One Plan offers customers 2,000 minutes of calls to any network, plus a further 5,000 minutes for calls to other Three customers. With 5,000 inclusive texts and 1GB of data, the tariff is currently one of the best value offerings in the UK market.
Now, Three has opted to remove the data limit completely. This means that anyone exceeding 1GB will not be landed with any ‘out-of’-bundle’ data charges at all.
What’s more, you can not only use data on your phone but also when tethering with your PC or Mac, which could see a huge increase in data consumption. Three told What Mobile that there is no fair use policy, but the network reserves the right to suspend users participating in illegal activities, which we take to mean anyone using file sharing services (and not actually monitoring what users are sending and receiving).
Beyond that, we’re not sure exactly how Three is going to be able to police usage at all, and we’ve asked for clarification on how a user might be given a warning to cease such activities before being cut off.
No announcement has been made on any removal of data limits on its Mobile Broadband tariffs, which range from pay-as-you-go charging to 15GB of unrestricted data usage per month.
When Three launched the One Plan tariff in July 2010, 1GB was considered a generous limit given that the average usage by its customers fell below this amount. Three is presumably gambling on the fact that people will rarely exceed 1GB anyway, but can now feel more comfortable in using data without any ‘risk’.
However, they may soon find that some people will exceed 1GB and by a considerable amount thanks to the lifting of any barriers.
More information: www.three.co.uk
