podgerodge said:
On first impression doing some very quick sums, I am very disappointed in the costs - Meteor is still cheaper UNLESS you are going to be using Peak calls. For me in an office where 99% of calls are offpeak, 3 is no good. Interesting to see if they bring in a pay as u go..they have one in the UK.
The fact that video downloads are included at no extra cost is a bonus if you intend using these services, which is after all one of the things what 3G is all about - that and better call quality, which is harder to sell but very important. The calls should be extra clear now as they have just launched and so will have few customers!
I like the "no nonsense" single pricing and the fact that they will replace your handset within a year if it develops a fault with "normal use". Vodafone's Perfect Fit price plan is a similar attempt to get rid confusing price plans, but can work out at bad value depending on how you use it. (I.e. if you stick to near the amount of minutes you pay for in advance, it works out; if you go over, you are penalised.) I have not worked out if 3 is going to be better value yet as it depends on type of usage.
Incidentally, I thought that video calls were the same as voice calls (which 3 heralds) on Vodafone 3G also? Anyone know?
I see also that 3 have gone back to the bad old days of having to pay for voicemail calls.
Bottom line for me is that it is great so see some extra competition, and also some classier looking 3G handsets. The fact that Vodafone and O2 sit on new handsets for [6] months longer testing them than their UK & European counterparts always annoyed me. Maybe 3 will be quicker at coming out with new models.
podgerodge said:
Also, they appear to offer roaming in only 10 countries at present! Weird considering they have roaming agreements with 150 countries according to their UK site - maybe someone with some tech knowledge could explain why the same agreements would not automatically cover them for Irish customers?
They are probably only offering roaming to countries with WCMDA (3G) coverage. I am sure that most of the handsets also support 2.5G so it is probably a matter of testing in different markets in order to have global support for 3G/2.5G switchover. My Vodafone 3G Sony Ericsson V800 has a "Preferred Network" menu where I can choose "3G and 2G" or "2G only". The latter is needed in some cases where the 3 coverage exists but is very poor - the phone would keep trying to connect to the 3G service and gives me no coverage.