What do you think of 3 Mobile?

luke · 06-11-2005, 08:05 PM

Hi guys
I'm currently looking at getting a new phone... Does anyone here use 3?
If so, whats the coverage like? Any complaints? I live near Port Wakefield, and I want to know if it's going to work where Telstra does.
cheers

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke

Hi guys
I'm currently looking at getting a new phone... Does anyone here use 3?
If so, whats the coverage like? Any complaints? I live near Port Wakefield, and I want to know if it's going to work where Telstra does.
cheers

I'm not on 3 but everyone I know a few people on it. The only problem is the phones always keep stuffing up (except the Nokia as far as i know). Everyone has always had to change their phone once or twice.
A mate of mine changed to vodaphone and is much more happy with them and he says it's better value for his use.
Coverage wise, in Melbourne I've never really had a problem with talking with the other side.

Hope there's something useful in there

**Charliewool** · 06-11-2005, 08:16 PM

Their deals are quite good (IF you don't go over the preset limit) I think for $59 plan you get $200 worth of calls a month? Exceed that $200 and YOU pay!.. And, YES.. their Phones are crap.. Daughter is on her 2nd & thats now turning itself off during calls(again)

luke · 06-11-2005, 08:18 PM

Ahh ok cheers for that... I'm actually looking at the Nokia 6680... I just need to find out more about it...
As long as you can at least get voice coverage in regional SA i'll be happy.

luke · 06-11-2005, 08:22 PM

Or maybe should i just stick with Telstra?

RED_EL_XR8 · 06-11-2005, 08:22 PM

Rumour is that they are called 3 because that's the total subscriber base, if you were to join they may well have to change their name and all the stationary to 4. :nutsycuck

FreezeR · 06-11-2005, 08:24 PM

Im on 3 in melbourne and its an absolute treat.. no problems at all, ive got the nokia 6680 aswell and its a pretty solid phone, no hassles with it yet.
There cap plans are good value aswell.

Very pleased with them.

CarBroker · 06-11-2005, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RED_EL_XR8

Rumour is that they are called 3 because that's the total subscriber base, if you were to join they may well have to change their name and all the stationary to 4. :nutsycuck

Could be. I was with them for a while, and I thought 3 was the total number of customer service employees located in Australia. The rest are in India.

I eventually ended up with http://www.isim.com.au/ which are good for buying SIM cards and getting email support. I would never buy a phone from them and I doubt their phone support is any good. But I like their rates, and they have been reliable with 4 phones over 18-24 months so far.

$AUDude · 06-11-2005, 08:30 PM

Hey mate, I'm with 3! I like it. I'm on a $15 a month plan with the new Sony Ericsson K608i, just upgraded from the old Motorola A35 or something on a $12 plan. All my mates are with 3 so we get free calls n stuff. I've heard about a few problems with the phones too, but my old motorola lasted 18months before I upgraded, and I haven't had any problems with the new one. Coverage is pretty good if you don't go bush, you can check with 3 if you will get full coverage and plans are cheap compared to telstra, optus, etc. Look into it tho... it really comes down to what suits you.

ozzyjim · 06-11-2005, 08:30 PM

Im on my second 3 mobile and both work excellent, both are lg's (8120 and 8330), excellent phones with great features. The nokia your looking at is awesome too. As for three? There good (as much as any other), and there cap plans rock, $49 a month gets you a phone, $230.00 worth of calls, 120 mins free to other 3 mobiles and other cool stuff. I used to be a vodafone and optus customer.....never again!

Cheers
Jim

luke · 06-11-2005, 08:33 PM

Cheers for the feedback
Is it true that when you aren't in the 3 broadband zone that it uses Telstra's network?
If it does then I'm signing up tomorrow

AUXRVIII · 06-11-2005, 08:34 PM

You cant blame the service provider for poor phone quality, I think what is being asked is what the network is like. If your outside the 3 network area I think you roam on Telstras network.

CarBroker · 06-11-2005, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozzyjim

$49 a month gets you a phone, $230.00 worth of calls, 120 mins free to other 3 mobiles and other cool stuff.

I know these capped plans sound great (and some undoubtedly are). When 3 first started with their first capped plan, I signed up and got 2 phones. It was cheap and good value. But my mobile bill almost doubled when they changed their capped plane by tweaking minutes and call costs (even though it *sounded* very similar).
I was with Vodaphone on their Mega Cap (and another phone on their Super Cap) which were the *best* in town
until one day a couple of months ago when they scrapped per-second billing. The phone bills shot up like crazy.

So off I went to http://www.isim.com.au/ with my last 2 phones (I have 5 in total for the business) where I get 39 cents per minute, no flagfall, and per second billing. 15c SMSs. Dirt cheap, all up.

It won't be until a couple of months down the track that you can analyse your bill and see if the cap is good value or not. It may be better just to pay-for-use.

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke

Cheers for the feedback
Is it true that when you aren't in the 3 broadband zone that it uses Telstra's network?
If it does then I'm signing up tomorrow

Yeah, you go onto Telstra's CDMA network.

flappist · 06-11-2005, 09:11 PM

Q) What do you call a really angry person in a phone box?

A) A 3 customer..

M14A-Mclaren · 06-11-2005, 09:25 PM

Is this 3 network UMTS(W-CDMA) or CDMA2000? If its the latter then thats why the phones are crap, telecom in nz uses the same system and the phones are crap generally.

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M14A-Mclaren

Is this 3 network UMTS(W-CDMA) or CDMA2000? If its the latter then thats why the phones are crap, telecom in nz uses the same system and the phones are crap generally.

I believe that Australia uses the European system so it would be W-CDMA.
CDMA2000 is the US standard. According to IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000)

Psycho Chicken · 06-11-2005, 09:37 PM

The missus is with them. Jebus they are useless. She's on her second phone (only just gave it to her for free). Went in and changed her plan, next bill was the same as the old one. Got that sorted, eventually. Last bill rocks up, $500 odd dollars. WTF? It's usually 50 and she's on a cap. Turns out they decided to lump the rest of her phone repayments into the one bill. A few calls to India later that was fixed. And for some strange reason she'll send me a text message (I'm with Telstra) and I'll get it......a few hours later.

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psycho Chicken

And for some strange reason she'll send me a text message (I'm with Telstra) and I'll get it......a few hours later.

That happens with optus as well, and I assume with all other carriers. They say sms in't real time so it dosn't have to get there instantly.

luke · 06-11-2005, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vztrt

That happens with optus as well, and I assume with all other carriers. They say sms in't real time so it dosn't have to get there instantly.

I've never experienced that problem on telstra... but I have had it happen to me from a friend who's on optus

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke

I've never experienced that problem on telstra... but I have had it happen to me from a friend who's on optus

I dont believe that it's happen to me, it was a guy at uni.
But I could understand it happening to optus as I think they have overloaded the network. This was displayed when everyone had yestime and at certain times you couldn't get thru on the network.
Telstra would be the best mobile network out there IMO, as I dont hear that many technical complaints out there.

Psycho Chicken · 06-11-2005, 10:17 PM

Never had it happen with anyone else though. Happens with just about every second message she sends me. Teach the silly girl not to call me.

Oh if you do get 3, for the love of god don't get one of those personalised dialing tone things. Drive me up the bloody wall hearing it over and over and over again when I call people.

Feathers · 06-11-2005, 10:19 PM

We found the Telstra CDMA network was useless. Before the old analogue system was shutdown, we had fixed mobiles in our coaches, and never had an issue with them. Then we bought 4 CDMA phones to keep with the vehicles, as you can't get ones like we had.
Whenever the vehicles went out on over night trips into regional areas, we couldn't contact them.

Now all our drivers have their own phones on whatever network they choose, and we have a bunch of phones, sitting around collecting dust.

M14A-Mclaren · 06-11-2005, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vztrt

I believe that Australia uses the European system so it would be W-CDMA.
CDMA2000 is the US standard. According to IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000)

Well not really, I can assure you both will be used in Australia. UMTS is GSM's third generation network and CDMA2000 is CDMA's third gen network, I dont know if its the same everywhere but in NZ GSM and WCDMA require sim cards but CDMA don't, there is only 2 cellphone networks in NZ so it might not be the case everywhere.

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M14A-Mclaren

Well not really, I can assure you both will be used in Australia. UMTS is GSM's third generation network and CDMA2000 is CDMA's third gen network, I dont know if its the same everywhere but in NZ GSM and WCDMA require sim cards but CDMA don't, there is only 2 cellphone networks in NZ so it might not be the case everywhere.

I'll check tomorrow with one of the finance guys that worked with erricson, when 3 was getting up and running and a telstra engineer.
But I have been doing lectures on w-CDMA but none on CDMA2000. But that could mean nothing.

StorminaTcup · 06-11-2005, 11:00 PM

I believe 3 is part of Orange also, which is what we had. Hubby couldnt even call me within a 1km range. Needless to say, but I would not have a bar of either. I have found optus to be a much better service.

vztrt · 06-11-2005, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDXR8CHICK

I believe 3 is part of Orange also,

All apart of Hutchinson.

tick5.0 · 06-11-2005, 11:28 PM

Two of my mates and I are with 3 here in Adelaide and the coverage is shocking, the service is fantastic if you want to sit on hold for half an hour and we've had problems with the NEC, Motorola and LG's. I still have an Optus Nokia for emergency use, it's that bad.

Imo stick with Telstra as they are now have a 3G network if your after a video phone. I can't wait till my contracts with 3 is finished.

FGX-351 · 07-11-2005, 02:25 AM

my dad works for telstra so basically what hes told me is that telstra owns all the phone lines but they are forced to hire out space to various fone companies with 3 owning the least, they have hardly any coverage in rural areas ect ect but onthe other hands they do havea lot of features from what ive seen/heard, for me personally im happy stickin with telstra

DOC · 07-11-2005, 02:45 AM

Can't spell it out but i have worked and travelled most of australia, and rely on my mobile, at one point the company was enticed to try a particular phone company, constantly dropped out and had to re call, country reception was bad and the phone worse.

i simply packed the phone up and sent it back refusing to use it, they told me then ok here's a new phone and our coverage is now great, please retry this phone.

you will find the phone somewhere on the road between adelaide and melbourne as after it dropped out ( again ) during a call i simply wound down the window and threw it out.

Stay with the bigger guys and dont be fooled by some cheap capped plan, ( read the conditions go over the cap and it reverts to normal charges, also look at the call rates. what looks all shiny is often not )

just my 2c