[Ben]

H3G in Italy has "offered clients of its main rivals 9,000 euros ($10,720) worth of free traffic to be spent over the next 15 years if they sign up to its services" in an attempt to grab as many customers as possible ahead of its main rivals, being Vodafone and and TIM, going crazy with 3G in the run up to Christmas time.

So, that has to beg the question - What would it take for you to switch from your current provider to another one?

Is there a single thing, ie price, that matters above all else?

For me: It'd have to be a data pricing. Give me tonnes of cheap data and I'd be easy to poach :D

Reference: http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=telecomm&storyID=nL11641922

[Hands0n]

The "single thing" for me is Customer Service for when things go wrong.

I gave them [H3] two tries, one 3toGo and one Contract (I'll not mention the family Threepays) and found them wanting on both occasions. While such an offer would be very tempting, for me it is the abysmal failure of their Mumbai-based Customer Services operation that would put me off using them even if they gave the service away to me for free. While everything works it is all well and good. The moment I have needed to draw on CS for anything more significant than retrieving my PUK they have failed me each and every single time.

Unless by some miracle H3 sort out their CS operation by January 2006 I'll be walking away and paying somewhat more for a credible mobile service to be provided by another UK operator. One that actually knows what a Customer is.

On reflection - perhaps if H3 are going to give me £20 for every £15 top up I make I would have one of their Threepay USIMs in a handset as a second for casual use. But I really cannot place my business reliance upon them for the reasons stated above. And maybe, in that alone, H3 will make something of a success in the market - so can they really afford to buy our custom or is 3G really that cheap to provide that we are all being ripped off at this present time with huge margins.

[miffed]

For me it would be reliability - closely folllowed by CS

I have had very little experience of o2's CS , because quite simply the network WORKS - I have had virtually no dropped calls , no problems whatsoever , and that is how it should be also , worth mentioning is the fact that all my Data appears to be 100% unbilled :) , I find it hard to move anywhere else on this fact alone ! , So really a provider would have to be prepared to be ripped off over data to win my custom , OK so its only 2.5g gprs - but ATM i'll take free 2.5G over "paid for" 3G anyday , :p

I'd firstly need for that level of reliability to slip before I considered moving , and then I'd need CS that actually sound like they care ! my only experience of this kind of CS is Orange , so that is probably the direction I would move , but then the industry moves - it is a case of "suck it and see" really
I have learnt my lesson of being swayed by prices (H3G) and now am very unlikely to return to an H3G contact , unless it is as a means to acquire a top notch device (i.e. if a HTC universal came out on Three , at a ridiculously subsidised price ! ) but rest assured I wouldnt be the least bit interested in the Sim , at least not once the Beast was unlocked !
Also , worth mentioning is the fact that all my Data appears to be 100% unbilled :) , I find it hard to move anywhere else on this fact alone ! , So really a provider would have to be prepared to be ripped off over data to win my custom , OK so its only 2.5g gprs - but ATM i'll take free 2.5G over "paid for" 3G anyday , :p

[Hypnotic]

For me it would just be open internet access.

[Ben]

For me it would just be open internet access.
Most networks in the UK already offer this... do you mean that's what it'd take for you to switch to Three UK? Or were you already on Three? :S Would price be most important, or reliability?

[Hypnotic]

Most networks in the UK already offer this... do you mean that's what it'd take for you to switch to Three UK? Or were you already on Three? :S Would price be most important, or reliability?

I was referring to switching to 3uk. Even though i'm already on 3, if i wasn't and wanted to switch, open internet access with their range of handsets and prices would easily persuade me.

[davidlove]

I'd move to an operator offering flat rate data billing, provided that their coverage and reliability matched Voda's.