[Jon3G]

Just gone on www.three.co.uk to check out the new tariffs and come across 2 more options.

Student plans and sim free plans, however when you click on them they are not active links. Is this something new and if it is a big step for 3 UK?

Also 3 are offering online price plans

http://www.three.co.uk/priceplans/index.omp#

This PDF gives you some info on the student plans
http://www.three.co.uk/BlobServer.srv?blobdir=ImportantDoc&blobfile=price+guide+sept05+ex+web+add%27s.pdf

[3GScottishUser]

Indeed the On-Line plans are not 'true' on-line options as e2save are offering them on many handsets. These appear to be text heavy plans although I suspect 02 now beat them with their on-line options.

Notice the off-peak plan has been substantially reduced in value. Its gone from 3000 minutes for £25 a month to 1000 minutes for £20 a month. Most emphisis appears to be on hybrids offering Talk, Text and Video now in an attempt to increase non-voice revenues whether customers use the sevices or not.

[Jon3G]

I wonder if this is 3 trying to make them more of a attractive purchase by increasing the product portfolio?

[Hands0n]

These new tariffs are not at all inspiring. As 3 narrow the margin benefit between themselves and the competing mobile operators they become an increasingly unattractive proposition given their other issues (i.e. Customer Services reputation and the "walled garden".

Possibly, most of their 3mln punters care not and are simply after the cheap minutes. And if you don't change tariff or are not a new customer then the benefits of T&T600 and the like will continue.

I can see how they are trying to promote their other non-voice services such as Videocall, but the ex-bundle price of videocall (also I dare say videocalling x-net) can be prohibitively expensive. So, once the 20 mins are used up the facility will fall into disuse for the rest of the contract month.

3 have the opportunity (as they have had many others in the past) to establish and maintain a lead for the incumbent mobile operators to follow. They squandered their earlier opportunities and these [effectively] tariff increases do nothing to suggest that they'll not squander the remaining opportunities to set the pace.

Its a crying shame really - as the UK desperately needs something to shake the "big four" mobile operators out of their apparent tariff complacency. Maybe, then, it really is time for the EU to start creating consumer-friendly legislation seeing as self-governing does not work and with short-term greed being the watchword!

[Ben]

It looks like, for now at least, the stage has been set. Three looks to 'add value' by bundling extras into its tariffs and expanding the range it has available, while the competition creeps down to the same price points for the bread-and-butter services offering their own vast array of tariffs and offers that drag us back to exactly where we started from in 2003.

However, it is only September. No network is ready to throw its weight behind the Christmas push just yet, and everyone is probably more than satisfied with a happy medium while arrangements are being made. Three has reached out to cover some of the bases covered well by the other UK networks, and hopefully, if not probably, it'll give them a bigger front to advance on over the festive period.

If there isn't a bloody battle this Christmas then there probably never will be, but I'm not without hope yet.