Back on 3, watching carefully.

[maven]

I've decided to return to 3 - my Nokia 6680 (great phone by the way, I'll discuss it in the relevant forum area) arrived yesterday and I'm on an 18 month Talk and text 600 contract.

Some of you remember me as the owner of 3hell.com - the reason I've returned is the problems which caused me to start that site seem to have improved. I've done a lot of research and it seem like 3 have finally got their act together but of course, who knows what will happen.

I'll regularly post back here with updates on my experiences with them and like I did on 3hell, if they do something good, I'll praise them. But if they get it wrong, I'll post it all here - I'm a great believer in naming and shaming

[3g-g]

Good stuff maven.

If Three wound you up so much previously that 3hell.com was born and you've decided to go back, I can only imagine that you'll give them a fair representation of your comeback experience. From reading what other users have posted so far I think the 6680 may be a Three saving grace. You'd never think that a handset made a network, but launching all the NEC drivel may have been the worst thing HTL could of done... well that and no 3G/2G HO.. and India CS..

Keep us all posted.

[Hands0n]

You're a brave soul Maven, for sure Welcome back to "our network" heh heh. I recall 3hell.com with fond memories of the time. I see the domainname is up for sale now ....

I also returned to Three at the beginning of this year after playing around with Threepay for a while. To be honest, I've never had much of a network problem with Three, even with my brace of e606 handsets. It was their back-office and CS that turned me away in disgust. It was the Moto e1000 brought me back to them - and so maybe they can repeat their acquisition successes with the Nokia 6680 - a superb handset if ever there was one!

But ............... and this is as big a but as Jo Brand's ............ Three are not doing it for me in a number of areas though which may well prompt me to stick with my primary mobop (Orange) when the contract renewals come up and get a 6680 with them [Orange]. If I do then Three will be consigned to my own personal history - this year's dual-contract is purely for evaluation purposes, where I could not sacrifice a perfectly working (Orange) service on speculation that Three would make the grade from day one.

The prime areas of concern for me are:-

• Mumbai CS has not improved at all noticeably - call quality is dire (disconnects!), simple tasks are inordinately complex - the "S" in CS is simply not working at all well (still!)
• Content - too "Chav" for my liking, there is very little in it for me at all and I basically only use the Video Value add-on for Videocall and a bit of ITN News (such as it is)
• Walled Garden - a significant issue for me. I'm not a power user but have need for unfettered Internet access

I'll follow your escapades with eager anticipation to see how you make out on your return trip. Wish you all the luck with it

[getti]

Originally Posted by 3g-g

Good stuff maven.

If Three wound you up so much previously that 3hell.com was born and you've decided to go back, I can only imagine that you'll give them a fair representation of your comeback experience. From reading what other users have posted so far I think the 6680 may be a Three saving grace. You'd never think that a handset made a network, but launching all the NEC drivel may have been the worst thing HTL could of done... well that and no 3G/2G HO.. and India CS..

Keep us all posted.

I think the handover is depending on handset. I have seen handover working on 3 with a LG 8130

[3g-g]

Originally Posted by getti

I think the handover is depending on handset. I have seen handover working on 3 with a LG 8130

AFAIK, 3G -> 2G handover on Three still does not happen, it's all to do with the network, controlling RNC and relevant BSC/MSC. In this case, the RNC belongs to Three, the BSC/MSC belongs to O2, they are, in sense, two completely different networks. O2 have provisioned their HLR/VLRs to accept incoming 3 network authentication requests to allow them on their network, they act as a MVNO for Three.

[getti]

Hmmmm. Well the LG seems to do it fine. Changed right infront of my eyes and also did it again when i was IN a call without dropping

[3g-g]

Positive that the call didn't originate on 2G? I'd be dumbfounded if 3 had a seamless 3G-2G HO...

Not that I'm doubting (well I am actually) but I'd love to hear from others if this is the case!

[maven]

Originally Posted by Hands0n

You're a brave soul Maven, for sure Welcome back to "our network" heh heh. I recall 3hell.com with fond memories of the time. I see the domainname is up for sale now ....

Thanks! The site is up for sale as I no longer had any need for it - I stopped being a customer of 3's and felt it would be wrong to continue. But I'm ready to fire it back up and have registered 4 new domain names

The thing is I never had a problem with the product - the network and service was always fine for me. It was the useless, untrained, lying toe-rags in the Indian callcentre that I had an issue with and the Scottish guys only seemed to be margainly better. If these problems are overcome and they release the walled garden internet then I have to say I'll be pretty impressed with them.

But of course, I'm half expecting them to fail so I'll be back with my tales of woe soon enough if neccessary