Mobile broadband operator 3 has filed an official complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) against its long-standing rival Vodafone in response to its claims on mobile broadband speed. Following an advertisement by Vodafone stating that their mobile broadband has a speed of 7.2Mbps, 3 are challenging the claim by stating that the 7.2Mbps is inaccurate and that the speeds are only available in isolated areas. According to 3, 7.2Mbps is only realistically achieved in central London and airports.
Although 3 has been the leader in mobile broadband dongle sales for a long period of time, Vodafone has recently altered its tariffs to match the pioneer. Tied in with increased revenue in advertising, the gap between the two providers has closed.
Speaking on the challenge, a spokesman for 3 said: “The complexity of mobile broadband means even if you use 3.6Mbps technology it is very unlikely a customer will experience those speeds. Vodafone’s 3G coverage is not as extensive as ours.”
However, BBC blogger Rory Cellan-Jones thinks that challenge won’t result in any wrist-slapping: “…when there was similar criticism of the way fixed broadband speeds were advertised, the ad watchdog batted the complaints back to the media regulator Ofcom. A spokeswoman at the ASA told me the issue was “very complicated”, indicating it was well nigh impossible to work out a fair way of describing likely broadband speeds when there were so many variables.”
Source: Mobile Today/BBC
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Anyone considering buying 3/Three mobile broadband, this is a warning to you.
Based on my experience and the experience of a group of friends that at about the same time signed up for three broadband in the UK.
While Three broadband does work at an acceptable level in some parts of the country, in London where most business users are it appears over subscribed.
As a result even when you do eventually get connected with a good signal ( and that can take several hours) the transfer rate is appalling (usually around 5 k bytes per second, which is the same as a dial up modem, and about 10% of basic broadband speed, and only 2% of what its advertised to be capable of).
If you have not realised this in your first 7 days then three operates a policy of NO CONTRACT TERMINATION. Without the full period of the contract being payable.
There call centre in India is very polite, however they don’t actually do anything other than solve windows PC configuration problems.
If you have the problem I have above, they will simply give you the run around, wasting hours of your time until you get fed up.
They will not investigate the problem themselves, they state that it is impossible to do this.
You will get very angry with them, and end up joining me in letting the country know how bad there product and service is.
I cant vouch for the alternatives at this moment in time, they could be as bad, or better, but people in my office with Vodafone have a better experience, and I have sat next to people on the train home who have a signal on T mobile all the way home when I have a signal for only 20% of the journey.
Yer your right mate 3 are rubbish! I used to have bulldog broadband and of course there is no comparison they were very good and the sevice conprehensive,I have had the same run around that you descibed with 3 and there’service team’ and now well I have cancelled my direct debit and contacted a friend in the legal field to fight for me when they kick off,once burned twice shy so they say…… well i would not recomend 3 to anyone!!!!