Three, Voda promise £10-a-month or below mobile tariffs in bid to sway CMA on merger

Vodafone and Three UK have pledged to maintain retail mobile tariffs at £10 or below for at least two years after their proposed merger, in response to a British watchdog's insistence their alliance would lessen local competition. The £11 billion union, in which Vodafone will take a 51 percent portion of the merged entity and …

[elsergiovolador]

Chancers

retail mobile tariffs at £10 or below for at least two years after their proposed merger

The two years will pass in a blink and then thanks to reduced competition they could hike the prices to make up for the two years and then some.

Are there any brains at Chocolate Teapot Authority that could see that?

This will include setting out comprehensively why the merger is pro-growth, pro-customer, pro-investment and pro-competition in their forthcoming response to the CMA's Provisional Findings document.

No, the merger is about making more profit and delivering for shareholders. Which means, as usual, screwing the customers.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Re: Chancers

Something at which Three are past masters .

[Lon24]

Re: Chancers

My partner and I pay Three £5.40 pm for unlimited mins/texts & 5GB data through their Smarty tariff. An increase to a tenner would screw me but satisfy OFCOM. Thanks a million (of Voda3's increased profit).

[Apocalypso - a cheery end to the world]

Re: Chancers

> Are there any brains at Chocolate Teapot Authority that could see that?

They're locked in an internal power-struggle with the Chocolate Fireguard department.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Chancers

£10 for 50MB data/month on 4G, after which connection will revert to Edge for the remainder of the month.

In fact, just to show how generous we can be - £9.99.

[ChrisElvidge]

Re: Chancers

~£15 for unlimited data, calls, texts; 4G @ 6Mbps

Current offering (advertised) is ~£20.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Chancers

I was simply (and somewhat sarcastically) pointing out how easy it is to get around such a 'promise'. Current deals will not necessarily persist after any merger.

[Mark #255]

Re: Chancers

retail mobile tariffs at £10 or below for at least two years after their proposed merger

Yes, I read that and was reminded of the scene in Maverick where Mel Gibson's character sits down at a table to play cards, promising he won't win a hand for the first hour.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Given the gouging barstewards at Three hiked the price of my humble 321 PAYG tariff by something in the order of five hundred percent because, on their own admission, they could, I'd not trust the iniquitous little gits any further than I could throw this planet, whilst wearing a straitjacket and encased in a concrete block.

[snowpages]

... and that's exactly when I ditched them...

[BenDwire]

I am on that tariff too, but only on my phone's second SIM which is used as the number delivery drivers *need* these days. Apart from that I only send one text every 6 months in order to keep it alive. I paid £10 three years ago and most of that balance is still there.

If that changes to £10 p/m then that's a huge increase for me. Admittedly no-one is making any profit off me, but I don't exactly cost them anything either.

Time will tell ... I doubt whether they'll miss me if I have to go elsewhere.

[Lee D]

"Give us a perpetual monopoly and we'll give you a cheap tariff for precisely 2 years and not a second more".

Er... no.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moreover, the way it's phrased (at least in the article), they would only need to offer it say for one day at the beginning for a contract lasting up to two years, and nobody could get it after the first day.

[Annihilator]

4, 3 or 2

Problem with the "reduced competition" argument, without the merger it seems very likely Three and Vodafone will fail in the next few years, bring the "big 4" down to "the big 2". Three (or their parent) are clearly desperate to get out of the market, and Vodafone UK have been struggling for years. Neither can realistically compete with O2 or EE, particularly given the next levels of investment for network infrastructure and 5G roll-out. The time to put a foot down was probably at the EE merger (and the subsequent BT purchase).

[elsergiovolador]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

That means the CMA should be looking a breaking up the EE.

[Spazturtle]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

I think we need to ban Mobile Network Operators (MNO), merge all the infrastructure into a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) company and turn the MNO into Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO).

[elsergiovolador]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

That's one way. The Mobile Virtual Network Enabler should be then fully state owned.

[Mike007]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

One advantage to multiple physical networks is that if you have no signal at home there is often another network that does have some kind of signal... Do you think a network that has a complete monopoly and no competition will have better coverage than the overlap of multiple providers that are competing for customers?

Have politicians decide which of their donors to award the contact to and I can guarantee you will be unable to get a signal outside of a major city for the £200/month they are charging you...

[elsergiovolador]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

If it will be state owned, it will be mandated to expand coverage, even to places that private networks wouldn't touch.

[Annihilator]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

Essentially you're talking about Openreach for the airwaves. Not the worst idea.

[Annihilator]

Re: 4, 3 or 2

Maybe, but O2 are a similar size - that's the challenge, the two big players have the capital to invest in a full 5G roll-out, Vod and Three likely don't.

[Rahbut]

I get the impression the current "cheap" rates are because they have to compensate for coverage/speed - together they'd offer something interesting with their mix of spectrum and 5G SA.

As for the 2 year "promise", I suspect they'll do whatever they have to in order to remain competitive and maintain or improve revenue.

I'm not completely against the merge - I can see some benefits.

[Mishak]

Mix

I guess it depends how they "mix it".

I dropped Three and moved to Lebara* (Vodafone MVNO). Signal is about the same (unusable), but, when there is what should be a reasonable connection, the data rates over Three ranged from zero to not much better. I hope they adopt the Vodafone infrastructure when they merge.

* at £4.95 a month for unlimited calls, inclusive roaming, texts, and 5GB of 5G data.

[Missing Semicolon]

Re: Mix

Lebara is a pretty good shout round here. £10 for 15GB will do. So I guess I'll need to prepare for a price rise.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Re: Mix

WiFi calling helps enormously.

[Cruachan]

Like several others above, I was with 3 until they started discontinuing tariffs and despite introducing ones very similar kept trying to automatically move me to ones 3-4 times the price because it "fitted my usage patterns better". Narrator: They did not.

They also off-shored support around this time, and it got far worse when I had to tell them that no, I didn't want unlimited data or free access to social media, just give me the equivalent plan to the one I was on. I switched to id, who are a 3 MVNO so I knew what I was getting in terms of coverage, and the price has never changed. In fact they now give me more data for the same price. I suspect that they would be one of the first casualties of a merger though.

[Mike007]

I am with smarty, which I believe is a Three brand rather than separate MVNO. I manage everything online so have never spoken to anyone. Shortly after I signed up for a cheap package with enough data to cover unexpected once or twice a year usage, with plenty of margin, they sent me a text saying they had a new offer of double data for 12 months (no contract required) which had been automatically applied to my service so I didn't need to cancel and re-sign-up.

Thanks for letting me know. The only other sales related communication I have had was a year later when I got a text informing me they were extending it for another year.

Their advertised packages are the best value for money I found, and they don't tell you that there's a good chance you will actually get double what you paid for.

Now about that base station near to my bus stop that allows phones to connect to it, but then has no data uplink (somehow)... Although I have considered that it might not be a Three base station, considering the data black spot seems to be about a 500m radius of the main police station.

[Tubz]

I primarily use my iPhone as a phone, ipod and passwords/2FA, so for £11 with EE I get unlimited calls, unlimited texts, 25GB data a month on 5G and the first price rise in 5 years was 25p/m, like to see V3 be competitive with this?

EE and BT should not have been allowed to merge and should be forced to break up!

[Anonymous Coward]

You must have a special contract with them because for everyone else, they put up their plans annually along with nearly all other carriers according to their website, and some other articles showing historic price rises.

https://ee.co.uk/help/billing-payments/guide-to-bill/price-increase

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/02/bt-and-ee-customers-to-be-hit-by-4-5--price-rises/

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/ee-customers-bills-rising-march-13984163

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/02/ee-to-increase-pay-monthly-mobile-prices-by-2-2-/

And you could actually get 30GB of data on 3 for £8/month, so even with price rise of £1.25 per year you'll be better off for a couple of years

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/sim-only-deal/6790a8e498ec64a07391185cc04a7e6ba2675dae/?position=3&list=compare%2Fsim-only-deals%2Fthree&list_loaded_id=30b17a16-58ad-442f-be84-613142540e28&page=compare%2Fsim-only-deals%2Fthree&retailer=three

[elsergiovolador]

I am getting the same on my "burner" from Vodafone at £10 per month.

[Neil 44]

It pre-dates EE merging / being taken over by BT: Orange should not have been allowed to merge with One2One/T-Mobile which gave them a dominant position

[Anonymous Coward]

How about "No"?

How about "No"?

Once upon a time, Three were trying to build up market share by offering pretty damn good value SIM-only contracts, including the completely killer feature of "Roam Like Home". I was with them for a good number of years, everyone was happy.

Then they got bored and greedy, killed "Roam Like Home" for new contracts, and made up some complete bullshit guff about how "we can't offer you your current contract any more" (funny how you were perfectly happy for it to keep rolling for years and years) and screwed over existing loyal customers, too, giving only the "option" (hah) of "we'll forcibly convert you to a new shitty non-roaming-inclusive contract, whether you like it or not, by a certain date, or you can pick from any of teh wonderfule super exciting [sic] other new contracts in our new crappier range…".

Fortunately by then, "PAC code by text message" was already in place, so I didn't even have to endure the hell of phoning a customer contact cesspit to escape, just send a text (one of Ofcom's genuinely good improvements for customers).

Silly Three: if they had allowed me to continue with my then-existing contract (or maybe even increased the price a little bit, if they had really felt they needed to), I'd probably still be a customer, several years later. Their loss. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person who left in disgust because of this.

As for Vodafone, I've always got the vibe that they were "business focussed" (ahem) and thereby existed to always fleece victims for as much as they could possibly get…

(And don't start me on BTee, who are sadly now also money-grabbing leeches (BT landlines always were: "Hey, we're now going to charge you extra for the line rental that we have already billed you for and that you have already paid for ahead of time (How that was ever permitted, I don't know?!)). One upon a time, both Orange and (particularly) One2One/T-Mobile offered a good range of contracts depending on your budget and needed usage allowances, etc. But almost as soon as they merged themselves together, the self-enshittification all too predictably began (sadly), and then of course BT made it worse.)

moral: Go to MoneySavingExpert, look for the best deal suitable for you, and port, port, port, if that deal later becomes uncompetitive. That's how capitalism is supposed to work, right?

[Neil 44]

Re: How about "No"?

European Roaming was why we moved from 3 to Smarty (who still provide it) - which now costs £7/month for 16Gb...

[BinkyTheMagicPaperclip]

Smarty can get in the bin

As ever, it is location dependent - some friends have found excellent service with Smarty, to the point it replaced fibre.

For my location, I wouldn't use Smarty for free! When I tried the reception was 2Mb down, less than 1Mb up (so poor bandwidth monitors couldn't measure it). They're also *incredibly* keen to delete your account once your SIM stops being used for a while.

For cheap SIMs I currently use Giffgaff for my mobile at a tenner or less a month- which can be variable but is mostly OK, and broadband 4G backup is on 1pmobile (EE), transfer speed is outstanding. I don't need more competition when O2 and EE MVNOs are meeting all my needs.

[Mark #255]

Re: Smarty can get in the bin

As you say, coverage is very location dependent.

I managed for a month on Smarty at home (4G router in the loft), which could *just* cope with 2 people WFH, but gaming was iffy in the extreme.

Smarty switch off unused SIMs after 8 or 9 months, with reminder emails in good time - I don't know anyone who lets you keep a spare SIM active in a drawer without paying for it.

Fingers crossed that it remains this way.

[BinkyTheMagicPaperclip]

Re: Smarty can get in the bin

If I remember it wasn't so much they switched off unused SIMs (which as you say, is standard), but that they also deleted my Smarty account entirely.

1pmobile allows you to buy a year's PAYG in advance, so they're an excellent option for broadband backup. If you don't use 10 quid in a quarter, it's deducted from your balance. It's been zero hassle since I used it, the only issue has been the lack of hysteresis in my router, so if fibre is bouncing up and down it continually shifts between fibre and 4G and causes connection issues rather than e.g. leaving 4G up for a minimum of ten minutes.

[Roland6]

Re: Smarty can get in the bin

> Smarty switch off unused SIMs after 8 or 9 months, with reminder emails in good time - I don't know anyone who lets you keep a spare SIM active in a drawer without paying for it.

Vodafone PAYG SIMs have an “activate by” date, which is typically under 6 months from time of sale. Then get switched off a month or two after the account runs out of funds.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Smarty can get in the bin

I don't need more competition when O2 and EE MVNOs are meeting all my needs.

Do you know that competition won't suddenly appear when you are going to need it in the future?

[Snowy]

Under a fiver

That would have been a better price point.

[Roopee]

Re: Under a fiver

I agree, and my current contract (a MSE special with Lebara) IS under a fiver - for unlimited calls and 5GB, which is plenty for my needs - so "just" £10 would be >100% increase.

[GraXXoR]

Surely it's absolutely clear that mergers have NEVER had the customers' best interests at heart. They are purely shareholder driven and very very occasionally a technical need arrises and buying the tech is the quickest way.

But buying a direct competitor in a market with only a single digit number of peer players should be an absolute no-no in today's cutthroat, fuck-the-customer marketplace.

There are still libertarians out there who think the free market knows best, but it has been shown recently that it only knows what's best for shareholders which has been shown to be short-term greed-driven.