Three announced unlimited smartphone data for £3 a month
Tuesday 27 September 2011 15:28:02 by John Hunt

Three have announced that new and existing smartphone contract customers will be able to take out an all-you-can-eat data package for just £3 a month extra which should help its customers avoid what it calls "data fear" - worrying about being charged extra for data usage.

At the end of 2010, Three bucked the trend by introducing a monthly smartphone contract they called 'The One Plan' which included unlimited data, at a time when other network operators were moving towards reducing the amount of data that customers can use. The company also introduced a £15 a month pay-as-you-go offer which had unlimited data for only £15 a month earlier this year.

"The One Plan quickly became our number one contract tariff and our all-you-can-eat PAYG offer is our most popular bundle. From October 7th we're opening up all-you-can-eat to everyone else, starting from as little as £18 per month.

Our customers tell us that their use of data goes up significantly over the lifetime of their contracts, as they do more and more with their handset. All-you-can-eat data means that they don't have to worry, they can have that peace of mind for the long term on a contract of their choice."

Thomas Malleschitz, (marketing director) Three UK

Three have seen data usage increase significantly this year. In February, iPhone 4 customers averaged around 488MB of data usage per month, but this had risen to almost 1.2GB's by August. With data usage only likely to grow further, offering unlimited data will be good for customers to avoid high bills and may help retain customer loyalty, particularly at a time when customers may be looking to shop around with the new Apple iPhone 5 expected to launch mid-October.