Three cut off any remaining unlimited tethering customers

You’ve probably read about this one already, but it’s a sign that even Three – that once great data leader – has had to trim back on a few data-hogs. It’s a problem all networks have had – a few customers just tearing through data and causing a headache for your pricing model and quality of service. Do you restrict data? Do you slow things down? Do you switch pricing? It’s a hard choice.

Three cut off any remaining unlimited tethering customers

Three have, for a long time, been the network people turn to if they want data. This is a network that was “built for data” but now, if you have a plan which includes unlimited tethering, you’ll be pushed onto a new plan or have your tethering restricted to 12GB. The full details are here and Three tell us..

If you don’t choose to upgrade or change price plan, we’ll change your plan to one of our one-month SIM plans, which you can change or upgrade at any time. We’ve picked the closest match to your current plan in terms of your allowances.

We no longer offer plans that support all-you-can-eat personal Hotspot use. If you want to use Personal Hotspot regularly, we recommend our SIM plan with all-you-can-eat phone data and an 12GB hotspot allowance. Our research shows that this is enough for the vast majority of our customers.

The result means that some customers will be seeing a big price leap, especially if you bought your plan during a promotional offer and have held onto it. We’ve also had a look at the “New Plan Benefits” on the Three update page and there’s a lot of benefits that you actually already have on your current plan, so this is really just Three saying, “Enough unlimited tethering”.

Three cut off any remaining unlimited tethering customers

Of course…. it won’t be. They’re still going to have a problem with those people who tether on rooted phones on Three. A known hack lets you fudge the browser user agent so that your tethering looks like on-device browsing instead.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that lots of people paying £17 for an unlimited data plan are getting pushed up to a £30 per month deal.