Things are changing in the UK, as the deal for BT to acquire EE continues to fall under scrutiny and Three and O2 are in talks, too. The High Street has changed with the loss of Phones 4U and the merger of PC World and Carphone Warehouse, all of these things have changed the UK wireless industry somewhat. Data allowances in the UK changed for good some time ago, with Three being the only network to offer unlimited data through their “All-You-Can-Eat” plans. Not everyone needs unlimited data of course, and while it’s good to have the option, for many people it’s not worth paying the extra.
This is why Three is adding an 8GB option to both their SIM-only plans as well as contracts attached to devices. This new options gives Three customers the following allowances to choose from: 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and now 8GB. For Three, the only network in the UK to actually offer unlimited data – with a fair usage policy of a cool 1TB – this seems like a strange move. However, as Three points out in their Press Release, not a lot of users actually understand how much data their use cases on their devices actually use. As such, this new 8GB option is available for those that would use more than the 4GB, but not need the unlimited data option. Interestingly though, Three is also bumping their tethering allowance on the All-You-Can-Eat tariffs to 8GB as well starting August 2015, which is nice.
While this latest move does seem like something of a head-scratcher for Three, a network that prides itself on offering unlimited data, but then again more choice is always a good thing. At least now the gap from 4GB of data, an amount looking smaller and smaller with the rise of 4G, and unlimited isn’t quite so big and those that need a good amount of data can now get it without having to pay quite as much for All-You-Can-Eat data when they might not use it all.