[caption id="attachment_756" align="aligncenter" width="522" caption="Three's One Plan SIM-only option is now offered on a 1-month rolling contract and is ideal for tethering"]
Update: There has been some confusion about which of the One Plan tariffs do allow tethering. Despite the small-print in some newspaper adverts announcing the new 1-month One Plan, Three UK have confirmed via Twitter that the detail below is correct:
http://twitter.com/ThreeUK/status/66409608209637376
News in from Three today:
Three’s market-leading The One Plan tariff is now available on a one month SIM only rolling contract, giving Three customers all-you-can-eat data with extra flexibility. Three is the only operator to offer all-you-can-eat data with The One Plan, which now spans contract, PAYG and one month rolling.
Designed specifically for customers who are looking for flexibility, The One Plan will be available from £25 a month, including all-you-can-eat data 2000 minutes, 5000 Three to Three minutes and 5000 texts.
Judging by the emails I get and the Google searches hitting this blog, the One Plan is generating huge interest from smartphone users and 'prosumers' who can't quite believe that it allows tethering (normally forbidden) and genuinely offers 'all you can eat data'. After several months using it (almost exclusively for tethering) I can confirm it absolutely does (on both counts) and has been working brilliantly for me [1. I often consume about a gigabyte of data a day without any problem via a WiFi hotspot provided by an Android smartphone.].
One potential source of confusion is that the 'Pay as You Go' option doesn't allow tethering (but does provide 'all you can eat' data for smartphone use). However, today's announcement means genuinely unlimited data with tethering permitted no-longer requires an extended contract commitment and is now a straight price choice [2. Calling and SMS bundles do differ, but are all so big few will notice.]:
- £15 per month for 'all you can eat data' on the PAYG with an All-in-One add-on, but no tethering.
- £25 per month for 'all you can eat data' on the One Plan SIM-only including tethering.
- £25 to £40 for 24 months for 'all you can eat data' on the One Plan Contract including tethering and a handset.
Although TalkMobile have also recently started to offer a genuinely unlimited data tariff, this is only for handset use (no tethering) so if you want both Three is the only choice in the UK right now. Fortunately in my experience (I have 4 contracts with them at present) the coverage and data speed is excellent so I'm happy to recommend it.