Three's "feel at home" a bit crap...

Now, I'm appreciative of the service, but...

As some know, if you have a three phone, you can use it in the US and get your data/text/call included.

I was in Vegas in early december and it was fine. In New York and Vegas in January and was posting location and photos and didn't even use the "resort fee" wifi in the hotels....

However, doing San Diego/Santa Barbara/SF/Portland/Seattle (and Vancouver, but it doesn't cover Canada), it was initially ok, but after a while it completely dried up. Well, with a cursory amount, but in the second week, the mobile data meter told me I'd downloaded a total of 1 Megabyte over the mobile data over the week.

I think it was failing after two days, so I don't think its the case they turn it down after so many days. It's just been absolutely crap. I was relying on wifi most places, and while the mobile data was on most of the time, I'd get nothing...

I know its a service a bunch of us rely on, but I suspect the days of it being really useful and vital might be gone...

[mitchja]

I don't use Three here but use EE and they roam on both AT&T & T-Mobile US (which I think Three use as well?) I find AT&T is dreadfully slow compared to T-Mobile when roaming in the U.S.

Try a manual network switch (if Three allow roaming on T-Mobile US)

EE handsets tend to default to T-Mobile when roaming in the US. EE also let you roam on T-Mobile US 4G/LTE as well now. With AT&T is still just 3G only so far.

I've never had a problem with it in Florida (and I consume data like chocolate cake), indeed I wasn't even going to bother logging onto the Disney wifi this year as it's been problematic in the past.

The west coast coverage is a bit scattered (see map below), have you tried switching off 3G for the slow but dependable 2G/Edge?

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Roaming_ ... 4306357859

During my recent trip I used my 3 PAYG without any trouble in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Reno and Lake Tahoe uploading photos and videos.

I flew via Seattle on a couple of occasions and had trouble in the Airport but never went into the City, and I had no signal at all in Yosemite.

I do think that the 3g speeds in the US are slower than those in the UK and even worse if you're used to 4g.

three not working very well?
exactly like at home then!

We both changed over to 3 for the "feel at home" package they offer. No complaints when we're in the U.S.
Only problem is we get no signal in certain rooms in our home in the UK!

It seems to depend on location. In NYC last year it was great, we had no issues whatsoever.

Fast forward to this March when we went to Seattle, and neither my OH nor I were able to get any mobile data whatsoever. We tried switching providers (from T-Mobile to AT&T), and switching off 3G and opting for 2G... no joy. We spent five days relying on the overburdened hotel wifi which really wasn't great, and when we were out and working we had no 'net access. Not impressed.

We did a California trip last month and had mixed results. In San Francisco at times we had great coverage, at other times none. Turning our phones on and off seemed to help in SF. In LA it was fine.

We both changed over to 3 for the "feel at home" package they offer. No complaints when we're in the U.S.
Only problem is we get no signal in certain rooms in our home in the UK!

Request a "home signal" box from Three, plugs into your internet and gives you coverage for your home.

Well, I think I got about 30M in San Diego in first two days.

Then nothing.

Then during Santa Barbara, SF, Portland, Seattle, a total of one single megabyte of download. 1M. Which you'll get in a blink of an eye. So its not coverage, because you'd be getting something in the centre of SF/Portland/Seattle. Something. It was as if "that's enough, done".

I'd done Vegas a couple of times a few months before, which was fine. It is possible it was metered overall, and they went "No more". But I'd certainly not rely on it in any future trips...

I've never had an issue in the USA with Three feel at home, full coverage with acceptable speed in Orlando, St Petes, Palm Springs, San Diego, Las Vegas & LA.