The One Plan is Three’s new 12 month SIM only tariff, launched today, and which means you’ll be able to cram more minutes into your contract with all smartphones, including the HTC Desire, iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy.
The One Plan gives you 2000 any network minutes, 5000 Three-to-Three minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB internet for a base rate of £25 a month. Handsets can be bundled on for extra each month. That means for example, that the iPhone 4 is £40, and the HTC Desire and HTC Hero are £35 and £34 respectively. It means that Three’s current own top of the range price plan comes with over 1,000 fewer minutes.
Of course, if you’ve nabbed yourself an unlocked iPhone 4, Three will have micro SIMS, and you can stick to a £25 per month deal. Compare the One Plan with Vodafone, and the HTC Desire isn’t available on a SIM only 12 month deal. On O2, £30 gets you 100 minutes and 500MB of data with a £149 upfront cost for the HTC Desire handset.
Three’s One Plan is a full scale assault on the smartphone market and seems to be a worthy effort to start simplifying price plans in anticipation of the multiple data tariff minefield around the corner once tablets pass the tipping point.
Three has said it is taking advantage of the enormous network improvements its made over the last 18months. “We’re going to the heart of the contract market,” said CEO Kevin Russell. “It’s important for us to go hard, and go hard now. We’re going head to head with the big boys.”
Sounds like Russell is going to war, and with the iPhone 4 and 1GB data allowances strapped to his chest.
