Trouble comes in 3s

After the hastily denied speculation in the city that Hutchison was going to pull out of the UK mobile market by closing down 3 Totaltelecom magazine has published research figures from Capgemini in its leader article this month that indicate almost three quarters of 3 customers will leave when their contract is up. The full article can be read here (subscription is required).

I am not surprised. While 3 has addressed the issue of appalling handsets with new models from Nokia and LG, it still lacks:
- a killer application, a reason to chose 3 over its competitors
- an open IP gateway to allow people to pick up email and surf the web
- a WAP gateway to allow people to get information on the go
- decent network performance (though this is improving)
- the ability to transfer calls from cell to cell (the calls often cut out when you are speeding along in a car or train)
- compelling content, using a free trial I found no decent ringtones and a poor selection of wallpapers for the phone
- Decent customer service. When I emailed 3 to highlight my concerns abou the service I received a reply to say that I could not compare the service to 2G rivals as this was new technology. Bottom line is I want a mobile phone that works, how they do it is their problem

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