By Three offers ‘Value Airtime’ and ‘Value SIMO’ contracts, with inclusive Paramount+ and 14 Go Roam passes each year.
In the UK, Three is now offering ‘Value’ Pay Monthly plans from £10 per month. They’re an upgrade from Three’s Lite Pay Monthly plans, giving you access to Paramount+, along with inclusive Go Roam passes on top. There’s also an extended handset warranty available on ‘Value Airtime’ handset plans.
In this article, we’ll look at Three’s new ‘Value Airtime’ and ‘Value SIMO’ plans, including what you’ll get on them and how they compare to the Lite and Complete Pay Monthly plans from Three.
| Prices From: | £10 per month |
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| Value SIMO Deals: | |
| Value Plan Features: | Everything on a Lite Pay Monthly plan, plus the following:
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| What’s Excluded? |
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| Coverage: |
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Contents
What is a Three Value Plan?
In the UK, Three now offers three different types of Pay Monthly plan. Their middle-of-the-range contract plans are known as ‘Value’ plans and typically cost about £5 per month more than Lite plans.
You’ll get the following benefits when you upgrade to a Value plan from Three:
- Paramount+ for the first half of your contract. This allows you to stream a range of shows including Star Trek, Yellowjackets, Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and 1923 on the Paramount+ streaming service. You can watch Paramount+ on your mobile phone, tablet, laptop, smart TV and other compatible devices.
- Inclusive roaming in 71 destinations (up to 14 days per year). You’ll be able to use your mobile phone at no extra cost in selected destinations. This can save you £2 per day if you’re travelling in Europe and up to £5 per day if you’re travelling elsewhere.
- An extended 36-month handset warranty. If you’re buying a mobile phone on one of Three’s Value Airtime plans, you’ll benefit from an extended warranty period of up to 36 months.
In addition, you’ll get all of the following features included as standard on all of Three’s Pay Monthly plans:
- Unlimited calls & texts. You’ll get unlimited UK minutes and unlimited UK texts included as standard on Three’s Pay Monthly plans.
- Mobile data with Three’s fastest available speeds. You’ll get an allowance of mobile data (between 1GB per month and unlimited data). This includes access to Three’s 5G network, with no speed restrictions. You can also use personal hotspot to share your data with other devices.
- Access to Three+ offers and discounts. You’ll get access to the Three+ customer rewards app. This gives you exclusive weekly discounts and offers. For instance, you can currently get a £1 coffee from Caffè Nero every week.
The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of Three’s Lite, Value and Complete plans:
| Lite Plans | Value Plans | Complete Plans | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
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| SIM Only Plans | |||
| 3GB Data | £5 per month | £10 per month | £15 per month |
| 8GB Data | £7 per month | £12 per month | £17 per month |
| 25GB Data | £8 per month | £13 per month | £18 per month |
| 120GB Data | £12 per month | £17 per month | £22 per month |
| 250GB Data | £14 per month | £25 per month | £30 per month |
| Unlimited Data | £22 per month | £27 per month | £32 per month |
| Inclusive Allowances | |||
| Minutes & Texts |
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Personal Hotspot | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Speed | 5G with no speed limits | 5G with no speed limits | 5G with no speed limits |
| Additional Plan Features | |||
| Three+ Offers |
✔ Yes | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Inclusive Roaming | ✘ Chargeable | ✔ 14 days per year | ✔ 28 days per year |
| Paramount+ | ✘ No | ✔ First half of plan | ✔ Entire plan |
| Extended Warranty | ✘ Standard warranty | ✔ On handset plans | ✔ On handset plans |
| £25 Screen Repair |
✘ No | ✘ No | ✔ On 24m handset plans |
Are Three Value Plans Worth It?
On average, you’ll need to pay about £5 per month more to upgrade your Lite plan to a Value Pay Monthly plan on Three. That’s equivalent to paying an extra £120 over a 24-month contract (even more when you take the annual price increase into account).
To figure out whether this is a worthwhile upgrade, it’s important to delve a little bit deeper into each of the benefits you’ll get.
Paramount+
When you choose a Value Airtime or Value SIMO plan on Three, you’ll get Paramount+ included for the first half of your contract. For most people who choose a 24-month Value plan, this means 12 months of inclusive access to the Paramount+ service.
Your Paramount+ subscription will allow you to stream a variety of shows including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Yellowjackets, Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and 1923. There are also a range of movies available to watch on-demand, including Top Gun: Maverick and Scream. You’ll be able to watch on your mobile phone, or any other compatible device such as your laptop, tablet, or a compatible smart TV.
If you’re to take a Paramount+ subscription on it’s own, you’d normally pay £6.99 per month for it. In theory, this means the Paramount+ benefit is worth almost £84. However, it’s worth bearing a couple of things in mind. Firstly, if you’re a Sky TV customer with Sky Cinema, you’ll already have Paramount+ included as part of your Sky TV subscription. Secondly, the standalone Paramount+ subscription is available on a one-month rolling basis so you can cancel it and re-join whenever you like. There’s no need to permanently have a subscription to it, if there’s nothing you actually want to watch on it.
Go Roam
When you choose a Value Airtime or a Value SIMO plan from Three, you’ll get inclusive Go Roam passes on your contract. You’ll get 28 daily Go Roam passes when you sign up on a 24-month Value plan (or 14 daily Go Roam passes when you sign up on a 12-month Value plan).
If you’re travelling to a Go Roam destination, Three will normally charge you an extra £2 per day to use your phone in Europe, and an extra £5 per day in other Go Roam Around The World destinations.
In theory, if you’re to use up all of the Go Roam passes on your 24-month Value plan, you could save up to £56 when you’re travelling in Europe and up to £140 when you’re travelling outside Europe (e.g. in the USA).
In practice, however, not everyone travels abroad so you may not get the full benefit of these Go Roam passes. In addition, there might be cheaper ways to use your mobile phone abroad. For instance, you can get an eSIM from Airalo. To give an example, customers travelling to the USA could pay just US$11 (~£8.50) for 3GB data on Airalo, with up to 30 days of validity. This would be a lot cheaper than getting a Go Roam pass from Three. For this reason, your actual savings with the Go Roam benefit may be smaller in practice.
Extended Handset Warranty
When you choose a Value Airtime contract from Three, you’ll get an extended handset warranty lasting for up to 36 months. This is available as long as you remain on the same phone and plan. If you were to switch to a different phone or plan, you’ll lose the extended handset warranty benefit.
It’s worth knowing that you’ll already get a manufacturer warranty included as standard, which is 12 months on the iPhone and 24 months on most Android phones. The extended warranty will only kick in once the manufacturer warranty runs out. Also, the extended warranty only overs electrical or mechanical faults. It doesn’t replace your mobile phone insurance as things like accidental damage and water damage are not covered by it.
In our opinion, the extended handset warranty has a little bit of value if you’re buying an iPhone from Three – as long as you’re aware of the limitations and restrictions.
If you’re buying an Android phone, it’s probably of very limited value. That’s because you already get a 24-month manufacturer warranty and most people will upgrade their phone at the end of the 24-month contract (or will switch to a cheaper SIM-only deal to save some money). In theory, you can remain on your plan for longer to benefit from the extended 36-month warranty, but it’s likely you’ll be over-paying by at least £25 per month compared to a getting a cheaper SIM-only deal.
Three Value Airtime Plans
At present, Three offers a choice of Value Airtime plans on a range of devices such as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones. You’ll typically pay in the region of £5 per month extra, compared to if you were getting the same phone on a ‘Lite Airtime’ plan.
Over the course of your 24-month contract, you’ll be paying an extra £120 to upgrade to a ‘Value Airtime’ plan. In terms of benefits, the 12 months of inclusive Paramount+ could save you up to £84. In addition, the Go Roam passes could save you up to £140 if you’re travelling outside Europe. This can make it a worthwhile upgrade, but only if you’re likely to fully utilise all the benefits.
For most people, we think it’s a better choice to just choose a regular ‘Lite Airtime’ plan. That’s because there are other ways to save on your Paramount+ subscription, such as subscribing for just one month every couple of months. There are also cheaper ways to use your mobile phone abroad (e.g. with an eSIM for travel).
Three Value SIMO Plans
Three currently offers a range of Value SIMO plans, starting from £10 per month.
The cheapest Value SIMO plans are available on a 24-month contract:
| Plan | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
Value
| 3GB data | £10.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1 | See deal |
Value
| 8GB data | £12.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.25 | See deal |
Value
| 25GB data | £13.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.25 | See deal |
Value
| 60GB data | £15.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.25 | See deal |
Value
| 120GB data | £17.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
Value
| 250GB data | £25.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
Value
| Unlimited data | £27.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
All of these 24-month Value SIMO plans come with 12 month of inclusive Paramount+ and 28 daily Go Roam passes.
If you’re looking for a bit more flexibility, you can choose a 12-month Value SIMO plan. This will come with 6 months of inclusive Paramount+, along with 14 days of inclusive roaming in Go Roam destinations:
| Plan | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
Value
| 30GB data | £10.00 per month 12 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.25 | See deal |
Value
| 60GB data | £15.00 per month 12 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.25 | See deal |
Value
| 120GB data | £17.00 per month 12 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
Value
| 250GB data | £27.00 per month 12 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
Value
| Unlimited data | £28.00 per month 12 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50 | See deal |
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, you could consider getting one of Three’s Lite SIMO plans instead.
Keeping Your Phone Number
If you’re switching to one of Three’s Value Pay Monthly plans, it’s a straightforward process keeping your current phone number.
Start by asking your current mobile network to give you a PAC Code. You can get one by texting PAC to 65075, or you can request one through your mobile network’s website or app.
Once you’ve gotten the PAC Code from your old network, you’ll be able to place your order online with Three. You can either give them the PAC Code when you sign up, or you can wait until the SIM card arrives and then fill out this form on their website.
For step-by-step instructions on how to transfer your phone number to Three, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:
For more information, see our full guide to transferring your phone number between networks.
More Information
For more information about Three’s Pay Monthly plans, see the guide on their website. You can also read our full guide on Three’s SIM-only deals and Three’s unlimited data plans.
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