My thoughts on last nights 3UK New Year Meet Up
For the past few weeks now I’ve been working with the lovely folks from a blog called 3mobilebuzz which brings news, reviews and opinion about the 3 mobile network together from across the web. I’ve so far trialled and reviewed the latest two handsets from INQ, the Mini and the Chat (see my reviews earlier in this blog) and received an invitation in the post last week to attend their New Year Meet Up last night at The Old Crown pub in New Oxford Street, London which was basically a chance for everyone that they’ve worked with over the past year to meet with staff from 3 and 3mobilebuzz to discuss the previous year on 3 and their plans for 2010.
After taking a few minutes trying to find a pub with no signs on the outside I did eventually find it and making my way up a windy staircase to a function room upstairs was warmly welcomed by Michelle from 3mobilebuzz who I’ve had many dealings with on both e-mail and Twitter over recent days, and felt like something of a minor celebrity as as soon as I said my name, she replied “ah yes, the Boulton Bugle!”, brilliant!
I had a very enjoyable and informative evening and it was so refreshing to chat to staff from a mobile network who were not only friendly and approachable but who seemed genuinely enthusiastic about their network and not afraid to meet and receive a grilling from some of their customers. I particularly wanted to ask the staff from the Handsets section about their plans for new phone releases in the next few months as I’m eligible for an upgrade on my contract at the end of June and wanted to ask if any new Android phones were being released as I’m keen to get one, I also wanted to comment that the only Android phone currently available, the HTC Hero was not on a monthly contract that everyone could afford. I spoke at length to a great and very enthusiastic guy called Dave who informed me that no less than SIX Android phones are due out on 3 over the next few months and I had the opportunity to try both an HTC Hero and a Samsung Galaxy Portal (due in March), this was the first time I’d tried an Android phone and during the brief time I had with both was very impressed, the touchscreens on both were so sharp and responsive! With regards to my comment about affordable price plans, he informed me that they are hoping that the Samsung Galaxy Portal will be available for £20 per month and that they were also hoping to bundle it with a 2 year Spotify subscription for £25 a month which seems to me an extremely good deal. I will have plenty more time to play with the HTC Hero as 3mobilebuzz are sorting one out for me to trial next for a couple of weeks, so watch this space for my review of that soon!
I also asked Dave about the possibility of the iPhone coming to 3 and was told that it was unlikely as the subsidy on the handset would be so great that they would actually end up losing money on it so it wouldn’t prove cost-effective to do so. I would also say it’s not every day you meet someone with SEVEN mobile phones about his person! I then remarked that there was no means on the 3 website of knowing which handsets were coming soon as with other network’s websites, he was aware of this and informed me that this was something they were planning on adding to the site very soon.
I also spoke to Amy from the Network department and expressed my general satisfaction at the level of network coverage I was getting in my local area here in Hastings and had a long chat also with Phil from 3mobilebuzz about my two blogs and in particular my other blog, the Cool Website Digest and chatted with Dwayne from 3mobilebuzz as well, both great guys!
During the couple of hours I was there it was also good to meet and speak to some of the other people 3mobilebuzz have been working with over the past year, and enjoyed meeting Abul from the adonismobile blog and ‘cyberdees’ both of whom I hope to stay in touch with via Twitter.
All in all I came away glad to be a 3 customer, my questions answered thoroughly and very encouraged and excited about the coming year for the network, it was a really excellent evening and hope and look forward to being invited to more events in the future! Thanks again to 3mobilebuzz for inviting me!
