- Three is introducing speed caps on phone, SIM Only, and mobile broadband plans for new and upgrading customers
- The cap is 100Mbps in most cases, with Pay As You Go having a lower cap
- Existing customers aren't affected, and contract customers will be able to pay extra to remove the cap
Three seems to have just taken a step backwards, because where previously you could get uncapped 5G on all of its plans at no extra cost, the network has now implemented speed caps.
Specifically, new Pay Monthly mobile plans (meaning contracts on SIM Only or with a new handset) will have a 100Mbps speed cap, and so will mobile broadband plans. It is still possible to get uncapped speeds, but you’ll have to either choose a new ‘Lite+’ plan or pay an extra £4 a month.
On Pay As You Go, the cap is instead 25Mbps — or 50Mbps if you have an automatically renewing pack.
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That’s quite a reduction compared to what the network is actually capable of — in a January 2026 report, for example, Opensignal found that the average 5G download speed on Three was 187Mbps. But now, to get that, you’ll have to pay £4 extra a month on the company’s new Pay Monthly plans, and there’s no way to uncap your speeds on Pay As You Go.
The only good news here is that these changes don’t affect existing contract customers, and if you’re currently on an auto-renewing Pay As You Go plan, then you’ll also retain uncapped speeds while you stick with the same pack.
But of course, when you come to upgrade your contract, or if you ever change your Pay As You Go pack, then you will have these caps put in place.
The merger might be to blame
The internet, understandably, is not best pleased by this change, with Reddit reactions including “time to leave”, “my to-do list has moved away from Three on it”, and “the merger should never have been allowed through.” That last quote references Three’s merger with Vodafone, which might be to blame for these new speed caps, especially as Vodafone itself restricts speeds on some of its plans.
Interestingly, these changes don’t appear to apply to MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) that operate on Three’s network yet, with iD Mobile confirming that there are not currently any speed caps on its network.
So, as well as typically being cheaper than Three, its MVNOs may now have a clear advantage — though how long that will last remains to be seen, with iD Mobile also noting that “the industry trend is clearly moving toward tiered speeds.”
Still, for now, if you’re on Three and due an upgrade — or were considering switching to Three — you might want to look at one of its MVNOs instead.
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