3 phone network any good?

[SleepDeprivedGrumpyBum]

I'm debating getting a blackberry with them, so could do with some insight as to how well their netork genuinely works. Signal strength, ease of internet access etc. I only ask as my understanding a few years back was that the network was pretty pants, so i dont want to tie into a contract and then not be able to use the phone
Anyone care to share any experiences, they would be most appreciated
TIA

SE London and no probs at all. Been all way to southampon, Eastbourne and Kent all fine signal pretty much except very rural areas. I have iPhone tho. Don't think they have much Oop north

North Wales, around 10 miles south-ish of Chester with fields within 20 metres in 2 directions (small village, rural enough as it is an hour's walk into town centre), and been using Three for internet access since October 2008.

For 18 months it was only internet access I had and used daily as my work is IT/web site development. In rural areas, internet may not be as fast as in cities but definitely usable and at the price paid for 15 GB a month, comparable with landline services (until they dropped recently to 3.50/month).

Cannot comment on voice use, sorry, but I'd expect coverage to have only improved and improved over the past 30+ months.

Thanks for getting back to me, it all sounds very positive, especially NetworkGuy your info is very useful as the village i live in at the moment is quite rural.

Big fat no (speaking as an ex-customer of 3, Vodafone & o2).
Have a quick google of '3 network review or 3 mobile review', they're the cheapest for a reason & a real hassle to get out of a contract with!

They do have the 'best' 3g coverage though (as you would expect)!

Personally, I would recommend being on t-mobile or orange, as they 'share' networks, so there isn't really anywhere you can't get a signal.
I have family in the midlands, scotland, SE london & Sussex; 3 couldn't give me coverage in any of these locations (when I was on 3 I lived in Central London, couldn't get reception in the house)!

Given the experience of CandyS, I must suggest caution - visit your nearest 'Three store' and see if they can lend you a phone for a week with no/low credit just so you can see if coverage is acceptable!

Very popular around here (market town in Norfolk). Said to be the best locally, although no single network is perfect. O2 & Vodaphone are good around here, too.

3 is shit. Incredibly poor signal, rubbish customer service too. It's cheap for a reason IME!

Does it definitely need to be a contract? If you can afford to buy a handset, you could go for a PAYG - I use giffgaff, which uses O2 network, it has normal credit but also 'goodybags' which are bundles of mins/txts. I can't remember if the sim is free (my friend gave me mine) but there's no obligation so you're not tied in.

I recently put my daughter on 3, luckily on a 30 day pay monthly deal. I cancelled 3 weeks later. What we found was that when we got a signal, it was always 3G (unsurprisingly) but often we got nothing, where the traditional networks would have reverted to 2G.

And when we did get a signal, all too often it was 1-2 bars maximum.

We don't live in a city but a decent sized town but even in the centre of a city, inside of Westfield's, she couldn't get a signal to call me.

Customer service I found them to be light years ahead of Vodafone but their network needs improving.