While the EU prevented Three from taking over O2, it hasn’t stopped Three from gradually pulling the veil on their “make it right” promises and revealing themselves to be just like every other telecom provider.

The “make it right” campaign and relatively lengthened period of VERY low prices placed Three as the saviour of the UK consumer in most eyes. And that was enough. Three grew it’s customer base by over 10% in 2015 and are continually proving that they aren’t who most UK consumers think they are- they just did a great job of implanting that thought in the mind of the average Joe. After trying to take over O2 and doubling prices five months ago for 100,000's of users, Three is now doubling the price of their MMS.

While the insurgence of free messaging apps like Whatsapp and Messenger means that this won’t affect most of us, there are still plenty of people in the UK sending regular ol’ MMS. Sometimes you’re getting charged for sending a pic but you can also get charged MMS prices for just sending an emoji. And Three is now wising up to the fact that they can charge more for it.

Some Three users noticed the steep spike in price

To be clear, these MMS probably won’t cost any specific user too much. Data from our bill analysis system shows that most users spend under £1 each month on MMS. But there are some outliers who spend 3–4 times that every month. And over the course of a year, this adds up. Now, these people will be paying over double these amounts, and for a service that doesn’t cost Three anymore today than it did yesterday.

Being fair to Three, they’re not the only ones to have MMS prices this high; O2 have charged about this much for a few years now. But the signs are clear- Three is not the consumer champion that they have been selling themselves as. They are quickly becoming just like every other major provider in the UK, and it’s time the consumers start noticing.