Tariff almost doubles on Three's 'all you can eat' mobile phone contract

The mobile network Three has ended its “all you can eat” mobile tariff and customers aren't happy.

The contract, which cost £17 a month and offered unlimited data and calls has been replaced with a £30 one.

The company has notified customers by post and will also be sending them texts about the change.

The £17 deal stopped being offered to customers in 2014 but the BBC reported than hundreds of thousands of customers still use the tariff and will be affected.

The reason for the change is because customer’s preferences are dramatically changing, a Three spokesperson told the BBC.

As more people use Snapchat and WhatsApp rather than text messages, priorities are changing for mobile customers.

Ben Wood from CCS Insight told the BBC:"The networks are seeing huge growth in data consumption as people watch more video content at ever-higher resolutions on their smartphones.

"At some point certain all-you-can-eat tariffs become uneconomical."

While unlimited data tariffs still exist, Three says its average customer uses 4.9 gigabytes of data a month.

The Independent has approached Three for comment.