Mobile data not working?

Here at Three, we know how important staying connected is. Reliable call coverage and mobile data signal are essential for everyday life. While we’re continually working to provide our customers with the best network experience, we understand issues can happen. So, this guide walks you through troubleshooting steps that may help if your ever experiencing difficulties with your data connection.

Why is my mobile data not working? 

From time to time, you may experience difficulties connecting to your data. There are several factors that can affect your service, such as your account status, network coverage, phone settings or your phone itself. 

If you’re experiencing any difficulties with your mobile signal or data coverage, take a look at the suggested below to identify what’s going wrong.

Check your phones network settings

Refresh your network connection. Try restarting your phone or switching on airplane mode for 10 seconds. It may seem simple, but this will refresh your network connection and resolves a surprising number of issues.

Check your mobile data settings. These can be found in your phone’s settings, in Mobile Service if you’re an iPhone user or under Connections if you have an Android phone. Make sure that your mobile data is switched on. 

Try manually selecting your network. Even if you don’t have access to Three's 5G network in a specific area, you should be able to access the 4G network. Smart phones are usually set to automatically connect to the strongest signal available but you can also manually select your network in your phone settings. 

If none of the above are helping you to connect to mobile data, the next step is to reset your network settings. Please note that this will disconnect you from any network that your currently saved on your phone. 

For a step by step guide on how to reset your network settings, please have a look at our device guide. 

Check your mobile data and account

If after refreshing your network settings you’re not back up and running, we recommend checking your mobile account.  

To connect to mobile data, your account needs to be active, and you must have an active data allowance or credit available. Login to your My3 account or My3 app. From your dashboard you’ll be able to see your active allowances. 

If you’re a bill pay customers and you don’t have an active data allowance in your account, please chat to our messaging team for assistance.  

Prepay customer, if your data allowance has expired, you’ll need top up to activate a new allowance.

Check your mobile coverage 

Are you experiencing coverage issues in a specific area? If so, this may indicate a coverage issue in that area. Check our Coverage Map to see the coverage availability in your area. 

If there is coverage available, the issue may be due to an outage. Use our outage checker to see if there is any scheduled work happening in your area currently.

If you are only experiencing coverage issues indoors, try moving closer to a window. This is because building materials can sometimes affect coverage. 

Check your SIM card  

If none of the above have helped, the next thing to look at is your equipment. Pop your SIM card in another phone. If you’re still not able to connect on another phone, it’s time to replace your SIM. You can request a new physical SIM or a move to eSIM on our Replace my SIM page. 

Is your mobile data slow? 

Is your mobile data connecting but running slowly? This can happen for a few reasons, like network congestion or poor network coverage, device settings that need refreshing, software updates needed, or even apps running in the background using large amounts of data. 

If you’re experiencing slow speeds, first you need to identify if it’s affecting only you or others around you too. If it’s just you, close any unnecessary apps and reboot your phone. If this doesn’t get you back up and running, try the troubleshooting steps above for loss of coverage. 

If you’ve tried troubleshooting and your mobile data is still slow, run a speed test on the network, and contact our messaging team to report the issue.  

Mobile data still not working?

While these troubleshooting steps resolve most common mobile data issues, they may not resolve everything. 

If you’ve worked through our steps above and are still experiencing difficulties connecting, please contact our customer care team by calling 1913 or chat with our messaging team.