Three UK blames system glitch after Paramount+ removal appeared to trigger 100Mbps speed cap

Existing Three UK customers who moved to remove the Paramount+ add-on from their plans were warned that doing so would also apply the operator's 100Mbps mobile broadband speed cap. VodafoneThree has since said the warning was a system display fault and that real speeds are not affected.

The issue surfaced after Three notified customers that Paramount+ would rise from £7.99 to £9.99 a month from 27 August 2026 for both new and existing users. Some subscribers with the streaming add-on bundled into their 'Complete' plans responded by trying to remove it before any free period ended.

What customers saw

The add-on comes bundled with Three's Complete plans, which also carry inclusive roaming in over 160 worldwide destinations. Complete plans include Paramount+ for the full length of the contract, while Value, Lite and Lite+ plans offer it as an optional extra.

One Three customer, posting under the name MissTuned, flagged the problem after going through the removal process.

"Watch out with Three, they sent me an email about the price of Paramount going up. I have literally never used Paramount and never will, so I decided to go and remove the add-on from my account to avoid getting billed when the free period runs out," MissTuned said. "At the very last moment in the 'remove add-on' section, I noticed that the process would also change my speed cap to 'up to 100Mbps', they are sneaking it on with every account change you make."

The contract in question had a long time left to run, which suggested Three was treating the Paramount+ removal as a wider contract change that would then let it apply the speed cap.

MissTuned also pointed to a second, less clear change appearing during the same process. The customer's inclusive roaming allowance was shown as "updated" without any explanation of what had altered.

"It feels like they are using Paramount, which is a pretty useless also-ran TV streamer, as an add-on that people will want to cancel, and in cancelling it they'll accidentally speed cap their package," MissTuned said. "There's also the unspecified change to roaming, which isn't clarified other than that the roaming allowance shows as 'updated' when you go to remove Paramount, I presume the removal of some countries or partners."

The Paramount+ price increase notification page on Three's website made no mention of any speed cap or roaming caveats.

The background to the speed caps

In April 2026 Three UK followed Vodafone by introducing mobile broadband speed caps on its 4G and 5G plans, ranging from 25Mbps to 100Mbps. Customers wanting full speed could pay a £4 add-on.

Those caps applied only to new customers. Existing users on uncapped speeds could keep them, at least until they came to recontract. The concern raised by the Paramount+ removal was that a routine change to an add-on might be enough to pull existing customers onto the capped speeds early.

Most operators handle changes to add-ons separately from wider package features, which is what made the combined change look unusual.

Three's response

A spokesperson for VodafoneThree confirmed that the "100Mbps speed cap shown to users is a system display issue, which our team are working to resolve."

According to the operator, removing or adding the Paramount+ add-on "does not impact a customer's actual speed."