Drei Austria Review: Faster Than It Should Be (+Speedtests)

In March 2021, I returned from Taiwan after a year.

Then I did not go on a trip for a year because of travel restrictions.

So in February 2022, I decided I would go on a trip again in March 2022.

Mostly because travel restrictions were being lifted left and right.

So, what is the best way to catch up on a year of lost travel time?

Visit as many countries as you can within a month.

I visited Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Italy, Malta, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia & Slovenia.

I really love how easy it is to travel throughout Europe!

During this trip, I (re-)tested 41 local SIM cards, like Drei Austria, Airalo's Eurolink Europe eSIM, Nomad's Europe eSIM & SimCorner's Europe travel SIM cards.

If you have read any of my SIM card buying guides before, like the Austrian one, or watched a YouTube video of mine, you know that I am crazy enough to buy and test so many SIM cards.

If this is your first Phone Travel Wiz review – welcome.

I buy and test all/most SIM cards in a country and tell you which ones are the best so that you do not have to 😎.

You have probably heard of Drei before.

Well… perhaps if it is written as a number (3), Three, or other local variants (Tre & Tri).

The thing with Three is that it often sucks – truly.

Three used to have excellent 3G networks worldwide, but they missed the boat with 4G/LTE.

Making them the local mobile operator with the (second-) worst coverage and (second-) slowest speeds in the country.

With 5G NR, however, it is the leading player in most of its markets.

I guess it learned from its 4G/LTE failures 👁️👄👁️.

So what about Austria? Is Drei Austria any good?

The only way to find out is to test Drei Austria and compare it with the other Austrian SIM cards (A1 Austria and Magenta Telekom Austria).

And that is what I did – and I will share my experience in this review.

Let's get started, shall we?

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Original publication: 19th of October 2022. Last updated: 17th of August 2023.

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Table of Contents

Who is Drei Austria?

Three, Drei, Tre, or Tre – you may know Hutchison as any of those four variants I mentioned earlier.

Three, especially Three Hong Kong and Three UK (but Three Macau to some extent), is also popular because of its travel SIM cards that can be used in many countries globally.

Heck, even travel SIM card reseller SimCorner, my favorite reseller (and I tried its travel SIM cards too during this trip, including in Austria), sells Three Hong Kong and UK travel SIM cards because they offer such good value for your money.

And with eSIMs becoming more popular, many are reselling 3 Hong Kong's services for their eSIMs.

So while Three may be the (second-) smallest mobile operator in your country (Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Macau, Sweden & the United Kingdom), it is a global player.

So what about Austria? Well, Drei Three is the smallest of the Big Three.

However, its network is not so bad compared to A1 Austria and Magenta Telekom, but the others are better and faster.

But things are set to change with the introduction of 5G NR – Drei Austria has the fastest 5G NR network… which prepaid customers cannot use (yet) 🥲.

Now, that is enough Drei Austria background information.

In Austria, you have three mobile operators:

• A1 Austria
• Magenta Telekom (formerly T-Mobile Austria)
• Drei (3) Austria

Of course, I tested the other two mobile operators during my trip to Austria in March. You can read them here: Magenta Telekom Austria and Drei Austria.

You also have many Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), like Lycamobile Austria, but they are honestly not worth your time.

Let's talk about Drei Austria's coverage first, after these quick frequency details:

• 2G: 900 MHz & 1800 MHz
• 3G: 2100 MHz
• 4G/LTE: 900 MHz (Band 8), 1800 MHz (Band 3), 2100 MHz (Band 1) & 2600 MHz (Band 7)
• 5G NR: 3500 MHz (n78) – not for prepaid customers (yet)
• VoLTE: Yes
• VoWiFi: Yes

Here you have Drei Austria's APN settings:

• Name: Planet Drei
• APN: drei.at

Note: leave anything not mentioned above untouched.

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Drei Austria Coverage + My Experience

You can have a mobile operator providing you 1 Gbps download speeds.

But it will be useless if it covers only one street in Austria.

So, how is Drei Austria's coverage?

Regarding 4G/LTE availability, Drei Austria has the worst availability, with an availability score of 97.1%. Behind A1 Austria (97.3%) and Magenta Telekom (98.3%).

But a score of more than 97% is basically excellent anyway.

When looking at 5G NR, Drei Austria is also losing the 5G NR availability race (9.5%). Lacking behind A1 Austria (13.1%) and Magenta Telekom (31.6%), which are the joint winners.

When we look at 5G NR reach, Drei Austria is also not doing well, with a reach score of 2.4 (on a 10-point scale). Behind A1 Austria (4) and Magenta Telekom (4.3).

So far, I have been talking about coverage from other reports, but what was my coverage experience with Drei Austria?

It was excellent, honestly – I had nothing to complain about.

I do not recall having many reception blackspots – not even on the S-Bahn and U-Bahn in Vienna.

But also on the bus to and from Slovakia – reception at the border was still decent (although A1 Austria and Magenta Telekom performed better).

Here you have a Drei Austria coverage map produced by Speedtest:

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How to Get a Drei Austria SIM Card & Prices

Now that you have a basic understanding of Drei Austria and the telecom market in Austria, it is now time to talk about how to actually get a Drei Austria SIM card.

Like many countries in Europe, especially the European Union, I recommend visiting a Drei Austria store to get your SIM card.

That is because of the SIM card registration laws in Austria – SIM card registration is mandatory.

Oh… and you often have to pay to get your SIM card registered – more about that later.

Austrian SIM cards are also sold by third parties, like grocery stores or convenience stores like in many other countries.

But they may not always have the best starter pack deals lying around.

Anyway, here is a Drei Austria store locator.

But be aware that Drei Austria SIM cards are not sold at Vienna International Airport (VIE).

There is a SIM card reseller (Wowww) charging 20 EUR for a SIM card and 20 EUR for registration alone (40 EUR) – and then you still need to add a plan! So you better avoid it.

I will list all the prices in EUR (Euro).

To convert EUR to your currency (let's say GBP – (British) Pound (Sterling)) with up-to-date exchange rates, use the Wise Currency Converter tool.

Disclaimer: the SIM card prices mentioned in the review were current when I was in Austria – the offering and prices may have changed since then. To see Drei Austria's current starter packs, check out my Austria SIM card buying guide.

Before I continue, I do want to talk a bit more about SIM card registration in Austria.

In the majority of (European) countries, SIM card registration schemes exist – those can (often) not be avoided, unfortunately.

What is infuriating about Austria (and Germany) is that the mobile operators may charge you for registration.

Yes… pay for something that is mandated by law!

Luckily… the registration fee is often not as outrageous at Vienna International Airport (20 EUR), but I still find paying for registration insulting.

Drei Austria charges 10 EUR for registration on top of the SIM card starter pack.

The same as Magenta Telekom – A1 Austria is cheaper, with a registration fee of only 5 EUR.

Even then, there is a way to avoid paying this fee: by registering your SIM card online.

I did this with my Drei Austria SIM card (because paying 10 EUR is outrageous), but because part of the registration process is in German and the verification software is slow as hell, it can be a time-consuming process.

It took me 30 minutes with my broken German – that is why I was eventually willing to pay the A1 registration fee (5 EUR) afterward (but also because I had only one day in Vienna… I did not feel like spending an hour on registration 🗿).

In Drei Austria's defense, the salesperson was the only staff to tell me that I could avoid this by using this method.

A1 Austria did not even mention online registration and said that it would cost 5 EUR.

Magenta Telekom did not charge me the usual 10 EUR registration fee, but you should not count on that.

Alright – back to how to get a Drei Austria SIM card, lol (but it is vital to be aware of the registration fees or how to avoid them).

I got my Drei Austria SIM card in Vienna at Keplerplatz.

This is the same square where I got my A1 Austria and Magenta Telekom SIM cards.

Nobody else besides the Drei Austria staff member and myself were inside, so help was offered instantly.

I asked for a Drei Wertkarte, with 10 GB of data for 30 days costing 9.90 EUR.

However, you can also get 4 GB of data, 1000 local minutes & 1000 local SMS for 30 days instead.

You need to be aware of the following: Drei Austria does not want to sell just the starter pack to you.

Instead, it wants you to buy a plan when purchasing a Drei Austria SIM card as well, starting from 10 EUR.

When I asked for just the starter pack, because 10 GB of data was enough for testing purposes, the Drei staff member told me that that was impossible.

As I did not feel like paying 29.90 EUR (9.90 EUR starter pack, 10 EUR for a plan & 10 EUR for registration), for a SIM card for a day of testing, I told him that I would think about it and would register the SIM card online.

I got the starter pack for 9.90 EUR and went outside to get registration done.

First, part of the registration process is in German, even if you select English.

Luckily, I can understand German to some extent.

But I recommend using a browser that can translate pages instantly (like Chrome, Edge (Bing Translate does not work that well), or Firefox (extension needed).

Oh, be aware that not all passports are accepted for online registration. I do not have a list of unsupported countries… but if registration does not work after two or three tries, then you know why. And many Drei stores will happily charge to help you out 🥲.

Second, you are better off using a laptop or computer for registration, but it works on mobile too (although slowly).

The registration page also asked me to select a plan – I chose the cheapest.

The passport scan or face scan part of registration was the part that made me retry it twice because it froze 🥶.

But once registration was done and my payment details were entered, I was not charged for the plan I selected.

Instead, if I recall correctly, the page told me that I would be charged after my starter plan expired, which would be 30 days later.

So I immediately downloaded the Wertkarte app and disabled auto-renewal, which worked.

So I wonder if buying a plan together with your starter pack is really needed or if Drei Austria is trying to get more money out of you 🤔.

Anyway, when I was in Vienna, Drei Austria was the only mobile operator offering eSIMs to prepaid customers.

However, it requires you to buy a SIM card first (9.90 EUR + plan purchase if you get registration done in-store (10 EUR – 40 EUR) + 10 EUR registration fee) and then exchange it for an eSIM for another 20 EUR.

Yeah, that is way too expensive – but you have a few other options.

I tried out Airalo's Eurolink eSIM in Austria (on the Drei Austria network) and the Nomad Europe eSIM (also on the Drei Austria network).

They worked well (and were cheaper than Austrian SIM cards when taking SIM card prices, registration fees & plans into account).

Anyway, I compare the best Austria travel eSIMs in my comparison guide and drop a few discount codes for you 😏.

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Drei Austria Plans, Bundles & Offers

Drei Austria has three data-featured prepaid plans:

• Telefonie Tarife (combo)
• Surf (data)
• Monatspakete/Monthly Packages (data add-ons)

All Drei plans can be activated on the Wertkarte app.

Disclaimer: these were the available plans at the time I was in Austria – the offering may have changed since then (including whether 5G NR is available to prepaid customers or not). To see Drei Austria's current plans, check out my Austria SIM card buying guide (which gets updated regularly – at least once a year).

I will list all the prices in EUR (Euro).

To convert EUR to your currency (let's say GBP – (British) Pound (Sterling)) with up-to-date exchange rates, use the Wise Currency Converter tool.

Telefonie Tarife

The Telefonie Tarife (Tariffs) are combo plans with data (without 5G NR access), minutes & SMS.

Telefonie Tarife can be activated on the Wertkarte app:

Price	Plan	Data	EU/EEA Data	Speed	Local Minutes	Local/EU Minutes	Local SMS	Local/EU SMS	Validity
10 EUR	Talk M	10 GB	N/A	50 Mbps/20 Mbps	1000 minutes	N/A	1000 SMS	N/A	30 days
15 EUR	Talk L	15 GB	N/A	100 Mbps/50 Mbps	1500 minutes	N/A	1500 SMS	N/A	30 days
20 EUR	Talk EU L	20 GB	15 GB	100 Mbps/50 Mbps	Shared with local/EU call allowance	2000 minutes	Shared with local/EU SMS allowance	2000 SMS	30 days
30 EUR	Talk EU XL	30 GB	20 GB	150 Mbps/50 Mbps	Shared with local/EU call allowance	3000 minutes	Shared with local/EU SMS allowance	3000 SMS	30 days

Surf Plans

The Surf Plans are data-only bundles (without 5G NR access).

Surf can be activated on the Wertkarte app:

Price	Plan	Data	EU/EEA Data	Speed	Validity
10 EUR	Surf 8 GB	8 GB	N/A	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	30 days
10 EUR	Surf 365-Tage 3 GB	3 GB	N/A	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	365 days
20 EUR	Surf 365-Tage 60 GB	60 GB	N/A	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	365 days
20 EUR	Surf 20 GB	20 GB	N/A	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	30 days
30 EUR	Surf 365-Tage 20 GB	20 GB	N/A	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	365 days
30 EUR	Surf Flat 30	Unlimited	20 GB	30 Mbps/10 Mbps	30 days
40 EUR	Surf 365-Tage 30 GB	30 GB	N/A	50 Mbps/20 Mbps	365 days
40 EUR	Surf Flat 50	Unlimited	27 GB	50 Mbps/20 Mbps	30 days

Monatspakete (Monthly Packages)

The Monatspakete are data add-ons (without 5G NR access). They cannot be purchased as standalone plans.

Text the Activation Code to 4040 to activate Monatspakete:

Price	Data	Validity	Activation Code
5 EUR	3 GB	30 days	Daten3
10 EUR	8 GB	30 days	Daten8

EU Roaming

You can use your Drei (3) allowances in the following EU/EEA member states without paying roaming fees:

Be aware that, in some cases, the EU/EEA roaming allowance is lower than the domestic allowances.

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Drei Austria Top-Up, Recharge & Balance Check

Drei Austria top-up vouchers are sold in Drei stores, grocery stores, corner shops & electronics shops throughout Austria.

I did not have to recharge my Drei Austria SIM card because Austria was a short stop on my one-month Europe trip.

But I will still let you know about topping up your Drei Austria SIM card.

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Drei Austria Speed Test Results (in Vienna)

Alright, now it is time to talk about the speeds you can expect with Drei Austria after covering all the other essential topics like coverage.

But before I share my eight speed test results in Vienna, I want to set the stage first and make a small comparison with Drei Austria's competition.

Drei Austria is regarded by Speedtest as the second-fastest mobile operator in Austria in Q1 of 2022.

With a median download speed of 53.73 Mbps, Drei Austria is ahead of Magenta Telekom (47.07 Mbps) but behind A1 Austria (69.80 Mbps).

However, when we look at 5G NR, Drei Austria has the fastest 5G NR speeds.

With a median download speed of 267.89 Mbps, Drei Austria is ahead of Magenta Telekom (161.10 Mbps) and far ahead of A1 Austria (123.35 Mbps).

As a result, Drei Austria won the Austria Speedtest Fastest 5G Mobile Network Award of 2022 (Q1-Q2).

Unfortunately, 5G NR is not available to prepaid customers (yet).

But even when 5G NR is opened up to Drei Austria prepaid customers, you probably still will not experience full 5G NR speeds (up to 1 Gbps – more about that later).

Okay, those were valuable insights – let's talk about my speed test results now.

I did speed tests with the Speedtest app at various test locations in Vienna.

Here are the results:

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My Overall Experience with Drei Austria – Is It Any Good?

I would recommend Drei Austria, but it may not be my first choice.

Being expanded.

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Austrian SIM Card Reviews

As mentioned earlier, I also tried out A1 Austria and Magenta Telekom when I was in Austria.

You should read those reviews too.

>>> A1 Austria Review | Magenta Telekom Review <<<

Later, I will make a comparison post of the three Austrian SIM cards I tried… but that will take a while (I have many reviews of other countries that I still need to write, so they are prioritized).

But you can still make an educated purchased after reading the Austrian SIM card reviews.

Check out my reviews page if you want to read all the other reviews I have written, including other European SIM cards from this trip.

Austria SIM Card Buying Guide

There are more than ten SIM cards to choose from in Austria besides Drei Austria.

I analyze and discuss them in-depth in my Austria SIM card buying guide.