Three UK

Three UK (legally Hutchison 3G UK Limited) is a British telecommunications and internet service provider based in Maidenhead, England.[2] It is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, operating under the global Three brand. Three is the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 13.3 million subscribers as of July 2020.

This article is about the operation of Three in United Kingdom. For its global brand name, see 3 (telecommunications).

Hutchison 3G UK Limited
Three UK
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded3 March 2003 (2003-03-03)
HeadquartersMaidenhead, England, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Robert Finnegan (CEO UK & Ireland)
Products
Revenue £1,116 million (H1 2020)
Number of employees
4,800[1]
ParentThree Group Europe
(CK Hutchison Holdings)
Websitewww.three.co.uk

The company launched on 3 March 2003 as the United Kingdom's first commercial 100% 3G network.[3] It provides 3G, 4G and 5G (certain areas) services through its own network infrastructure.

History

The Three mobile service was launched in the UK on 3 March 2003[4] with handsets going on sale (such as the NEC e616 in 2004 and Sony Ericsson Z1010) later that year. Three was the UK’s first commercial video mobile (3G) network.

Three was the first network to meet its regulatory requirement of 80% population coverage in the UK, meeting this by 9 December 2004.[5]

A Three UK store in Royal Tunbridge Wells, England

Three's first retail stores (3Store) opened at the same time as the network launched, on Oxford Street and Kensington High Street, both in London, and at the Birmingham Mailbox. Three's also sold handsets, devices and contracts through independent and online retailers at the time. In 2005, three expanded, and stores opened in larger shopping centres throughout the UK[6] On 24 October 2006, Three announced that it had purchased 95 high street shops from O2 and The Link.[7]

Three launched SeeMeTV, allowing its customers to submit their own video content that other subscribers could watch. Users would make a small micropayment (the price decided by the video's creator) to watch these videos. The user who created the videos would get paid 10% of the amount of money paid by other users to watch the video. Users were paid once they had accrued £10.[8]

In 2010, Three became the fourth network in the UK to launch the iPhone 4 after O2, Orange and Vodafone.[9]

In July 2014, Three introduced the '3 inTouch' app,[10] allowing customers to place calls through a Wi-Fi connection. Three customers can also access the Virgin Wi-Fi network implemented at over 130 London Underground stations.[11]

On 24 March 2015, Three's parent company Hutchison Whampoa announced it would acquire the UK operations of O2 for £10.25 billion, subject to regulatory approval.[12] On 11 May 2016, EU commission blocked the purchase of O2 on the grounds that it would affect competition in the UK market.[13][14]

In November 2016, three men were arrested after a data breach at the Three mobile network allowed fraudsters to access personal data and steal phones. The company said that while names and addresses were accessed, some financial information might be compromised. Fraudsters were understood to have used authorised login information to order upgraded phones, including iPhone and Samsung handsets, to be sent to customers before intercepting them. Three, which has nine million customers, said it believed around 400 phones had been stolen.[15] In early 2020, CEO of Three UK, Dave Dyson, resigned after 9 years at the helm. He was replaced by Three Ireland's CEO, Robert Finnegan, who now manages both companies.[16]

Three has been the main shirt sponsor of Premier League club Chelsea since the 2020–21 season.[17][18]

Network

In order to provide coverage parity with other networks in the UK, Three initially maintained a national roaming agreement with an established 2G network operator. Until 2006, O2[19] operated this service for Three customers. However, Orange was selected as the new national roaming partner from 10 May 2006.[19]

In the early period of 3G network, Orange 2G (acquired by EE in 2010) [20][21] was adopted in areas as a fallback where 3G wasn't available. The 2G fallback coverage provided by Orange has since been removed as Three believes 3G and 4G technology is now sufficient for mass adoption - and as a result, older phones that support only 2G networks are not compatible with the Three network.[22] From 2013, Three no longer provided a significant 2G fallback for most of the United Kingdom.

On 18 December 2007, T-Mobile and Three launched a 50:50 joint venture called Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) which aimed to combine both of their 3G networks and provide almost complete 3G population coverage by the end of 2008.[23] On 12 November 2010, MBNL announced that the network had reached a total of 12,000 combined sites.[24]

4G
Three's 4G Ready logo

Three began a limited rollout of 4G LTE services in December 2013 in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Reading[25] expanding to over a further 450 locations by the end of 2014.[26][27] In August 2012 Three was given permission to use part of the 1,800 MHz spectrum used by EE's 4G network.[28] On 20 February 2013 Ofcom announced that Three had been awarded 2 x 5 MHz (10 MHz) of 800 MHz to use for 4G.[29] Three planned to launch 4G in the second quarter of 2013, however it delayed the rollout until Q4, saying that it wanted to analyse the performance of other networks' 4G coverage first.[30] The network provides LTE and DC-HSDPA service as a standard feature to all its subscribers using "Ultrafast" to describe both technologies, making it the cheapest price for 4G and the only unlimited 4G in the UK.[31][32] On 23 April 2015, Three announced that VoLTE would be rolled out along with 800 MHz spectrum from September.[33]

International access

Until 2009, Three subscribers in the UK, Ireland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Hong Kong and Australia could use their service on Three networks around the world for no extra charge with "3 Like Home".[34] The service was relaunched on 30 August 2013 as "Feel At Home" for UK customers visiting Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy and Sweden where calls, texts and data can be consumed without roaming charges; meaning they cost the same as for communication within the UK. Since then, additional countries have been added to "Feel At Home" including: Finland, France, Indonesia, Israel, Macau, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and the USA.[35] The service was expanded to a further 24 European countries in September 2016.[36] Three changed the name of its roaming proposition from "Feel at Home" to "Go Roam" and the service is now available in 71 destinations worldwide including Brazil, Costa Rica and Vietnam. "Go Roam" does not include calling from the UK to these or other countries. Fees can reach 46p per minute for calling most European countries from the UK.[37]

Frequency allocations
Frequencies used by the Three UK network
FrequencyBandProtocolClass
2100 MHz1UMTS/HSDPA/HSPA+3G
800 MHz20LTE/LTE Advanced[38]4G/4G+
1800 MHz3LTE/LTE Advanced[27]4G/4G+
1500 MHz32LTE Advanced[39]4G+
2100 MHz1LTE/LTE Advanced[27]4G/4G+
3500 MHz n785G NR5G

3700 MHz

n775G NR 5G

Virtual operators

The Three network is used by two mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Dixons Carphone launched their iD Mobile network in May 2015.[40] In June 2018, Three UK and sister company Superdrug entered an MVNO partnership to launch Superdrug Mobile, which is exclusive to members of Superdrug's "Health & Beautycard" loyalty scheme.[41]

SMARTY

In August 2017, Three launched a no frills SIM-only brand called SMARTY to compete against O2's giffgaff[42] and Vodafone's Voxi.

Awards

In 2010, Three was voted Best Network for Mobile Broadband in a YouGov survey for the second year in a row.[43]

References
  1. "About us". Hutchison 3G UK Limited. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  2. "Office locations". Hutchison 3G UK Limited. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  3. "Three: A network of firsts". Hutchison 3G UK Limited. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  4. "3G goes live in the UK". BBC News. 3 March 2003. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  5. "Three first to hit regulatory requirement for 3G coverage" (Press release). 9 December 2004. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  6. "3 brings next generation of mobile stores to life" (Press release). 18 November 2005. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2005.
  7. "3 acquires 95 prime-location stores from the Link and O2" (Press release). 24 October 2006. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  8. "People's channel 'SeeMeTV' tops 4 million downloads" (Press release). 8 March 2006. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  9. "Three UK will launch iPhone 4" (Press release). Three UK. 10 June 2010. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  10. "Three inTouch". Three UK. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  11. "Free Wi-Fi on London Underground". Three UK. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  12. "Telefonica finalises £10bn sale of O2 mobile phone firm". BBC News. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  13. "EU blocks Three's takeover of O2". BBC News. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  14. "EU blocks Three's takeover of O2". Europa. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  15. "Three mobile data hack leaves 9 million customers at risk". The Independent. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  16. "Three Ireland boss Finnegan to also lead operator's UK business". Irish Times. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. "Chelsea announces Three as new official shirt partner". Chelsea Football Club. 24 January 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  18. Gwynn, Simon (24 January 2020). "Chelsea FC unveils Three as next shirt sponsor". CampaignLive. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  19. "3 selects Orange as new national roaming partner" (Press release). 10 May 2006. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  20. Wray, Richard (11 May 2010). "Orange and T-Mobile settle for Everything Everywhere". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  21. Clark, Nick (12 May 2010). "Mobile giants promise Everything Everywhere". The Independent. London. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  22. "3 starts killing off 2G coverage". 8 November 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  23. "T-Mobile and 3 create Britain's largest 3G network" (PDF) (Press release). 18 December 2007. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  24. "Three and Everything Everywhere joint venturereaches 12,000 shared 3G sites" (PDF) (Press release). 12 November 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  25. Orlowski, Andrew (5 December 2013). "Three offers free US roaming, confirms stealth 4G rollout". The Register. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  26. "When will I get 4G". Three. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  27. Woods, Ben (28 August 2013). "Three finally unveils 4G rollout plans: The stage is now set for UK's 4G future". The Next Web. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  28. "4G timetable agreed by UK mobile network operators". BBC News. 2 October 2012.
  29. "Ofcom announces winners of the 4G mobile auction". Ofcom. 20 February 2013. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  30. "Three UK Delays 4G Mobile Broadband Launch to Q4 2013". Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  31. "Get ready for 4G at no extra cost". Three UK. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  32. "Three to offer latest technology as standard with no price premium" (Press release). Three UK. 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  33. "VoLTE comes to Three". Three UK. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  34. "3 has no place Like Home". 20 May 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  35. "Feel At Home". Three UK. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  36. "Three says auf wiedersehen to roaming charges in even more destinations". Three UK. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  37. "Calling and texting abroad from the UK". Three UK. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  38. "Three Super-Voice". Three UK. 15 September 2015. Archived from the original on 17 September 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  39. "Three UK and Vodafone Grab 1.4GHz Band to Boost 4G Speeds". ISP Review. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  40. Rundle, Michael (23 April 2015). "Carphone Warehouse launches 'iD' mobile network". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  41. Brigden, Steve (20 June 2018). "Superdrug launches new mobile network - here's how it stacks up". MoneySavingExpert. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  42. Fildes, Nic (10 August 2017). "Three brings Smarty to the low-cost mobile party". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  43. Parker, Joe. "Three tops latest independent YouGov survey". Blog.three.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
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