Three announces results for first six months of 2015
- £1.3bn in roaming charges saved for customers since Feel At Home launched two years ago
- Over 50% of Three’s customers are using 4G in the UK
Leading benefits like Feel At Home and the performance of Three’s network helped it add 391,000 new active customers in the first half of 2015, with EBITDA of £311 million and Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) at £200 million.
Three’s 8.8 million customers continued to enjoy more ways of keeping connected, with usage of Feel At Home and Three inTouch both increasing significantly.
Feel At Home was introduced to protect customers from unfairly high roaming charges and since its launch has saved customers over £1 billion. Customers save nearly £330 on average every year compared to typical roaming rates.
Over 2 million customers have now enjoyed roaming at no extra cost in 18 destinations, with average usage per Feel At Home user in Feel At Home countries rising to nearly 500MB in June 2015 – an 84% increase year on year.
Three inTouch – a free app which lets customers call and text over WiFi in the UK – is now used by 1.2 million customers.
The continued rollout of 4G – available to customers at no extra cost – drove average data usage per customer to 4.65GB in June 2015, with over 50% of customers using 4G.
Three will continue to invest in its network in the second half of the year with the introduction of new, low frequency spectrum which will aid rural and indoor coverage. Voice coverage will also be extended with the introduction of 4G calling.
Dave Dyson, Chief Executive, said: “We continue to focus on giving our customers the best possible experience. Our network is already providing a quality, reliable service to customers and this will be further enhanced in the next six months with the introduction, for the first time, of our low frequency 800MHz spectrum.”
Richard Woodward, Chief Financial Officer, said: “Our performance in the first half has been built on the strength of our network and the plans and benefits we provide. We passionately believe that financial success starts and ends with providing the best possible customer experience and fixing industry issues like unfair roaming charges.
“This is our absolute focus and we are seeing the results with customer satisfaction consistently improving, more people joining us and existing customers staying longer and spending more.”
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Notes to Editors
For further information please contact:
Three Corporate PR team
020 3725 2339
- Feel At Home
Savings statistic is based on the amount of data, voice and texts used in Feel At Home countries in the last two years and how much the use of these services would have cost in total if pre-Feel At Home pricing had been applied.
More than 2 million customers have used Feel At Home since launch in August 2013. Average data usage per customer per month is now 494MB. On average, Three customers have saved £656 in the two years since Feel At Home was introduced compared to pre-Feel At Home rates.
Feel At Home is available in 18 destinations – Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Macau, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
- Network and Data Usage
4.5 million of Three’s customers have used 4G since launch. Average data usage across all of Three’s customers is 4.65GB.
Low frequency 800MHz spectrum will be added to the network from autumn 2015. Voice services will be extended to 4G with the introduction of Voice over LTE (VoLTE or 4G calling) technology in autumn 2015.
- About Three
Three is a communications company. We are focused on challenging the industry to make mobile better for everyone.
We want to give customers a quality mobile experience and address the industry issues that frustrate them.
We were the first UK network to introduce all you can eat data and offer 4G at no extra cost. We let customers roam abroad with their domestic bundle for no extra charge and calling 0800 numbers is free on all our new plans.
We continue to look at ways of improving the experience we offer our customers.
Three carries 42% of the UK’s mobile data. Our 3G network covers 98% of the UK population.
We launched 4G in 2014. By the end of 2015 98% of the population will be able to access 4G through a combination of new sites and deploying new spectrum.
Three UK is a member of CK Hutchison Holdings which also has investments in mobile operations in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Macau, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Vietnam.
Three employs over 4,400 people across its offices in Maidenhead, Glasgow and Reading and its 347 retail stores.
For more information visit www.three.co.uk.
