Three UK Network and IT Update

Three UK customers’ average data usage, per customer, per month has smashed the 15GB barrier for the first time.

The figure was reached in October 2020, as data usage grew 50% since the beginning of 2020 driven by Three’s generous data packages supporting customers spending more time at home.

Three UK’s ambition is to deliver better connectivity, every day for every customer and we are proud of the way we have kept our customers connected throughout the pandemic. The increased data usage is being supported by Three’s £2bn network and IT transformation which we committed to in 2018.

Despite the two national lockdown’s Three has made progress in enhancing its 4G network and rolling out the UK’s fastest 5G network with average speeds in excess of 200Mbps, according to Ookla.

In 2020, our network and IT teams have:

• Launched 5G on mobile in February in 68 locations before extending this to 154 towns and cities across more than 900 sites for mobile and home broadband. We expect to have around 1,000 sites delivering 5G coverage by the end of 2020
• Doubled the number of sites with improved 4G technology to 4,000 with performance improvements of up to 150%
• Selected Ericsson as the partner for our next stage of our 4G and 5G rollout
• Overhauled our data centre network with 20 new state of the art data centres across the country so our customers can enjoy lag-busting latency
• Signed backhaul agreements with a number of partners including SSE Enterprise Telecoms and Colt laying almost 30,000km of fibre, so our customers get the full benefit of the speeds 5G can offer
• Launched our new IT systems technically with prepay the first product enabled for our customers
• Launched the ability to pay for Apple services such as the App Store, iTunes and games via your Three bill
• And finally, we are proud that throughout the pandemic, we supported Government by zero-rating key services and offering additional support to affected customers

“We have made excellent progress towards our goal of delivering better connectivity, every day for every customer,” said Susan Buttsworth, Chief Operating Officer at Three UK.

“We kept our customers connected despite the changes brought on by the pandemic and continued to rollout our 5G networks and enhancements to our 4G service. I’m proud of the work my team has achieved and we will ensure our customers can use even more than the incredible 15GB they are at the moment next year.”