Leadership spotlight: Chief Network Officer

In this series we will hear from the Senior Leadership Team at Three about the latest activity across the company and a little about the people behind the projects.

Vital stats

• Name: Carlo Melis
• Job title: Chief Network Officer
• Function: Technology & Operations
• Tenure: 10 months

Tell us a bit about your background

I was born in Cagliari, Sardinia; an island in central Italy. I am an engineer. I took my MBA in Bologna while I was working and I moved to Rome in 1999 to join a Telco start up.

I have spent the last 5 years back and forth between Rome and Milan leading the network modernization in Italy.

In a nutshell, describe your role and how you support business objectives

My job is to give Three customers the network they deserve. My team and I design and implement network plans to deliver better connectivity every day for our customers. We are aware that there is still work to do but we are going in the right direction by investing £2bn+ in transforming our network and IT infrastructure.

Tell us about the changes to the network – what does this mean for Three?

• Three’s 5G network has grown to 1,250 5G sites in 193 towns and cities.
• 4G connectivity has been boosted with the continuing rollout of 20MHz of 1400MHz spectrum, for up to 3 times faster download speeds.
• 10Gbps backhaul has been added to more than 3,200 sites, boosting the experience for our 4G and 5G customers.
• The majority of voice traffic is now supported on the 4G network with significant improvements in voice quality and clarity.
• As part of the first stage of the Shared Rural Network (SRN), we are building 74 new sites in partnership with O2 and Vodafone to deliver a total of 222 new mobile masts to boost rural coverage across the United Kingdom.

The improvements are all part of Three UK’s ambition is to deliver better connectivity, every day for every customer.