ThreeBrief.

“The Government is determined to increase sustainable
competition in the mobile market by attracting at least
one new entrant. New entrants will bring innovation and
enterprise, fresh ideas and a new approach.”
Michael Wills, Telecoms Minister, June 1999.
03.03.03.
03.03.03.
03.03.03.
03.03.03.
ThreeBrief.
Three - The network built for the internet.
Spring 2013
Ten years of internetting.
Three is ten! On 03.03.03 Three launched
the UK’s first 3G network and the way we
used mobile phones changed forever. In the
intervening ten years the mobile internet has
become a part of everyday life and Three
has become the home of the mobile internet.
Today 43% of all the UK’s mobile internet
traffic is carried on our network.
The foundation for this step change in mobile
use over the past decade was laid in the
bowels of a government department, not
in some high-tech lab. Back in 1999 the
then Government set out its ambitions for
the 3G spectrum auction, deciding that the
most effective way to drive the rollout and
uptake of the mobile internet was to increase
competition in the mobile market. So it was
agreed that one of the 3G spectrum licences
would be reserved for a new entrant. That new
entrant was Three.
Three is the only mobile network built for
the internet and we are passionate about
delivering the most enjoyable experience.
Our network of over 13,229 sites provides
coverage to 98% of the population, serving
8.8 million customers who use an average of
1.5GB of data a month.
This edition of Three Brief runs through some
of the highlights from our first ten years so
that you can judge for yourself how we’ve
matched up to the Government’s ambitions.
Evolution not Revolution.
Three will provide 80% of the population with
Ultrafast DC-HSDPA coverage by the end
of March. This year we will also begin to use
LTE alongside this technology. However what
is crucial for consumers is that whatever the
underlying Ultrafast technology the experience
Pipes – while Ultrafast refers to the technology
used by the phone to communicate with the
masts, the pipes (technically known as backhaul)
that carry the internet traffic from the mast to
the internet are equally important. The size and
quality of these pipes dramatically affect the
speed the consumer gets. We have upgraded
80% of our network backhaul to superfast
Ethernet technology, removing potential
bottlenecks between our masts and the internet,
and giving our customers the best possible
mobile internet experience.
The
Network
Evolution.
The evolution
in mobile
technology.
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
200Kbps
2Mbps
3.2Mbps
6Mbps
12Mbps
13.8Mbps
384 Kbps
3.6 Mbps
7.2 Mbps
21 Mbps
DC-HSDPA
LTE
0
Source 'Enders Analysis. 4G in the UK: 2012-093'
Ultrafast - Ultrafast is a catch-all term for the
next wave of network technology. This includes
the latest iteration of 3G DC-HSDPA - or to
give its full name Dual Carrier High Speed
Download Packet Access. As you can see from
the graph opposite, this technology delivers
speeds comparable with LTE – which is the first
stage of what you might have heard called 4G
technology. However, as LTE and DC-HSDPA
speeds are comparable, the advent of LTE will
not bring the same seismic shift for consumers
as was seen with the shift from 2G to 3G. LTE
largely benefits operators as it enables us to
use our spectrum more efficiently to serve more
data-hungry consumers on our network.
and the price will be the same. Three has
announced we will not be charging customers
a hefty premium to use Ultrafast, even when we
launch LTE.
Realistic speed (Mbps).
When we launched in 2003 the technical
terminology was a little bit simpler. You had
1G, which allowed you to make calls, then 2G
which brought text messaging. 3G introduced
the internet. However the rapid advancement
of mobile broadband since then has brought
a flurry of technical terms. Here at Three we
simplify the jargon and we explain our network
in the following terms:
Network technology.
We’ve indicated realistic speeds rather than the advertised maximum speeds which are unlikely to be reached.
Mobile users pay up to ten times less to use smartphones
in EU countries that have an independent “challenger”
telecoms group, such as Three.
Rewheel, Smartphone Tariff Competitiveness Report – December 2012.
03.03.13.
03.03.13.
03.03.13.
03.03.13.
A decade of Three.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2
Lift off for the first
UK-wide 3G network.
After winning the spectrum licence reserved for
the new entrant in 2000, Three launched one of
the world’s first 3G networks in March 2003, giving
consumers access to the internet on their phone
for the very first time. Then Government Ministers
Patricia Hewitt and Stephen Timms were the first to
try this new technology, making the first ever public
video call.
But 3G wasn’t confined to London. By December
2003 Three had achieved the fastest mobile network
rollout in European telecoms history – with over
70% population coverage for our mobile broadband
services in the UK. We celebrated by giving our
customers free local and international video calls
across the 12 days of Christmas that year.
“The possibilities are
immense - it has the
potential to
revolutionise
the way we
communicate.”
Reality Bites.
Mobile Broadband is Go.
Having revolutionised music
downloads in 2005 Three launched
the first user-generated paid-for
content service, ‘See Me TV’. Three
customers recorded a short video,
which we uploaded to the See Me TV
Channel for other Three customers
to view. For every Three customer
that watched a clip, the customer
who made the video was paid 1p. By
March 2006, See Me TV had over 4
million downloads and had earned
budding directors over £100,000.
In August 2007 we launched our
mobile broadband offer. At the time
other mobile networks were charging
£50 for 1 GB, but when we launched
offering 1 GB for £10 it wasn’t long
before they reduced their prices,
proving again the important role new
entrants play in driving competition.
Even we were taken back at the
enthusiasm with which the great
British public embraced mobile
broadband- within a year mobile
data had increased nine-fold!
Our most popular
downloads on See MeTV
included the world’s first
wedding proposal over
video mobile - as well as a
frankfurter-eating dog and
a real life contortionist
called Pretzel Girl!
Since 2007 mobile broadband has
played an increasingly important role
in connecting people who weren’t
previously online, either because
fixed broadband wasn’t available
or because they were unable to
get credit approval for a long-term
contract. Three has worked with
many different communities over the
past five years to help more people
get online.
Patricia Hewitt,
former Trade and
Industry Secretary.
“Industry experts were sceptical the Hong Kongowned company would succeed...but Hutchison
has cut prices and introduced new models... these
tariffs undercut rivals by as much as 50 per cent.”
03.03.03.
Nigel Cope, City Editor, Independent, August 2003.
Setting the Internet Free.
Hitting the Right Notes.
In September 2003 Three delivered music videos
to mobiles for the first time in Europe. In July 2004
we created the first ever mobile jukebox and in
2005 Madonna’s latest single premiered exclusively
on Three. In 2006 we launched the 3 Music Store
giving customers access to 500,000 tracks at 99p
per track, at a time when other mobile operators
were charging consumers £3 for one track. Before
long we were selling one million tracks a month
putting us second only to iTunes.
“Mobile phone company 3,
Britain’s newest network, has
signed a deal with Sony BMG,
the world’s second largest music
company... The music industry
certainly has high hopes for
mobile phones, which represent
a much safer and more lucrative
way to distribute music.”
Richard Wray, The Guardian, August 2005.
In March 2006 Three made a landmark agreement
with Skype, which allowed customers to use Skype
on their mobile. Our embrace of Skype ran counter
to the approach of other mobile networks who
even now block access to the service on a number
of their tariffs. By December that year Three was
offering international Skype calls and in April 2009
Three launched unlimited free Skype-to-Skype
calls and instant messages.
In February 2010 the billionth
minute of Skype calls was
made on our network.
To mark the occasion the
Communications Minister
Stephen Timms called the
Chief Executive of the aid
agency Merlin on her Three
Skype phone. Only weeks
before, Three had donated
Skype phones to Merlin
and other aid agencies who
had been using Skype on
computers to stay in touch
during their fieldwork in Haiti
following the earthquake
that hit the island.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
The One Plan.
It’s Ultrafast.
As the new entrant, Three has led the way in
giving consumers the best value and in July
2010 we launched The One Plan, with a monthly
cap of 1GB of data, significantly higher than our
competitors. However, by December we realised
that users needed all-you-can-eat data plans in
order to make the most of their smartphones. At a
time when many mobile operators were reducing
data allowances, fearing their networks couldn’t
cope, we introduced an as-much-as-you-eat data
plan. As the network built for internetting, we have
continued to develop our tariffs to ensure all our
customers can enjoy the internet. In March 2011
we launched an all-you-can-eat data tariff for our
Pay As You Go customers.
By the end of March 2013 80% of our
network will be Ultrafast. Since 2012
we have been rolling out the latest
iteration of 3G services - DC-HSDPA.
Customers using this technology will
have speeds comparable with LTE, but
at no extra cost. However for Three the
internet is the internet - it’s not what the
technology is called that’s the important
bit but it’s about the quality of the service
and the cost to consumers. So we will
keep updating our network with the
best technology - be it Gigabit Ethernet
backhaul, DC-HSDPA, or LTE - to ensure
that our customers continue to receive
the best mobile data service possible.
“It will be interesting to see how the
competition will react. They will certainly not
find it easy to handle the same influx of traffic
as Three’s data-savvy 3G infrastructure - nor
will they be willing to give it away for free making it difficult to see them follow suit with
all-you-can-eat alternatives.”
uSwitch, 2010.
Terminate the Rate.
In May 2009 Three joined up with BT, the
Federation of Small Businesses, Carers
UK and a range of other charities and
organisations to launch the Terminate the
Rate campaign. The campaign demanded
lower mobile termination rates (MTRs)the charge that mobile operators make
to other operators when a customer
from another network calls one of their
customers – which we believe drove costs
upwards for consumers.
In April 2010 Ofcom made a landmark
decision to bring down MTRs. Despite
vigorous legal challenges from the other
mobile operators, attempts to reverse the
reduction have failed and by 2014 mobile
operators will only be able to charge less
than 1p per minute to terminate a call,
compared with almost 5p a minute when
the campaign was launched.
“It is a bold move
by Three and goes
against the prevailing
tide set by other
networks who are
trying to rein in data
usage.”
Ultrafast
Ben Wood, CCS Insight, 2010.
Fighting the
Great Roaming Rip-Off.
For a long time customers were being ripped off
by roaming charges for using the internet abroad.
Three decided to do something about it and we
therefore supported the announcement from the
European Commission that it would introduce
new regulations for mobile data charges. While
all other UK mobile operators lobbied against the
Commission’s proposals, we lobbied for them to
go even further. We were delighted when the final
regulations set the maximum data roaming rate
significantly lower than that originally proposed,
and the benefits were immediate. In June 2012
Three launched our EU internet pass, enabling
our pay monthly phone customers to enjoy the
benefits of the internet on their smartphones while
holidaying in the EU without the fear of running up
a massive bill.
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Over the past ten years we have led the way in innovation
but for us the enjoyment has come from seeing how our
network has changed people’s lives.
“Internetting has really helped me to
inspire visitors and bring the joys of
Caerphilly to life, whether it is by showing
online films or downloadable walking
maps. It is also great to see visitors from
all over the world come in and upload
photos, so they can share the stories of
their travels for free!”
Martin Cook, Visitor Operations Manager,
Caerphilly County Borough Council.
“I love mobile internetting as it has got
me connected where fixed line has failed.
It has been fantastic - my MiFi worked
straight away, all I had to do was plug it
in. I can now write emails from my kitchen
and IT WORKS! I am so chuffed, one very
happy surfer yippeeeee! My dogs don’t
seem very impressed though as they are
not getting my attention.”
“I love internetting because it has given
me the chance to make a difference to
people in ways I could only have dreamt
of, in places I never thought I would go.
It has opened up a world to us where we
can communicate with people whose first
language is not English, building bridges
to bring a community closer together.”
Nyree Scott, Digital Inclusion for Cambridgeshire
Adult Learning and Skills.
Hazel Sharp, Ceredigion resident.
“Internetting has really made it simpler to
run my small business. Having been let
down by fixedline providers in my area,
mobile broadband means I can now get
myself and my staff online quickly, easily
and reliably, freeing up my time to deal
with other things.”
Jamie Egan, Party Props Shop, East Kilbride.
“I love internetting because cancer
patients can now access an online
Holistic Needs Assessment (e-HNA) and
create a much-needed Care Plan together
with their clinician. This means that their
treatment and care is really tailored to
the individual and saves valuable time for
health professionals.”
Amanda Watson, Project Manager,
Macmillan Cancer Support.
“I love internetting because it enables
me to keep up to date with seafarers’
welfare in a fast-paced global
environment. The number one priority
for seafarers is internet access to use
Skype and Facebook. The internet keeps
communities together, even when they
are thousands of miles apart.”
Carolyn Lewis, Port Welfare Manager,
The Merchant Navy Welfare Board.
“As a copper, speaking to the people
you meet on your beat is very important,
and the translation tool breaks down so
many barriers. Not being able to talk to
someone is so frustrating and, as I work
in such a diverse area, it’s now a vital
piece of my everyday kit.”
Graham Slorach, Community Support Officer
with Strathclyde Police.
“I love internetting because you can
show the potential, function and magic
of modern mobile computing technology,
to those that have been unable to take
the step. I use the mobile internet to help
family and others keep in touch with their
friends and also to help them access
information as well as source value
products.”
“I love internetting because I can connect
and update myself with my family friends
in the Philippines. I am away from home
for nine months at a time to support all
my family. I can also gather news about
what happening around the world. And
it also helps me to keep updated with
the latest trends and gadgets. When I’m
connected to the internet - and I always
use my Three connection - it’s like I’m on
land and that makes me very happy.”
Clifford Wylie, Digital Champion in Banbridge,
Northern Ireland.
Marwin, Chief Cook on a tanker
that visited Fawley, UK .
“I love internetting because I love going
onto Facebook and keeping in touch
with friends in Australia and America.
When the son of one of my Australian
friends got married I saw the photos
within hours, amazing. I’ve no idea how it
works, but I don’t care, I love it, I can’t do
without it now, I’m addicted. I use a Three
mobile broadband webcube - it’s really
simple, plus it’s Pay As You Go so I’m not
paying for more than I need.”
Freda, 78 - Self confessed Facebook addict.