UK mobile operator Three announced it would launch its 5G home broadband service in London in August.
Three would also roll out mobile and broadband across 25 towns and cities before the end of the year.
Three, which is owned by Hutchison, will be joining BT’s EE and Vodafone in launching services in 2019.
Three’s engineers are conducting network improvements in locations including London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Nokia is supporting Three’s 2 billion pound or $2.55 billion 5G infrastructure project to ensure network improvements.
Three said it has more than twice as much 5G spectrum as its closest competitor, which will deliver significantly faster speeds for its customers.
Three has 100MHz of 5G spectrum as compared with 50 MHz for Vodafone, 40 MHz for BT-EE and 40 MHz for Telefonica’s O2.
Three believes that its spectrum and investment in smart antennas will deliver the fastest 5G network in the UK. Three’s 5G will have at least 2x faster peak mobile speeds than other mobile network operators.
Three 5G to reach
London
Birmingham
Bolton
Bradford
Brighton
Bristol
Cardiff
Coventry
Derby
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Hull
Leeds
Leicester
Liverpool
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Milton Keynes
Nottingham
Reading
Rotherham
Sheffield
Slough
Sunderland
Wolverhampton
This investment will also help Three meet the anticipated future demand for data, with UK consumers expected to use 13 times more mobile data in 2025 than today, according to Ofcom research. Three’s mobile customers are already using 3.5x more data per month than the industry average.
Three’s 5G rollout will cover 80 percent of its network traffic over the next three years. The network investment program also includes upgrades within Three’s 4G network, expected to deliver up to 400 percent improvements in speed and capacity. Three will deploy more 4G spectrum, convert 3G spectrum to 4G and use advanced antenna technology to achieve better speed and coverage.
Three chief executive officer Dave Dyson said: “We have worked hard over a long period of time to be able to offer the best end-to-end 5G experience. 5G is a game changer for Three.”
EE launched 5G services in six cities in May, while Vodafone will launch on July 3.
Both EE and Vodafone pulled Huawei smartphones from their 5G launches because of uncertainty about support by Google’s Android after a U.S. move to block the Chinese firm’s access to its technology, Reuters reported.
Three said that they would announce details of which handsets would be part of its mobile launch in July.
The United States has said Huawei is a security risk and open to spying by Beijing, a claim the Chinese company denies.
Britain’s National Security Council decided in April to block Huawei from all core parts of its future 5G network but to give it restricted access to non-core parts, but the government has not made a final decision.
Baburajan K
