Three UK said it will be investing £2 billion to transform mobile network, increasing 4G speeds by up to 150 percent as well as delivering the UK’s fastest 5G network.
The aim of the transformation of its network and IT infrastructure is to enhance customer experience and ensure better connectivity.
Three’s network technology uses the UK’s leading 5G spectrum portfolio with 100MHz of contiguous 3.4-3.8GHz spectrum. Three UK has the world’s first fully virtualised cloud core network with Nokia.
Three UK has over 11,000 sites enabling VoLTE on the 4G 1800/2100 MHz spectrum which will help improve customer experience.
Three is planning to introduce the use of Enhanced Voice Speech (EVS) later this year in order to enhance VoLTE call speech quality.
Over 7.5 million customers own VoLTE-enabled devices on the Three Network. “Over 80 percent of our customers will benefit from these improvements.”
Last month, Three UK entered into a £100 million infrastructure investment agreement with SSE Enterprise Telecoms to enhance connectivity and deliver the UK’s fastest 5G network across hundreds of towns and cities.
In addition, SSE Enterprise Telecoms will deliver over 450 unbundled BT Exchanges across the UK. The fibre connectivity will be linked into Three UK’s network.
This will mean SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ fibre network, which currently stretches across 20,000 km, will reach over 30,000 km, providing high capacity and resilient network for all of Three UK’s customers.
Earlier this month Three UK entered into an agreement with Colt Technology Services for it to become a preferred provider of fibre backhaul connectivity. Colt’s technology will provide 20 times more backhaul capacity on the sites.
Fibre backhaul is a vital part of delivering a great network experience and the technology will complement the recent upgrades to over 4000 sites with improved 4G, fully virtualized core network, 20 new data centres and 5G in over 100 locations.
Last month, Three UK appointed Belinda Finch as its chief information officer, responsible for its Digital and ICT strategy.
Three also announces that Peter Gilson has taken on the role of director of RAN, responsible for the design, build and performance of Three UK’s network.