Three UK boosts 4G speeds by up to 50 percent

  • Three’s 4G customers to enjoy a faster, more reliable experience
  • Half of UK already has access to additional spectrum

Three’s 4G speeds will increase by up to 50% nationwide as part of an ongoing rollout of additional spectrum on the network.

The extra spectrum will help to increase the performance, speed and capacity of the 4G network.

The additional 5MHz of the 1800MHz spectrum, which is used to carry 4G on Three’s network, has already been switched on at all of sites in Northern England, the West Midlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The rest of the UK, including London, will receive access to higher internet speeds following completion of the rollout.

This programme is part of a drive to further improve reliability on the data network, which carried 42% of UK mobile data traffic in the year-ending March 2015. Average data usage per customer reached 4.65GB per month in June 2015.

The deployment will also help to further improve reliability by adding some much needed capacity in congested areas.

The enhancement follows the launch of 4G Super-Voice last month, when Three became the first UK operator to use their 4G network for voice calls. Combined with our low frequency 800MHz spectrum, this means that people are able to make calls, send texts and get online in more places than ever before.

Bryn Jones, chief technology officer at Three, said:

“Many of our 4G customers will already be enjoying a faster, more reliable experience at no extra cost. Our network processes a huge amount of data and we will continue to work hard on providing them with a service that delivers the reliability and speed that they need.”