The fourth UK operator, 3UK, has started to roll out LTE services, joining EE, Vodafone and O2. It will cover the top three cities, London, Birmingham and Manchester, and some other urban markets by the end of the year and then accelerate its deployment throughout 2014.
The smallest carrier did not join the 4G race, arguing that the wider coverage of its 3G network, combined with its enhanced HSPA+ speeds, would provide a better user experience for most customers for some time to come. It is also at a disadvantage to its rivals in terms of its overall scale, and its spectrum position, though it is receiving 25% of EE’s holdings in the 1.8GHz GSM band, which it will be able to refarm for 4G, as the largest cellco is doing itself. However, 3 will initially use the 800MHz spectrum it acquired for £225m in the UK auction in February.
It joins the market over a year after EE, which was able to steal a march on its rivals when it was allowed to launch 4G services in repurposed 1.8GHz spectrum in October 2012, four months before the other cellcos were able to acquire their own LTE airwaves at the auction (Vodafone and O2 run their GSM networks in 900MHz, which has less capacity for 4G refarming, while 3 has had only 2.1GHz 3G frequencies until this year).
After a cautious start, 3UK will pick up the pace of LTE roll-out from January and says it will cover 98% of the population by the end of 2015. It has started to upgrade customers who have 4G-ready devices and from January, all customers with LTE-capable handsets and data gadgets will be able to access 4G for no extra charge.
The Hutchison-owned operator has always played up its data credentials since launching as a greenfield 3G-only provider in several European countries a decade ago. ‘Customers are using more data than ever on 3, far more than on any other network. As we add 4G capacity to the network, this experience will only get better,’ its CEO Dave Dyson commented.