Ultra upgrade
Three has boosted its 3G network upgrade, connecting its 12,400th 3G site and closing phase one of its £400m improvement programme.
The upgrade scheme was designed to boost 3G coverage in rural areas plus add capacity to cities and the company believes it now covers 97 percent of the UK. Over the past three years an area more than twice the size of Wales has been added to Three's network. The company said the scheme was needed to fuel and support the smartphone and dongle boom.
Three has achieved its extra reach and capacity by ‘consolidating and upgrading equipment' as well as sharing sites with other providers, which has actually led to over 5,000 fewer masts across the UK.
It said its network carries 100 terabytes of data a day, roughly 20 times the amount of info held on Wikipedia and 40 percent of this is composed of people streaming media from sites like BBC iPlayer and Youtube. Around 38 percent of the data is from web browsing, including web downloads, close to 6% is from people updating Microsoft software and around 2.5 percent is now made up of people messaging each other, such as via Skype or MSN, Three added.
Kevin Russell, CEO of Three UK said: "Smartphone and Mobile Broadband use is exploding and we have built a 3G network that reaches further than ever before, as well as bringing more capacity into urban areas where our customers need it most."
Three has also just announced that its customers with the HTC Desire will finally get a Froyo update, following the likes of T-Mobile and O2.
According to Techwatch, Three tweeted to its customers: "HTC Desire owners - please try and connect to Wi-Fi when you update tomorrow and back up your data before installing, just in case!" following roll-out glitches, most notably from O2.
