Three UK to spend more than £2bn on preparing for 5G

As part of this network upgrade programme, the company has:

There’s also Three’s new 4G+ (LTE Advanced) service, which was officially launched on 1 November, and involved upgrading more than 2,700 sites. The company claims that this has improved its average data speeds by 15-30 per cent and that roughly 50 per cent of the devices on its network support 4G+. It adds that the upgrades will still benefit those using devices that don’t support 4G+, because they will

The upgrade work was focused on sites in cities with high data demand, including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Three stated that the first commercial quantities of 5G smartphone and home broadband devices are expected to be available by H2 2019.

Dave Dyson, Three UK’s chief executive officer, said: “We have always led on mobile data and 5G is another game-changer. Also described as wireless fibre, 5G delivers a huge increase in capacity together with ultra-low latency. It opens up new possibilities in home broadband and industrial applications, as well as being able to support the rapid growth in mobile data usage.