Three UK: 4G LTE Rollout Will Likely Be End of 2013

If you're on Three UK and holding your breath for the network's 3G rollout, you might want to give yourself a break. The company is apparently holding off on the rollout of its 4G LTE service until the end of this year.

According to Reuters, Three says that while it could potentially deploy a 4G network quite quickly, it will likely be the end of the year before it gets things up and running.

"We have the opportunity to move quite quickly with the 800Mhz spectrum that we acquired in the auction," Chief Executive Dave Dyson is quoted as saying. "However, realistically, I think it's going to be towards the end of the year before you see us launch (4G) LTE as a technology."

Dyson later added that the current version of 3G and LTE are not too far apart in terms of speeds.

"Our network stacks up very well," Dyson said. "Right now the latest version of 3G and the early versions of LTE are not dramatically different and I am very confident that our customers are getting the right experience."

Three acquired some spectrum from Everything Everywhere, back when it got permission from Ofcom to launch its 4G network ahead of Ofcom's spectrum auction. Three also bid for and won spectrum in the spectrum auction. Hutchison 3G bought 2 x 5 MHz of 800 MHz for a total of £225,000,000.

Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

  • ralanahm
    3g end tops out at 3 to 4 megs a second enough for internet on a phone and 4g tops out 30 to 40 megs a second right now so if you have half bars on 3g you can get 2megs or if you get half bars on 4g you can get 15 megs a second in most cases you won't hardly notice because it take like a second long to start a video on youtube.
    Reply
  • feeblepenguin
    Three UK: 4G LTE Rollout Will Likely Be End of 2013
    Oh No! They're killing 2013 with four G's!
    Reply
  • 02hudsond
    im on three with an old n95 8gb and i tether everyday and my speeds are around 4mbits ... im on pay g but my mate is on three contracrt with the offical tether plan and he gets around 15mbits ... pretty good speeds and in my experience the best network for internet :)
    Reply