Mobile operator Three (3) has teamed up with the Countryside Alliance and Race Online 2012 to give away one year's worth of free Mobile Broadband access and USB Modems (Dongles) to 11 lucky rural communities in the UK. Some of the towns and villages will also get access to public Wi-Fi Hotspots, such as in their local pubs and community centres.

The BBC reports that the first rural community to benefit from Three (3)'s new initiative will be Gringley-on-the-Hill (North Nottinghamshire), which can expect to receive 30 USB Modems. The stunt is designed to both show of the strength of Three's network and to raise awareness of its potential capabilities in rural areas, which is important because Ofcom will soon begin an auction of valuable radio spectrum in the 800MHz band (790-862MHz).


At present the 800MHz band is still being used for older analogue television (TV) services, although the Digital Switchover to digital terrestrial TV will allow 800MHz to be freed up (Digital Dividend) for use by Mobile Broadband. This process is expected to complete in 2012 and the auction itself should be conclude by the end of 2013 (full details). Never the less Ofcom believes that it would still take until 2017 before 3G coverage can reach today's 2G (voice) levels.

The UK government is seeking to make a minimum broadband ISP download speed of 2Mbps available to everybody (Universal Service Commitment) in the country by 2015 and Mobile Broadband via 800MHz is seen as an important part of that plan. But Three (3) concedes that the performance of mobile networks in remote areas often leaves much to be desired.

Ofcom's May 2011 report (here) discovered that the average mobile download speed in the UK was just 1.5Mbps (Megabits per second) - rising to 2.1Mbps in areas of "good 3G coverage", which is despite the fact that existing HSPA tech can reach 14.4Mbps and even higher with HSPA+ (84Mbps).

At present Three (3) is aiming to have 80% of its UK network upgraded to support HSPA+ by the end of 2011, with the rest following soon afterwards.