Three UK Reports Average Data Usage Per Customer Hits 21GB
Mobile operator Three UK has today reported their latest financial results, which among other things revealed that the average 4G / 5G data usage (mobile broadband), per customer, per month on their network had reached 21.3 GigaBytes in June 2022 (up from 19GB in Dec 2021).
Otherwise, there wasn’t anything particularly new in this update, at least nothing that we haven’t already reported. The operator’s 5G network now covers 56% of the UK’s population across 3,300 sites, while their 4G network can reach 99% of the “outdoor” population and carries 28% of UK mobile data traffic.
Revenue of £1.18bn was flat for the period (H1 2021: £1.18bn), although their active contract customer base increased by 494k or 6% y-o-y to total 8.2 million contract subscribers (their total active base grew 5% to 9.9m customers).
The operator also noted that their 5G home broadband customer base had more than trebled year-on-year, which isn’t surprising given that they seem to be taking the lead on 5G download speeds (here), coverage and are also one of the cheapest options.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
« Broadband ISP Zzoomm Adopt Iskratel’s Full Fibre XGS-PON Kit
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (5508)
- BT (3513)
- Politics (2535)
- Openreach (2296)
- Business (2260)
- Building Digital UK (2243)
- FTTC (2042)
- Mobile Broadband (1971)
- Statistics (1787)
- 4G (1662)
- Virgin Media (1617)
- Ofcom Regulation (1459)
- Fibre Optic (1393)
- Wireless Internet (1389)
- FTTH (1381)
Network is lot better now.
They need more mast and they have applied permission to build more countryside and council keep refusing application because of stupid anti 5g protesters.
People want 5g coverage but they don’t want mast to be built. Make no sense.
I am using Three for my second line. 24gb data for £35 over 2 years.
Exactly, people keep opposing the masts.. but want faster internet…
I think operators need to more vocal about the damage these nutjobs/nimbys are causing, perhaps adding info to coverage map where masts are unviable due to planning objections.
Providers should show on coverage maps where they’ve requested planning permission for new masts to resolve black holes in coverage or improve existing coverage and show either its been approved by local council or rejected by local council.
Three are getting better but thry vsn still improve on coverage and the only way that’s happening is simply building more infrastructure and to hell with councils who reject the applications and the nimbys.
Round my area Three seems to be getting a lot more planning rejections than the other three networks. Ive got a theory that the Three planning applications team dont have common sense. I noticed new (non Three) masts/ monopoles going up like in semi hidden locations (in amongst trees but the antennae/ top of pole isnt obstructed by the trees) near residential areas. Ive also noticed Three planning applications that were rejected that most likely wouldve past if they had just moved it slightly amongst the trees behind a billboard/ etc & not in front of someones window. I have another theory that some guys are getting paid but arent really doing the job theyre supposed to be doing.
I just got THREE sim as I think I found a glitch on uSwitch website with Unlimited data for 16pm on monthly rolling contract.
(No wonder THREE customers use so much data when it comes so cheap)
I would also point out that 1p Mobile is no longer speed restricted by EE (at least in my case) Left Voxi and I’m happy customer 2mths now with even better speeds.
Way better deal now than being with EE directly (no 5G on PAYG)
1p mobile good ?
Any speed restrictions ?
Do they have volte and Wi-Fi calling and 5g speed ?
As I said, For 2 months now i have had 1p sim 50GB 15Pounds pack (I cant get EE contract because of credit score) and im getting speeds over 200Mbps on 4G sometimes and over 300 on 5G and the sim seems to able to connect to all available bands from EE
Fun fact: Im getting faster speed on my 1p sim (Galaxy S22) than my friend on EE contract with Note10 5G because his phone doesn’t support band 28 5G
VoLte = YES!
VoWiFi – YES!
Heres my 1p link we both get 5 credit if you use it 😉
https://www.1pmobile.com/index.taf?friend=D221381G
Three are a fantastic network, miles better than O2 for data, but there are a few masts around St. Ives in Cornwall that need some major work… I have just been down there for a few days and couldn’t even achieve 1 Mb/s download even though my iPhone 12 mini was reporting full 4G signal!
Their 5G is very good but 4G is barely useable.
Not in my experience. I frequently hit over 100 Mb/s on 4G in most places!
I can confirm!
although only when band 28 and 32 is present along the usual 1 and 3
It depends a lot on the place. Their 4G is really bad in places like London. Their 5G is way better though.
I got a 3 sim to try speeds in the Scottish Borders (Greenlaw) small village near duns good signal strength but the 4G speed was like Adsl broadband fastest I got was 3.2mbps up and only 1mbps up not even usable for browsing let alone streaming, have heard great stuff about their 5G service will see what they are like in my area when am out of contract because £16 for unlimited everything you can’t beat that
More masts is very much needed.
Three also have many, many 5G masts inactive, I believe this is due to lack of backbone networking.
Three have only just recently activated a new tower where I live, about a year or so after installation, it also took a while for their map to show I’m now in a 5G area.
Although strangely the radius according to said map is relatively small, I don’t know how much of this is down to the accuracy of the map.
I might check them out when my contract is up just to see what the signal is like in practice.
What’s funny for me, when I first moved up here when I was with them and had issues they said ‘we’re working to improve our network’…..just took them 10 years.
Youre fortunate youve got masts up & ready to go. Here in Northampton Three have only just recently (June/ July 2022) applied for planning 😮 The other networks around here are at already building stage/ already built stage. On http://www.bidb.uk we can see networks planning, progress etc
Misleading headline Mark, ‘Three UK Reports Average Data Usage Per Customer Hits 21GB’ really needs ‘per month’ on the end as its click bait otherwise.
How is it click bait or misleading? What would anyone looking at the headline think the figure meant, other than per month?
Three’s planning dashboard…
https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/590b5915-ea24-422d-bee1-300fec75b248/page/VAXQC?s=tLwUS8wD9xo
Not got EEs planning dashboard do you ?
Hey Declan. No I don’t have any others.
Thanks for that, I know you have said you don’t currently have a dashboard for EE, Vodafone or O2 but is it something you may consider in future?
As to the percentage of planning applications being granted, my local authority has a rate of 71% so not sure how that compares to the national average?
As to Three reaching this average, good on them but they still have a lot to do and thats coming from a multiple times former user.
Hey Ell.
That dashboard was government to me by someone I was in a group with on telegram gave it to me. I won’t be having any more
I do like Three when it works but indoors it tends to connect to a weak band 1 or 3 signal when there is a strong band 20/28.
The result is normally a lack of through put on the weak one, it then goes to the other signals where its great. You put the phone down and it’s back to the weaker again. Sometimes 3G kicks in to and you have to turn mobile data on and off to make the weaker bands kick in again.
Outside the house though it’s great! 5G is 400mbps at work but I’ve seen higher depending on when you speed test.
Problem with Three uk is always have terrible indoor coverage and they are not using band 28 probably like EE.
Problem with Three uk is always have terrible indoor coverage and they are not using band 28 properly like EE.
Has anyone noticed a difference since HUAWEI radio kit was replaced? Ive noticed that there is something quite not right since the HUAWEI kit was replaced, before I was getting full 4 bar signal, now its one bar less at exactly the same spot, before the web pages were smooth, now stutters, stops briefly then loads page. Also Ive been reading that Three have replaced their radio equipment with Ericsson, whereas EE/BT replaced theirs with NOKIA. I hope Three start using NOKIA radio equipment instead of Ericsson.
I wish I could get 21GB lol it would help if we had a mast.. AFAIK there are NO plans to put up a mast or upgrade a nearby 3G transmitter.
Does anyone know what this means on the Three network?
{“data”:{“outages”:{“xxxxxx”:{“endpoint”:”RAN_UNPLANNED_INSIDE”,”endpointFlags”:[“u4″,”c5″,”c4″,”u9″]}},”content”:{“RAN_UNPLANNED_INSIDE”:{“headline”:””,”body”:”We’ve noticed an issue with the service in your area, but we’re working on getting it fixed by –ENDDATE–.”}}}}
&
{“data”:{“outages”:{“xxxxxx”:{“endpoint”:”RAN_UNPLANNED_OUTSIDE”,”endpointFlags”:[“s10″,”c5″,”c4″,”u9″,”c6″,”o6″]}},”content”:{“RAN_UNPLANNED_OUTSIDE”:{“headline”:””,”body”:”We know that there’s a problem with the service in your area and we’re working on getting it fixed. Check back within 7 days for an update.”}}}}
& the nearby 3G mast is no longer operational by the looks of it.