Three UK Sees Average Mobile Data Usage Per User Hit 25GB
Mobile operator Three UK has published their latest financial results, which reveals that over 4,250 sites (up from 2,200 last year) are now live with 5G – reflecting 60% UK outdoor population coverage. The average data (mobile broadband) usage per customer has also reached 25.1 GigaBytes per month (up from 19GB).
At present, the operator’s wider network now covers 99% of the UK outdoor population (3G and 4G) and carries 28% of the UK’s mobile data traffic, although they don’t provide any figures for geographic network coverage.
Three’s active customer base also grew by 6% or 614,000 year-on-year, which brings the total to over 10 million (up from 9.7m last year). You can see a full breakdown of the key annual changes below.
Advertisement
Highlights from Three’s Results
· Revenue up 3% to £2.52bn (2021: £2.44bn) driven by customer base growth
– Net Customer service revenue up 5% to £1.56bn (2021: £1.48bn)
– Other revenues, which include wholesale and accessories, increased 9% to £203m (2021: £187m)
· 6% margin growth to £1.53bn (2021: £1.45bn) due to strong growth coming through our core Contract voice business alongside B2B, SMARTY and Wholesale
· EBITDA of £612m (2021: £594m*) up 3%,margin increases partially offset by increased costs, due to investment programmes and inflationary factors – inflationary pressures specifically impacting H2 and will further impact 2023
· Active customer base up 6% or 614k y-o-y bringing the total to over 10m (2021: 9.7m)
– Contract customers up 5% y-o-y to 8.5m (2021: 8.1m)
– Prepaid customers up 13% y-o-y to 1.8m (2021: 1.6m)
· Retained number one position in sector for overall contract net adds across 2022 (Enders Analysis), with almost double the growth of our competitors combined
· Wholesale margin grew 21% y-o-y, with an 8% increase in customer numbers. Extended key partnership agreement with Currys for iD Mobile MVNO.
· B2B customer base doubled y-o-y, finishing on 385k customers
· 5G Home Base tripled yoy with customer data usage growing 5%
· SMARTY base grew by 33% y-o-y, finishing on 734K customers
· Reported Capex of £743m, down 5% y-o-y (2021: £784m reported) to maintain budgeted levels of cash outflow
Robert Finnegan, Chief Executive of Three UK, said: “We have successfully grown the business again in 2022, building on strong foundations. We have added to the customer base, delivered an increase in margin as well as year-on-year cashflow improvements. It has been particularly pleasing to see such strong performances from areas of the business such as SMARTY, Business and Wholesale, whilst building a credible 5G Home broadband business and alternative to fixed fibre broadband.“
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« UK ISP TalkTalk Considers Options After Management Shake-up
LilaConnect Launch UK Business FTTP Broadband Packages »
That’s not true I use about 65GB average a month max mobile data I use is 140 GB a month
I’m on three unlimited data £24 a month 6months half price at the month I took out last Xmas just gone 26th of December 2022 24 months
My broadband 4G and 5G as my router I brought from Amazon got a unlimited data only sim on EE £38 a month that sim only not the router as paid £400 quid for that from Amazon I’m using 5TB a month download speed is over 400 MBPS on 4G+ EE as the mast is next to my flat but not that close lol.
Do you know how averages work?
AVERAGE.
…and when I was on Three I used under 1GB a month which would bring your extreme amount down… thats how averages work.
Paul you’ve made my day today thank you.
I bet Paul is the type of person who drives through “Average Speed Check” zones at 70MPH and just slows down for the cameras!
@Paul
That’s a lied. EE policy is 600GB per month. Stop lying.
That is true, but you can go over this as i have many times
I’m not lying I have used over 600 GB I heard nothing from EE yet and you can go over 600GB usage as I already spoken to EE customer services they said no FUP on my account what it said on the website is misleading .
According to EE customer service on phone they wasn’t aware of FUP of 600 GB well I have gone over 600GB nothing. Happens as EE don’t care as long your paying the bill they won’t do nothing I gone over 600GB few months ago nothing from EE at all .
Yes I know they is a 600GB FUP on website but it’s a load of rubbish nothing happens anyway I already used 5Tb in one month Xbox series x games via wired connection EE don’t care as I paid unlimited data only sim on my Amazon 5g router anyway £400 and the unlimited sim is via EE £38 a month . So that 600FUP is misleading in my opinion as ee said they wasn’t aware of this but it is still unlimited so it should unlimited .
£38 a month for a sim only plan your being done
They do have a FUP, and they DO implement it, my speeds go down once im over 600GB and my access to 5G is cut off
Mine didn’t.
Avoid EE if you want unlimited data. Their cap is in fact 6-700 Gb.
Very misleading.
It’s not a hard cap, though, never seen it enforced ; of course they could do a 180 on this at any time.
5TB in one month nothing happens EE don’t care as long you pay the bill you carry on .
it needs to be labelled as truly unlimited in order for it to be true.
Simply labelled as unlimited is limited.
Confused? you should be.
On Average I dont care how much I use, i just downlaod whatever I want whenever I want.
Buying an unlimited package, you should have the same attitude.
Honestly, what a load of tosh. Knowing how good three’s signal strength and coverage is in my area, you’d do well to download 1gb a day.
News article: Research has found that the average p*nis length in the UK is 6 inches.
Buggerlugz: What a load of tosh – mine’s only 2.5 inches.
I’m keeping my 5G because my sky tv I got.. with three
Why do 3UK/SMARTY have sooo many long-term mast faults lately? This causes super slow data
Is it just me, but you can be quite close to a 3UK site and still not get full signal?