Three's free 4G - upgrade to spark mobile price war

The mobile phone network Three has pledged to offer customers ultrafast 4G services as a no-cost upgrade, in a move that looks certain to spark a price war with competitors.

Three will be one of four main providers when it brings out the latest mobile internet for smartphones this summer.

Rival firm EE already offers 4G and charges around £5 a month more than for 3G on its Orange and T-Mobile brands.

The new LTE technology, more commonly known as 4G, will allow much quicker download speeds than 3G, meaning that smartphone users will be able to watch videos on the move.

Many other countries already offer the faster network and most providers charge around 20 per cent more for it.

Dave Dyson, the CEO of Three UK, said: “As we add the next wave of technology to our Ultrafast network, we’ve listened to our customers and thought long and hard about the right way to do it. We don’t want to limit Ultrafast services to a select few based on a premium price and we’ve decided our customers will get this service as standard.”

 

An auction for companies wanting to offer 4G here from the summer is under way but EE got in early by using the existing spectrum.

EE was given permission to use this spectrum last year, but there was some criticism saying the lower tariffs did not provide enough download data.

Three’s network covers 55 per cent of the UK population with an initial focus on 50 towns and cities, reaching 80 per cent population coverage by the end of March.

Three customer able to benefit from the upgrade include those with the Apple iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, Sony Xperia Z, Apple iPad mini and Apple iPad with Retina display.

Device choice is growing rapidly with new ultrafast-ready LTE versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II being launched on Three within the next month, and the BlackBerry Z10 launching mid-February.