Three promises unlimited 4G in December

Mobile operator Three has confirmed it won’t be launching 4G services until the end of the year, but believes its tariffs will beat the competition that has already come to market.

EE was the only network to offer 4G for almost a year after Ofcom gave the company permission to repurpose existing spectrum for the faster mobile connectivity back in 2012. However, as of yesterday, both O2 and Vodafone launched their own services, increasing choice for consumers.

Three is holding back its launch until December 2013, starting with three cities – London, Birmingham and Manchester – but has promised every customer with a 4G ready device will be able to upgrade at no extra cost.

“From December this year, Three will start to switch on its 4G service for all customers who have a 4G ready device,” read a statement from the firm. “The switch on will accelerate in January, which means that over 1.5 million Three customers will benefit from 4G services.” 

“All Three customers with a 4G ready device will be able to benefit from 4G at no extra cost with a simple software upgrade, so no need to go into a store.  Three is making the transition to 4G easy, there are no new contracts to sign, no need to change tariffs or swap SIMs.”

As well as the free upgrade, Three will continue to offer unlimited data to all its customers, even with the more data hungry 4G connections.“Three already has the fastest 3G network in the UK and 4G will simply make it an even better network experience for customers, at no extra cost,” it added.

To compare this to what other operators are offering, take a look at our summary here.

Three also announced new roaming plans to enable UK customers to use their mobiles abroad without a bill shock at the end.

The ‘Feel at Home’ offering will enable its customers to call, text and use data abroad in Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark using their same tariffs and without incurring extra costs.

Three’s parent company Hutchison 3G runs operations in each of these countries already. However, customers will be able to roam on any network, rather than just on Three’s.