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Last week @bensmithuk and @rafeblandford went along to a briefing from Three’s Chief Executive Kevin Russell and Sales and Marketing Director Marc Allera to discuss how the surge in mobile internet use, regulatory change and consolidation are reshaping the UK mobile industry.

At this briefing, Three’s new One Plan was also announced and the scraping of the term “unlimited” was discussed.

Rafe has discussed his thoughts from the morning in an All About Symbian podcast, Insight #125.

He talks about The One Plan and how it’s a big step forward for the market; combining a competitive rate with a clear and fair way of selling, by not using the term “unlimited”.

For more of his opinion on what was discussed, pop over and listen – he begins at min 24.

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As I’m sure most of you are aware, Three have had a brand refresh recently – if you haven’t seen it yet, go and take a look at their new look website and get a detailed run through of their new site by Ash Roots on their blog.



Along with this, they’ve launched a new TV advert which has had some people rolling around on the floor in mirth and left others rolling their eyes.



The ad depicts the effort going into the growth of Three’s 100% 3G network. It is continuing to grow from 92.5% of the UK population in 2009, to over 98% by the end of 2010, so the work should be improving the connection of a lot of people very soon.



You can go and find out more about Three’s network, as well as check your coverage and rate the Network in your area on their evenbetternetwork page.



So, what do you think of the new ad? Does the new brand do it for you? Let us know what you think?


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As iPads are trickling into the country from the US before the launch here in the UK, more and more people have been talking about trying out the device, and 3’s MiFi has been mentioned often as a much needed accessory.



Fred from tekimage got his hands on an iPad of his friends’ this week and is sure that 3’s MiFi would be the “perfect companion”. He’s keen to test them out together and has convinced his friend to let him borrow it for a video test. Keep your eyes on his blog for that.



Ben from The Really Mobile Project also sees the benefit of the partnership and bought a MiFi to use with his iPad, describing it as a “great combo” and “great for mobile working”.



Have you tried the iPad with the 3MiFi yet? Let us know what you thought of it.


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31 March, 2010.Network

As some of you may already know, there was a fire this morning at the BT exchange in Paddington, West London.



The fire is thought to have been caused by flooding at the site, causing an electrical fire. The Register provides more details.



So how is this affecting 3?



Hugh Davies, Director of Corporate Affairs at 3, has posted about the incident on the 3 blog this afternoon. He will continue to update as and when they learn more, so keep an eye on the blog.



Has anyone been having issues with network in West, North or Central London today?


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12 January, 2010.Network

The next phase of the network improvement updates being carried out by 3 is upon us. Details of phase one are here, and phase two here. The following areas will be worked on over the next few weeks:



Reading, Broadstairs, Stevenage, ST Albans, Dunstable, Hemel, Bedford, Luton, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Canterbury, Ashford, Folkestone.



Just to recap, as part of 3’s network improvements across the country, they are working on the network in the South of England. Whilst this work is being carried out services will be affected for only 6-8 hours, phone customers may notice a small increase in the number of dropped calls and mobile broadband users won’t be able to connect.



Keep your eye on Three.co.uk/South for all the latest information, you can also sign up for text alerts through this link. If you have any questions or feedback on the improvements let us know and we will ask and relay them to 3.

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8 December, 2009.Network

As previously covered here, 3 has been embarking on a large scale improvement scheme to keep their network standards as high as possible across the UK. 3 currently has the largest 3G Network (as confirmed by Ofcom). This improvement work will make their network bigger, better and faster by the end of 2010. This will mean customers will be able to do more with the network, in more places. The work throughout the UK (including London) has been going well and they are starting to work across the rest of the South of England from 14th December.

Here are some details in case you need them:
- The work will start in Reading and Newbury
- 3 will be in touch with all their customers in the areas where the work is happening to let them know about how their service may be affected
- All details of the latest work going on is here: www.three.co.uk/south
- You can sign up for free text alerts if needed www.three.co.uk/south (more…)

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13 November, 2009.Network

Over the past few weeks we’ve been listening to what people have to say about 3’s network improvement works taking place in London, and the impact that they have on 3’s customers.



A few of our readers have requested more detail and asked questions about what 3 is doing to its network and why.  We’ve put those questions to 3’s technical team and have the answers below:



What will the impact of this work be?



The London network improvements are all part of 3’s network consolidation with T-Mobile, which will see an increase in its number of sites from 7,400 in 2007 to 13,000 by the end of 2010.



Why is 3 increasing its sites?



This will help reach the goal of providing better coverage, improved capacity and faster internet access.  So to make sure 3 is technically prepared it is swapping out old equipment.  Half of 3’s network is already on new equipment but before moving ahead with more improvements it’s key that the new kit is rolled out nationwide.



What if you’re having coverage issues during this time?



3 will continue to proactively communicate any planned network improvement work to customers in advance.  Any customers experiencing poor coverage at any point during their contract should get hold of 3 and they’ll work with you to fix this.



3 want to reassure customers that it takes service issues seriously and will work with customers to resolve any issues that they may have.



What next?



Once this phase of improvement work is complete, 3 will continue to test sites remotely and on location, monitor all traffic activity (including calls, texts and internet), and listen to feedback from customers and stores.



That’s all for now – remember, you can find out all the up to date information on 3’s network engineering by going to their dedicated web page.

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4 November, 2009.Network

As we’ve already been discussing, this week 3 embarked on a program of improvement work on it’s London network.

While your network service might be affected for short periods, when 3’s improvement work is finished you’ll be able to connect to the internet in more places, you’ll have better coverage for making calls and it’ll also give you a quicker service. The work currently being done in London is preparation for the final stage of improvement work which should all be completed by Summer 2010.

Jason at Onionbagblog posted his opinions on the subject (you can see the whole article here on his site), following on from an email that we sent to him about the upcoming work:

“I certainly hope it is a great story to tell. It can’t get any worse than the story I’ve been telling about the 3 network for the past eighteen months. I wouldn’t say I’m important at telling that story, but my 3 is the Tragic Number post consistently comes up high in my monthly archive stats.

“…in the same way that giving up smoking is a positive move to make. If you start from a poor position, the only way is up.”

Others have been talking positively about this activity – earlier this week we linked to UK Gadgeteer, who had this to say:

“These upgrades are all part of 3UK’s plans to build their “Monster Network”, which I first covered briefly when I met with 3UK last month…at the end of these works, we should all see a lot less areas of no 3G coverage, and improved capacity in key areas too.”

What’s our role in this? Well, we’re here to listen and to engage with you on the good and the bad. That’s why 3 sponsors us – they want to know what’s being said so that they know what’s working well and what they could make better.

We’ve been pulling together the questions you’ve put to 3 and we’ll post a response from the team there on 3MobileBuzz.  They might not be able to respond to every single question individually, but the team will address the most common questions and concerns being voiced.  We’ll let you know when we have their feedback.

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