Three UK talks up its 5G investment plans

The UK’s fourth MNO, Three, has given a public update on its investment priorities and plans for 5G.

The headline figure is £2 billion, which is what Three says it is committed to spend on 5G stuff. Apparently Three customers are more data-hungry than average, so it’s even more important that it drops enough cash to ensure its infrastructure can keep up. The intended message seems to be that Three is for real in the 5G era and the other UK MNOs had better watch their backs.

“We have always led on mobile data and 5G is another game-changer,” said Three CEO Dave Dyson. “Also described as wireless fibre, 5G delivers a huge increase in capacity together with ultra-low latency.  It opens up new possibilities in home broadband and industrial applications, as well as being able to support the rapid growth in mobile data usage.

“This is a major investment into the UK’s digital infrastructure. UK consumers have an insatiable appetite for data and 5G unlocks significant capability to meet that demand. We have been planning our approach to 5G for many years and we are well positioned to lead on this next generation of technology.  These investments are the latest in a series of important building blocks to deliver the best end to end data experience for our customers.”

Dyson also had some stuff to say on the matter of Huawei potentially getting a hard time from UK public bodies which you can read more about here. So where is all this wedge going to end up? Details are thin on the ground right now and it looks like the headline figure includes some investment already made. Three did offer the following highlights of its 5G investments so far.