Three UK readies assault on broadband market

While its latest financials might not look mind-blowing, Three UK is steading the ship as it casts its eye towards the promised land of convergence and 5G.

Convergence is not really much of a buzzword anymore, such is the accepted nature of the model across the telco industry, though Three is seemingly readying itself for a broader push into broadband segment. The first job is to rebrand Relish, which will happen next month, and the next box to tick will be 5G.

“We are well set up for some transformational shifts in 2019 for our customers and our employees,” said Three UK CEO Dave Dyson. “It will be a year when our customers will start to see the real benefits of the next generation of 5G “mobile” technology, a technology that will not only replace 4G, but will also replace the need for wired broadband services.”

With the new ‘Three Broadband’ branding and a 5G network launching in H2, the Three marketers will have plenty to talk about when attempting to add to the 800,000 broadband customers it already has. In terms of the current state of play, Three said 10% of its current customer base is already ‘converged’ but 5G offers an opportunity to accelerate growth in the broadband business.

The team feels it has an advantage over rivals with its 5G holdings, offering superfast broadband connectivity which is not reliant on fibre. Whether UK consumers are swayed by the Fixed Wireless Access promise remains to be seen.

Looking at the position of the business, it would be fair to describe the last twelve months as healthy without being particularly good. This might not sound the most positive, but the raw materials are certainly in place for Three to make some very strong strides forward.

Total revenues over the last 12 months rose 1% to £2.4 billion, while total network connections reached 11.3 million. 99% of new customers were brought in through Three’s own sales channels, churn is down to 1.1% and net promoter score has reached a new high of +15. Three might not have torn up many trees last year, but the foundations of the business are very healthy.

Looking forward, the team is in the testing stages for its fully-virtualized 5G-ready cloud core network, while there are now 21 data centres live on the network. The business has also signed an agreement with SSE to improve mobile backhaul and 3G spectrum is being continuously re-farmed for 4G. All these initiatives will incrementally improve the customer experience.

“Three is fully embracing a business transformation to take maximum advantage of the opportunities digital businesses enjoy,” said Dyson. “2018 was the year when we set the foundations in place for us to jump up to the next level and become the UK’s best-loved brand by our people and customers, meeting all our customers’ connectivity needs.”

This kind of feels like a ‘calm before the storm’ scenario. Once the broadband rebrand is finished and 5G launched, we feel there will be some very aggressive moves from Three, staying true to its data-orientated roots but heavily integrated convergence messages on-top.