[@NickyColman]

Happy birthday to Three, happy birthday to Three, happy birthday Three-eee


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THREE!!


And we're back in the room.


Now that Three are 3 years old, what have they acheived? How has their prescence in the market affected it? Have Three really changed the way we live our lives? Have they managed to show the best that 3G has to offer?

Thoughts ?

[Hands0n]

Is that the time already? Gosh! Happy Birthday 3.

Gawd, you had to ask :D Well, these are my thoughts on the subject raised.

What have they achieved? - To be sure, 3 have firmly planted 3G in the UK and made it work overall in terms of coverage and availability. Their early days were utterly predictable and that cost them a lot of goodwill among their Customers. While 3 have achieved levels of technical competence, they have a very long way to go with their Customer Service operations running out of Mumbai. These are as dire as they were on day one, suggesting a serious lack of attention to detail by the 3 management over the entire three years of operation. Surely, no company should ignore the continuous tidle wave of complaint about that one particular facet of the organisation. That said, one must not take away from their achievements and leads - for example, their My 3 self-help is a model the other operators need to follow, and 3 need to develop this very much further.

How has their presence in the market affected it? - Well I'd say that 3 have shaken the incumbent "big four" out of their complacency, not by a lot but by a measurable degree in my opinion. I think that, initially, there was a corporate expectation that 3 would fall flat on their backsides. They didn't. So now, almost three years into the [3G] game, we see the four and their MVNOs beginning to respond to 3's challenge in the marketplace. I say beginning, because I feel that all of them (including 3) have some way to go to make mobile communication more effectively affordable, to ramp up usage by driving down cost, to make the facility ubiquitous across the populace of the UK, to the point where we do not even have to think about the cost of a phone call. Heresy, I know.

Have 3 really changed the way we live our lives? - I do not think so, nor do I believe that it will actually "change" such, not wholesale as may be suggested by the promotional blurb. These are only (!) mobile communications facilities - the empowerment to the individual is the ability to communicate with whom we want, whenever we want, from wherever we want. We've been able to do that since 1982, the birth of cellular telephony in the UK. I believe that what 3 have done in respect to this question is bring to us greater quantities and capacities of Content such as Video, and quicker. Will it do more for us in the future? Who knows at the moment, there is much work to be done on enabling data for the masses by way of stringent tariff reductions and packages. Until then, 3G will continue to be just another means of Telephony and Text - I think they're waking up to this, albeit very slowly. To "change the way we live our lives" 3G is going to have to cause us to do things very differently purely through our use of the technology. I cannot see, at the moment, anything on 3G that we cannot already do [albeit it slower] on 2G. 3 have not yet located that particular magic bullet.

Have they managed to show the best that 3G has to offer? - By no means, in fact the contrary is true with 3's ridiculous "walled garden" approach to Internet data. How in the 21st century any communications company can lock its Customers out of the Internet is beyond me. Only within the 3rd year of their operation do 3 make somewhat unfettered Internet available in the UK - recall that in other countries 3 have provided un-walled Internet for some time, but the costs here are too high for mass consumption, it is a privileged offering, remaining in a niche of the Customer base. That cannot be an example of showing "the best that 3G has to offer". No, 3 have a way to go - as do the others - to really present a strong reason to switch to 3G away from good old reliable and almost 100% available 2G (a harder proposition in the face of 2G's EDGE enhancement at this time). Consider for a moment what you actually use your 3G handset for - and I would be willing to bet that it is, in the main, for Voice and Text. We do not "need" 3G for that.

3 have the potential to capitalise on their being the first 3G mover and shaker in the UK, but they seem to not have the savvy or ability to actually do this. Maybe their accountants influence the business policy too much - something that can be ruinous for any corporation.

I wish 3 well for their next three years. Happy Birthday 3 and well done so far.

[Ben]

What have they achieved? A lot in such a short space of time and in such a saturated market. They've attracted a respectable number of customers, though it'd be fair to say they did this 'through whatever means, at whatever cost', and they've maintained their position as the UK's biggest 3G network in terms of coverage and users. On the negative side, they've also made offshore customer services acceptable in the mobile space - an area that the other mobops were only too happy to follow in.

How has their presence in the market affected it? Slowly. Initially it didn't seem like anyone was going to budge. Gradually we saw the introduction of inclusive texts and line rental and minutes offers, but the first concrete price reductions in three years have only just started to happen. Who knows, maybe these core tariff changes would have happened anyway? What has happened, however, is that the consumer has been given more choice - and choice is always a good thing. Customers are switching networks more than ever, following the good deals, which, I would argue, is just what the doctor ordered.

Have 3 really changed the way we live our lives? No. They didn't come close, unfortunately. I bought the concept of this life-changing technology back then, but have since realised that there's far less in it for the consumer than I thought.

Have they managed to show the best that 3G has to offer? In terms of the competition, probably, yes. Their 3G portal is good, and some of the ideas innovative and fresh. In the grand scheme of things? No. The same corporate greed and need to impress (future) shareholders that restricts the other networks also restricts Three.

One thing's for certain - they've glued themselves into our lives here at Talk3G good and proper. Happy Birthday, and long may the debates rage on.

[3GScottishUser]

What have they achieved? They have built a big network and spent a fortune trying to attract users. Sadly poor network performance and appalling customer service has led to a poor user experience for many and resulted in lots of terminations for them. Right now 3 are having to run at 100MPH just to hold onto what they have in terms of customers. The marketing of poor products has not been helpful nor has the inconsistancy of consumer offers. All things considered the experience and resourses of HWL should have produced a better performing company in the UK.

How has their presence in the market affected it? Prices have been affected for sure. Consumers now get more inclusive minutes and texts for their money on all the networks and pre-pay customers have seen big price drops through promotions designed to compete with 3's offerings. In terms of usage I doubt if 3 have made any significant change in how folks use mobile phones. Videocalling has been a white elephant because of price and video downloads have had little impact to date. The market is more competitive now thanks to 3 but I'm not convinced they have benefitted from the discounting and price reductions they initiated.

Have 3 really changed the way we live our lives? Not in the least with the exception that they have managed to reduce the service levels in a sector that had very high standards before they launched. 3 learned very quickly after their launch that people wanted voice calls and texts and they have concentrated on offering those as cheaply as possible up until lately. Sadly 'cheap' has often meant folks have had to put up with a standard of equipment and service that is much pooer than previously provided by others.


Have they managed to show the best that 3G has to offer? No they have not and the fact they are still engaged in heavy promotion of cheap voice and text proves the point. They are wrapping up some video now in some contract deals but that is now making them more expensive than the competition and forcing people to buy content could be a bad move. In terms of 3G 3 UK has not managed to create significant interest in any application that is dependant on the technology.


The last 3 years have been interesting both from a consumer perspective and as an enthusiast. In that 3 years a lot has happened. 3 has changed as Hutchison's partners ran away nursing massive losses. The incumbents have performed a lot better than many thought and all appear to suffered little in terms of subscriber loss. 3 are not making much of an impression gaining market share now and others are turning up the heat. Launching a new mobile network in a saturated market was always going to be risky and the absence of a 'killer application' leaves 3 totally exposed. The lesson big telcos are now learning is that the opportunities are much poorer in developed markets for new entrants and the smart money should be invested in developing countries. Vodafone have left Sweden and will possibly exit Japan but continue to expand in India and Eastern Europe, perhaps Hutchison will follow suit.

Will 3 UK make it to its 5th birthday? Will it make it to its 4th? In its current form I doubt it. 3 will probably join the list of technology casualties that did'nt quite make it. Remember OnDigital, Betamax, 8 Track, LaserVison and Rabbit?