Three UK
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Mobile telecommunications, Broadband internet access |
| Founded | 3 March 2003 |
| Headquarters | Maidenhead, Berkshire, U.K. |
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Key people
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David Dyson (CEO) |
| Owner | CK Hutchison Holdings |
| Parent | 3 Group Europe |
| Website | www |
Three UK is a telecommunications and internet service provider operating in the United Kingdom as a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings. The company launched in March 2003 as the UK's first commercial video mobile network. It provides 3G and 4G services through its own network infrastructure.
The Three mobile service was launched in the UK on 3 March 2003 (03-03-03, for publicity purposes), with handsets going on sale later that month. This made Three the UK’s first commercial video mobile network. On 9 December 2004, Three announced that it was the first network to meet its regulatory requirement of 80% population coverage in the UK.
Three's first retail stores (3Store) opened at the same time as the network launched, on Oxford Street and Kensington High Street, both in London, and at the Birmingham Mailbox. Three's handsets and contracts are also sold by mobile telephony chains and independents throughout the UK, as well as online retailers. In 2005, an expansion of the 3Store portfolio saw stores opened in larger shopping centres throughout the UK, such as the Bluewater and The Mall at Cribbs Causeway near Bristol. On 24 October 2006, Three announced that it had purchased 95 high street shops from O2 and The Link.
Three launched SeeMeTV, allowing its customers to submit their own video content that other subscribers could watch. Users would make a small micropayment (the price decided by the video's creator) to watch these videos. The user who created the videos would get paid 10% of the amount of money paid by other users to watch the video. Users were paid once they had accrued £10.
In 2010, Three became the fourth network to launch the iPhone after O2, Orange and Vodafone, and was voted Best Network for Mobile Broadband in a YouGov survey for the second year in a row.
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Wikipedia