UK mobile operator Three has made a series of well-received announcements this year, starting with a free upgrade from 3G to 4G for all existing 3G customers, including those on unlimited data plans.
That upgrade was followed by the expansion of Three’s “Feel at Home” program, which lets customers use their domestic minutes, texts and data while travelling without extra charges. The initiative initially covered the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark; today the list has been extended to include the United States, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Macau.
These moves are welcome for frequent travellers, and they also put pressure on rival networks that typically sell similar features as paid add-ons. For example, Vodafone offers its “EuroTraveller Pass,” which lets customers use their minutes, texts and data while abroad for £3 per day, but that option is limited to Europe.
On social media, a Twitter user highlighted the difference in allowances, tweeting that they could get “all you can eat data on Three compared to 500MB on Orange and still be cheaper.”
Three is currently the only UK network providing unlimited 4G data at no extra cost.
Alongside the roaming and plan changes, Three has begun the promised rollout of 4G in London, Birmingham and Manchester, with an aggressive expansion plan throughout 2014 to bring 4G to a further 50 cities, many of them expected in the first quarter.
Independent research from Enders Analysis shows Three already carries a larger share of UK mobile data traffic than any other operator: about 41.5% of UK data traffic, compared with EE on 29%, O2 on 20% and Vodafone on 9.5%. In response to growing demand, Three says it will expand capacity significantly over the next two years by adding 3,000 new masts to its current network of roughly 14,000 sites by the end of 2015.
Three’s approach mirrors moves by other operators such as T-Mobile in the United States, which allow customers to roam in many countries at no additional charge.
The expansion of roaming benefits aligns with broader regulatory efforts in Europe. The European Commission and officials such as Neelie Kroes have been pushing to eliminate roaming charges across the EU, and initiatives like Three’s represent a step toward making roaming charges less common internationally.
What do you think about Three’s latest free roaming announcements?