Three to Offer Limited UK 4G Service Starting in December

U.K. mobile operator Three will start to provide 4G service this December in three of the nation’s largest cities: London, Birmingham and Manchester.  

Three will provide 4G to as many as 50 U.K. cities before the end of next year. By the end of 2015, 98 percent of the U.K. population will have the company’s 4G service as an option.

Three is also making the process to upgrade to 4G simpler, according to a report from The Next Web UK.

Customers who have a 4G capable phone will not have to go into phone store or sign a new contract with the company. All they need is a software update.

Three is also the only network in the U.K. to offer 4G on an unlimited data tariff.

The announcement by Three comes just as rival operators, O2 and Vodafone, started their own similar services. Vodafone started its 4G network in London, and Vodafone will reach 98 percent of the population by 2015.

O2 started in London, Leeds and Bradford. The provider will cover 98 percent of the population by 2017.

By starting earlier, Vodafone and O2 hope to get 4G users before Three can offer the same service.

Three is likely to offer lower prices, too, than its rivals, and its customers will not have to pay extra for the 4G service. Three now has nine million customers, news reports said. Except for Three, the 4G providers will have monthly caps on downloads.

Meanwhile, EE, which started offering the service last October, says it is offering the service to 105 towns, and says its 4G is offered to 60 percent of the population, according to ZDnet. EE will cover some 98 percent of the population by the end of next year.

The Guardian reported that EE predicts it will have more than 1 million subscribers by Christmas 2013.

Given that both O2 and Vodafone have access to a half million 4G-ready phones in use. “There could be two million people paying for 4G by the end of the year,” The Guardian predicts.

"We would expect the adoption curve to be significantly faster than for 3G," Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2 in the U.K., told The Guardian.