Mobile operator Three UK has confirmed that they’ve begun trials of a new 5G based “home broadband” service in Camden and Wandsworth (London). On top of that they’re also upgrading their 4G kit in Croydon (i.e. upgrading sites to new antennas and reallocating 10MHz of 3G spectrum (leaving 5MHz for 3G) to 4G for better performance).
All of the above is in keeping with the operator’s recently announced plans to launch their future 5G mobile network in 25 towns and cities across the UK by the end of 2019, which is due to begin this August (here). Sadly today’s brief update doesn’t offer any useful details about their planned 5G home broadband product.
At present Three UK has a total of about 140MHz (frequency) across several 5G friendly mobile bands and one of those includes a 100MHz block of contiguous spectrum in the 3.4-3.8GHz band (here), which is ideal for the new service. The operator believes that this will enable them to deliver 2x faster speeds than their rivals at launch, which if true would mean around 200-300Mbps (based on the fact that EE expects 100-150Mbps in the busiest areas).
Naturally there’s a lot of interest in Three UK’s home broadband products, not least since they already offer a 4G Home Broadband package with unlimited data from just £22 per month (HomeFi). On top of that they also run a dedicated wireless ISP brand called Three Broadband (formerly Relish), which predominantly covers central London via some of the same 3-4GHz spectrum bands on 4G.