Three UK diversifies backhaul as part of network upgrade

The operator has chosen Colt Technology Services as a preferred provider for fibre backhaul connectivity.

The Colt partnership with Three UK is part of the operator’s investment of more than £2 billion (€2.19 billion) to transform its network and provide customers with better experience by upping 4G speeds by as much as 150% as well as “delivering the UK’s fastest 5G network”.

Better customer experience?

This follows its announcement of its extended deal with SSE Enterprise Telecoms at the end of September. Colt also partners SSE Enterprise Telecoms to extend the footprint of its Ethernet services.
 
Colt’s technology is intended to provide 20 times more backhaul capacity at the unspecified number of sites it is deployed to give customers “a faster, better and more reliable experience”.

Three UK has recently upgraded more than 4,000 sites to improve 4G, as well as virtualising the core network, adding 20 new data centres and offering 5G in over 100 locations.

Network outages

Three UK and Three Ireland have made headlines in the last few days for all the wrong reasons.

Yesterday there was an outage for a couple of hours in the UK that affected people across the country. Three has not provided an explanation.

Its Irish network suffered a major outage on 27 September.

Commenting on the deal with Colt, Susan Buttsworth, Chief Operating Officer, Three UK said, “We are investing significantly to… support our customers who use three times more data than the average UK consumer.

“Fibre backhaul is a vital part of a reliable network experience and our partnership with Colt will mean better connectivity for our customers across the UK.”