[Ben]

"Three confirmed the risky nature of its infrastructure JV operation today, and dropped some hints about how 3 customers could get their hands on an iPhone later this year.

3 has spent big on expanding its network, partnering with T-Mobile to create a joint infrastructure venture called MVNL, the operation of which is wholly outsourced to Ericsson. But with T-Mobile joining forces with Orange, either party may pull out.

CEO Kevin Russell said the exit conditions would not be triggered for some time. He made it clear that a pukka data network was of strategic importance to 3, the outsider in the UK market.

Russell admitted that a poor rap lingered from the early days, when the Hutchison network launched in 2003. "The legacy perception was deserved in many ways, because early handsets didn't work, and 7000 sites wasn't enough." A high quality network is 3's way of grabbing customers."
Continues at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/02/3_network_update/

A bit of a 'random' and oddly-written article, but any insight into the workings of 3 UK is interesting. Details on the iPhone, however, are very vague.

[DBMandrake]

Yes it did seem oddly written and disjointed.

I wonder how carefully it was fact checked when they named the joint venture as MVNL when it's actually MBNL - Mobile Broadband Network Limited. Yes, probably a typo, but when you refer to a company only by it's acronym and get it wrong, it's kinda hard for people reading the story to follow up on it and look up information on that company...

Interesting and a bit worrisome that 3 or T-Mobile may "pull out" of the joint venture due to the merge with Orange - prior to this 3 were adamant that their contract with T-Mobile for site sharing was safe even in light of the merge with Orange, but now it's not so sure.

The question is, if the site sharing was dissolved, what would happen ? Although 3 have gained a lot of T-Mobile sites, in many cases some of 3's redundant sites would have been decommissioned, so if the joint venture is dissolved, does that mean 3 suddenly lose several thousand sites, going back to where their coverage was in 2007, or worse ?

[Ben]

I think (hope?) they have extensive wind-down procedures for if/when things go pear-shaped. Hard to imagine there wouldn't be some disruption, though. What a horrible situation for 3 UK to find itself in.

I hope, for 3 UK's sake, that the joint venture is somehow able to continue post-merger.

[3GScottishUser]

Russell has no hope of reviving the fortunes of 3 UK.

The company will be sold out without reference to the poor chap.

3 is a total no-hoper and HWL know that and will exit the UK as soon as they can.


There iis nothing left that could gain HWL back the £10 Billion they have blown on 3 UK.

The market is saturated and data (3G Broadband) is not likely to deliver revenues.

3 UK is dead man walking now.

[hecatae]

sorry, what's that o2, you want to buy 3, you need 3g masts, and those 12,000 look suitable.....

[3GScottishUser]

sorry, what's that o2, you want to buy 3, you need 3g masts, and those 12,000 look suitable.....

Er ... 02 (Telefonica) have signed a mast sharing agreement with Vodafone for all of Europe. They don't need 3's sites but perhaps the bandwidth might be handy. Then again Vodafone and 02 have 900Mhz which offers the prospect of much more robust 3G.