3 on the up - other operators beware

NEWS While the long-term future for 3 in the UK isn't known, its aggressive pricing offerings in the run up to Christmas could well hurt its British rivals, both siphoning off high-value customers now and disrupting their own upcoming 3G launches. According to the latest Baskerville research, 3 - the UK arm of Hutchison Whampoa, which has 3G operator ventures in a number of countries - has resolved most of its technical issues and moved from "clunky" to "flashy" handsets. The report reckons 3's revised strategy of attracting customers with cheap voice bundles - from as little as £15 per month - presents "an unprecedented danger to its rivals". O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have all held off on their own 3G launches in the UK. They all suffered from teething problems at the testing stage but now the feeling in the industry is that they are holding back to learn from 3's experiences. However, just as importantly, the Baskerville report also notes that 3 is likely to attract other networks' current high-ARPU (average revenue per user) customers over coming months. All this makes 3 "a much larger threat to its competition than they have been willing to acknowledge".