T-Mobile and 3 combine 3G networks

3 and T-Mobile will now have a combined 13,000 3G base stations across the UK

T-Mobile and 3 agree to share their respective 3G networks in order to bring high-speed mobile broadband services throughout the UK by 2009

Published on Dec 18, 2007

T-Mobile and Three have agreed to share their 3G networks in the UK in a bid to bring high-speed mobile broadband services to the whole of the UK by the end on 2009.

The network sharing deal means that the two companies will combine their 3G network infrastructure and could save up to £2 billion over the next 10 years. 3 and T-Mobile will now have a combined 13,000 3G base stations across the UK.

But both companies claim that the deal is not the precursor to a merger between 3 and T-Mobile. "I can rule out any merger or takeover either now or in the future," 3's chief executive Kevin Russell told Radio 4's Today programme.

The move will create Europe's biggest HSDPA network offering download speeds of over 3.5 Mbit/second - and in theory up to 6.5 Mbit/second. The full benefits of the agreement should be complete by the end of 2009 with nearly full 3G/HSDPA coverage of the UK population.

It means that both 3 and T-Mobile can begin to pitch high-speed mobile data conenctions as a credible alternatve to fixed-link broadband services - see 3's current £10 a month HSDPA modem deal as an indicator of the kind of customer-friendly data deals that could be rolled out further.

However the move is an infrastructure tie-in only. It doesn't mean, for instance, that 3 SIM cards will work in T-Mobile phones or vice versa. But in the fast-changing mobile industry stranger things have happened before...