Over 27 MILLION Brits receive huge mobile upgrade for free as Vodafone and Three announce raft of changes for customers
A major improvement to services will start for more than seven million users of Three and its budget sub-brand SMARTY in just two weeks time.
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Customers will receive a 20 per cent average speed uplift on 4G.
And within a few months, 27million mobile subscribers across both Vodafone and Three will benefit from better signal with shared access across both networks at no extra cost, the new joint VodafoneThree firm claims.
This will eradicate dreaded "not spots" from 16,500 sq/km of the country – the equivalent to 10x the size of London.
VodafoneThree has confirmed that its various brands will remain separate.
This not only includes Vodafone and Three, but also VOXI, SMARTY and Talkmobile which piggyback on their network kit.
However, Vodafone will be the only brand for business customers.
"A new era of connectivity has begun," said Max Taylor, CEO of VodafoneThree.
"We will connect every nation, every community, in every corner of the UK.
"We will build the UK's best 5G network with an unprecedented £11bn privately funded infrastructure project, laying the digital foundation for our country's growth ambitions."
The network is pledging to bring 99.95 per cent of the population 5G Standalone - the fastest version of 5G speed around - by 2034.
Brits will always have mobile phone & internet signal at home after tech breakthrough that beats Elon Musk's Starlink
And by this time next year, bosses are planning to launch trials of space-based satellite mobile network coverage too to eliminate even more "not spots".
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "I'm delighted that this huge investment is being made in mobile phone network infrastructure, better connecting people with families, loved ones and work by providing stronger, more widespread 5G coverage."
BROADBAND SHAKE-UP
Changes are afoot for broadband services too.
Three's brand will disappear from its mobile broadband over the next 12 months and brought together with Vodafone's Full Fibre, all under the Vodafone name.
The firm has announced a new partnership with Community Fibre on top of existing deals with CityFibre and Openreach.
Two extra customer care centres are opening in Belfast and Sheffield as well, bringing 400 jobs back to the UK.
Vodafone and Three both operate their own stores across the country but the company says it has "no planned retail redundancies".
The £16.5billion tie-up makes VodafoneThree the UK's biggest mobile network.
WILL PRICES RISE?
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
All these changes sound pretty exciting - but most customers will be wondering if it will cost them more.
VodafoneThree says its mobile network boost comes at "no extra cost".
And bosses have insisted as much to get the deal over the line for months.
Vodafone's CEO Margherita Della Valle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in December that the merger would cause "no extra costs from public funding and no extra cost for our customers".
The company has had to agree to a number of legally binding commitments to win the approval of the competition regulator CMA.
One of those was a cap on "selected mobile tariffs and data plans" for three years.
As things stand Vodafone, Three and sub-brands VOXI, SMARTY and Talkmobile, will continue to sell their own mobile products, so it shouldn't result in less choice or competition.
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