3 unfazed by rivals’ 3G launches

H3G (UK)’s chief executive officer Bob Fuller says that the recent arrival of Vodafone and Orange in the UK 3G sector has had no significant impact on his company’s business. The head of the country’s first 3G operator went one stage further in claiming that the two rivals were not yet ‘fully committed’ to UMTS and that his company was growing quickly as a result of its high quality content and technological developments. The CEO’s bullish comments come in the wake of his company being voted ‘Network of the Year’ by ‘What Cellphone’ last week, relegating the 2G network operators into second place. Commenting on the award Bob Fuller said, ‘3 is the UK’s fastest growing network and continues to set the agenda for 3G with great value price plans and exciting products and services. This award comes at the end of a good year for 3, which saw over 2.5 million customers on the 3 network. We’re now looking forward to an even more challenging 2005.’ Fuller also revealed that 3’s churn rate in the UK has been maintained at below the industry average of 25% to 30% and that UK monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) was above GBP40.