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3 is a Mobile Phone operator in Europe , Australia , Hong Kong and Israel , owned by Hutchison Whampoa . Hutchison Whampoa, through its subsidiaries and associated companies, holds 3G licences in Australia , Austria , Denmark , Hong Kong , Indonesia , Ireland , Italy , Norway , Sweden , the UK and markets its services under the global brand 3. As of August 24 , 2005 , registered 3 customers worldwide were 9.4 million. 3 WORLDWIDE , a Hong Kong -based Cantopop singer is the pinup.]] Australia 3 launched its Australia n services on April 15 , 2003 in Sydney and Melbourne . Brisbane , Adelaide , Perth and the Gold Coast were then activated in early June 2003 . Outside of the 3G zone, 3's customers roamed onto the Vodafone GSM network. This roaming agreement ended July 30 , 2005 , when 3 switched roaming partners to Telstra . Through this agreement 3 offers coverage to 96% of Australia's population. Total 3 Australia subscribers were 850,000 as of April , 2006 . Merger with Orange On February 1st 2006 , Hutchinson 's Australian CDMA network, which operated under the Orange brand name, was rebranded as 3 CDMA. With no initial changes apart from a rebranding of the network, the plan is to move all of the 3 CDMA customers to the 3 network. The network aims to upgrade all customers within the period that the major carrier, Telstra, have given for the shutdown of the CDMA network, which is 3 years.1 Hong Kong In May 2004 , its affiliated 2G operator Orange rebranded its services and changed its name to "3 Dualband", referring to the GSM product, and "3 CDMA", referring to the CDMA product. Ireland 3 has a licence for operation in that covers 99.5% of the population. At the moment they offer a "post pay" service but no prepay service as of yet, but it will happen in the near future as some Top Up machines in some stores are now offering call credit for 3, altough the service has not yet launched. United Kingdom The 3 service was launched in the UK on 3rd March 2003 (3/3/3), and was at that time the only 3G operator in the UK. It has a roaming agreement with O2 which allows its customers to get a 2G service when they move out of 3G coverage. At the end of 2005, 3 UK had nearly 4m customers on its network and is the largest 3G network in the UK with more 3G subscribers than all the other networks together. The UK offers both pre- and post-pay (contract) services. In the UK, 3 has an agreement with Superdrug , which exclusively stocks 3's mobile phones. Many Superdrug stores have a small section set aside as a 3 shop. This agreement came about after Superdrug was purchased by Watson's , a large Asian retailer owned by Hutchison Whampoa . 3G signal is now 88% and growing constantly. 3 launched SeeMeTV at the end of 2005, allowing its customers to submit their own video content that other subscribers could watch. The most watched videos are paid for their popularity. It is the most popular user-generated mobile service created - since launch there have been over 4m downloads of videoclips and it is about to be launched through spaces.msn.com Italy In Italy , 3 was the first mobile operator to offer 3G services ( UMTS ). As of Jan 2006 , 3 Italia had 5.9 million registered customers, thus being the local leader in the 3G telecommunications market. On February 22, 2006, 3 announced the first launch of ( HSDPA ) technology in Italy, with initial coverage of Rome. The HSDPA service, which provides wireless broadband access with speed up to 14.4 Megabit/s, has been initially launched offering connection speeds up to 1.8 Megabit/s. The service has been called ADSM (as a contraction for ADSL Mobile). OWNERSHIP Denmark, Sweden
Italy
United Kingdom
INTERNET ACCESS 3 made the decision to block direct Internet access from susbscribers on their network. The result of this decision is that arbitrary web and email servers could not be accessed from a handset on their network. Instead, they provided their own web-based content under a, "Free to browse," policy where much of content is pay per view or subscription based. This became know as the "walled garden" by many of 3's customers. The policy has since changed: customers are now permitted Internet access, at speeds of up to 384 kbps, although the service incurs a monthly fee. Three have just recently released a 3G Data Card for laptops which saves the hassle of connecting your phone to the computer. The card should be featured on {Link without Title} once the site is updated. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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