Page 11 - Sphere No.15 (Nov 2005)

SPHERE 9
Newtrends
MAGINE OLD TRAFFORD on a Saturday afternoon as
Manchester United’s players take the field. A capacity crowd of
68,190 packs the famous English Premier League ground to
watch the most famous soccer team in the world.
Now imagine if you can 147 Old Traffords placed side by side. The
total number of people would be 10 million, and that is how many
3G customers Hutchison has today.
All around the world, from Australia to Austria, from Ireland
to Israel, 3 customers pick up their handsets every day to use an
extraordinary range of services. From video clips, SMS, horse
racing, cricket and soccer results to e-mail, digital photography,
financial data and browsing the Internet, 3 quite simply has it all.
The mobile phone – once seen as just a convenience for
talking on the move – is taking the place of a whole range of
other devices. The availability of a range of applications means
that the 3G handset is the most ubiquitous and versatile lifestyle
device available in the world today.
Hutchison’s 3 brand, with its emphasis on multi-media mobile
content, has captured the spirit of this consumer revolution like
no one else. In the UK alone, customers have downloaded more
than 15 million music videos, 2.5 million computer games and
one million reality TV show clips in the past 12 months.
But there is more to come. 3 UK is unveiling a number of
groundbreaking initiatives, including the launch of a
customer–created content channel called “See Me TV” and a
new approach to delivering music tracks. Every audio
download will also be available online so customers can play
the track on their laptop or PC, transfer it to an MP3 player or
burn it onto a CD.
Today, 3 is a dominant global brand with an impressive opera-
tional track record in nine markets - Australia, Austria,
Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Sweden and the UK.
It achieved the fastest global network rollout in history and is
the first operator in the world to launch dual mode WCDMA
networks and multi-media video mobile services. 3 has already
marketed more than 30 models of 3G handsets and over 30
million music clips have been downloaded over 3’s networks.
Canning Fok, Hutchison’s Group Managing Director, said: “We
are continuing to introduce new and innovative products and
services and I am confident that we will maintain our leadership
position in this industry as we move into the important
Christmas market season ahead.”
Congratulations 3, 10 million and counting, you’ve come a
long way in a very short time.
10 Million
and counting
Hutchison’s global 3G customer base has broken through the 10 million barrier
I