The parties claim this will be the largest mobile core in Europe
Three UK chose Ericsson to build its new cloud-native core network, which it says will be the largest in Europe. The new core will more than triple its current core capacity to 9 Tbps.
The cloud-native infrastructure and core network solution are already being installed in Three’s data centres and will be “partially operational by the end of this year with a careful migration of all traffic over the next few years”, according to the press statement.
Three UK is in the throes of merging with Vodafone UK, having received approval from the regulator last December. No mention of the implications regarding the integration and capacity of the two networks is mentioned in this announcement.
Biggest carrier of mobile data
Data traffic on Three’s network “has exploded in recent years surpassing 2Tbps in December 2024,” apparently, due to home broadband, streaming Premier League football on Amazon Prime and gaming updates (see graph above). This traffic peak occurred just over two years after reaching 1Tbps, which took almost two decades to reach.
According to Enders Analysis, Three UK’s customer consume more data than any other operator at 31.5GB per month throughout 2024. This was an 18% increase on the previous year and 2.4x the national average.
The new core
The new core network will run on Ericsson’s dual-mode, 5G Core supported by the vendor’s Cloud Native Infrastructure solution. It will sit on Three’s nationwide distributed data centre network, which brings its core network closer to customers to improve latency.
Ericsson claims its core network capabilities have a proven track record in markets around the world, delivering benefits that include:
- Scalable capacity to support future needs
- Better stability meaning less downtime
- More network insights so operators can manage and match demand effectively
- In-service software upgrades update infrastructure without taking traffic away from a data centre
- Enhanced environmental performance.
Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer at Three said, “Our new core network with Ericsson ensures we are able to support our customers’ data usage over the medium and long-term.”
Katherine Ainley, CEO of Ericsson UK & Ireland, added, “This project is a significant milestone in our collaboration, and we’re excited to help Three build a new Core network to meet the ever-growing data demands of their customers.”