industry mobile telecommunications broadband internet access founded july 26 2005 ; 11 years ago 2005 07 26 headquarters 28 29 sir john rogerson s quay dublin 2 d02 ey80 ireland area served republic of ireland brands 48 months 1 parent ck hutchison website www.three.ie three ireland hutchison limited formerly hutchison 3g ireland ltd and trading as three 3 is a telecommunications and internet service provider operating in ireland as a subsidiary of ck hutchison . the company launched in july 2005 and provides 3g and 4g mobile phone services . three s former holding company hutchison whampoa acquired o2 ireland in june 2013 and the company was fully merged into the operations of three ireland in march 2015 . contents 1 history 2 network 2.1 4g 3 4g lte advanced 4 sponsorships 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit a 3 store grafton st dublin . three launched on 26 july 2005 as ireland s fourth mobile network operator behind vodafone o2 and meteor . service was initially offered as post paid only but on 16 may 2006 the introduction of a pre paid service known as 3pay was announced . a pre paid mobile broadband service was launched on 29 february 2008 under the name 3pay broadband with vouchers available for durations of one day one week or one month . on 13 may 2010 three announced the launch of the world s first commercial voice and data i hspa network . in august 2010 3 ireland admitted it has been overstating its subscriber numbers since 2006 . as per its latest released mid year statements about 56 per cent of 3 s 554 000 registered subscribers are considered active . this is about 244 000 short of the figure supplied to comreg . 2 on 24 june 2013 it was announced that hutchison would acquire telef nica s irish mobile operations o2 for 780 million to be merged into 3 ireland upon completion of the deal . 3 4 5 the european commission approved the merger in 2014 . the o2 brand was phased out and its operations fully merged into three on 2 march 2015 . 6 network edit three has a licence for operation in ireland using the access code 083 although numbers can be ported over from other networks . three s 3g coverage is made up of a single 2 100 mhz band umts network with claims of 99.5 % population coverage 7 and 500 000 subscribers . 8 as three s original infrastructure was purely 3g hsdpa 9 they provide 2g edge coverage a under a strategic partnership with vodafone announced in july 2012 10 and b through the acquisition of o2 ireland s 2g network in 2015 . these have allowed them to concentrate on rapid rollout of their 4g network . 4g edit in november 2012 three was awarded lte spectrum by auction along with the three other incumbent network operators . 11 on 27 january 2014 three launched their 4g network in dublin cork galway limerick wexford and waterford . 12 in march 2014 three expanded their 4g coverage to ashbourne bray carlow dunmore east kilkenny leixlip lusk rush skerries swords and tullamore . in march 2016 three ireland announced that it is now offering free 4g for life to all its customers . previously three offered free 4g to all its customers up to a certain date at which point the company would review and possibly extend that date further . 4g lte advanced edit three have announced they will be rolling out 4g to their customers offering faster peak speeds of 225 mbps free of charge . three say 4g is already available in dublin and will be rolled out to the rest of the country by the end of april 2016 . three are offering 4g to all customers with compatible handsets regardless of their plan . sponsorships edit on 5 august 2010 3 ireland announced a four year 7 500 000 deal with the football association of ireland to become the primary sponsor of all republic of ireland international football teams . 13 following hutchison whampoa s acquisition of o2 ireland the o2 was renamed the 3arena in 2014 . see also edit 3arena references edit http www.48months.ie boiler plate about us http www.irishtimes.com newspaper finance 2010 0827 122427768 8438.html hugh o connell . three buys o2 and will now control 40 per cent of ireland s mobile market . business etc. telef nica press office press room home telefonica agrees the sale of its operating business in ireland to hutchison whampoa for 850 million euros . telefonica.com . http www.o2online.ie o2 uploads pdfs press 2013 06 24 % 20media % 20statement.pdf o hora ailish 2 march 2015 . o2 becomes three as major mobile rebrand kicks in . independent.ie . retrieved 24 march 2015 . wholesale three ireland . three is ireland s largest and fastest growing 3g network with 97.8 % population coverage for broadband 3g and 99.5 % for traditional voice and text services 3 ireland reaches 500 000 customers twitter 3online kei jo that s normal as we re . twitter.com . retrieved 2012 11 18 . vodafone ireland and three ireland announce strategic partnership to share network infrastructure . 13 july 2012 . http press.three.ie press releases 913 three ireland to launch comprehensive 4g offers . hutchison 3 . 2014 01 27 . retrieved 2014 02 04 . 3 becomes fai primary sponsor . 5 august 2010 . external links edit official website v t e irish mobile network operators meteor three vodafone irish mobile virtual network operators eir mobile lycamobile postfone tesco mobile retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title three ireland & oldid 736169480 categories telecommunications companies of the republic of irelandtelecommunications in the republic of irelandcompanies established in 2005hutchison whampoa navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata 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