Buried at the bottom of a recent press release from Three UK is this rather interesting little morsel -- the carrier's planning on extending its HSPA+ coverage to 80% of the UK by the end of this year, with the rest of the country following "soon afterwards". Right now Three's HSPA+ network, which offers download speeds up to 21.1 Mbps and uploads of up to 5.76 Mbps, is only available on a handful of phones, tablets and mobile broadband dongles. Three's also keeping quiet about exactly how much of the UK is currently covered, though we'd assume major cities like London would have already been upgraded.
If Three manages to pull off its target of 80% coverage by the end of 2011, then it could put them at an advantage over larger competitors like O2 and Vodafone. Right now HSPA+ coverage on all networks that offer it can be patchy at the best of times.
Source: Three UK Press Centre
