3 invests £38m in assault on Scottish broadband market

BRITAIN'S smallest mobile network operator is investing almost £40 million in an aggressive assault on the broadband market in Scotland.

The firm has revealed that it is spending 37 per cent more per head in Scotland on network expansion than in England. Kevin Russell, chief executive of 3, said 38.2 million will be invested in doubling the number of mobile broadband masts north of the Border to more than 1,400 by next month.

"We believe the Scottish expansion is worth it because the demand for people to access the internet through mobile broadband is greater in Scotland than in many other parts of the UK," Russell said.

"The take-up of internet services in Scotland lags the UK, with some calculations that 60 per cent of people in Scotland don't access the internet.

"That has previously been down to not enough towers with equipment to broadcast strong enough signals."

3 believed this was because "Scotland is not the easiest part of the UK to cover, with the mountainous topography, the general landscape", Russell added."But we have shown our seriousness with this investment."

He said the breakthrough for 3 was its joint venture on mast-sharing with bigger rival T-mobile in the UK in 2007.

3's boss said if the Scottish investment produced the customer increases hoped for in time it could also mean more jobs being created in Scotland by the Hong Kong-owned company. 3 has 450 employees in a call centre in St Vincent Street, Glasgow and another 200 in its 33 shops in Scotland.

"This may well increase. The more successful we are in taking customers into the expanded mobile broadband network the more need there will be for retail and call centre expertise. It is an interesting time," said Russell.