3 UK Starts Posturing For Investors
Hutchison Whampoa's UK carrier 3 showed off its new strategy today, saying it will focus on communications, entertainment and information services -- which sort of begs the question of just what they were focused on before. There was a lot of talk about mobile TV and video and advertising, which some analysts say was a ploy to try and cast itself as a media company to investors, given its upcoming IPO and the fact that media companies' shares trade at higher multiples than telecoms. Never a company whose executives shy away from speaking their minds, the company's CEO says that not only will its UK rivals trip up like it did after its own 3G launch, but that 3G itself " wouldn't exist if we weren't forcing the issue". That's pretty big talk from a carrier that remains a distant fifth in terms of customers, and one whose success has wholly been based upon cheap voice plans, not data usage: Hutchison itself says that just a third of its subscribers have used paid data services. And given how badly 3's launch went, you'd think they wouldn't want to remind anybody.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: 3g
