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, Three Ireland admitted it has been overstating its subscriber numbers since 2006. As per its latest released mid year statements about 56 per cent of Three's 554,000 registered subscribers are considered active. This is about 244,000 short of the figure supplied to ComReg. On 24 June 2013, it was announced that Hutchison would acquire Telefónica's Irish mobile operations, O2 for €780 million, to be merged into Three Ireland upon completion of the deal. 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.
Network
Three has a licence for operation in Ireland using the access code 083, although numbers can be ported over from other networks. Three uses both 3G and 4G LTE networks in Ireland, along with the 2G network acquired with the purchase of O2. As Three's original infrastructure was purely 3G/HSDPA. For a while, they provided 2G/EDGE coverage under a strategic partnership with Vodafone announced in July 2012, and through the in 2015, however, roaming on Vodafone is no longer supported, and 2G is natively supported with the acquisition of O2 and it's 3G & 2G networks.
4G
In November 2012, Three was awarded LTE spectrum by auction, along with the three other incumbent network operators. On 27 January 2014, Three launched their 4G network in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Wexford and Waterford. 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. Three's upgrade programme "the big upgrade" aimed to provide 99% 4G coverage by early 2017, although that never came to fruition, and instead three has 97% 3G coverage, along with less than 90% 4G coverage, making Three's 4G network both the smallest, and also the slowest in Ireland, according to Ookla, and Rootmetrics in 2018.
4G+/LTE Advanced
Three have announced they will be rolling out 4G+ to their customers offering faster Peak Speeds of 225 Mbit/s. 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. Three's 4G network has suffered many setbacks, and 4G coverage currently sits at under 90% in March 2018.
Sponsorships
On 5 August 2010, Three 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. In 2015, Three renewed the sponsorship for a further five years. Following Hutchison Whampoa's acquisition of O2 Ireland, The O2 was renamed 3Arena in 2014. In 2018, Three Ireland decided with Mobile Phone & Broadband Taskforce to bring in Wi-Fi Calling in 2019 or 2020.
