In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile telecommunications, Three UK deploys cutting-edge technologies to drive performance and improve overall service quality. Leveraging their 5G network and the power of AIOps, Three UK is focusing on enhancing the customer experience for data services such as streaming, gaming, and social media. This blog delves deeper into how Three UK uses Azure Operator Insights to expand their network capabilities, providing gamers with the most dynamic and innovative user experience.

Check out this video to learn more about how Three UK is unlocking actionable intelligence with Azure Operator Insights.

Recognizing the transformative potential of 5G, Three UK is committed to harnessing its capabilities to meet the escalating demands of the growing gaming industry. As the fourth largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, Three UK handles 29 percent of the country’s mobile data traffic, serving approximately 10 million subscribers. Three UK is the United Kingdom’s Ookla Speedtest Awards Winner for 5G mobile network speed during Q1-Q2 2023 with median download speeds of 265.75 Mbps.

Optimizing the gaming experience 

Three UK’s 5G network delivers impressive peak speeds and features high speed, low latency to ensure optimal responsiveness for gamers, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in virtual realms. To support this level of performance, Three UK has deployed a total of 18,400 sites, of which 4,600 provide high-speed 5G access to 60 percent¹ of the population. 

Three UK recognizes the importance of leveraging data insights to maintain its position in the telecommunications industry and to further enhance the user experience. With many petabytes of data flowing through their network every day, Three UK possesses a wealth of telemetry information and metadata that can drive network management and customer satisfaction to new heights. By analyzing user behaviors, Three UK can identify factors contributing to positive or negative customer experiences, and then make highly targeted improvements. 

Employing Azure Operator Insights 

Managing a network as extensive and complex as Three UK’s certainly comes with challenges. Three UK adopts a best-of-breed approach by incorporating network functions from various suppliers. However, accessing data from these disparate sources poses a formidable challenge. By leveraging the expertise of Microsoft in data ingestion, transformation, and analysis, Three UK aims to unlock the full potential of this data. A key component of this collaboration is the application of Azure Operator Insights, a new service on the Azure cloud platform specifically designed to help telecommunications carriers manage and extract actionable information from their network data. 

Azure Operator Insights enables carriers like Three UK to collect, organize, and process large datasets, providing valuable business insights and improving customer experiences, in part by optimizing the efficiency of time-to-insight. What would have previously taken weeks or months to assess, will now be possible to perform in minutes with AI. With this solution, Three UK can easily ingest terabytes of telemetry, event, and log data from various sources and vendors. The service also offers powerful data analysis tools, AI and machine learning processing, and secure data governance and sharing capabilities. 

By leveraging Azure Operator Insights, Three UK gains the ability to efficiently analyze data, using applications like Azure Data Explorer, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Databricks. They can optimize network performance using AI and machine learning models, identify areas for network improvements, and make data-driven decisions to enhance overall service quality. 

Enhancing customer experiences

Understanding the needs and preferences of customers is crucial in the competitive telecommunications landscape, where loyalty supports successful long-term performance. Because of this, Three UK leverages data insights to gain a comprehensive view of their customers’ experiences. By capturing and analyzing user gaming data and other important usage information, Three UK can evaluate the quality of the user’s experience for specific activities. This invaluable information allows them to identify factors that contribute to positive experiences, and to address any pain points that may arise. 

With a vast amount of data at their disposal, Three UK can determine the elements that make a gaming session either enjoyable or frustrating for its customers. Armed with this knowledge, they can proactively optimize their network infrastructure and services to ensure seamless gaming experiences. Whether it involves fine-tuning latency levels, increasing network capacity, or strategically deploying additional infrastructure, Three UK can make data-driven decisions that directly and positively impact the gaming experiences of its customers. 

Additionally, Three UK incorporates this single customer view into their network services’ key performance indicators (KPIs), taking a holistic approach to network management. By considering the entire network’s performance, they ensure that it not only leverages the power of the individual user experience but also responds to the needs of all users engaged with the network. This broader perspective enables them to allocate resources efficiently, make targeted improvements, and drive proactive maintenance and deployment strategies when it matters most. 

Azure Operator Insights driving future innovation with Three UK

Three UK uses cutting-edge technologies to drive performance, enhance services as well as efficiency in their 5G network. By recognizing the importance of data insights and collaborating with Microsoft through Azure Operator Insights, Three UK gains the ability to harness the power of their data effectively. This enables them to make data-driven adjustments, to optimize network performance, and to provide enhanced experiences for their customers.

Learn More

• Lower TCO and increase operational efficiency with Azure Operator Nexus.
• Explore more AIOps use case scenarios in this paper. 
• Learn more about Azure Operator Insights.

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1. Three UK press release.