3 UK extends its 3G

3 UK turned on its 10,000th 3G mobilebroadband site this week, the Mobile telecommunications company has announced.

The switch on is part of a work programme 3 UK is undertaking to advance and expand its 3G infrastructure, which is already the biggest in the UK.

The new site means that 3 UK's 3G coverage now reaches almost 93 per cent of the population. 3 UK plans to extend its network to approximately 13,000 sites in 2010.

Graham Baxter, CTO at 3 UK, said: "Over the past two years the continued growth of internet communications, smartphone use and mobile broadband uptake have brought the need for good 3G network coverage into sharp focus for millions of consumers."

The expansion of 3 UK's 3G coverage could mean that, potentially, more of the UK would be able to make use of IP telephony solutions, such as mobile VoIP solutions.

The cloud-based mobile applications market, which could include applications from VoIP providers, will make almost $9.5 billion a year by 2014, Juniper Research said recently.

This income will be driven by demand for converged unified communications and extensive take-up of mobile broadband, according to the technology research company.