Three Will Block All Mobile Adverts For 24 Hours

Three has announced a potentially game-changing stunt that will see it block all mobile advertising across its network for 24 hours.

The network says that the trial move will help to “revolutionise the mobile advertising experience” and remove the amount of annoying adverts that its users encounter every day.

The trial will take place during the week commencing June 13, although Three has yet to confirm exactly when.

‘Broken’

“We believe the current mobile advertising model is broken and our customers are becoming increasingly frustrated by irrelevant and intrusive adverts which use up their data allowance and can invade their privacy by tracking their behaviour without their knowledge or consent,” Three, which has 8.8m customers across the UK, said in a statement.

The company says that the trial will test the ability of the technology to filter out advertising that damages its customers’ mobile browsing experience, without impacting their network experience.

Three says it will be contacting customers to ask them to agree to take part in the 24-hour trial, with any other customers looking to take part can do so via its website.

“This is the next step in our journey to make mobile ads better for our customers,” said Tom Malleschitz, Three’s chief marketing officer.

“The current ad model is broken. It frustrates customers, eats up their data allowance and can jeopardise their privacy. Something needs to change.”

“We can only achieve change by working with all stakeholders in the advertising industry – customers, advertising networks and publishers – to create a new form of advertising that is better for all parties.”

Ad blocking has become a controversial area for both businesses and advertisers as more companies rely on these lucrative revenue streams.

Three is not the first network to consider such a move, as last November, EE CEO Olaf Swantee revealed that his company was investigating blocking online adverts at a network level.

Swantee said that EE was conducting a “strategic review” into the possibility, with the suggestion being that users could choose to limit the frequency and type of advertising they see in their browser or in apps.

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