Three UK customers will not pay extra to have ads blocked on the network when the operator launches its ad blocking service in conjunction with tech firm Shine later this year, the company has confirmed to Mobile Marketing.

In a briefing just now, the company said its motivation in deploying the ad blocking technology is to deliver a much better mobile experience for its customers by delivering ads that are higher quality and less intrusive than those they currently have to put up with. It’s too early to define what those ads will look like, the spokesman said, but he said that customers will be able to choose what types of ad, if any, they want to see.

He said the ad blocking service was not being viewed as a revenue generation opportunity, either from customers or via any kind of whitelisting service for advertisers, but that it is purely about delivering a better customer experience.
He also said that based on estimates from Shine, Three customers who choose to block ads will save around 20 per cent of their data allowance each month, and denied that Three’s decision to work with Shine had anything to do with the fact that Li Ka-shing, chairman of Three’s parent company Hutchison Whampoa, is also an investor in Shine.