OFCOM to investigate Three UK and Vodafone

Following an assessment of evidence gathered under this enforcement programme, Ofcom has decided to open investigations into Hutchison 3G UK Limited (Three) and Vodafone Limited (Vodafone) to assess their compliance with the EU Open Internet Access Regulation 2015 .

The investigations will examine the following:

Threes practices of:

Restricting tethering, the practice of using one device to connect another one to the internet - on certain plans offered by Three;
Imposing restrictions on the devices in which a SIM can be used e.g. where a SIM purchased for a mobile phone cannot be used in a tablet; and
Traffic management practices such as throttling or intentionally slowing down particular categories of traffic (e.g. video traffic, Peer-to-Peer and Virtual Private Network traffic), including where traffic management is applied when customers are roaming.


In relation to Vodafone:

Traffic management practices relating to Vodafone Passes e.g. throttling particular categories of traffic; including where traffic management is applied when customers are roaming; and
The transparency of exceptions to zero rating within the Vodafone Passes products, which mean that certain functions within certain zero-rated applications will use customers general data allowance and not be zero-rated.