Hutchison's Numbers For UK 3G Launch Look Even Worse

If you thought things looked bad for Hutchison 3G's "3" launch in the UK after they admitted they'd only signed up 20,000 users and were receiving plenty of complaints about service quality, just wait until you see the latest details. Those 20,000 phones might not even be accurate, some are saying. They're suggesting the real numbers might be 1/3 of that total, because the 20,000 includes a large number of phones given out for free to VIPs and celebrities. It also (more importantly) doesn't include all of the returned phones, given back by people who weren't happy with the service. Apparently, 10 to 15% of those who buy the phones are sending them back and cancelling the service - but those numbers weren't included in the 20,000. To combat this, Hutchison is expected to lower their prices yet again (they already lowered them once last month). So, let's see. We have incredibly overhyped phones that no one is buying, the few people who are buying are complaining about them and returning the phones, and the company has had to lower handset prices every month since they've been launched (such that they'll soon be priced at 1/4 of what the launch price was). Sounds like things aren't going so well these days.

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