Kevin Russell has received a simple order: take the hot seat at Britain’s smallest network operator and ensure that the loss-making business breaks even.

With such a big feat to pull off, his bold gamble on offering free mobile calls with Skype is expected to be only the first of many to come as he seeks to make the “challenger” brand stand out in a crowded market.

Only last week accounts filed at Companies House showed financial losses at the business in the year ended December 31, 2006, were £464.3 million. The figure was down from an alarming £1.37 billion the previous year.

The 41-year-old football-loving Scotsman joined 3 UK, which has less than a 10 per cent share by revenues of the mobile network market, at the start of this year before taking over the top job from Bob Fuller in May.

He studied at Dunblane High School before embarking on a career in accountancy at Ernst & Whinney. Mr Russell, who is married with two children, has worked his way around the business. He started at Hutchison Telecom, part of Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong-Kong group that owns 3, in 1995, doing stints around the world, including Hong Kong and Australia.

His arrival in the UK has seen a much bolder and forceful approach from the group which, on recognising that 3G was not taking off, opted instead to shake up the market with cheap voice tariffs.

It has seized the initiative on regulatory issues, lobbying Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, to make it easier for mobile phone subscribers to switch brands, while still keeping their same number.

A good deal of Mr Russell’s time, though, will no doubt be spent fending off questions about the business’s future and insisting on Hutchison’s commitment to the business.

Bankers are known to have touted both 3’s UK and Italian operations for sale. Speculation was further fuelled last year after Arun Sarin, the head of Vodafone, said that he would take a look at the European mobile assets if they came on the market.

Other mobile rivals, such as Telefónica’s O2, deride the company. They have claimed that 3 UK’s average revenue spend per user is so low it would make an acquisition a waste of time. (Elizabeth Judge)

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