3 UK says it will double its user base to 6.8 million by 2012 as it looks forward after a period of cost-cutting and consolidation.

However, in an interview with the FT today 3 UK's chief executive Kevin Russell made no mention of content services.

This is despite 3 telling anyone who cared to listen as recently as 12 months ago that it wasn't a mobile operator but a 'mobile media company'.

Russell said: "Over the next three to four years I would like to more than double the net revenue in the business, and double the customer base.”

Certainly 3 has dropped the 'mobile media company' moniker, but given the anecdotal success of its mobile broadband dongles, combined with its recent commitments to mobile advertising and ad-funded content, it's surprising not to hear it banging the data drum more strongly.

At the end of last year 3 UK had 3.4 million customers. It increased revenue by five per cent to £1.6 billion in 2007.