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The thing about trademarks is that you don't need to have one registered to protect it.
So details like application date (in this case) aren't important. The key things are:
1. Is the phrase/word in their name protectable (trademarkable)? Or are they to generic?
2. If they do have a claim on the word/phrase, in which classes? Just because 'three' occupy the mobile network area/class you could still launch a company called three in something unrelated.
3. The difference between registered and unregistered trademarks is slight. The main thing is that there is a documented date of first use. But as long as you use a name in business/trading and have dates (such as when you put an ad in the local paper, or the dates that you ran an ad with that name through adwords, or history of us of that name in the way back machine - archive.org) then you can demonstrate something called 'unregistered trademark protection'. This trumps a registered trademark with a later date. A registered/unregistered mark must also be used to keep/establish the protection.
4. You can use the TM symbol next to any unregistered trademark, but you can only use the 'r' in a circle next to registered trademarks.
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