Chatting about Meteor

stereo_steve

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
Coverage is always going to be useless at events like that. People with meteor phones might have been smiling but what happens when they go abroad and there are no agreements with other operators and they get screwed on roaming charges.

If you want comms at a gig like that get yourselfs some walkie talkies. Great craic altogether.

I'm in the states at the moment. My phone is working, my friends aren't! Going to Mexico tomorrow, its gonna work there and my friends definately won't.

My friend is also with meteor and hes in Australia at the moment and he can call home for 43c a minute on prepay! Thats cheaper than you guys with O2 and Vodaphone calling your own house phone from your back garden during the day!

You can roam anywhere in the world with meteor prepay (unlike just europe with O2,Vodaphone). Only downside with meteor is that they have yet to sort out their billing. They can't debit your account on the fly so you have to put EUR60 in your account before they setup roaming.

I don't understand why meteor gets shuch a bashing when it is a fantastic phone company. People moan about Ireland being a rip off country yet when we are offered alternatives to the likes of eircom, voda,o2 etc no one takes them???

JTMan

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
People with meteor phones might have been smiling but what happens when they go abroad and there are no agreements with other operators and they get screwed on roaming charges.

Tripe ...
Meteor have more agreements with roaming providers than any other Irish mobile provider including ripoff o2 voda.

Doublezero8

I remember hearing this story when meteor were first settings up and thought it was pretty funny how true it is i am not too sure.

They were desparate to keep the few customer they had . So someone came up with this idea.
They set up these Mobile cells on the back of lorries. If they got alot of complaints about a particular area they would drive the lorry to that location and leave it sitting thier for a couple of days to give better coverage. When they started getting complaints in another area off the lorry would go to keep that other group of customers happy for a while.

At least the lorry driver always had good coverage

008

stereo_steve

Thats definately not true!

1. Comreg wouldn't allow it!
2. They would have to use a satellite provider to relay messages between truck and meteor. Very Expensive. They would have to start charging O2, Voda prices!

An urban myth but quite funny

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by Fungus
.
Meteor have more agreements with roaming providers than any other Irish mobile provider including ripoff o2 voda.

Its certainly interesting that they have more roaming agreements than Vodafone and O2... I would never have imagined this to be the case but you sound certain..

Its a shame Meteor didn't buy/bid for a 3G license. Whats going to happen next.. I think there is a number possible scenarios, two I have listed below.

Some other company buys the fourth and last 3G license and Meteor simply cease their service when their GSM license expires..

Or some mad theory like this, they have reduced call charges so much in order to attract as many customers as possible in order to look as competitive as possible in the Irish market to impress potential bidders... What I would be most concerned about is what happens when the successful bidder takes over and realises that they can't cover costs with the current level of call charges? Crazy :dunno:

I was told by a family friend recently who is on the board of directors of a fairly big internation company that Eircom approached them asking them would they swith from their current service provider to Meteor is Eircom took them over and were able to provide the same coverage as O2/Vodafone.. We all know how competitive Eircom is...

stereo_steve

Meteor are upgrading their network with EDGE
Edge phones are out already. Many countries will be supporting it. America and Austrialia being the two big ones.

EDGE (or Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a 3G technology that delivers broadband-like data speeds to mobile devices. It allows consumers to connect to the Internet and send and receive data, including digital images, web pages and photographs, three times faster than possible with an ordinary GSM/GPRS network. EDGE enables GSM operators to offer higher-speed mobile-data access, serve more mobile-data customers, and free up GSM network capacity to accommodate additional voice traffic.

So Meteor will have the high download speeds without paying for an expensive licence. It will be interesting to see how things work out in the future.

jesus_thats_gre

EDGE is only considered a 3G technology because its max theorethical speed meets the minimum speed required to be considered a 3G standard, i.e. 144 kbps.. Realistically these speeds won't be attainable for the majority of the time...

The 3G license I am referring to is the one Vodafone, O2 and Three have already acquired. The UMTS standard has a theorethical max speed of 2 mbps on "pico" cells, 384kbps around urban areas and 144kbps outside these areas...

EDGE is just the next evolution in the GSM/GPRS standard.. Most network operators have chosen not to implement this standard.. The text you provided is just the marketing blurb and what exactly do they consider broadband speeds... The end of the text provided ends with (Source: Ericsson)


This image, courtesy of GSMWorld.com, shows where EDGE has been implemented and where it is planned:

Image available here: http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/edge/

In my opinion it is not a viable long term alternative and is really a short term stop gap before moving to UMTS or an alternative 3G standard. If it does take off, it will be used to provide faster data rates for areas with no 3G coverage.

GSM = 2G
GPRS = 2.5G
EDGE = 2.75G
UMTS = 3G


This image shows the deployment of 3G standards... It is important to note that UMTS is the chosen 3G standard for the majority of Europe...

Image available here: http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/3g/

ldw

Contrary to a previous allegation, I DONT work for Meteor.....but I am in the industry working as a consultant.

I think its important to remember that 3G is very much a new technology in Europe for consumers and Ive yet to see any justifiable reason for such an outlay.

Ive used Hutch (3) in the UK and to be honest, while the demo's I was shown by the provider were pretty impressive.....when I actually tried the service out and about in London, the service was mediocre at best.

To justify the cost of obtaining a 3G licence and the expenditure on upgrading a network....you need to have the services to back it up.....currently Vodafone are offering 3G services to businesses here. While feedback from this may be quite positive...the hard part comes when trying to put together commercial packages for the ordinary subscriber.

EDGE is a step up from GPRS and can provide some good connection speeds, depending on the bandwith available to the service provider.

From what I know about Meteor and their architecture, they shouldnt have many problems with providing the required time-slots to give the user good data speeds....

Sinner_Rez

Did you ever stop to think that the reason you can use your phone in America and your friends can't is cause you are on a Tri-band phone and they aren't? And how can Meteor possibly have more agreements than Voda/O2 when theyare the two giants of the market. You aren't making sense.

What a lot of people don't realise is that they networks aren't trying to make loads of money off you from the calls you make while roaming. Thats why they are always advertising how cheap it it. They want you to receive calls. Thats when they can charge you through the nose.

Meteor is still a weaker network than O2 or Voda. they have a very weak market share and that number is soft too.

Lets also examine this. Meteor are going to be bought out in the next year or so. And when that happens there are going to be huge fluctuations in pricings, which will bring their pricing more in line with VOda and O2. Meteor are and have been positioning themselves for a buy out for the last year or so. The most likely bidders being Orange, Eircom and T-Mobile.

JTMan

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Its certainly interesting that they have more roaming agreements than Vodafone and O2... I would never have imagined this to be the case but you sound certain..

With meteor PAYG and bill you can roam in 132 countires ( http://www.meteor.ie/services/roaming_where.html ). With o2 speak easy you can roam in 20 countries ( http://web.o2.ie/personal/services/travelling_abroad/speak_easy/roamingcountries.jsp ). With PAYG from vodafone you can roam in about 22 countires (map at http://www.vodafone.ie/roaming/international/vfworld/index.jsp?zone=prepaid ) . Vodafone post paid comes in just below Meteor with 130 roaming partners.

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Its a shame Meteor didn't buy/bid for a 3G license. Whats going to happen next.. I think there is a number possible scenarios, two I have listed below

It will be very interesting to see how the market develops. I still think it is only a matter of time before Meteor is acquired and Eircon still look likes the most likely suitor (Although I hope Orange or T-mobile do it). It would not suprise me if 3 eventually (4-5 years time) acquire Meteor if Eircon Don't.

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
What I would be most concerned about is what happens when the successful bidder takes over and realises that they can't cover costs with the current level of call charges? Crazy

The call costs are sustainable, many UK operators are charging a lot less and are still profitable. Meteor has the potential (depending on the impact of 3) in 2 years time to be a very attractive cash cow.

JTMan

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
And how can Meteor possibly have more agreements than Voda/O2 when theyare the two giants of the market. You aren't making sense.

Look at the links I gave above. If you are a PAYG customer then you can roam in about 5 times more countries with Meteor than Vodafone PAYG or O2 PAYG. Even if you are bill you can roam in more countires with Meteor.

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
Meteor is still a weaker network than O2 or Voda. they have a very weak market share and that number is soft too.

True ... but it is 90% and they have 70 million to spend on the network for the rest of this year. Hopefully next year they will be able to match the 99% offered by o2 voda.

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
Lets also examine this. Meteor are going to be bought out in the next year or so. And when that happens there are going to be huge fluctuations in pricings, which will bring their pricing more in line with VOda and O2.

Why on earth would this happen? If Meteor is bought out then they will still have to maintain their excellent pricing in order to continue to gain market share on their rivals. If anything is going to happen it is that voda and o2 will be forced to lower their prices to put them in line with 3 and meteor.

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez

Meteor are and have been positioning themselves for a buy out for the last year or so. The most likely bidders being Orange, Eircom and T-Mobile.

I think they will be acquired but their actions over the last period have not demonstrated that they are setting themselves up to be acquired as much their actions in previous years. The WWI float (next feb???) , the €70 million network spend, the aquistion of the 20% stake by WWI from Soros and the agressive marketing suggest that WWI will hold on to Meteor until such time that an excellent (probably 0.5 billion) offer comes along. The question is can Eircon in deep debth afford the price at this time?

spongebob

Originally posted by stereo_steve
Thats definately not true!

1. Comreg wouldn't allow it!

Of course they would, Meteor could bring a cell on a truck to a gathering like Oxygen without any explicit permission , even without permission it takes Comreg a fortnight to organise a site visit .........when the gig lasts 2 or 3 days.

The "Roving" mast story is still a myth though . I have seen the 20Ft container/mast temporary jobbies being deployed by O2 as well , they were there for ages in a car park.....cannot say I ever saw a Voodoofone one unless.....

......thats what was hidden up that chimney in Meath last week .

M

LoBo

interesting discussion!

I'd say it will be a good move by Meteor if they can roll out EDGE on handsets before O2/Voda hit us with 'true' 3G UMTS on handsets- they could look miles ahead of the other two. They are already superior on pricing & number portability has eliminated the major barrier to moving for customers. I recommend them actively to anyone getting pre-pay SIMs/phones.

How long has it been since those 3G licences were awarded and still no consumer 3G? Bring on 2.75G

stereo_steve

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez
Did you ever stop to think that the reason you can use your phone in America and your friends can't is cause you are on a Tri-band phone and they aren't? And how can Meteor possibly have more agreements than Voda/O2 when theyare the two giants of the market. You aren't making sense.

I know all about the various frequencies used for mobile phones in Ireland and America. My friends have tri-band phones. They won't work here because O2 Voda haven't set it up. It has already been proven above that Meteor have more roaming agreements. Meteor isn't out on its own. They are owned by western wireless. And I *believe* that Western Wireless own another five Phone companys. Anyone wanna confirm that?

What a lot of people don't realise is that they networks aren't trying to make loads of money off you from the calls you make while roaming. Thats why they are always advertising how cheap it it. They want you to receive calls. Thats when they can charge you through the nose.

What? They advertise its cheap? You are a salesmans dream! Anyway its not cheap! I haven't been in Ireland for a couple of months now but from what I remember Voda O2 were charging EUR1.50 to send and recieve. Thats a rip off!

Meteor is still a weaker network than O2 or Voda. they have a very weak market share and that number is soft too.

Weak in terms of market share is true. But coverage is steadily getting better. I'm satisfied with it in Leinster. (haven't been outside therer in a long time) Can't complain and I have a signal meter in my phone. I regularly take note of signal strength on my travels.

Lets also examine this. Meteor are going to be bought out in the next year or so. And when that happens there are going to be huge fluctuations in pricings, which will bring their pricing more in line with VOda and O2. Meteor are and have been positioning themselves for a buy out for the last year or so. The most likely bidders being Orange, Eircom and T-Mobile.

Not going to happen. As already pointed out if they charged more people would leave.

On a side note. How does meteor have such a bad reputation? People are always coming out with junk they heard in a pub! Sure they don't have GPRS, no roaming agreements, no signal... How can a company get to the state that it has such a bad reputation for no reason?

Also have you noticed that Voda and O2 ads are pretty much about nothing? You might see a guy taking a picture on his phone or something. But that might as well be an ad from Nokia! Meteor are the only ones that actually say "Hey, we're cheap and we have x,y,z reasons why we are better"
While Voda phone ads have swirly nice pictures with david beckam and music, "Can you dig it, oh yeah!" And everyone flocks to them!

Doublezero8

On a side note. How does meteor have such a bad reputation? People are always coming out with junk they heard in a pub! Sure they don't have GPRS, no roaming agreements, no signal... How can a company get to the state that it has such a bad reputation for no reason?

I do agree that meteor have a bad rap but i think that they are majorly to blame for this.

First impressions are lasting. When meteor first came into the market alot of people will have got a phone to try the service but at that stage the coverage was awful so i was left with a really bad impression of the network. Ok this has got better but i think anyone who used them early on will always associate them with bad coverage and i think this is thier own fault for not holding back launch till the service was better.

Customer service is now a huge part in the choice of a mobile network. When i was an 085 customer this was AWFUL. The were rude and badly trained.

I remember having a problem with text messaging. I rang up and a person spoke to me asking for my name and number and they would ring me back as soon as possible . I would like to point out this was not a computerised voice but an actual person on the line which made it all the more frustrating.

While i am sure meteor have improved greatly on all these initial teething problem in my head all i can think of was the bad experience i had with them.

As the saying goes a customer who has a bad experience will tell at least 10 other people .

008

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by Fungus
With meteor PAYG and bill you can roam in 132 countires ( http://www.meteor.ie/services/roaming_where.html ). With o2 speak easy you can roam in 20 countries ( http://web.o2.ie/personal/services/travelling_abroad/speak_easy/roamingcountries.jsp ). With PAYG from vodafone you can roam in about 22 countires (map at http://www.vodafone.ie/roaming/international/vfworld/index.jsp?zone=prepaid ) . Vodafone post paid comes in just below Meteor with 130 roaming partners.

I can appreciate the argument that you providing but you are choosing Prepaid as it is convenient to your argument.. A roaming agreement is a roaming agreement whether it is made available for prepaid or postpaid customers...

At that, how many networks do they have agreement with.. Its all well and good saying you have an agreement with one operator in a country, you will probably find that O2 and Vodafone have agreements with far more operators. For example, Orange in the UK could advertise that you can roam in Ireland. What good is that if they only have a roaming agreement with Meteor and you are going to an area that Meteor do not cover?

Meteor could well offer roaming in a country but I would be certain the big two offer the choice of many more operators.. I a pretty certain this was the case up until recently but have not checked..

It will be very interesting to see how the market develops. I still think it is only a matter of time before Meteor is acquired and Eircon still look likes the most likely suitor (Although I hope Orange or T-mobile do it). It would not suprise me if 3 eventually (4-5 years time) acquire Meteor if Eircon Don't.

It is unlikely that 3 will bid for Meteor. They have already stated they had no interest in offering GSM coverage if avoidable and that they had no interest in MEtwor.

Eircom are the most likely in my opinion. Orange will probably never set up in this country after the bull**** they went through when bidding for the third GSM license with Digifone (I can't remember exactly happened)...

The call costs are sustainable, many UK operators are charging a lot less and are still profitable. Meteor has the potential (depending on the impact of 3) in 2 years time to be a very attractive cash cow.

I don' think this will be the case at all... The cost of maintaining a network in this country is the same for O2, Vodafone and will be the same when Meteor offer a similar level of coverage. The costs will be similar in level but if they have considerably less customers (all off which are low to medium spenders), something has to give... But its pure speculation on my behalf and I dont really know what I am talking about on the grand scale of things..

I think they will be acquired but their actions over the last period have not demonstrated that they are setting themselves up to be acquired as much their actions in previous years. The WWI float (next feb???) , the €70 million network spend, the aquistion of the 20% stake by WWI from Soros and the agressive marketing suggest that WWI will hold on to Meteor until such time that an excellent (probably 0.5 billion) offer comes along. The question is can Eircon in deep debth afford the price at this time?

You sound like you know something???

How long has it been since those 3G licences were awarded and still no consumer 3G? Bring on 2.75G

Thats a very fair point but I think it is safe to say we will be seeing a big push in the next 6 months. I would imagine that Vodafone, once they are happy with everything, will make a similar push to the launch of Live!... They seems to launching their 3G services at the same time throughout Europe in a similar way they did with Live. Lets face it, 10 million Live customers is quite impressive in less than 2 years.. Live customers account for 10% is nearly all countries where they offer the service.

stereo_steve

At that, how many networks do they have agreement with.. Its all well and good saying you have an agreement with one operator in a country, you will probably find that O2 and Vodafone have agreements with far more operators. For example, Orange in the UK could advertise that you can roam in Ireland. What good is that if they only have a roaming agreement with Meteor and you are going to an area that Meteor do not cover?

This is exactly what I'm talking about. People perceive Meteor to be completely useless. Even when someone is presented with evidence that Meteor is superior in some area, they stay loyal to Voda O2 which are charging twice as much. They just have such a bad reputation. I don't see why?

Country list
Thet have numerous agreements in each country. You only need one though!


Meteor should have gone down the route of charging more than the other two operators. Using the extra money they make on advertising. Irish people love to buy the more expensive product. They percieve it as better. Is why Ireland is such a rip off country. (In my opinion, of course!:D )

Bottle_of_Smoke

Meteor are bloody useless, I'm 2km from Dublin city centre and 90% of time i have 1 bar of signal... rest of the time I'm out of coverage. I switched from 02 because the rates seemed so great but the amount of calls that dont get through isn't worth the cheap texts calls etc.

eur60 down payment for roaming isn't acceptable either.

Currently waiting on them to unlock my phone so I can switch back.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by stereo_steve
This is exactly what I'm talking about. People perceive Meteor to be completely useless. Even when someone is presented with evidence that Meteor is superior in some area, they stay loyal to Voda O2 which are charging twice as much. They just have such a bad reputation. I don't see why?

Country list
Thet have numerous agreements in each country. You only need one though!


Meteor should have gone down the route of charging more than the other two operators. Using the extra money they make on advertising. Irish people love to buy the more expensive product. They percieve it as better. Is why Ireland is such a rip off country. (In my opinion, of course!:D )

That is my point, you don't need only one.. My example that if a UK operator only had roaming agreements with Meteor in Ireland and someone came over and were restricted to using Meteor and wanted to go to Donegal.. They would have no coverage..

Now translate that to Meteor offering roaming agreements with 1 operator in some countries. What if that one operator does not offer 99% coverage and you have no coverage in the area you want to do. With O2 and Vodafone it is likely you could choose an alternative, with Meteor you would not... Its perfectly reasonable...

I have had three seperate prepaid numbers with Meteor since they launched. Before their recent push to be competitive, Meteor were a shambles.. I remember making 27 attempts to make a phone call on Camden St one afternoon.. This consistently occurred and was responsible for me going back to Vodafone.. I did and never had similar problems again..

The most recent occassion I used them for 6 months. They were quite good until their recent "problems". There was a 3 months period where they seemed to have a weekend long outages on a regular basis. This for me was obviously caused by the networks inability to handle their new found popularity.

A good friend has been unable to text me on and off now for the past two weeks also.. Meteor's response, "Dont send him any messages for 24 hours as our engineers need to investiage it.." Since when has sending SMS regularly while the problem is being investigated been a hinderance..

They advertise that they offer 90% coverage. This is a bull****. Ever tried getting coverage from them around North County Dublin on either the M1 or the train.. Shambles.. And this is one of the busiest commuter routes in Europe and one of the most densely populated parts of the country.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by Bottle_of_Smoke
eur60 down payment for roaming isn't acceptable either.

Ah I forgot about this.. Whatever system they have in place for prepaid roaming is a joke, especially the service policy that dictates such a pre payment...

Vodafone's prepaid roaming allows you to top up with foreign operators vouchers... There is a big difference in the thinking of both companies..

Where these companies position themselves in the market is also very important. Meteor are obviously portraying themselves as cheap and cheerful and make no promises about service quality. Vodafone publicly admit they are more expensive and simply state you pay for quality. Meteor is the Kia of the mobile industry. Vodafone are the Mercedes..

talking_walnut

Interesting discussion I must say. Personally I'm a great fan of meteor. Never had any problems with them. Was with Vodafone for about 2-3 years before that and they were absolutey abysmal. Lost service constantly at peak time like Friday evenings. If I went to a concert or something there wasnt a chance of me being able to use my phone, even though there'd be plenty of people around me using there's.

Changed to meteor about this time last year and have never looked back. Service alone has been infinatley better. Admittedly there are times when I can have trouble sending a message but it never lasts long. Nowhere near as bad as the problems I had with vodafone. The sums add up too. Costs me sweet f.a. Had my current phone just under 3 months and have sent 3397 messages. Probably sent the same amount in total the whole time I was with Vodafone.

As for the people who complain that they've no coverage with meteor where they live, don't use them. I know people who have no Vodafone or O2 coverage where they live and therefore don't use them.

Bottle_of_Smoke:
What type of phone is it? Can you not unlock it yourself?

stereo_steve

Now translate that to Meteor offering roaming agreements with 1 operator in some countries. What if that one operator does not offer 99% coverage and you have no coverage in the area you want to do. With O2 and Vodafone it is likely you could choose an alternative, with Meteor you would not... Its perfectly reasonable..

What are you talking about??? Meteor have agreements in more countries than O2,Voda and have multiple agreements in countries. I've already provided a link.

Countries

You mention bad experiences you've had with meteor a long time ago. You can't use them as arguments. The mobile phone industry rapidly changes, especially in meteors case. I used to be with voda and had no signal one day in blessington. I'm sure thats still not the case! I'm in college on Camden Street and have full signal.

I switched over from O2 in April and haven't looked back. I will agree though that paying EUR60 to activate your roaming is crap though

They advertise that they offer 90% coverage. This is a bull****. Ever tried getting coverage from them around North County Dublin on either the M1 or the train.. Shambles.. And this is one of the busiest commuter routes in Europe and one of the most densely populated parts of the country.

I have been all over dublin and haven't experienced this. Infact for me its perfect. Perhaps Meteor and Comreg are just lying about their coverage?:rolleyes:

Celticwarrior

I've been on all three networks, and i find meteor the best by a long way, its suits me down to the ground, its way cheaper, decent reange of handsets, great customer care, customer rewards, free texts to 085's and coverage in Galway is great, i actually have full coverage where i live compared to variable coverage with 02 or vodafone, and coverage is improvin more and more, i've switched about 25 people over to meteor and they've switched more themselves and none have regretted it, i've gone from spending €50-60 pm on the other two networks to €20 pm on meteor!
I think most people should just unlock their phone, buy a meteor sim and try it out, its how most of the people i know switched over!

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by stereo_steve
I have been all over dublin and haven't experienced this. Infact for me its perfect. Perhaps Meteor and Comreg are just lying about their coverage?:rolleyes:

There has been much discussion previously as to the accuracy of Meteor's "90% Coverage" statement and I am certain that its not accurate.. Unless they consider geting 1 bar of signal but still being unable to make or rec calls as coverage?


Regarding my experiences with Meteor. I consistently used my Meteor number up until 3 months ago. My Meteor account is still active and in use on my 7650 in fact and has been for 12 months.. How recent do you consider valid? I also mentioned the a friend on Meteor who up to this day is having problems with texting and customers care helpful response...


Ok you are obiously not getting me on what I am trying to say about the number of roaming partners they have versus the number of roaming countries they have...

I was going to proove a point but neither the Vodafone or Meteor sites seem to contain all the info... I could get a little from O2 and Meteor..

Meteor customers can roam on the AT&T and Cingular networks in America.. O2 customers can use the AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile... T-Mobile covers some parts of the United states that the other two do not. Thus if you were a Meteor customer, you would be stranded without any service. With O2 you would not...

Do you get me now?

steveland?

Originally posted by Sinner_Rez


Coverage is always going to be useless at events like that. People with meteor phones might have been smiling but what happens when they go abroad and there are no agreements with other operators and they get screwed on roaming charges.

If you want comms at a gig like that get yourselfs some walkie talkies. Great craic altogether.

A friend had a walkie talkie at oxegen. We were listening to the security guys. Told them there were a couple of bogeys down by the dance tent wearin scanda and to Aprehend immediately. Then some guy started telling us there was no f***in way he was workin till half f***in two i nthe morning.

We agreed with him

stereo_steve

I get your point about the more roaming partners in a country the better. But you are assuming that O2 and Voda have more partners abroad. You have no evidence of this. We are arguing over your guesswork. That link I had shows that Meteor have multiple agreements in foreign countries:

As for the USA, T-mobile and Cingular share their network. So there is no difference in coverage between the two. Actually can someone confirm that, do they both own it or are T-mobile resellers?

Anyway I'm sure it varies slightly from country to country but Meteor have more than one partner in each country.

I think we should leave this argument though



Even though Meteor are overall superior!

Slice

Meteor are so cheap compared to Vodafone or O2. Not only do they have more roaming agreements than any other Irish networks (and in more countries), they also have the cheapest rates. Look at Australia for example - there is actually a Vodafone network in Australia and yet call charges for a Vodafone Ireland customer to roam on their partner network is over twice the price of roaming in Australia on Meteor. Another issue is that international call charges with Meteor are sometimes cheaper than fix-line providers and so much cheaper than Vodafone or O2.

Their coverage, although not as good as Vodafone or O2 has always been reliable for me - and in some cases actually better than the other two networks. In fact both Vodafone and O2 have poorer coverage than they claim - it's no where near 99% for each. I don't think that the difference you pay for Vodafone/O2 services are worth the convenience of being able to make a phone call in the Burren. I'd much rather pocket the difference and suffer the possibility of not being able to use a phone in remote places.

To be honest 3G is totally unproven. EDGE actually offers many of services that were first promoted as being the benifits of 3G. O2 are also introducing EDGE as well - it makes sense because 3G coverage is never going to come close to GSM coverage due to the amount of cells required so you might as well improve the quality of GSM with EDGE in areas where 3G is uneconomical. When it comes down to it - having more advance technology isn't going to make a difference to the majority of consumers, it's the products and services you offer that sell the phones and those products and services being made available with EDGE are looking very similar to what's on offer with 3G at the moment.

The main gripe with Meteor is their billpay service - their billpay tariffs may seem cheap in terms of the amount of minutes you get for the cost of line rental but the let down is that they don't offer any add-ons. Also, after the free minutes are used up they only offer flat rate price structures which are quite expensive - for example on Meteor Minutes 75 once you use up the 75 minutes it costs 45cents per minute to call competitor mobiles regardless of the time of day. Surely they can introduce billpay options that can match their prepaid tariffs.

Doublezero8

I don't think that the difference you pay for Vodafone/O2 services are worth the convenience of being able to make a phone call in the Burren. I'd much rather pocket the difference and suffer the possibility of not being able to use a phone in remote places.

I don't think too many businesses would agree with this statement and a large majority of mobile revenue is generated from business and corporate customers. They need to have confidence that the service they are getting is the best and they are willing to pay that bit extra to stay ahead of their competition.

When it comes down to it - having more advance technology isn't going to make a difference to the majority of consumers, it's the products and services you offer that sell the phones and those products and services being made available with EDGE are looking very similar to what's on offer with 3G at the moment.

The key thing being at the moment. 3G is a step ahead and the better products and services you can offer will epend largely on your technology and how advanced it is.

makes sense because 3G coverage is never going to come close to GSM coverage due to the amount of cells required so you might as well improve the quality of GSM with EDGE in areas where 3G is uneconomical.

Were are you getting this information from ?

If you knew the extent to which 3G coverage is already being offered in Ireland you would not be say that.

The main gripe with Meteor is their billpay service - their billpay tariffs may seem cheap in terms of the amount of minutes you get for the cost of line rental but the let down is that they don't offer any add-ons. Also, after the free minutes are used up they only offer flat rate price structures which are quite expensive - for example on Meteor Minutes 75 once you use up the 75 minutes it costs 45cents per minute to call competitor mobiles regardless of the time of day. Surely they can introduce billpay options that can match their prepaid tariffs.

Again how many big businesses use prepaid phones !


Meteor offer a service that appeals to the lower end of the market. People who are willing to sacrifice quailty of service and customer care to make a saving.

This is not a wild statement but one of fact as Vodafone received the best in customer class award this year and as to wether they do or don't offer 90% coverage its still not as good as o2 or Vodafone.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by stereo_steve
I get your point about the more roaming partners in a country the better. But you are assuming that O2 and Voda have more partners abroad. You have no evidence of this. We are arguing over your guesswork. That link I had shows that Meteor have multiple agreements in foreign countries:

As for the USA, T-mobile and Cingular share their network. So there is no difference in coverage between the two. Actually can someone confirm that, do they both own it or are T-mobile resellers?

Anyway I'm sure it varies slightly from country to country but Meteor have more than one partner in each country.

I think we should leave this argument though

I think we should too.. I actually was going to count the number of roaming partners each operator had but couldnt get the info on their respective sites... America was the only one that I could really get for both that sort of suited my argument.

flywheel

ok - well this topic seems to have played itself out... although some of the examples about customer care are worth a final comment...

it can be a complete lottery calling any of the operators for customer care, sometimes you get an efficient helpful person, other times you could be talking to someone who either hasn't been trained well enough or doesn't care... no one operator has a monopoly on this... i've experienced incredibly bad examples with each and all too few excellent ones - enough to know they all need to try harder...

BrianG