Best Minutes Package?

Szero

Moving to Ireland from the UK ...

What is the best mobile minutes package I should go for. I was using about 800 minutes a month in the UK and will probably use the same here.

Thanks.

JTMan

You are best going for Meteor 350, Meteor 1250 or Meteor 2500.

Meteor 350 gives you 350 minutes to any network anytime and cheap calls for you back to the UK. It costs €55 a month.

More here:
http://www.meteor.ie/makethemove/minutes.html

O2 don't give free minutes as such and Vodafone free minutes are crap.

Doublezero8

Think you should find out were he will be living in Ireland before advising him to go for one of Meteor Packages

008

stereo_steve

Where are you going to be living?

Without doubt you should go with Meteor if your from the UK. Meteor charge the same if your calling the UK or Ireland. It is the best value network in Ireland by far. The only problem with it though is that they are in the middle of their roll out. They have 90% coverage now. So unless your going to be living in the middle of nowhere.You'll be covered

jesus_thats_gre

What sort of usage are you talking about also? Will it be for business use or personal use? Will you be making many peak period calls? Will you be sending many SMS? What network are you with currently? Do you want services like Vodafone Live or will basic WAP do?

BrianD

Out of curiosity what are you currently paying for your 800 minutes per month in the UK? Would be interesting to compare!

Szero

Thanks guys.

I will be living the city centre so the coverage offered by Meteor should be fine.

What sort of usage are you talking about also

Lots of peak and off peak voice calls with a small number of SMS messages.

Will it be for business use or personal use

Personal mainly

Do you want services like Vodafone Live or will basic WAP do?

Don't think I have ever used WAP ...

Out of curiosity what are you currently paying for your 800 minutes per month in the UK

I was paying £70 for 1,000 minutes with Vodafone until earlier in the year. I then ported to 3 Videotalk 750. 3 gave me a free 3G LG phone and 750 minutes a month for £17.50 (€23) for the first 12 months.

It is a pitty that 3 have not launched in Ireland yet. I think I will go with Meteor 1250. Anyone got details of meteor 2500 ?

jesus_thats_gre

Its had to argue against Meteor in this case, especially for personal use...

Only thing about Meteor is that you cannot carry over remaining minutes to the next month...

JTMan

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Meteor is that you cannot carry over remaining minutes to the next month...

For a heavy UK user who wants 800 domestic minutes Meteor really is the best option.

Compare ...

1. Vodafones best package which is €50 per month with 100 free any network any time minutes, 100 minutes to any vodafone number, expensive text messages, expensive calls back home to the UK and expensive roaming but your tiny number of minutes can be carried forward

versus

2. 350 any network any time minutes for €55 or 1250 any network any time minutes for €125 with cheap texting, international calls and roaming.

SZero wrote:

Anyone got details of meteor 2500

I can't find it on their website ... AFAIK, it is 2500 any network anytime minutes for €125 (same price as Meteor 1250) but you have to pay in cash for the minutes up front and you just get a bill for usage outside of the 2500 minutes. Best package on the market by far if you don't mind paying up front and you are a very heavy mobile user.

wiggum

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Only thing about Meteor is that you cannot carry over remaining minutes to the next month...

True but at least with Meteor you can pause your line rental. You can at anytime pause your line rental for up to 3 months. So if SZero was to go back to the UK for a few weeks he could pause his commitment with meteor for that period. Much better than a pathetic 100 minutes that everyone is going to use up and not carry forward.

I have been messed about by Meteor in the past but they seem to have greatly improved in recent months. When my o2 contract expires in December I think I will port back to Meteor and get a decent contact package.

Whatever you do SZero stay well clear of o2 and vodafone they rip Irish customers off. You are much better off with Meteor.

jesus_thats_gre

Fungus wrote:

Compare ...

1. Vodafones best package which is €50 per month with 100 free any network any time minutes, 100 minutes to any vodafone number, expensive text messages, expensive calls back home to the UK and expensive roaming but your tiny number of minutes can be carried forward

versus

2. 350 any network any time minutes for €55 or 1250 any network any time minutes for €125 with cheap texting, international calls and roaming.

Just to correct you there..

Vodafone's highest personal tariff is in fact Performer and costs around €60 a month including VAT. With this you actually get 200 minutes to any number at anytime and 200 minutes to a Call a Friend for Free..

Vodafone also offer some Business options that allow up to 2000 free minutes called Sharetime. They are primarily for business users but personal customers can get connected on them..

It really depends on what you want and what you consider to be important.

JTMan

Fair enough ... I had no idea that non-business users could sign up to the shartime packages.

Having said that the price of the sharetime packages is shocking . Vodafone charge €368.70 line rental per month for 2,000 anytime any network minutes. While Meteor charge an upfront €125.00 for 2,500 anytime any network minutes.

jesus_thats_gre

Fungus wrote:

Fair enough ... I had no idea that non-business users could sign up to the shartime packages.

Having said that the price of the sharetime packages is shocking . Vodafone charge €368.70 line rental per month for 2,000 anytime any network minutes. While Meteor charge an upfront €125.00 for 2,500 anytime any network minutes.

When you break down the basics of cost per minutes then yes it looks more expensive. However businesses are more than willing to pay the extra amount for a reliable service... The majority of customers that are on Meteor are low to medium spending prepaid customers... I have numerous friends who insist on having a Vodafone bill phone even though they are more than aware Meteor is cheaper. There is a reason for and it is simple, sometimes cost is not he only concern... The only people I know who have a Meteor phone purely do so because of the free messaging (i.e. they send like 100 messages a day to someone special and save a fortune). If cost is your only consideration then there is no arguing..

I will recap my experience with Meteor in the past six months... Based in Dundalk, Dublin City Centre and Leopardstown during this 6 month period..

-Constant problems with their SMS service - messages failing to deliver, refusing to send, massive delay in delivering, unable to recieve. This consistently happened every weekend for a months

-Network busy messages when attempting to make a call..

-Coverage dropping from 7 bars, to 1 and back to 7 again. Thus dropping calls and poor line quality

-Absolutely no coverage in parts of the Dundalk to Dublin railway

- Network problems due to "essential maintenance work" for a whole weekend three time. Not compensated in anyway. The maintenance was a knock on effect of the network not being able to support the drastic increase in subscribers in a short time I bet..

- I spent 75% less per month than I did spend on Vodafone previously

I changed phone three time during this period and got a new sim card also. The problems persisted. I am not sure if they do now as I rarely use my Meteor sim anymore..

flywheel

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Absolutely no coverage in parts of the Dundalk to Dublin railway

not sure of the point you are making about the railway coverage, do Vodafone now guarantee full coverage along the Irish Rail network?

BrianG

jesus_thats_gre

DubWireless wrote:

not sure of the point you are making about the railway coverage, do Vodafone now guarantee full coverage along the Irish Rail network?

BrianG

There is a tiny blackspot just before you get into Drogheda train station with Vodafone. That is pretty much it from my esperience. Do any network operator guarantee coverage anywhere? Meteor has the same blackspot but bigger, another between Dundalk and Drogheda and a few between Balbriggan and Howth.. Its a minor issue I know but it is particularly annoying when trying to make a call..

flywheel

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

There is a tiny blackspot just before you get into Drogheda train station with Vodafone. That is pretty much it from my esperience.

last journey to Cork had my Voda coverage up and down a lot along the way...

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Its a minor issue I know but it is particularly annoying when trying to make a call.

sure it is annoying, but applicable to all the operators - just wanted to clear up if the "reliable [Vodafone] service..." you highlighted in your post had suddenly extended to the Irish rail network... as you were making it a particular issue with Meteor...

BrianG

JTMan

With regard to Meteor qaulity of service ...
I have not had any outages (thank god) since last year, the 70 million they have put into their network this year has greatly improved coverage and I can't say I have had many busy signals (Meteor have more capacity than the other networks). I don't think there is currently any significant difference in terms of service between the operators.

There is just no getting away from the fact that Vodafone and O2 are taking Irish customers to the drycleaners. Just look at what Vodafone did to roaming to other week ( http://www.ripoffireland.org )

flywheel

Szero wrote:

I will be living the city centre so the coverage offered by Meteor should be fine... Lots of peak and off peak voice calls with a small number of SMS messages... Personal mainly... Don't think I have ever used WAP...

Meteor sound like a good option for you, you could try them out first to check out coverage / reliability for a few days before you sign up to a long term contract by getting one of their pre-pay SIM cards to give them a go - you'd need a SIM unlocked GSM handset to put it in though

alternatively, O2 or Vodafone are your only other option at present, here are links to the current contract price plans...

O2 Pay Monthly Tarifs and options
Voda Pay Monhtly price plans

BrianG

jesus_thats_gre

Fungus wrote:

With regard to Meteor qaulity of service ...
I have not had any outages (thank god) since last year, the 70 million they have put into their network this year has greatly improved coverage and I can't say I have had many busy signals (Meteor have more capacity than the other networks). I don't think there is currently any significant difference in terms of service between the operators.

Yes but why do they have more capacity? Is it because they have so few customers? 70 million is decent investment. I am sounding biased at this stage but Vodafone invest between 3.5 million and 4 million a week in their network...

As I said, if cost is the only major requirement you have, Meteor are likely the best option.

DubWireless wrote:

sure it is annoying, but applicable to all the operators - just wanted to clear up if the "reliable [Vodafone] service..." you highlighted in your post had suddenly extended to the Irish rail network... as you were making it a particular issue with Meteor...

Correct, it is something that is applicable to all networks. But there is no denying that both O2 and Vodafone offer substantially better coverage than Meteor... Vodafone is a reliable service, period..

The reference I made was to the railway line between Dundalk and Dublin. Vodafone offers better quality coverage along this than Meteor. The same applies to the M1. I am not sure if you are suggestimg otherwise, if you are, what are your experiences of this? Note, this is one of the busiest commuter routes in the country and I would consider it important to provide coverage along this route.

flywheel

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

The same applies to the M1. I am not sure if you are suggestimg otherwise, if you are, what are your experiences of this? Note, this is one of the busiest commuter routes in the country.

i don't drive , i do train however, hence my interest in your particular railway example about problems with Meteor... i too experience "absolutely no coverage in parts" of the rail network although mine would be with Vodafone

sure i'd expect Vodafone to have a more "reliable service" than Meteor, as i'm paying a premium for it, just pointing out Meteor don't have a monopoly on rail network black spots

BrianG