Meteor Mobile Broadband & 3G

congo_90

I recently Rang Meteor cust. services to see if my 3G enabled 3(network) handset would be compatible with there 2g sim's. While on the phone. The technician mentioned that meteor are (cant emphasise enough)EXPERIMENTING and soon may launch a 3G service. Tests are being carried out until October but that doesnt mean they are launchin in October.
Be interesting to see if my handset will work with Meteor 3G.
Oh by the way i picked up Meteor 3G in the air here in Dunboyne on my phone.

Slice

Any sign of this pre-Christmas??

HiredGun

Have a look at this press release from ComReg:
http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/PR120307b.pdf

"The [3G] licence which has been accepted by Eircom includes minimum requirements of 33% demographic coverage to be fulfilled by the end of September 2008 and 53% demographic coverage to be met by the end of September 2009. Eircom is obliged to reach 83% coverage by the end of October 2012."

So eircom/Meteor are obliged to have 33% population coverage by September next year. If you cover Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway you probably meet the 33%. Just guessing, but Meteor may launch earlier but I guess it will be with very limited coverage.

redrasta

Why are we asking about 3G coverage? The only thing it's good for is mobile broadband and even at that its pretty crappy. Ireland is at least ten years behind the rest of the world when it comes to wireless broadband technology!!! In the states, Japan, most of Asia and Europe the major cities are hot spots in themselves, which means free broadband for all(essentialy). But that will never happen here, think about it. If there were free broadband all over the major cities we could use SKYPE/VOIP to make our phone calls. Eircom would loose its stranglehold on the Irish phone and internet industry. Could you imagine a life without eircom? Heaven.

redrasta

If you put your 2g sim in your 3g phone and go to manual network select. It will search for all the networks and you just have to select yours. Let me kno if this works for you. It should, if you had a 3g sim and a 2g phone then it wouldnt work.

agentgreen

Anyone know when the E65 is out???

Solair

Seems Meteor have switched on 3G in Cork, there is 3G coverage in much of the city centre and down to to the tunnel.

I wonder how long it's going to be to launch.

I have a Meteor (new) bill pay sim in a 3G phone and can see the networks but when I register I can't actually do anything

neilled

Lads hold fire, its going to be well into next year according to the meteor rep that i talked to the other day. Infrastructure roll out is still ongoing.

storka

Solair wrote: »

Seems Meteor have switched on 3G in Cork, there is 3G coverage in much of the city centre and down to to the tunnel.

I wonder how long it's going to be to launch.

I have a Meteor (new) bill pay sim in a 3G phone and can see the networks but when I register I can't actually do anything

I too have a new Meteor 3G bill pay phone and can pick up the 3G network but when i try and access it i can't!

I wouldn't be too confident with what Meteor reps tell you. Was in one branch last week asking about when they were getting the N73 in and was told no store would have it til next year. I now have that phone in my hand!

Solair

I get the impression that the rollout is going a little faster than the Meteor reps are aware. The driving force behind it is possibly the eircom Mobile business branding. They'll want 3G devices and data stuff aimed at business users very soon.

Also, their EDGE coverage is quite impressively extensive and very useful for mobile email (If you've a data ad-on)

I'm not sure if there's an eircom mobile rebrand on the way, or if it's just a niche brand aimed at business check out : http://business.eircom.net/mobile/

It seems though that they're having difficulty convincing business users that Meteor's a viable service for a serious user as the brand has targeted younger pre-pay users and there is still a perception that the coverage is poor, which is no longer true.

I know when I changed over to Meteor I had business colleagues thinking I was completely mad, yet I have often had better coverage than O2 and my bills are DRASTICALLY more pleasant to read. I'd say I'm saving >50% vs what O2 were milking me for!

I think they're doing a pretty aggressive rollout.

Even though eircom may be a bit slack in the residential market, i.e. because they're the incumbent and can get away with it. In the mobile market they're in an entirely different position as one of the smallest players and one with very few customers on contract relative. Vodafone and O2 are jointly the incumbents with heavier spending customers i.e. business users not convinced that they can switch to anyone else. I don't think the eircom takeover's going to see less innovation from Meteor / eircom mobile. Rather, I think they've now got cash, new transmitter sites (on eircom property) and a parent company that's willing to play hardball and be seriously aggressive.

While I wouldn't touch eircom for home phone/broadband service, I would have no issues with using their mobile services. It's Vodafone and O2 I avoid in that sector!!

wirelessdude

is meteor 3G, standard 3G or HSDPA?

neilled

Solair wrote: »

I get the impression that the rollout is going a little faster than the Meteor reps are aware. The driving force behind it is possibly the eircom Mobile business branding. They'll want 3G devices and data stuff aimed at business users very soon.

Also, their EDGE coverage is quite impressively extensive and very useful for mobile email (If you've a data ad-on)

I'm not sure if there's an eircom mobile rebrand on the way, or if it's just a niche brand aimed at business check out : http://business.eircom.net/mobile/

It seems though that they're having difficulty convincing business users that Meteor's a viable service for a serious user as the brand has targeted younger pre-pay users and there is still a perception that the coverage is poor, which is no longer true.

I know when I changed over to Meteor I had business colleagues thinking I was completely mad, yet I have often had better coverage than O2 and my bills are DRASTICALLY more pleasant to read. I'd say I'm saving >50% vs what O2 were milking me for!

I think they're doing a pretty aggressive rollout.

Even though eircom may be a bit slack in the residential market, i.e. because they're the incumbent and can get away with it. In the mobile market they're in an entirely different position as one of the smallest players and one with very few customers on contract relative. Vodafone and O2 are jointly the incumbents with heavier spending customers i.e. business users not convinced that they can switch to anyone else. I don't think the eircom takeover's going to see less innovation from Meteor / eircom mobile. Rather, I think they've now got cash, new transmitter sites (on eircom property) and a parent company that's willing to play hardball and be seriously aggressive.

While I wouldn't touch eircom for home phone/broadband service, I would have no issues with using their mobile services. It's Vodafone and O2 I avoid in that sector!!

The rep in question did mention a percentage figure - having said that though, I feel at the moment 3g isn't a necessity for most business customers who just do lots of calls, texts etc and can't manage anything else. Well occasionally a blackberry but that would be fine with edge and meteor have that as it is. In addittion the terms of the license stipulate they need 53% coverage by 2011..... there's no rush for them to build it.

Eircom like vodafone and o2 has tremendous brand loyalty and by offering a bundle of mobile and landline on same bill ala BT in the UK is tempting to many in business.

Meteors reputation stems from the bad old days when coverage was sketchy at best. Coming down from the north in my teens I used to put my meteor sim into my phone just outside kells because thats where the signal began! A far cry from todays more or less comprehensive coverage from meteor but the memory lingers with alot of people that its a "cheap network" for kids and students.

Random

The guy who mentioned the Eircom branding .. I've seen a Nokia 6300 with an Eircom branded SIM and Eircom operator logo on the screen .. one wonders ...

ciaranfo

ciaranfo wrote: »

The guy who mentioned the Eircom branding .. I've seen a Nokia 6300 with an Eircom branded SIM and Eircom operator logo on the screen .. one wonders ...

Hmm it does... Maybe they want to shake off the bad image as well as integrate Meteor into the rest of the company.

EDIT: The Wikipedia page for eircom states that eircom Mobile is an MVNO which piggybacks on Meteor.

Random

This is what I always wondered karsini ... but if Eircom is a MVNO and I saw this maybe 2 or 3 months ago .. how are Tesco the first?? I'm confused.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Random

I didn't get a chance to try it, but I asked the guys number was 085.

eamon234

Probably a stab at Vodafone since they've taken over Perlico and are edging into the home phone parket

chrislad

Tesco is the first public MVNO. AFAIK, eircom mobile is business only.

AlmightyCushion

eamon234 wrote: »

Probably a stab at Vodafone since they've taken over Perlico and are edging into the home phone parket

Eircom sent my parents out a letter advertising their mobile tarrifs. This was around a month ago so before the perlico take over. I think they marketed it as a triple play thing. So you can have your phone, broadband and mobile under the one bill.

failsafe

The Eircom MVNO uses the Meteor billing systems etc (I presume) because all their numbers are 085 and their free calls are called "free Eircom/Meteor" calls. I.e. they're just Meteor mobiles, but with Eircom logo's and Eircom send you the bill.

It's just a marketing strategy because I'm guessing they figure that Eircom has a better track record and reputation amongst businesses rather than Meteor, which targets the youth/teen market traditionally.

Solair

eircom mobile's not really an MVNO, they OWN meteor outright. eircom = meteor meteor = eircom. They would have absolutely no need to have an MVNO.

eircom branding is much more useful for pulling business clients than Meteor.

I'd say we're on the verge of "Meteor from eircom" or "eircom Meteor"

sticking the eircom brand on a meteor product just respectablises it for business users, even if many people online may not love eircom, business people see them as rock solid.

Meteor simply has a hard job being taken seriously by business people, so it makes a lot of sense!!

democrates

Solair wrote: »

eircom mobile's not really an MVNO, they OWN meteor outright. eircom = meteor meteor = eircom. They would have absolutely no need to have an MVNO.

eircom branding is much more useful for pulling business clients than Meteor.

I'd say we're on the verge of "Meteor from eircom" or "eircom Meteor"

sticking the eircom brand on a meteor product just respectablises it for business users, even if many people online may not love eircom, business people see them as rock solid.

Meteor simply has a hard job being taken seriously by business people, so it makes a lot of sense!!

Watch this space though, Babcock and Brown are looking at selling off the retail/mobile arm of the group.

Fratton Fred

democrates wrote: »

Watch this space though, Babcock and Brown are looking at selling off the retail/mobile arm of the group.

That is the rumour, but that is the only bit of the group that makes any decent money. B&B are a venture capital company so they wold want to eventually sell off he group for as much as possible, selling off Meteor and Eircom retail would leave them with just the Eircom networks bit, which no one would touch with a barge pole.

slegs

Tesco Mobile is the first real Irish MVNO with its own numbers on the 089 number range. As said before Eircom Mobile is a rebranding of Meteor's business priceplans.

What if you want to port from Eircom Mobile in store to Vodafone? Who do you say your network is? AFAIK Eircom are not represented in porting so the shop agents wouldnt have a clue what you are talking about. One for Comreg maybe.

chrislad

Eircom are represented in the porting list.

democrates

Fratton Fred wrote: »

That is the rumour, but that is the only bit of the group that makes any decent money. B&B are a venture capital company so they wold want to eventually sell off he group for as much as possible, selling off Meteor and Eircom retail would leave them with just the Eircom networks bit, which no one would touch with a barge pole.

I wouldn't discount all that infrastructure in the ground and international connectivity, they're also about to begin trials of fiber to the case and to the home.

I know, mobile is huge and only going to grow, but wait, there's more, guess who owns all those exchanges with mobile masts that residents love to see going up...

Fratton Fred

democrates wrote: »

I wouldn't discount all that infrastructure in the ground and international connectivity, they're also about to begin trials of fiber to the case and to the home.

I know, mobile is huge and only going to grow, but wait, there's more, guess who owns all those exchanges with mobile masts that residents love to see going up...

Neither Metoer nor Eircom own the masts, they sold the whole lot off earlier this year.

rebel.ranter

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Neither Metoer nor Eircom own the masts, they sold the whole lot off earlier this year.

They didn't sell all of them at all. It was apprximately 50% of the Eircom towers only. Meteor still own the Meteor ones.

But it is the next step in the telecomms market, operators will sell their infastructure, outsource their engineering activities, send their call centres to India & just be left with a brand & a sales force.

Their margins are being squeezed now, they had it easy for years.

democrates

What are the odds.
From http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=10123524 today

"The Irish Times says that Goodbody Stockbrokers is seeking to raise EUR40 million in equity to fund the acquisition of 338 Eircom masts by a company called Towercom. The fundraising began in November and Goodbody is believed to have raised more than half the funds to date. It hopes to close off the cash call by Christmas."

Towercom. That ranks alongside Interslice or Cutco.

I'm afraid to say any more about them, as yer man said in the movie "Things can always get worse Veronica".