Meteor Mobile Broadband & 3G

Solair

There's nothing particularly poor about eircom's infrastructure. They've access to every home and business in the country, a vast entirely digital, quite high tech voice network, every other telco service and the country's largest fiber optic network - by a long shot and lots of international connectivity which they own themselves...

Their infrastructure's not the issue most customers have it's their refusal to allow you access to it at a reasonable cost !! Also, DSL is overlayed on the existing network, they're just cutting corners by not rolling it out to every switch it's no reflection on the eircom network's ability to support it!

dmn

anymore info re mobile broadband...thats what i am most interested in at the moment

frankymail

So does anyone hav any updates on the 3G front for meteor! When are they suppose to be launching new 3G services and phones! The K850i is in there latest metero store magazine...looks good!

Walkman

There must be some people who work for meteor who post on this site.
Do you have any info on when meteor will be launching their 3g services?

BigCon

I was told March by a Meteor shop person, but he waas only guessign I think.

The Real B-man

i Did that survey on there website the one where money goes to charity when you complete it and at the end i asked when will 3G be launched and they actually rang me a few days later and said they are building the network atm but there is no set launch date :rolleyes:

theteal

some meteor and eircom staff are testing the expanding 3G in the dublin area and have been since approx october 07. that's why handset network searches will pick up the availability of Meteor 3G in certain places. you cant connect because the present meteor 32k sims are not a properly provisioned 3G sims. obviously a product needs to be tested before it can be released for sale. comreg's release states a certain percentage of users need to be active by october 08, so i would assume that they would need to be offering the service to consumers before this date to meet deadline. actual date for release is anybody's guess, late summer would be my bet

dave oc

I just switched network to meteor on new years eve. When I was in the shop I asked about Meteor going 3g. The lad I was dealing with said it should be the end of this month or definitely by the start of Feb.... He said that all the staff in the shop were given new 3g because of this.... I hope to hell he's right...

theteal

first phase of testing runs until april 08, no chance of seeing it sold by feb, i stick by my late summer bet

graememk

The Real B-man wrote: »

i Did that survey on there website the one where money goes to charity when you complete it and at the end i asked when will 3G be launched and they actually rang me a few days later and said they are building the network atm but there is no set launch date :rolleyes:

I filled out the comment card on the meteor website too and got a call last night about it, very helpful girl on the phone said they will be hopefully launching the 3G Service in march! I asked her that i live in the very north of Donegal (usually the last to get anything!, I only actually got meteor reception a few months ago) and would I get reception in march? She said that it would be launched nationwide and I would have reception. So fingers crossed!

I thought i would let people know about it.

graememk

graememk wrote: »

I asked her that i live in the very north of Donegal (usually the last to get anything!, I only actually got meteor reception a few months ago) and would I get reception in march? She said that it would be launched nationwide and I would have reception.

To be honest I think this is a bit of bull. I'm not saying you weren't told that, I'm just saying I don't really believe it. Can you get 3G services from other providers? If so then maybe, if not then I doubt Meteor will do it first.

graememk

Ya i can get vodafone and o2 3G reception on my SE K800 although I haven't seen three but on their map they say i'm covered, do they piggyback on another carrier like meteor does with vodafone? or does the K800 not pick up three reception - Ya i'll believe it when i see it,

graememk

graememk wrote: »

Ya i can get vodafone and o2 3G reception on my SE K800 although I haven't seen three but on their map they say i'm covered, do they piggyback on another carrier like meteor does with vodafone? or does the K800 not pick up three reception - Ya i'll believe it when i see it,

They use Vodafone's GSM network for backup when their own network isn't available yet they like to cover this up. So they'll say you're covered but not really with 3 themselves. The 3 SIM will modify Vodafone's network name to show up as 3. New Meteor SIMs do the same - when I'm in Kerry I can't tell if I'm roaming unless I use field test or FExplorer to check the network ID.

graememk

Karsini wrote: »

They use Vodafone's GSM network for backup when their own network isn't available yet they like to cover this up. So they'll say you're covered but not really with 3 themselves. The 3 SIM will modify Vodafone's network name to show up as 3. New Meteor SIMs do the same - when I'm in Kerry I can't tell if I'm roaming unless I use field test or FExplorer to check the network ID.

That has cleared that up for me, I actually have a really old meteor sim one with the free picture messages! when i am roaming on vodafone (or when im in the north on T mobile) it says Vodafone IE and underneath that says meteor in smaller writing. This is a pure guess but maybe Meteor might use vodafone's UTMS network for their 3G services to fill in the gaps where they dont have actual 3G Coverage.

HappyCrackHead

A few bits and peices here.

As far as I know, UCD were getting students to volunteer to test a mobile broadband device, it looked quite a bit like the huaweii 220 which vodafone o2 and 3 were selling prior to this month, (o2 now using huaweii 270, and 3 using some other ztc device). Anyway these devices UCD were giving out had the Eircom logo on them. Interesting much.

I work for Carphone Warehouse and the networks tend to be rather secretive but we had been advised to tell people that the roll out would be in february. At the moment the only 3G phones we tell people about are the E65 and N73 on Meteor. In settings on those phones you choose "Meteor ISP" which is their 3G network.

Someone asked about the K850i, that's expected out on Meteor in next few weeks (4-8) and it will more than likely coinscide with the official roll out of Meteor 3G.

One thing i had heard about was meteor data cards. A few of them have been seen around, reports are that signal strenght is quite poor. Though that was a few months back. Oh, and it should be HSDPA they're using.

kelzer

So will Meteor be offering a 3G data modem like the other networks?

Walkman

kelzer wrote: »

So will Meteor be offering a 3G data modem like the other networks?

Why not? If they have a 3g network they will have the capability to offer some sort of service.
Any solid dates for launch, coverage?:D

Rory B

3G coverage will be available to Meteor customers this year, rollout at the moment is about 26% population coverage, after the launch they wish to wait up to 6 months based on how the 3G HSPDA network performs before offering Mobile Broadband, so it should be around april/may 2009.

Killaqueen!!!

Hold on - I'm getting a Nokia n95 upgrade but will be using Meteor pay as you go SIM card. So I can't use the Mobil Internet on it until Meteor finally catch up with Vodafone and offer this service? That's sh1t. That's the reason I've been trying to get a N95.

niallb

As far as I can see, the N95 also supports EDGE, which Meteor already has nationwide.
It gives you about a 200k connection (same as an iPhone).

They offer 250MB for €9.99 a month, or 10GB ("Unlimited") for €30 for heavy pay monthly users.
Don't know about options on a pay as you go. In general, you'll get a much better deal
with a billpay phone if you want to use a lot of data.

Killaqueen!!!

niallb wrote: »

As far as I can see, the N95 also supports EDGE, which Meteor already has nationwide.
It gives you about a 200k connection (same as an iPhone).

They offer 250MB for €9.99 a month, or 10GB ("Unlimited") for €30 for heavy pay monthly users.
Don't know about options on a pay as you go. In general, you'll get a much better deal
with a billpay phone if you want to use a lot of data.

Yeah, I saw that on the site but it seems to only apply to meteor bill pay. This sucks, I assumed once I got the phone meteor would have some plans for pay as you go internet.

..I can still use it for free at any wifi hotspots right? (as in at home using my normal wireless connection).

Does Vodafone live! apply to their pay as you go as well as bill pay? Might consider buying a Vodafone SIM in that case.

long_b

Vodafone PAYG is 99 cents a day, pretty much all you can eat for normal browsing (50MB).

Yesterday a helpful Meteor employee claimed the 3G rollout won't be till the end of the year.

Walkman

There gotta me some meteor people in the know on this site.
Any info on when it's being launched or what type of srevices...I'm beginning to loose interest in this, it's like waiting on that bloody iphone to launch (although I lost intertest in that the day I heard about it):rolleyes::rolleyes::pac:(I love pac man!!)

sk8board

Walkman wrote: »

There gotta me some meteor people in the know on this site.
Any info on when it's being launched or what type of srevices...

The announcement of who will be chosen to build the 3G network is imminent, probably even today (eircom were meeting to decide this yesterday).
the roll-out time-frame is 18 months, with Dublin fully covered for next christmas

Pyro Boy

There are people testing meteor 3G network how do you become one of these lucky people and do you have to be on bill pay? and secondly I have the nokia e51 is it possible to use this as a mobile broadband (ie for your laptop)instead of the usb mobile broadband thing?

long_b

You have ti be a Bill Pay customer on an upgrade, some shops only. There's another thread on this.

the e51 would work very well as a mobile broadband device - it has HSDPA speed which is what you need.

Able IT

I have connected to the Meteor 3G network here in Sligo. I think they are using Vodafone's infrastructure as far as i know. In the west for coverage purposes we could use the Vodafone network for no extra charge. Now when doing a network search the Vodafone network does not appear instead its labeled Meteor 3G. Seems to be working great too.

Walkman

You using vodafones 3g network to access meteors 3g services? Strange, didnt think voda would allow that.

Able IT

Well from what i can tell its Metoer's way of getting a 3G enabled network up and running very quickly. They obviously have some sort of agreement worked out with Vodafone. They are using vodafone's infrastrtucture to enable their network rather than implementing base stations themselves. Very clever on Meteor's part if that is what they have agreed with vodafone.

Nothing down here in Kerry at the moment, "No access" when trying to access Vodafone's 3G network from a Meteor SIM. But I'm on prepay so that might explain it.