The pros and cons of switching to Meteor?

BuffyBot

In response to BuffyBot, Meteor don't have the same coverage as o2.

I've seen very little in the difference between the two.

The Meteor network is fine for some people, especially those who have no interest in the voice call functionality on their mobile

I haven't had much trouble with the voice call functionality in my travels.

TBH people will just have to make up their own minds.

Cyrus

i switched from voda and im sorry i did, patchy coverage in south dublin and useless coverage in wexford where i am from time to time,

cant change back tho as im in a 12mth contract

rymus

jrey1981 wrote:

Rymus, if you're interested in getting rid of your 6310i I'll give you a better price towards your new phone than Carphone Warehouse, Meteor or anyone else will...

cool.. I'll take a look what kind of condition its in and get back to you. tbh I wouldn't burden anyone with it if it's in a bad state.

Dr Cox's Ego

MagicBusDriver wrote:

Well I'm glad it worked out for ya, I can't say I'm happy with what I'm paying o2, but a lot of people I know switched to Meteor only to switch back after a couple of months.

So did I, thats why this is still a bit of a dillemma. Their special 5c thing is up soon too I think. Decisions decisions!

the_syco

I'm a pay-as-you-go customer.

Moved from Meteor to o2. Meteor had sh|te reception in Carlow, Dublin, Leixlip ... but I never have had bad reception with o2 in such area's.

Switched from Vodaphone to Meteor as I got the Meteor chips free, and but the reception was never great.

Meteor had cheap call charges, "loyalty bonus's" (get a few eruro free every month, if you spend so much on credit), but I could never really spend them, due to lack of reception. Also, the longest a call ever lasted (meteor to meteor) was 21 minutes. Usually, it'd fail before then, tho:mad:

6ix

Been with Meteor since November and never had a bother coverage wise. Live in Dublin but regularly travel to the North West, including Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Mayo (areas noted above for having poor Meteor coverage).

Meteor cover a lot more than I thought they would, and where they don't, O2 coverage picks up (while your costs still remain Meteor!).

Allied to this, my call costs have been slashed by 40/50%... Maybe I've just been lucky with coverage, but overall, I'm very glad to have switched.

wheresthebeef

i think you need to make some concessions regarding coverage. you are never going to get 100% coverage. no country or network can boast that. a lot of it could be to do with phones.
i have a sony ericcson T630 and i cant get reception in my house. on the street. anywhere. i have to beg and pray and hope to make it work. its keeps saying "SOS calls only" on the screen. Its really annoying. I know its not just my phone cause loads of my friends have same problem on same phone.

rymus

how odd.. I would have thought that if it was allowing emergency calls only it would have something to do with a loose/dodgy connection between the sim and phone. how do Sony Ericsson expect a person to make an emergency call when theres no coverage?

airetam_storm

I'v been with meteor for over two years and at first rhere was regular problems with coverage voicecalls etc.. but in the past year they have improved immensly with very little problems, just what you would expect from the cheapest network around.
Still would like to see how 3 will run their show though..

Kristok

I have been with meteor for well over a year and the only time i had problems was in mayo before the deal with o2.

I do think that perhaps the problems some people have might be due to the phones, a friend of mine on meteor had a seimans phone and we had droped calls all the time and once they changed phones to a v300 everythings worked perfectly.

I dont think that info about meteor ending after this year is remotly true, meteor seem to be the only phone company growing in ireland right now the rest are loosing their customers.

paconnors

got my first bill today with meteor and i'm very impressed €106 used to be with vodafone and my avg bill was €180 for same amount of time with calls

grimloch

I switched over on the weekend and I'm already impressed with the cheaper texts and calls, haven't had a chance yet to test it out in the country yet but so far so good.

lodey

Hi there,
I just made the move to meteor 2 weeks ago and hav'nt had any issues since. I live outside of Navan and i could not get a great signal on Vodafone but the service with Meteor is great. The move was simple apart from Vodafone charging me for another month even though I had told them that I was switching (I gave a months notice...more than the 28 days they state that they need)..usually my bill month started on the 11th but funnily enough vodafone changed this to the 8th a day before I switched...so if u r thinking of moving do but beware of the giant that is vodafone and there rip off charges!!!

All the horror stories that people have stated about meteor ie text messages not arriving on time has not happened to me..I think I will get the wife to switch as well....

kasintahan

rymus wrote:

how odd.. I would have thought that if it was allowing emergency calls only it would have something to do with a loose/dodgy connection between the sim and phone. how do Sony Ericsson expect a person to make an emergency call when theres no coverage?

All GSM phones function as SOS only units even without a SIM.
They pick a network, any network, and use it for the call - it's part of the GSM spec.

Dummy

I got my first Meteor bill yesterday. My mobile and my wifes used to be circa 220 euro for the 2 phones from O2.

Yesterdays bill from Meteor 102 euro. And we expect next months to be lower again as this bill spanned partly into a second month (we switched mid-month).

Coverage in Dublin: No issue
Coverage in Louth: No issue
Coverage on journey from Youghal to Dublin last weekend: One black-spot in a small village south of Kilkenny.
Support Desk: Called today to ask for roaming to be switched on. On hold for 2 mins. Zero hassle. Very pleasant support person.

A number of friends and family have already started to make the move to Meteor.

I should have made this move a long time ago. I regard this service as excellent value.

And before anyone asks - No I do not work for Meteor.

paulm17781

Be weary of the roaming. If you are going away double check it. Here is a true story...

1 week before going away

Paul: Hi can you activate roaming on my phone
Metoer: (a few minutes) That's done now.

The day I was going away

Paul: Hi I had roaming activated last week, just want to double check.
Metoer: (a few minutes) That's done now.

Time before this I had to call meteor from Manchester though I was told it was done.

Before this I went to Belfast and my phone didn't work though I was told it was done.

That is my only complaint about metoer. I have had no other problems over 2 years.

RicardoSmith

Switched from Vodafone bill pay to meteor PAYG. I find that it is a lot cheaper but I think thats as much to do with PAYG as anything else. It forces you to monitor your costs a lot more.

I've had problems with coverage around dublin and in silgo, so if you need 100% coverage I wouldn't use meteor. But if your priority is to reduce the cost then its worth it.

The point I'd make is that they don't have a huge range of phones. Carphone Warehouse have models that meteor don't do, and better prices most of the time.

mivec

ok i actually work for meteor but i just had to join this web-site after reading what sonicdoom2005 was on about!

first of all as of the other day meteor signed up 40,000+ new customers since jan 1st 2005 they now hold a 11.5% market share and still climbing, they are at present taking in 100 new customers for every 5 they are loosing and those 5 are usually on coverage issues which every network has,

they also believe it or not now have a better signal stenght nationwide then o2 as o2 have not upgraded their equipment since it was esat digifone & meteor have now switched the east coast of ireland onto and erricson based system which hold twice the ammount of users per mast than an o2 or vodafone mast,

meteor are not bringing out 3g because its a waste of money at the minute, vodafone's 3g network is WORSE than what meteor launched with 4 years ago.... try holding a 3g conversation whilst on a bus or in a car and tell me what happens.... meteor will be however bringing out a simular invention thats a quater the speed and a quater the cost of 3g but thats all im saying for now about that...

and yes western wireless are "looking into" selling the international companys such as meteor and the sister company which as an austrian network as they have just bought over at&t, meteor will NOT be closing or shutting down at any stage, they have also rejected 3 offers of eircoms coz quite simply they dont wanna sell to them! so anybody on the network already need not be bothered by stupid rumors of the company closing they are here to stay.

any other questions?

JTMan

mivec wrote:

first of all as of yesterday meteor signed up 48,000+ new customers since jan 1st 2005 they now hold a 11.5% market share and still climbing, they are at present taking in 100 new customers for every 5 they are loosing and those 5 are usually on coverage issues which every network has,

Comreg said 9.8% yesterday ... still a big jump in market share.

mivec wrote:

meteor are not bringing out 3g because its a waste of money at the minute, vodafone's 3g network is WORSE than what meteor launched with 4 years ago.... try holding a 3g conversation whilst on a bus or in a car and tell me what happens.... meteor will be however bringing out a simular invention thats a quater the speed and a quater the cost of 3g but thats all im saying for now about that...

I assume you are talking about EDGE. The Irish Times said last Thursday that WWI/Alltell/Meteor have put in an expression of interest in a 3G licence last week. Was that not true?

mivec wrote:

and yes western wireless are "looking into" selling the international companys such as meteor and the sister company which as an austrian network as they have just bought over at&t,

I don't understand what have tele.ring and AT&T got in common?? Please explain.

mivec wrote:

meteor will NOT be closing or shutting down at any stage, they have also rejected 3 offers of eircoms coz quite simply they dont wanna sell to them! so anybody on the network already need not be bothered by stupid rumors of the company closing there here to stay.

They rejected Eircoms offer cause they want €400 million and Eircom would only offer €300 million. If Eircom suddenly trumps Smart and puts in a bit for €400 + million WWI will sell.

mivec wrote:

any other questions?

Any plans to counter the excellent text and talk bill package that 3 are about to announce? You still building a network now that you have roaming with O2? Any new phones joining your range soon? and eh ... will you replace the 5C call offer with something else?

telecomsman

Firstly, Id like to point out that although I dont doubt that "mivec" is a Meteor employee there are a few inaccuracies in his/her post.

Meteor didnt purchase a 3G licence for a few reasons...cost, benefits and rewards. 3G requires a huge outlay of expenditure not just on the licence, but also on base-station upgrades, switch upgrades, billing systems etc..
Weighed against this would be the benefit to the company and the potential rewards.....ie revenue. 3G was launched by Vodafone as it needed to keep itself as the standard-bearer, the company that brings new technology to its customers if you will. O2 played it a lot safer, waiting for content services to launch alongside a stable 3G enviroment....thus they've invested in an iMODE platform to provide subscribers with a service that will utilise the bearer....3G.
EDGE, for Meteor, is a attempt to bring customers closer to 3G without huge expenditure. EDGE isnt really a similar technology to UMTS, its basically enhanced GPRS (as the acronym suggests).

By buying 100% control of Meteor, WWI have in my opinion put a big "For Sale" sign right outside Meteors door. This acquisition was followed closely by Deutsche Bank being contracted to broker any negotiations by any interested parties. Eircom are itching to get back into Mobile Telecoms while Smart are interested but they may not be able to outpunch their bigger rival. There are a few other consortiums waiting in the wings...Communicorp, Soros etc...so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Coverage wise, things are very close at the moment.With all 3 claiming to have increased coverage countrywide. What you will find though is that all networks have black-spots, its the nature of the beast. Meteor have made huge outlays to increase coverage, switching BSS & Switch vendors and by the National Roaming deal with O2. Still though there exists the perception that they have poor coverage, which at this stage is just plain silly. Vodafone, have slowed investment in their GSM network to concentrate on implementing 3G in major hubs, still though they would appear to have the best coverage....not by much though. O2 have spent the last year improving coverage but also by implementing Frequency Hopping, which is an RF technology that allows subs to switch to a stronger frequency if a call is in threat of being dropped.This will bring them right up beside Vodafone.

rymus

Fungus wrote:

Any plans to counter the excellent text and talk bill package that 3 are about to announce?

Anything more available on this? I'd delay the switch to meteor if I thought 3 were going to come up with something even better than the ol' talk & text 75.