Choosing an operator

Bob24

Hi,

I'm French and I will study in Dublin for one year starting in October.
I'll arrive in Ireland in two weeks and I'd like to know which mobile phone operators would be the best for me.
I already have a phone I like (Motorola V525), so I'm not realy interrested in buying a new one.
I don't use my mobile a lot (about 1 hour per month) so I think the prepaid offers would be better for me (and probably more convinient to pay with my french credit card).

I had a look at the 3 operators's websites, and Meteor's "Anytime" offer looks interesting to me: quite cheap and the price does not depend on when you're calling or the operator.

The only thing is that their coverage seems not to be as good as Vodafone or O2. Is it as good as the others in Dublin and the surroundings ? And will it work if I go in smaller cities or in the country in the weekend ?

Do you thing Meteor is a good choice ?

Thanks in advance and sorry abou my bad english (it will improve soon )

OfflerCrocGod

In Dublin Meteor are just fine as for the country side I don't have any personal experience.....but Meteor is damn cheap

Bob24

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Meteor is damn cheap

Yep that's the first thing I noticed about them
If they cover Dublin as well as the others, it's probably gonna be good enough for me to chose them

D-Generate

The coverage should be perfect throughout Ireland on Meteor soon enough if not already. Recently they signed a deal with O2 in which Meteor can now use their masts in areas that Meteor don't have their own in and as such the whole of the country is basically covered.
I am not sure if this has taken effect already or when it will take effect.

JTMan

Bonjour ...

Yeah, Meteor would be your best choice. You will get up to 100 euros free credit when you buy a sim card plus call costs are much lower that o2/voda.

Fabritzo

But no one will want to call you cause it costs more?! and an 085 number is taboo :P

Bob24

Thanks everyone

Fabritzo wrote:

But no one will want to call you cause it costs more?! and an 085 number is taboo :P

Could be a problem indeed

I guess you're saying it because in Ireland the call is often more expensive if you're calling someone who's with a different operator and Meteor has less customers ... or is their something else I don't know ?

Btw, does someone has statistics on how many customers each operator has ?

One other thing. I noticed on the operator's websites that you can (like we do in France even it's not as simple as it should be) keep your number if you change operator, so the beginning of the number is not sufficient to know the corresponding operator. Here in France the rate is allmost always the same whether you're calling landlines, a mobile from your operator or from another operator, so it's not important to know which operator the number you're calling belongs to. Do you have a way to know which operator a number belongs to ? Or can a Meteor customer have poeple to call him by using a Vodafone number ?

Maybe my questions look strange, but I'm just a curious telecommunications student

tribble

Yes you can change opertor and still keep your old number.
I believe (but don't know and never noticed) that there is a tone played before connection to indicate cost.

fletch

Meteor is cheap alright...If you top-up €20 in a month, you can send free SMS' and MMS' to other meteor mobiles. But if you intend on spending much time outside the city, don't even consider a Meteor mobile. The signal is non-existent and if you do actually get to make a call, it will probably be dropped or the quality will be so appauling you'l end up hanging up and sendin a text instead, which could take a few days to get through. However Meteor annonced the other day that they will now be able to use O2 masts where they have no signal so all may be about to change...remains to be seen.
I live in Dubin and the Meteor service is perfectly acceptable tho.