Moving to Ireland - which carrier for family mobile plans?

dazzerb

Hello

Moving to Ireland in June and need two phones (smart phones) with voice and data plans and a 3G/4GB mobile data plan for a laptop.

Who in Ireland does family "bundles" that would cover me. Interested in unlimited shared data and ideally unlimited mobile to mobile voice/texts.

Will be living in rural(ish) area of West Cork so good coverage very important.

Have been looking at O2 and Vodafone sites and do not see anything offering bundles/packages like this.

Who should I talk to?

Thanks

ardmacha

I don't know of any "family" bundles. However I would get a prepaid SIM from each provider and carefully check the signal in the area where you propose you live, a good deal is not a good deal if you have no signal.

Frezzin

They don't do family bundles here like they do in the States, so outta luck there unfortunately.

Mobiles can be more expensive and less expensive over here depending on how you use them. In the US, minutes still reign king over texts, mainly because all the old plans were "buckets" and such. Over here though, text reigns king. People text more than they call.

I've had to do my own research in terms of smartphones the last few weeks so here's the deal.

Since you want smartphones and you'll be rural, Meteor won't work for you, so you can nix them immediately. O2 or Vodafone are you're best bets. Three has the ****tiest data network on earth right now, so avoid them like the plague. These are the only providers in Ireland.

Vodafone runs a GPRS network outside of 3G coverage, but O2 runs an EDGE network outside of 3G, so O2 really shines here. Hand credit to the iPhone since it forced them to upgrade their network.

Both have iPhones, Blackberries, and now HTCs. O2 gets the Palm Pre exclusively at the minute.

Vodafone's charges are higher but you get 2GB data instead of O2's 1GB. But O2 has just introduced unlimited mobile browsing, so that could negate the difference. Still, unless you use the network super heavily, this probably doesn't matter much.

As for plans, you can check them out at www.vodafone.ie and www.o2online.ie but they're fairly similar.

Your problem is going to be adjusting your habits, using texts more often, and making sure that you're monthly plans are right for you. Bill pay gets expensive here because a lot of calls aren't covered in your minutes (1850 numbers come to mind here and directory enquiries.) So make sure that you get the plan that you can live with.

Hope that helps.

Honda08

dazzerb wrote: »

Hello

Moving to Ireland in June and need two phones (smart phones) with voice and data plans and a 3G/4GB mobile data plan for a laptop.

Who in Ireland does family "bundles" that would cover me. Interested in unlimited shared data and ideally unlimited mobile to mobile voice/texts.

Will be living in rural(ish) area of West Cork so good coverage very important.

Have been looking at O2 and Vodafone sites and do not see anything offering bundles/packages like this.

Who should I talk to?

Thanks

ok the nearest you will get to a family deal is the o2 release edge plan

€10 per month rental per user , free calls between numbers on the same account , and free texting to any network,
see here http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Business/Price+Plans/O2+Release+Edge/

3gb data add on is €12.10 on this plan per user. ( so i have been advised by o2)

im in the process of porting accross to this , so pvt me if you have any questions.


its a business plan, but would make a great family plan too. i thnk anyone can get this plan.

check what your usage would be first, to see if this covers you...