RIP Meteor 2001/2017

School Socks

The meteor mobile phone brand will be no more from next month, people forget how meteor changed the face of mobile communication for the 00s generation, until meteor came along with their offer of free texts if you top up by €20, young people had to pay 10p/13cent per text message. N.B their coverage was poor/non existent in rural Ireland for the first 5/6 years tho.

Sonics2k

Anyone else remember when they first came to Ireland under the brand new Orange and had the tag line:

The future's bright, the future's Orange

Man, they hastily re-branded after that.

Iseedeadpixels

I signed up to meteor simply because my crush said I could text her for free, ah the teen years when I could actually be bothered

Ubbquittious

I remember having to cycle about 3 miles up the road on an ordinary bicycle with the paint peeling off it to get a signal to send a text but it was worth it because it was so cheap compared to using Eircell. A bit of a nuisance if they wouldn't text back straight away though

HalloweenJack

Meteor was good because it was cheap, especially for teens in the early 00's. I think, over time, the other networks caught up and started making offers and I switched between meteor and O2 several times because of different offers they had. In that sense, it was a market changer.

I lived just outside Dublin so coverage wasn't an issue, thankfully.

razorblunt

The jingle is stuck in my head now.

Inmyownworld

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

I signed up to meteor simply because my crush said I could text her for free, ah the teen years when I could actually be bothered

We were just talking about this recently:
"Are you texting him?"
"No, he's not Meteor."

They also produced some of the worst ads ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqkZN9rC9Mo

HalloweenJack

Deleted User wrote: »

They also produced some of the worst ads ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqkZN9rC9Mo

That was actually a good one. Doesn't beat this cracker, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvbujX4hXOg

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

lau1247

I remember it was back then before able to retain the same number when switching network. They offer people the same number but different prefix (obviously) to entice people to switch.. I still have the same number in 085 and 087 (was Eircell) to date.. Should have got the 086 one also but I was a poor student back then to maintain the upkeep for 3 numbers at the same time

Iseedeadpixels

jacksie66 wrote: »

When I got my first phone it was a Nokia 3310 on esat digifone. My mate got a Nokia 3330 on meteor, that was the one with WAP. I could never get through to him and he could never actually use WAP as the coverage was so bad. Good times..

WAP pron was the school craze

WoollyRedHat

Resigned to history, just like the dinosaurs. Justice.

School Socks

School Socks wrote: »

The meteor mobile phone brand will be no more from next month, people forget how meteor changed the face of mobile communication for the 00s generation, until meteor came along with their offer of free texts if you top up by €20, young people had to pay 10p/13cent per text message. N.B their coverage was poor/non existent in rural Ireland for the first 5/6 years tho.

Link?

donegaLroad

They are just rebranding so?

Sonics2k

Deleted User wrote: »

Link?

https://www.eir.ie/opencms/export/sites/default/pressroom/Meteor-rebrands-to-eir/

Meteor isn't shutting down, just officially changing the name to Eir.

LollipopJimmy

I got a meteor phone in 2001, they were selling the handset way cheaper than anybody else. As soon as I burned through the ridiculous amount of free credit they gave I popped my Esat sim back into the phone, after paying a tenner to have it unlocked!
My father used to immediately judge people as cheapskates if they had an 085 number :pac:

K.Flyer

Old news, heard about it late last year.
Meteor was to mobile phones in Ireland what Ryanair was to travel. They were first to introduce Unlimited Calls and Texts which was a godsend for anyone using their phone for work at the time.

_Kaiser_

donegaLroad wrote: »

They are just rebranding so?

Yep.. it's only a letterhead at this stage. Exactly the same customer service team and back-office operations as eir.

RocketRaccoon

I remember getting a 3310 on Meteor when it was first available, you got £70 credit too. I'm fairly sure I spent most of that on the old pixelated homescreen picture things.

Ubbquittious

Sonics2k wrote: »

https://www.eir.ie/opencms/export/sites/default/pressroom/Meteor-rebrands-to-eir/

Meteor isn't shutting down, just officially changing the name to Eir.

How many more times are "Eir" going to rebrand in order to shake off the bad memories?

I don't think rebranding Meteor to Eir is a good plan. Despite their best efforts the Eir brand carried over a large amount of toxicity from the P⁊T, Telecom Eireann, Eircom brands and now Meteor will be in the same basket. Better for Eir to rebrand a couple of more times to shake off some more bad memories

silvervixen84

My first phone was a Meteor. It was a Trium Aria and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was a flip phone and had a retractable aerial.



I had to take it back a few days later as texting didn't work. Exchanged it for a Nokia 3210 and got addicted to Snake

andekwarhola

Was with them for a while (on the aul Nokia) back at the start because, pre-Three, they offered OK deals. Had to switch when I started seeing somebodfy from their country as the coverage was abysmal outside the cities back then.

Grayson

andekwarhola wrote: »

Was with them for a while (on the aul Nokia) back at the start because, pre-Three, they offered OK deals. Had to switch when I started seeing somebodfy from their country as the coverage was abysmal outside the cities back then.

Thing is that they realised that and pretty soon had better coverage outside cities than anyone else did.

I've been with them about 10 years.

andekwarhola

Grayson wrote: »

Thing is that they realised that and pretty soon had better coverage outside cities than anyone else did.

I've been with them about 10 years.

Of course, these days, I'd appreciate a phone that regularly and inexplicably went out of coverage. :pac:

TerrorFirmer

Iseedeadpixels wrote: »

I signed up to meteor simply because my crush said I could text her for free, ah the teen years when I could actually be bothered

I joined Meteor for a similar reason around 2002 and was with them until recently when I changed to 3....who are pretty terrible in comparison.

Fratton Fred

I worked for Meteor for a number of years and it was one of the best, most commercially astute companies I have ever worked for, but alas Eircom was doing everything in their power to **** it up.

I remember when Eircom brought out Eircom mobile which became a direct competitor to Meteor, which they already owned. It was, quite frankly, an absolutely bizarre business decision, but then Eircom aren't exactly renowned for their business competence. They have obviously now realised that was stupidity and alas we will see the end of the Meteor brand.

Richard Hillman

Free meteor to meteor texts was one of the greatest business decisions of all time

super_furry

Meteor have gone to ****e over the last five years or so. Went from being the best mobile network and best value to being the worst.

wandatowell

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Free meteor to meteor texts was one of the greatest business decisions of all time

I remember a load of my teenager friends jumping on the meteor bandwagon when the free txt's came.

Unpossible

The best was when xtravision had offers with Meteor, buy a phone and get lots of credit and a DVD or two.

School Socks

I guess the teen/student market isn't lucrative anymore ? I guess that age group are all using apps now on the home Wi-Fi to communicate ?

Ubbquittious

School Socks wrote: »

I guess the teen/student market isn't lucrative anymore ? I guess that age group are all using apps now on the home Wi-Fi to communicate ?

Yep. I'd say a portion don't even have a working SIM card and since they rarely leave the house they don't need one.

markpb

School Socks wrote: »

I guess the teen/student market isn't lucrative anymore ? I guess that age group are all using apps now on the home Wi-Fi to communicate ?

They're being re-banded by their parent. Why assume their core market isn't lucrative?

Pawwed Rig

Ubbquittious wrote: »

How many more times are "Eir" going to rebrand in order to shake off the bad memories?

I don't think rebranding Meteor to Eir is a good plan. Despite their best efforts the Eir brand carried over a large amount of toxicity from the P⁊T, Telecom Eireann, Eircom brands and now Meteor will be in the same basket. Better for Eir to rebrand a couple of more times to shake off some more bad memories

Meteor is a much stronger brand than Eir imo. Eircom is a company that many despise (not least the share IPO that made mugs of half the population) .

tomwaterford

School Socks wrote: »

I guess the teen/student market isn't lucrative anymore ? I guess that age group are all using apps now on the home Wi-Fi to communicate ?

I imagine three have that cornered now with the all you can eat data plan??

_Kaiser_

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I worked for Meteor for a number of years and it was one of the best, most commercially astute companies I have ever worked for, but alas Eircom was doing everything in their power to **** it up.

I remember when Eircom brought out Eircom mobile which became a direct competitor to Meteor, which they already owned. It was, quite frankly, an absolutely bizarre business decision, but then Eircom aren't exactly renowned for their business competence. They have obviously now realised that was stupidity and alas we will see the end of the Meteor brand.

I always assumed that the reason they brought out Eircom/e/eir mobile was to try and tap into the part of the market traditionally held by O2/Vodafone because the Meteor brand was (originally anyway) seen by many as the "kids network" (as evidenced by many of the posts here).

Oranage2

I own meteor 120 euro, does this mean I don't have to pay them ?

L1011

Sonics2k wrote: »

Anyone else remember when they first came to Ireland under the brand new Orange and had the tag line:



Man, they hastily re-branded after that.

Completely different company with zero to do with Meteor.

ToddyDoody

They'd probably have been better off to rebrand everything as meteor. I think an American company came up with the meteor brand originally before big sold back to eir. American companies are much better at branding, unless it's twee and Irish?

circular flexing

Sonics2k wrote: »

Anyone else remember when they first came to Ireland under the brand new Orange and had the tag line:



Man, they hastily re-branded after that.

Incorrect. Orange where in the running for the license but Meteor won it. They were never branded Orange.

Orange did use that phrase in the UK though.

ED E

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Meteor is a much stronger brand than Eir imo. Eircom is a company that many despise (not least the share IPO that made mugs of half the population) .

True, but Quadplay is what all Telcos want. They werent going to rebrand Eir PH/BB/TV to Meteor so Meteor was always on the chopping block.

antodeco

I worked for meteor for a few years, pre-eircom and during eircom. Was a great company to work for. Slowly became a grey company the more eircom stuck their oar in. It was the start of their downfall.

By the way, the free texts was an accident. It turned out their billing system couldn't charge for on-net usage (glitch in the system). They ran with it as an offer (remember the offers were only until end of x month, but kept getting extended). Eventually they realised how much it helped their business grow, so kept it. Always miss working there! This was when they were based out in Parkwest, Kingswood and the AOL building in citywest.

dudara

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Meteor is a much stronger brand than Eir imo. Eircom is a company that many despise (not least the share IPO that made mugs of half the population) .

I'd personally agree. I'd have far fonder memories of Meteor than of eir. I personally think this is a bit of a daft move.

And this is still one of my favourite ads of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zCTewcmeDs

Fratton Fred

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I always assumed that the reason they brought out Eircom/e/eir mobile was to try and tap into the part of the market traditionally held by O2/Vodafone because the Meteor brand was (originally anyway) seen by many as the "kids network" (as evidenced by many of the posts here).

Eircom thought the eircom brand would sit better with corporates, but O2 and Voda had that market sown up. They also had a global presence that eircom could never compete with.

Corruptedmorals

My house was a Meteor reception blackspot during the free texts craze...built up area just outside Dublin. Used to get dog's abuse until they'd be in my house and say 'Wow you really have no coverage at all'. Yes it wasn't just the enjoyment of paying 13c per text on o2..

Ghost Train

silvervixen84 wrote: »

My first phone was a Meteor. It was a Trium Aria and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was a flip phone and had a retractable aerial.



I had to take it back a few days later as texting didn't work. Exchanged it for a Nokia 3210 and got addicted to Snake

Trium aria was my first phone too, although it was with digifone

Still have it, still works I think

Meteor's 3 year deal with the HEA to supply discounted broadband to 3rd level students was ending this summer. Wonder who will take it over?

Unpossible

Were meteor the ones that had those lapdance adverts?
The first one was two women promising a lap dance, where they dressed up in Sami clothes and danced. The second were the two fella's promising a lap dance and they danced around a running track.

Jesus Wept

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Meteor is a much stronger brand than Eir imo. Eircom is a company that many despise (not least the share IPO that made mugs of half the population) .

Speaks more of half the population.

murpho999

Sonics2k wrote: »

Anyone else remember when they first came to Ireland under the brand new Orange and had the tag line:



Man, they hastily re-branded after that.

Why are you spouting this rubbish as if it was true.

Orange have never operated in Ireland and lost out to Meteor when the licence was up for grabs.

There is no link between Orange and Meteor.