RIP Meteor 2001/2017

School Socks · 08-08-2017 08:15AM #1

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 · 08-08-2017 08:20AM

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 · 08-08-2017 08:25AM

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 · 08-08-2017 08:25AM

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 · 08-08-2017 08:29AM

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 · 08-08-2017 08:30AM

The jingle is stuck in my head now.

Inmyownworld · 08-08-2017 08:32AM

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."

08-08-2017 08:39AM

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

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

HalloweenJack · 08-08-2017 08:46AM

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 · 08-08-2017 08:50AM

This post has been deleted.

lau1247 · 08-08-2017 09:29AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:37AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:39AM

Resigned to history, just like the dinosaurs. Justice.

08-08-2017 09:40AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:43AM

They are just rebranding so?

Sonics2k · 08-08-2017 09:44AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:45AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:52AM

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_ · 08-08-2017 09:54AM

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 · 08-08-2017 09:54AM

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 · 08-08-2017 10:08AM

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 · 08-08-2017 10:11AM

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 · 08-08-2017 10:25AM

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 · 08-08-2017 10:31AM

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 · 08-08-2017 10:34AM

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 · 08-08-2017 11:09AM

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 · 08-08-2017 12:05PM

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 · 08-08-2017 12:11PM

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

super_furry · 08-08-2017 12:11PM

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 · 08-08-2017 12:17PM

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 · 08-08-2017 02:16PM

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

RIP Meteor 2001/2017

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