Meteor (mobile network)

Meteor Mobile Communications Limited is a GSM and UMTS mobile telecommunications company in Ireland. They operate a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS(HSPA+) and LTE cellular communications network under licence from the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), and were the third entrant in the market, after Vodafone Ireland and Three Ireland. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Irish telecoms network Eir, having been purchased for €420m in 2005. Meteor is the only Irish owned mobile operator in Ireland.

Meteor issue new numbers with the prefix code 085. Since the introduction of full mobile number portability in Ireland, access codes have become less relevant as mobile telephone users may now retain their mobile telephone numbers when moving between mobile network operators. As a result, Meteor customers can now have numbers starting with the codes 083, 085, 086, 087, or 089.

As of September 2008, Meteor has over 1 million customers, or 20% of the market.

History

Award of licence

EMOBILE

EMOBILE was a mobile phone brand in Japan marketed by eAccess, offering 3G/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA/LTE services. As they used to offer only data service, they were not widely known, but now after teaming up with NTT docomo to offer voice service, they are becoming more popular. Between March 2007 and March 2008 they expanded their voice communication service area to a nationwide level. As of March 31, 2009 their web site is claiming 90% coverage of Japan's population. In 2014 EMOBILE merged with Willcom and became Y!mobile.

EMOBILE has a reseller/virtual network arrangement with several fix line ISPs including Asahi Net.

As with most 3G/HSPA networks customers have reported congestion problems in some locations at peak times.

As of April 17, 2009 they introduced HSUPA to metropolitan areas claiming support for 5.8Mbit/s.

At the end of 2010, they will add the HTC Aria to their smart phone offerings.

As of early 2011, 21Mbit/s HSPA+ and 42Mbit/s DC-HSPA+ is available in major metropolitan areas, depending upon the subscriber modem used.