Meteor Mobile Communications
From Freepedia
| Image:Meteorlogopng.png | |
| Type | Subsidiary of Western Wireless (but soon to be eircom) |
| Founded | Dublin, Ireland (1999) |
| Location | Dublin, Ireland |
| Key people | |
| Industry | Mobile telecommunications |
| Products | Mobile phone services, mobile phone handsets etc. |
| Revenue | |
| Employees | |
| Website | www.meteor.ie/ |
Meteor Mobile Communications Limited is a mobile telecommunications company in the Republic of Ireland. They operate a GSM cellular communications network under licence from the Commission for Communications Regulation, and were the third entrant in the market, after Vodafone Ireland and O2 Ireland. The company is currently as a wholly owned subsidary of Western Wireless International, a large United States cellular networks infrastructure group, however Irish telecoms company Eircom has agreed to purchase the company (for €420m (EUR), subject to regulatory approval.
They issue their new numbers with the code 085, although the introduction of full number portability makes access codes a little less relevant on mobile phone systems.
Contents |
History
Award of Licence
In 1998, the then Director of Telecommunications Regulation held a competition to award the third mobile telecommunications licence. Two companies bid for the licence, Orange Communications Limited, then controlled by Hutchinson Whampoa, and Meteor Mobile Communications (consisting at that point of Western Wireless, RF Communications Limited, and TWG Ireland LLC). On 19 June 1998 it was announced that Meteor had been ranked first in the competition. However Orange took legal action against the Director to prevent the licence being awarded. This legal action ultimately failed and on 29 June 2000 Meteor were finally issued with the third mobile telecommunications licence.
Launch
Launched on 22 February, 2001, Meteor slowly picked up a low (under 10%) share of the Irish market. However, they are profitable, and have picked up much of the lucrative pre-paid market among teenagers, due to their low SMS rates and ongoing promotions such as free Meteor to Meteor SMSs. They also pick up more (41%) of all new pre-paid accounts than the other two networks.
In 2004, Western Wireless bought out the remaining minority shareholders in the consortium, and it became a wholly owned subsidary of that company.
Acquisition by Eircom
In early 2005, several Irish newspapers reported that Western Wireless had been approached with a view to selling Meteor. On 9 July 2005 it was reported by The Irish Times that there had been three bidders for Meteor: Eircom, Smart Telecom, and a consortium led by Denis O'Brien. It was considered that the probability of Eircom winning, was looking increasingly unlikely due to their heavy debt of approximately €1.9 billion. It is unlikely they will be able to afford it, should the bid go above €400 million. However on 14 July 2005, RTÉ News reported on their business website that Denis O'Brien had withdrawn from bidding, and that it was understood that Eircom was the top bidder at €410m. On 21 July it was announced that Smart Telecom had also withdrawn, leaving Eircom as the sole bidder. On 25 July Eircom announced that it had agreed to purchase the company for €420m.
Roaming Partners
Meteor has many roaming partners, but for PAYG it usually requires notification and a pre-payment of €60 in the form of call credit (with some exceptions).
Outbound
This list contains networks who are roaming partners of Meteor for when a Meteor customer visits another region, and the conditions available to customers. "(Full)" signifies it allows all customers to arrive in the area and use the network immediatly. "(Restricted)" means it allows PM customers to use the network without notification, but requires PAYG ones to notify them and prepay €60. "(Data)" signifies that data roaming (ability to use MMS/GPRS/CSD) is available. In total Meteor provides roaming in about 100 countries. The list below illustrates some of their main roaming partners.
- Internal: O2 (allows use when customers are out of Meteor coverage)
- Australia
- Optus (restricted)
- Austria
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Orange (restricted)
- Sonofon (restricted)
- TDC (restricted)
- TeliaSonera (restricted)
- Finland
- Alands (restricted)
- Finnish 2G (restricted)
- Elisa Oyj (restricted)
- TeliaSonera (restricted)
- France
- Bouygues Telecom (full) (data)
- Orange (restricted)
- SFR (restricted)
- Germany
- Greece
- Cosmote (restricted)
- Quest Tel (restricted)
- Stet Hellas (restricted)
- Vodafone (restricted)
- Italy
- Netherlands
- KPN Mobile (restricted)
- O2 (restricted)
- Orange (restricted)
- T-Mobile (restricted)
- Spain
- Sweden
- Comviq (restricted)
- TeliaSonera (restricted)
- Vodafone (restricted)
- UK
- USA
Inbound
This list is nowhere near complete due to the greatly increased complexity of gathering the information
Criticism
Their coverage is often claimed to be very poor by their competitors, but it covers (according to their website) over 90% of the population, and a recent deal with Siemens AG will see them cover almost the entire country by 2005. However, in the interim, they have an internal roaming agreement with mmO2 which means that when out of Meteor coverage, a Meteor customer can use O2's network at no extra charge. On some handsets, this creates the interesting effect of having coverage bars, but no operator logo or roaming indicator onscreen.
Another criticism is the need for PAYG customers to make a prepayment and give notification of roaming. However, this is also being improved, with the recent change in policy, which allows PAYG customers to roam in the France, Germany, Spain, andUK without notification or prepayment (see Roaming Partners).
Unlike Vodafone Ireland and O2 Ireland, Meteor currently do not hold a UMTS licence. This means that they cannot offer 3G services such as video calling. They do offer GPRS (2.5G) services, however this was launched long after both Vodafone and O2 had already offered the service. However, they have submitted a bid for the final 3G licence and the result of that competition will be known in October 2005. It seems very possible they will obtain the last license, due to the fact that, unlike any other entity who may submit a bid, they already have a 2.5G network, and it was also rumoured that eircom (Meteor's soon to be parent company) also submitted a bid.
Meteor sponsor Ireland's national music awards each year, and they have hence become known as The Meteors.
Meteor's corporate logo is strongly orange, with an undertone of white (originally grey). This is seen by some to be a slight taunt at the Orange mobile phone giant who had applied for the licence which Meteor got, but it also causes some confusion in that some people believe that Meteor is a subsidary of Orange.
See Also
External links
| Image:T630-1.jpg | Mobile phone operators of Ireland | Image:T630-1.jpg | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vodafone | O2 | Meteor | 3 | |||
