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VODAFONE HAS BEGUN rolling out its 4G service for smartphones across the country.
As well as the major cities, the service is available to 31 towns, the majority of them located south of the country, including Carlow, Mallow, Wexford and Tralee. The company says that new areas will be switched on over the coming months.
The launch means its customers can now avail of the service if they already have a 4G ready handset. Those who already have a 4G activated phone and plan and are in switched-on areas can now access the service by texting “4G” to 50221.
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The areas which have access to 4G coverage can be found below.
The company is the second provider to roll out 4G coverage. Meteor and eMobile, both owned by eircom, were the first to introduce it back in September.
Three Ireland is expected to roll out its 4G coverage after the new year, while O2 has yet to announce its plans for the service.
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Three Ireland initially announced they would be rolling out 4G in August. Still nothing. Their PR tactic on this has been to ignore ignore ignore. Very annoying.
Three are a disgrace, the product , the service, the customer service. They are a shambles. You no longer can use the hotspot feature with three, they also restrict Internet sites that can be viewed with other providers. Back to Vodafone when my contract expires
Since when can’t you use or make a hotspot with 3? I’m getting fast download speed through my phone lately, lately being in the last hour. What sites are blocked? Maybe you just have to provide proof of age for porn sites
Known Three they’ll offer 4G service for 20euro a month but give you a 500mb cap, worst operator in Ireland, worst customer service in the world, absolutely appalling and mentally draining to deal with them!
I have to say I received the worst customer service I have ever had in my life from three. It’s based in India and they have no idea how to deal with customers here. I was driving my kids to school running late and made the mistake of taking a call. I was ordered to pull over to the side of the road to discuss the two euro I owed them and they got nasty when I told them the colour of sh&te. I had three months of that BS. Then they held my number to ransom when I tried to move. No support in Ireland until you leave and then they beg you. Total rubbish unless you like customer abuse.
Just rang Vodafone and was told my price plan doesnt support it. 5 years of being a bill pay user, average monthly bill is 115 euro ( use my mobile alot for work). Will start shopping around I think…
If your average bill is that and it’s for work might work asking them for a better deal especially if it’s a business account you have. That’s mega bucks to be charged.
Patrick I’ve been using meteor 4g, I have to say its excellent, I got 49 down the other day, but the average has been around 30 down. But I’ll be switching to three 4g when it arrives, ya can’t beat their all you can eat data
Cool. If it is as good as their current 3G service, many people in the country will continue to happily experience inability to make calls or ever hear the other person on the line because one bar on the phone is the limit of happiness for some of us the unfortunate who were foolish enough to make a contract with them.
If it wasn’t for O2 3G coverage we would have only Eircom at less than 1 Gb download speed.
4G will outrun fibre optic packages in the end.
The cost of cabling fibre optic to all areas countrywide is just not feasible.
4G is one thing. .what about upping usage limits..With an add on I pay nearly 80e a month and then get charged 0.03cent a mb when you go over on it . complete rip off .Vodafone have scandalous customer service and once i am out of contract I will cancel
Vodafone cannot even provide an adequate service as it is (any Samsung S3 users will know what I mean). Their customer support is as useful as a hole in the head!
Vodafone my arse. After numerous phone calls and shop visits I found out you have to be on a min €55 tariff. This is a disgrace of the highest order. Robbing current customers of a service that is live. Extortion and milking every penny out of people. Id go to a different provider but they are all robbing gits. I may just go back to using pay phones!
They are a joke, do well to get 3G between Portlaois and limerick, no coverage down around fermoy and do well even to get anything at all between Galway and Sligo. Vodafone you are a joke of a provider
This might sound silly but how do you know if you have 4g. My phone is 4g ready and I’m with eMobile. But I only see 3G coming up if I’m out if the wifi area. I don’t want to be using 4g and building up a big bill without realising it .
U have to have a 4g plan and a USIM to use 4g, itll be in the network mode under LTE and ull only be connected when u hav a 4 beside the signal bar up the top of ur screen
Another “little” item that Vodafone are keeping quiet about is that their 4G service does not run on the iPhone 5 – they claim the iPhone 5 is not 4G compatible – which is rubbish, they have clearly decided not to support it to force people up upgrade to get the service!!!
“…majority of them located south of the country,” It is no wonder there are so many comments here about its unavailability – I guess most Journal readers are landlubbers.
When 4G becomes the norm across all networks competition will drive down prices as with what happened when 3G launched.
I’m a Vodafone customer because the the tariffs available suit me and the quality of their network is probably the best but their customer care has gone to hell since they outsourced it. When they had their own call centres in Dublin and Dundalk the policy seemed to be keep the customer happy to retain their loyalty. Since they outsourced it they don’t give a crap.
Avoid three like the plague. They don’t even own a computer. They are a total joke, where the customer is the punch line. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
They are but have delayed it until Jan. With their buying of the Irish 02 network due to complete around same time they are probably waiting to amalgamate the 2 networks,
Every time the public gets used to a new technology they throw another one at us and make the old one out of fashion so we buy the nee one and spend more cash. .
Ah not sure what UR all moaning about iv never had issue with Vodafone best network of them all. Yes not the cheapest but u get wat u pay for. Iv faster internet on my fone than wi fi in house and got text advising 4g b on my I fone 5 in 2 days
I’m on the Red Plan
But were I live and travel to is not 4G enabled yet
Dublin City don’t be there much
Test Reports say download speed is 30mb and upload is 8mb in Dublin
With Vodafone
But as more users start using 4G you can expect speeds will drop
Usage Caps will most likely have to be increased
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