Nearly three years after its launch, the State’s third mobile network, Meteor, has finally extended its network to Donegal, the only county in which the operator had no coverage.
This hole in its network had long been a thorn in Meteor’s side and a bone of contention between it and 02 and Vodafone both of which, Meteor had alleged, had steadfastly refused to engage in roaming agreements with Meteor which would have given it the necessary coverage.
Coverage is available in the Bundoran area initially with Meteor planning to extend its network from there. “Today we made our first calls in Donegal and although we must still roll out our network to cover the whole county, coverage in Bundoran is a great start and there’s more to come,” said Andrew Kelly, corporate affairs director at Meteor.
“This is a very significant day for Donegal people who have been calling for more competition and for a service that doesn’t penalise them because they are on the border.”
Meteor’s coverage footprint now hits each of the 26 counties in the Republic and the network also offers full service in Northern Ireland through roaming agreements with all four operators there.
“We have always said that it takes time to build a network, but time is running out of Vodafone and 02 who hide behind full coverage media campaigns in order to maintain their high prices,” claimed Kelly.
“Our coverage is now heading towards 90pc of the entire country and already we are up at 98pc in Dublin, all of Leinster, Cork, Limerick and Galway.”
By Brian Skelly
