There is a new entrant in the Irish mobile phone market with the launch of Sky Mobile in Ireland.
The new service will operate as part of a long-term wholesale partnership agreement between Sky and Vodafone, leveraging the Vodafone mobile network and connecting it to Sky Ireland's mobile core network.
Sky Mobile said it is offering over 99% 4G coverage and 5G coverage across the country along with 4G calling, all of which are included as standard in its plans.
Customers will be able to choose between a SIM-only plan or SIM plans with handsets from Samsung, Xiaomi and HMD.
"Our launch plan for customers is unlimited calls, texts and 5G data for €15 and that price is for life," said Sky Ireland CEO JD Buckley.
"Our Sky Mobile proposition has been built with our customers at its core - providing a service that is fair, flexible and transparent," Mr Buckley said.
The company said customers will have access to worldwide roaming services, available in over 150 countries and a 'roam like home' service which will be available in 44 countries including the UK and EU.
Mobile market share
The latest figures from the Communications Regulator (ComReg) show that in the second quarter of the year, Three had the largest share of mobile subscriptions at just over 47%, when mobile broadband (MBB) and Machine to Machine (M2M) subscriptions are included.
This was followed by Vodafone with a market share of just under 30%, eir with 14.8%, Tesco Mobile at 4.7% and other operators at 3.5%.
When mobile broadband and M2M are excluded, Vodafone had the highest market share in the second quarter of the year at 33.5%, followed by Three at 28.6%, eir on just less than 24%, Tesco Mobile on 8%, Virgin Mobile on 2.3% and other operators on 3.6%.
ComReg data shows that total voice traffic minutes have decreased by 3.9% on an annual basis, and that mobile minutes form the majority of voice minutes at 92%.
On a monthly basis, the average mobile voice subscriber used 164 minutes, which was a 5.2% annual decrease; sent 32 texts, a 1% annual decrease; and used 13.7GB of data, a 0.5% annual increase.
According to ComReg, total mobile subscriptions, including mobile broadband and M2M, increased to 9.9 million in the second quarter of the year.
If mobile broadband and M2M subscriptions are excluded, the total number of mobile voice subscriptions was more than 5.8 million.
The number of 5G subscribers increased to 1.7 million in the second quarter of the year, an annual increase of 32%.
