Meteor, the country's third mobile operator, finally launched its 085 network today, three years after its licence was originally issued.
Its pricing structure indicates that it is targeting the pre-paid market, as its pre-paid prices are the same as those for account customers. It is also eliminating peak and off-peak rates.
Meteor says it currently has 55% coverage in terms of population, including the major cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. Six of its own shops opened today.
Its rates announced today are 25p per minute for calls from Meteor to landlines at any time and 35p per minute for calls to other mobile networks. These rates apply to all calls within the Republic and to all calls from a Meteor phone to Northern Ireland and Britain.
Meteor's chief operating officer Pete Quinn says it aims to have 100,000 subscribers by the end of its first year.
