3 gaining ground in Ireland

Ireland’s sole 3G-only operator Hutchison 3G Ireland (3) is gaining ground in the Republic’s mobile market and now has 150,000 subscribers, according to new figures. The country’s fourth operator has seen strong growth since it launched a pre-paid option in May 2006 and yesterday it threw down the gauntlet to its bigger rivals – O2, Vodafone and Meteor when it announced it was cutting prices for mobile roaming by 33%. 3’s new rates of EUR0.39 per minute to make a call within the EU, and EUR0.19 per min to receive a call within the EU from anywhere in the world are by far the best in the Irish market. New rules on EU roaming charges come into effect on 30 August, but 3 has opted to reduce its rates still further.