Eir Mobile has launched its new 5G service across 100 sites in five cities and the towns of Carlow, Castlebar, Dundalk, Drogheda and Kilkenny.
The company says that it will switch on another 100 masts “in coming weeks” in Athlone, Bray, Ennis, Letterkenny, Sligo, Tralee, Trim. A further 100 masts will be switched on in early 2020, it says.
However, the operator is restricting the service to two expensive monthly plans – Connect Plus (€60) and Connect Complete (€70), with a €10 discount for Eir broadband subscribers.
It is also not making the service available to any of its prepay customers.
Eir is launching the service with four 5G-compatible phones: the Samsung A90 5G, Samsung S10 5G, Samsung Note 10+ 5G and Huawei Mate 20X 5G.
The main difference between 5G and 4G is speed, with 5G coverage able to download large files almost instantly or stream high resolution video without any delays or buffering.
5G speeds can generally reach up to 1,000Mbs.
Existing 4G phones, such as the iPhone 11, will not be able to pick up a 5G signal.
In Ireland there are only a couple of handsets capable of receiving a 5G signal. Huawei launched its Mate 20X 5G here, a giant 7.2-inch smartphone. Samsung also has a 5G-compatible model, the S10 5G.
Eir Mobile is the second operator to launch 5G in the Irish market, with Vodafone having switched its 5G service on in limited areas of Irish cities last month.
Asked by Independent.ie, a spokeswoman for Three declined to say whether the operator has yet picked a network provider for its 5G service in Ireland but insisted that it would still launch by the end of 2019.
Other than information and entertainment, 5G is seen as being important for future industry and commercial needs, such as self-driving cars and advanced telemedicine.
- Read More: 5G has finally arrived – but what will it mean for business users?
The move completes a busy 10 days for the telecoms operator. Last week, Eir launched GoMo, a €10-per-month 4G mobile service with 80GB of data and ‘unlimited’ calls and texts.
The budget service is expected to be capped at 100,000 customers, after which Eir says they may raise the price.
Eir also launched an updated TV service, Eir TV. The service costs €5 per month more its outgoing Eir Vision TV service but includes an Apple TV set top box.
However, Virgin Media is suing Eir over the new TV service, claiming that Eir did not seek permission from Virgin Media to includes its channels in the new service.
- Read More: Eir to launch 5G mobile service next week
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