4G roaming in Southern Ireland. But there is a But!

[darrengf]

O2-U.K. have a new 4G roaming agreement now in Souther Ireland, but there is a problem and to get this working you may have to do some tweaking with your mobile handset.

O2 have signed an agreement with Three.IE for 4G roaming. This is great, but if you were not aware, Three Ireland in the last few years purchased o2 Ireland from Telefonica.

Great I hear you say, but this is where the problem lies.  Three are still running both the Old O2 Ireland network prefix as Three

and Three Ireland new network which is 3G and 4G only using the prefix as Three.ie.

However O2 sims are prefixed to use the old O2 Ireland network which is only 2G and 3G.  Three Ireland are slowly absorbing the network and creating a new one, but there are hundreds and hundreds of Masts that have not been done. And o2 U.K. sims will clamp onto th old o2 Ireland network all over Southern Ireland.

So this is what you will need todo if you want to use 4G.

Android.  

First do a Manual network search and choose H3G 4G. Or Three.ie 4G.

It may not look like it is doing anything and can take up to 10 Mins to connect, but it should connect.

if it doesn’t after 10 Mins,

then you need to choose the H3G (3G) or Three.ie 3G and again leave for 10 Mins.  The phone will then register with the H3G network.  

If you are then showing 3G, then again you have to do another Manual search and choose again the 4G option.

The phone should then Clamp onto 4G.

🧐 Note.

1) if you clamp onto the new H3G network, you will only be able to use 3G and 4G.  If there is no singnal, your phone will not wander to 2G or to any other network.

2) Please also be aware that if you put you phone into Automatic Seletion, it will go to The old o2 Ireland network and you will then only have 2G and 3G.

Apple.

Your phone will have clamped onto Three or (3). This is the old o2 network,

you will need to go and do a manual search.

As you can see from th options below, I’ve showm which network is which

You will I’ll need to then choose 3(3G).

Your phone will not go straight to 4G and may sit there on 3G for a while,

You will then need to toggle 4G on and off a number of times to see if you can force it to go over.

🧐 Note.

1) if you clamp onto the new 3 (3G) network, you will only be able to use 3G and 4G.  If there is no singnal, your phone will not wander to 2G or to any other network.

2) Please also be aware that if you put you phone into Automatic, it will go to The old o2 Ireland network (3) and you will then only have 2G and 3G.

But there is more... 

People have been putting on Twitter, no matter what you do, the phones are not going over to 4G, but the folks and O2 Twitter land are saying that there is defiantly a roaming agreement in Souther Ireland, but can’t guarantee over seas networks etc,

@Marjo, @EmilieT, @Martin-O2

Could you look into this please and confirm the issues etc.  Martin I know your on holiday, but you were looking into a list and wondering if you have managed to obtain it.  

Any way, I hope this is helpful. 😀👍

[Chris_K]

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@Irish_canuck wrote:
Any update on this agreement?

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Sorry it wasn't shared here at the time, but we've had a 4G roaming agreement fully up and running for a number of months now in Southern Ireland. If you visit, be sure to connect to '3 Ireland' or 'Meteor'  

[Benjy]

June 2019. No 4G for me. O2 UK contract customer. Tried manually selecting network 3, IRL Meteor, Vodafone IE and only ever get H or H+ phone Note8

[Anonymous]

Sorry, just a bit of humour

@Benjy 

How old is the SIM you are using?

[Benjy]

Would be 4 years old roughly. I just keep renewing my 12month o2 sim only. My phone is note 8. Partner on EE and gets list of networks all up to date. I get list of 3, vodafone IE, IRL meteor and 3 again.

[MI5]

Does it have 4G printed on the sim, if not, it might be worth getting a new one.

[Benjy]

I have 4G no bother in the UK. I've noticed my list in manual network search is half the size of the list of my partners handset with EE sim. I only het these listed with no details 3, Vodafone IE, IRL Meteor, 3 again. Can connect to all but meteor, who no longer exist as they are now eir. Partner has 3 3G, 3 4G, all the others in both 3 and 4G and "eir". Does my out sim have out of date network codes and not showing new networks?

[MI5]

I'd certainly try a new SIM card first. Any O2 shop will swap it for free.

[Anonymous]

@Benjy 

@MI5  picked up on my thinking

[Benjy]

Found that the first 3 network listed is the 4G one and the second must be Ireland's old o2 network that only works on H. Annoying thing is the phone keeps changing back to the old slower network.

[jonsie]

Can you not change the phone setting to manual network setting rather than auto selection?