Pat Phelan: Bits, bytes and telecomsMobile, Roaming and Social Media

Somedays I just throw bury my head in my hands at what we have become. My son has been doing some specialized soccer training for the last while in Tipperary, he travels every Friday after school by train from Cork to Thurles, the fare is €18 plus a €2 administration fee for using “the internet” (nice [...]

I was having coffee with Damien Mulley, John Peavoy and Enda Crowley when O2 Ireland and iPad was mentioned, my ears pricked up and it turned out that O2 have launched an Irish iPad SIM today. So off we went to the O2 store and purchased one, €20 for 5GB, this is a really competitive [...]

A nice little gift dropped in my hands today, the new Blackberry 9700 from Vodafone Ireland. I have been watching Vodafone closely lately and have been to a few of their events, I really like their new slogan “Best Performing mobile broadband” so to stick with that I would like the best comment involving the [...]

I think my stance on vouchers and location is well known, I am delighted to see it coming to Ireland and now its possible to market your venue based on location using Foursquare. Imagine being able to compete against the “coffee shop” around the corner by offering a free “Top-Up”. So how do you do [...]

The Irish Blog Awards finalists list was published over the weekend and I’m delighted to see that we made it. Hopefully I can make it to Galway on Saturday night. I am over the moon that my own blog made it to the finals in the “Best Technology Blog/Blogger” category. The full list of finalists [...]

I have been noticing a trend of value returning to Ireland for the last 6 months but I think it has accelerated hugely over the past 4-6 weeks. Have you noticed it? Special offers, money off, 2 for 1? You know what? I love it and embrace it totally. You want my money?, well do [...]

The cool guys from NovaTel Wireless had promised me one of these for a few months for testing and after much nudging and prodding it arrived on Friday. Andy has been writing about it for a few weeks now but I think its the first one on these shores. So what is MiFi? A mobile [...]

I was dismayed over the weekend at Ireland’s non Cead Mile Failte to But Colin Zwirko, 21, Gavin Sides, 19, and Ben Whitehurst, 21 after they were refused entry to Ireland at Dublin Airport customs. I had heard the story brewing over the week and as (hopefully) an ambassador for all things Irish decided to [...]

I think it was Samuel Johnson that said “The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another” A piece in the Irish Times was pointed out to me today Now in fairness to the guy who pointed it out he has also wrote on the subject. I think we need to [...]

Its like the team the never learns at O2 Ireland Its beyond disgraceful and they just don’t seem to give a damn about the Irish consumer on the Iphone 3GS launch. Check the UK prepaid pricing out here Check the Irish prepaid pricing here Retail for 8GB iPhone 3GS Ireland €519 UK €522.77 (Equivalent) Packages [...]