Meteor to slash out €70m on network

The State's third mobile operator, Meteor, is planning to spend €70m on it mobile network which will extend the company's coverage to 94% of the population by the end of 2004.

Meteor is also set to introduce a technology called EDGE to its network which will enable Meteor's customers to use a variety of new multimedia services such as mobile gaming and video clips.

A report in The Irish Times today says the company is about to sign a four-year deal with Ericsson to install new equipment throughout its network.

This follows a decision by Meteor's existing supplier, Lucent, to pull out of the GSM market and focus instead on newer 3G technologies.