ONE OF IRELAND’S youngest mobile phone networks has announced it is to wind down its services over the next two weeks.

The company, which officially launched only last October, was the only Irish owned prepaid mobile network in the market.

An announcement on the network’s Facebook page thanked its customers for their support, and acknowledged the efforts of their employees, explaining that business has been difficult of late.

A spokesman for the company said that it was “unable to secure follow-on funding in the current environment, and our main partner Vodafone and other suppliers, who have been very supportive, could not continue to support us any longer.

This is something no-one wanted. We believe we created something special for our customers, but unfortunately the business climate is not conducive for young companies to raise capital in.

As of yesterday, customers have been unable to top-up their mobiles, and were unable to make international or premium rate calls.

From next Monday they will no longer be able to call or text people on other networks, and will be unable to make any calls or texts at all as of Friday 12 August.

Customers’ mobiles will effectively go completely dead by Friday 19 August, though they will still be able to switch to another mobile operator and retain their numbers.

A ‘mobile virtual network operator’, Just Mobile operated on the Vodafone network. The company operated an Irish support centre, based in Swords, north county Dublin.

As part of its corporate social responsibility programme, Just Mobile donated 3 per cent of every top-up to community causes and charities, allowing customers to choose the cause.

One of the company’s price packages incorporated its Just Cause initiative, through which 1 cent was donated to charity for every minute of a call.

Last year, Just Mobile signed a deal with Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Peter Jones’ company, Data Select, to distribute handsets in Ireland, wrote Silicon Republic.

The company has directed customers to the Comreg.ie website for further information on how to switch provider.

Just Mobile publicly launched last October with the creation of 25 jobs, and had been expected to grow its workforce to 70 in the coming years. Its operator, Irish Mobile MVNO Services Ltd, was incorporated in 2007 but has yet to file accounts with the CRO.

Additional reporting by Gavan Reilly