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Irish-owned mobile network Just Mobile has collapsed and will wind down operations over the next three weeks.

Just Mobile to shut after just 10 months in operation

Ireland’s only Irish-owned prepaid mobile network provider is to wind down services over the next three weeks.

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

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20 Comments
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    Mute John Manahan
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:18 AM

    Never heard of them.

    61
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    Mute Christopher Duffin
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:16 AM

    While competition is good, there are far too many mobile companies in such a small country.

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    Mute Jayniemac
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:22 AM

    Same as, I’ve never heard of them!

    30
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    Mute Jamie Murphy
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:17 AM

    So are the phones they sold unlocked? if not are they going to give unlock codes out?

    28
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    Mute Michele Neylon
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:32 AM

    If they’re not unlocked now they’ll have to unlock them (I think they’re obliged to .. )

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    Mute Jamie Murphy
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:37 AM

    I hope they will make it easy and just text out unlock codes if the phones are not unlocked. My dad is in love with his JCB toughphone. Its been through 9 rounds of the washing machine and still works perfectly!

    18
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    Mute Kathleen O Toole Tighe
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 12:10 PM

    I never even heard of them !

    21
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    Mute jason bourne
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 12:12 PM

    Seems the problem was they didn’t advertise properly or at all considering how few people have even heard of the company

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    Mute Dec Byrne
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 3:26 PM

    @Alan Madden, the reason they were only prepaid at the moment was that you apparently have to have a certain amount of pre paid customers signed up before you can branch out into the ”bill pay” market. I liked thier ad’s but in fairness to them it must be hard to go up against the big boys advertising budgets. Best of luck to them at least they tried, and their money was going back into the communities and charities in Ireland.

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    Mute Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 10:42 PM

    They haven’t filed accounts with CRO yet…since 2007 so I’m sure there’s plenty they haven’t contributed to their communities.

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    Mute Barry
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:57 AM

    Not surprised, I’ve never ever seen them even advertised outside of Dublin.
    Only way I found out about them was some link on boards which showed they had adverts on some buses in Dublin

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    Mute Róisín Áine Nic Dhonnacha
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 12:17 PM

    I hadn’t heard of them either until yesterday evening when someone asked me about a linkedin profile of someone connected to the company.

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    Mute Stepping Stones
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 2:13 PM

    I never herd of them either. Their marketing strategy mustn’t have been great.

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    Mute Daithí Ó'Céileachair
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 11:25 AM

    Maybe the phones will still work on the Vodafone network even if they are locked.

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    Mute Pat Gallagher
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 12:58 PM

    how were they the only Irish owned network? is Meteor not Irish? I thought view were?

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    Mute Paddy O'Reilly
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 1:26 PM

    Meteor is owned by Eircom, who last I heard was owned by Singapore Technologies Telemedia, but Eircom keeps getting asset stripped and bought & sold,

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    Mute Conor Foley
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 1:26 PM

    Meteor is part of eircom which is in turn (currently) majority owned by STT (Singapore Technologies Telemedia) so its not irish owned

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    Mute Róisín Áine Nic Dhonnacha
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 3:44 PM

    There was an ad?

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    Mute Alan Madden
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    Aug 3rd 2011, 1:26 PM

    @pat – they ‘were’ the only irish owned “pre paid” mobile operator. Bit silly really cos it does appear at first glance that they are the only Irish owned operator here.

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    Mute Eoin Sheehy
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    Aug 4th 2011, 11:37 AM

    I didn’t even hear about them, and once I heard they were closing down I got a look at their website and they’re basically the cheapest, I’m so annoyed!

    1
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