Eir to roll out 5G mobile network in Castlebar

Eir has become the second mobile operator to launch a 5G mobile network in Ireland.

And the good news is that Castlebar has been selected as one of the town where it will be initially rolled out.

The other chosen locations are Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Carlow, Dundalk, Drogheda and Kilkenny.

Athlone, Bray, Ennis, Letterkenny, Sligo, Tralee and Trim will be added before the end of year.

Eventually eir says it will roll out 5G coverage to every major town in Ireland.

The network will offer connection speeds of over 1Gbps.

CEO Carolan Lennon stated: “Eir is transforming its mobile network and 5G will complement on-going upgrade and expansion of our 4G network, which will bring high voice and high-speed data coverage across more than 99% of the population of Ireland, allowing our customers to access high speed data services on the most expansive 4G mobile network in Ireland.

Eir says it will also offer a number of different 5G ready handsets to customers, starting at €99.

These will include the Samsung A90 5G, the Samsung S10 5G, the Samsung Note 10+ 5G and the Huawei Mate 20X 5G.

Initially the service will be on offer through the Connect Plus plan.

This includes unlimited data (with a fair usage cap of 80GB), unlimited calls and texts, 100 international minutes and texts and access to the new eir Sport App.

It will cost existing eir broadband customers €49.99 a month and new customers €59.99.

Vodafone launched their 5G offering in August in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.