Three Ireland is to launch its next generation mobile service next week, following Meteor and Vodafone into the 4G market.

The company said it would offer the new mobile service, which is designed to offer faster data speeds to users, from Monday to both prepay and bill-pay customers at no extra charge until July 31st. From August 1st, the 4G service will be available as an add-on for €4.99 per month for billpay customers; there are no details yet on what will be offered to prepay users, although Three said there would be an announcement on this soon.

The service will require a phone compatible with 4G; users will not have to change sim cards to access the high-speed service, but a software update for handsets will be required. The 4G service will cover up to 60 per cent of the population in Galway, Limerick and Waterford and launch, with Dublin and Cork at 40 per cent.

Eircom was first out of the gate with its 4G service in September last year, with Vodafone following in October. The operators currently offer 4G to bill-pay customers, although Meteor has plans to offer it to pay as you go customers later this year.