Meteor today became the fourth of the mobile operator to offer a mobile broadband service. Well actually they “soft launched” the service last week and already have 1,000 paying customers but today they rolled out the Minister and the press for the formal launch.

Meteor chief executive Larry Smith, after a little gentle pressing from a member of the press, confirmed that Meteor will be applying the controversial three strikes and you are out policy that Eircom has agreed with the music industry. “We are part of the Eircom group, so yes,” said Larry with a clear lack of enthusiasm.

I have yet to try the Meteor service, which initially is only available in greater Dublin and Cork, but Meteor says it will support speeds of up to 14.4Mbits/sec by summer. The service will cost €16.99 a month for bill pay customers with a 5GB monthly download cap. The necessary Huawei USB dongle will set you back a further €29.