4G is old news, it seems, for the mobile network Three, as it has announced that dozens of towns and cities across Ireland are to gain access to a faster 4G Plus, with the network making 4G free forever.

4G charges have been in place as a means of funding the network’s expansion of its faster mobile broadband connections across the country, but now it is looking to expand on to the next stage of mobile broadband with 4G Plus.

From now and forever, every ‘all you can eat data’ contract on the Three network will offer 4G connectivity for free in the same way that 3G is now on every mobile network.

According to Three’s own figures, its network saw a 77pc increase in data traffic last year with an increase of 19pc on this again so far this year, which adds increasing strain to the network.

With plans to invest €300m in the network, Three says that the introduction of 4G Plus would allow people with compatible phones to access speeds of up to 225Mbps on the move, with it saying parts of Dublin are already capable of receiving these speeds.

Limited to mostly flagship phones

There are still a limited number of handsets available in Ireland that have access to it, however, with it mostly being limited to the flagship phones like the iPhone 6s, Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge and HTC One M9.

It is also accessible on certain phones from Sony, Motorola and Huawei.

Dublin is the first part of the country to gain access to 4G Plus, but Three has also announced the towns which are to receive 4G Plus speeds, with plans to have it up and running in its entirety by 2017 following the beginning of a national rollout next month.

The company also recently announced it had signed a €65m investment deal with Amdocs as part of a major overhaul of its IT digital transformation strategy.

The full list of named towns are as follows:

Dublin

Cork

Limerick

Galway

Tralee

Killarney

Ennis

Shannon

Bray

Greystones

Kilcoole

Arklow

Clonmel

Navan

Waterford

Dunmore East

Letterkenny

Ballina

Castlebar

Westport

Kilkenny

Athlone

Prosperous

Drogheda

Dundalk

Bettystown

Laytown

Tullamore

Wexford

Roscommon

Durrow

Sligo

Monaghan

Belturbet

Carlow

Newtownforbes

Mobile phone masts image via Shutterstock