Mobile broadband network was the preferred term. O2 is making the investment as part of its requirements to build out a third-generation (3G) network under the terms of its licence but has shied away from attaching the 3G label.

Given the baggage the label brings, its reluctance is not surprising. Across Europe mobile operators, including O2, have shelled out over 230bn to buy third-generation mobile licences from national governments.

Those licences have allowed them to erect masts and build out networks that can carry data at high speeds bringing video, music and other content to consumers and tooling up executives to send and receive large files and attachments while out of the office.

But none of the operators have come anywhere near generating a return on their massive investment.

The technology has proven to be a particularly damp squib for consumers. Early 3G handsets were bulky and prone to running out of power in no time thanks to the extra demands 3G services made on batteries. That is, provided customers were bothered to avail of the 3G services in the first place.

In the Irish market both Vodafone and 3 offer 3G content including football highlight clips, music videos and other multimedia marvels but there is no evidence to date that either company is profiting from those services.

According to its most recent quarterly figures Vodafone's average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) fell 5% to 48.80 over the same period in 2005, continuing a downward trend caused by increased competition from 3 . . . which arrived in Ireland last year . . . and a resurgent Meteor.

Voice and text prices have been falling as a consequence of that increased competition.

There is no sign so far that football highlights and music video downloads are the answer to that revenue conundrum.

It is telling that 3 Ireland has copied the strategy it pursued in the UK and focused on offering cheap calls and text messages to attract customers to its network, while bundling much of its 3G content for free.

Oliver Coughlan, O2's chief technology officer, said one of the reasons the company has delayed its own 3G launch until now is that it has not been convinced that mobile phone owners will pay for content they have been offered by 3G networks so far. "The bottom line is that at the moment our customers are telling us they have no interest in that, " he said.

But O2 believes the technology has now evolved to a stage where it can provide the kind of content that will interest them. According to the company's research one thing customers say they will stump up for is mobile TV. Coughlan believes there is limited attraction to downloading video content but that live television broadcasting over mobiles will be a very different proposition. "It can vary from news bulletins to looking at Coronation Street or the All-Ireland Hurling final wherever you want to be, " he said.

O2 has bigger plans for the network than simply using it to beam Corrie to people's phones. Coughlan sees the high-speed mobile network as a compelling proposition for homeowners outside the larger urban centres who are currently struggling to get access to broadband internet in their homes. "We think there's a big opportunity there, " he said.

That would mirror what it is doing in the UK, where O2 has begun offering broadband to homeowners through Be Mine, an internet company it acquired for £50m earlier this year.

O2's late arrival at the 3G party leaves Meteor as the only existing mobile operator in the Irish market with no 3G offer. That may change depending on the outcome of a court case taken by Smart Telecom against the communications regulator Comreg earlier this summer. Smart had been awarded the fourth, and last, Irish 3G licence. Eircom and Meteor, its mobile subsidiary, were the other bidders and should Smart fail to overturn Comreg's decision to withdraw the licence Meteor could find itself gate-crashing sooner than it had expected.

Meteor's director of corporate and regulatory affairs Andrew Kelly, however, said the company is less than impressed with how the technology has been received to date. Its reluctance to enter the fray until now was due to the fact that it "didn't see a business case for 3G." "That has been proven to be correct, not just in Ireland but everywhere, " he said.

Meteor is happy to be a "fast follower" rather than an early adopter. If and when the other operators figure out how to use the extra capacity and higher speeds to make 3G pay, Meteor will be right on their coat-tails.

"I think there will be [a business case] at some stage and Meteor will enter the 3G market when it is right and appropriate to do so, " said Kelly.