Getting a cell phone contract in Dublin if you are new in the country will be difficult. If you are coming from the European Union, I think you should be fine. If you are buying a cell phone out right, or want to get a pay as you go plan with your own cell phone, you should also be fine.
The problems arise if you want to get a contract and thereby save some money on the cell phone. The providers will require you to have a bank account and a utility bill (anything official sent to you by mail to your home address should be fine). There are plenty of mobile providers in Ireland, the biggest of which are O2, Vodafone, Meteor and Three. I recommend you shop around, going from store to store. Your luck also highly depends on the customer service person you get. We were lucky to get a Canadian guy who was very helpful.
Be prepared to pay a deposit if you are after the contract. Even after being here for two years and having a local job, bank account, apartment and all the utility bills ready, we still had to pay a 150 Euro deposit when we recently switched providers.
Switching providers is easy and you can keep your number when you do so. Beware of the term of your contract with the old provider before switching, of course.
It is amazing how the customer service people have absolutely no brand loyalty and most of them openly tell you to go to the competitors.
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