I'm also with 3 and have to stand in the front garden to get any kind of signal and I live just outside a largeish town.In my view their service has always been "patchy" once you get outside the principal cities.
Now that they have taken over 02, with a little luck things will improve as they will hopefully now cross over the two networks.
Keep complaining ....
3 Ireland Mobile phone coverage is currently worse than Eircell's 088 analogue system from the 1990'S, It is not a fit for purpose service and the Regulator should have it investigated.
...I do recall receiving a text message from 3 recently warning of service issues due to an upgrade programme. I have deleted it so I don't have the text but it would appear that they at least were anticipating issues.
....just feel lucky that I am on a sim package whereby I can make the move, feel sorry for people that are stuck in a contract and have to put up with such an insufficient network in 2015!
Thats the key point, in my post above... those on contracts who are not being provided with a satisfactory service, have every right to move. If Three don't provide the service, then they are in breach of contract as I understand it and while small gaps in coverage are hardly a breach of service, regular outages and dropped calls must be, I'd imagine.