Imagine launch Midband Ripwave Replacement - WiMAX

well it will be interesting to see how wimax goes - imagine/irish broadband were supposed to launch their priceplans today yet they have prosponed it until the middle of the week. Not a good start but looking at the technology it still has a flaw of having a max speed per mast so the more users the slower - ill be interested to see the rollout of LTE as well but it still has the same issues as well. God Id love to have fibre direct to the house :P

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14161/comms/clash-of-the-wimax-and-lte-titans-vhs-vs-betamax-deja-vous

jor el

The Fool wrote: »

Interesting article...Wimax vrs LTE

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14161/comms/clash-of-the-wimax-and-lte-titans

Hmm, I'd take anything written by John Kennedy with more than a pinch of salt. His "articles" read like a press release, and his interviews sound more like an advertising blurb. A proper tech journo would question why it is that we include 3G connections in broadband stats, when the OECD does not. A proper tech journo would question Minister Ryan, and the 3G telecos, on why they call 3G broadband. John Kennedy doesn't do this. Instead, he big-ups the Minister and the telecos, never questioning the indisputable fact that the technology simply isn't suitable for what it is being used for in this country. I have no respect for him or anything he writes.

Whether or not mobile Wimax will fall into the same category as 3G in a year or two, is anyone's guess. I don't believe it's the saving grace of broadband penetration and availability in Ireland though.

well doesnt it vary since there is a supposed difference between fixed WiMax and the dongle based mobile WiMax? As for LTE and WiMax I do take the articles with a pound of salt...since ive being relying on 3g for internet for years now at this stage.

I suppose we will have to wait for the next three months to see how this new venture goes i suppose.

lucernarian

John Kennedy spouts some awful crap at times, I'd agree with Jor El's comments on him.

An example of his ignorance:

The "bright spark" who decided to build a 4 lane M50 was actually mainly Ray McSharry, former Sligo TD and EU commissioner, along with the Haughey cabinet in the late 80s. As part of the famous cutbacks, the motorway plans lost the cloverleaf junctions and the 2 extra lanes now being built. This saved about £30 million at the time. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the time every little was necessary to get the IMF off our backs.

I don't think I was even born when that cabinet decision was made, so John Kennedy really should know better.

copacetic

Goodshape wrote: »

The 'WiMax Plans' section open on Monday. Didn't take much to see that, surely?

Maybe it's just that their old site sucked so bad.. I thought this one was a huge improvement tbh.

not sign of that actually happening, they don't seem to be organised at all. The rest of the site is very poor, the links to more info etc don't have any information. A bit like the coverage map that has no details of coverage.

I'd be quite keen to try out a new service but this has poor customer service and disorganisation written all over it and thats before it even starts.

Kev.

copacetic wrote: »

not sign of that actually happening, they don't seem to be organised at all. The rest of the site is very poor, the links to more info etc don't have any information. A bit like the coverage map that has no details of coverage.

I'd be quite keen to try out a new service but this has poor customer service and disorganisation written all over it and thats before it even starts.

I agree with that post ,but they have a good track record with breeze so surely this should be okay

Surely the site and other things like advertising,prices and info would be up to another department in the company...

Or am I just pulling at straws hoping for a next gen broadband

copacetic

I'm not sure but the site did say last week that all the info would be up today and it isn't, the rest of the site is a mess also. So it's certainly not a great start, after all the shouting and publicity they were doing you would think they would be more professional about the launch.

Antoh

just found out today that the breeze vl service, i.e. the 5ghz service will be left alone. for now anyway. But the wimax will be replacing the ripwave and also the breeze max 3.5ghz service. so everyone on both these services will be getting swapped over as it becomes available in each area. Is this really going to work out???? apparently the ripwave was causing interferance with the breeze max because they both run 3.5ghz so they want to prevent his happening again. still they must know what they're doing if they're going through this much trouble.

Goodshape

copacetic wrote: »

I'm not sure but the site did say last week that all the info would be up today and it isn't

Yeah, that's a pity alright. They announced on Twitter a few days ago (I quoted and linked to it in a post above) that the prices would now be out later in the week, and they've removed reference to Monday 19th on the site.

Just thought it was odd that so many people were ranting about being unable to find information on the site, when it's fairly clearly "Coming Soon".

Antoh

Everyone is on edge waiting for more info on it. Typical Irish attitude, can't just wait and see what happens......

copacetic

Antoh wrote: »

Everyone is on edge waiting for more info on it. Typical Irish attitude, can't just wait and see what happens......

I think you'll find the 'typical Irish attitude' is to mistrust companies that announce a service with no details on it available and then don't provide the details when they said they would.

Also having a site with links for 'coverage maps', 'the benefits' and 'take the WiMax challenge' which don't have any of the stated information is not considered the sign of a good company.

Antoh

i agree fully its not a great start, but maybe it might smooth out when they do get the site up and running. only time will tell right now. maybe its just there way of trying to keep everyone on the edge of their seats or just to get everyone talking. if so its working

thebman

Antoh wrote: »

i agree fully its not a great start, but maybe it might smooth out when they do get the site up and running. only time will tell right now. maybe its just there way of trying to keep everyone on the edge of their seats or just to get everyone talking. if so its working

I doubt it, I imagine :P that they are more interested in getting as fast a return on their investment in WiMax technology as possible.

gerky

While I'd love to believe the hype about this, past experiance of companies with better reputations have left me doubtful to say the least but I won't shoot them down fully just yet time will tell.
That website is terrible and trying way too hard, it seems to be lots of ****flash and little substance.

For a company that's talking about providing better services and service for people stuck without BB you'd think they'd make a site dial-up friendly but maybe that's part of the marketing, making sure potential customers on slow connections know that their current connection is crap.

Now their twitter account is a different story altogether;) full of useful info



Must of been too busy testing their wimax download speed to publish more info on their service:D

Sponge Bob

Antoh wrote: »

only time will tell right now.

Don't need time. I can tell you right now that 90% coverage in those frequencies AND by 2012 is simply Imagine talking out of their holes .

5starpool

Antoh wrote: »

i agree fully its not a great start, but maybe it might smooth out when they do get the site up and running. only time will tell right now. maybe its just there way of trying to keep everyone on the edge of their seats or just to get everyone talking. if so its working

All it's making everyone talk about is how it is likely to be a shambles with the lack of technical details, price plans and proper coverage maps. Shambles of a website, and to change the official launch date so close to the announced date is probaly not a good thing.

The fact that this is the billed as the great white hope of internet provisions says a lot about the provision of those services in this country. Joke.

gerky

I guess I must of embarrassed them, britney is gone:D

But by deleting it they just proved that they're reading this thread:)

machalla

gerky wrote: »

I guess I must of embarrassed them, britney is gone:D

But by deleting it they just proved that they're reading this thread:)

Posted on twitter you mean?

JAMM222

i assume we will have to upgrade the wifi card in out laptops/netbooks to something like the intel 5350 in order to avail of this service?

Sponge Bob

JAMM222 wrote: »

I assume we will have to upgrade the wifi card in out laptops/netbooks to something like the intel 5350 in order to avail of this service?

God no, the 5350 will not work at all ( wrong frequency) and will merely pollute MMDS TV bands

conti

As a midlander I for one welcome any kind of competition for the Last Mile Broadband (Athlone is one of the mentioned locations for the rollout)

For years a lot of rural houses and businesses have been forced to use these incompetent over-priced morons. €38 per month for a 1mb connection (I've never seen a result go past 0.6mb on speedtest.net)

If half of what imagine are saying is true then they can count me in.

bealtine

conti wrote: »

If half of what imagine are saying is true then they can count me in.

That's the question...which half?

jor el

conti wrote: »

For years a lot of rural houses and businesses have been forced to use these incompetent over-priced morons.

I don't believe there will much, if any, rural coverage with this service. At least not initially anyway. The only commercially viable way of doing this is to cover urban areas, until money can be made, then expand.

Anything beyond the town centres and close surrounds will be the last thing to get coverage, if ever.

The only thing this brings is another option for areas that already have options. People without any option, or any kind of broadband/midband service, will not benefit.

lucernarian

Funny that. if you look at 3G coverage, one would say it's best in urban areas. Yet how come there are so many people using it??

There's a lot of people who have f**k all options while living in flats or in managed estates where internet/cable services are punted out to the highest bidder. And most private apartment blocks will not allow aerials/dishes on balconies/outside full stop.

That leaves you with Eircom, and associated costs (now temporarily very low admittely) or else one of the midband providers.

Granted, near-ubiquitous eircom DSL availability makes one vital avenue possible. But cities/towns are hardly unaffected by poor comms. policy and underinvestment. Technology choice is needed everywhere.

gerky

machalla wrote: »

Posted on twitter you mean?

Sorry maybe I'm slow tonight but I don't get what you mean, one of the twitter accounts that the imagine business account was following was a porn based account for access to celeb XXX tapes, after I pointed it out here it quickly got deleted.

At least we now know imagine can't so well get in to the business of censorship:)

thebman

lol its a new twitter following over 400 and one of them is a porn twit account.

Any chance they have a script :P

cgarvey

Antoh wrote: »

i agree fully its not a great start, but maybe it might smooth out when they do get the site up and running.

When one has something to sell, then tell us. When one doesn't have something to sell, and makes a big fanfare out of nothing, expect criticism.

onedmc

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Its all Media hype if you ask me and just giving Imaine/Irish broadband free advertisement.
I bet Watty is sitting out there on the side just itching to give his 2 cents on the subject!

Yea it is a load of waffles. I Supposedly live in an area that is 'live' according to the website. But I cant get it as they are upgrading their current customers first and they are unable to tell me how much they are charging the current customers.

This is the same company that gave away tenners a few years ago promoting the fact that were going to deliver broadband for a tenner. That never happened either.

jor el

onedmc wrote: »

This is the same company that gave away tenners a few years ago promoting the fact that were going to deliver broadband for a tenner. That never happened either.

That was eircom Broadband Time, and I think Imagine were the only reseller to take up the wholesale option (mainly because it was sh*t). They did actually offer it for a while, but I don't think for very long. It should never have been called broadband either, as broadband is "always on", and 20 hours a month is far from always on.

Mountrath

And today there pricing is still not on the website, but it still says pricing live Thursday 22nd ha ha, not like im going to benefit from there service in Mountrath anyway.:D