Ripwave to WiMax, should I be scared?

cormie

I've been with IrishBroadband for the past two years or so using their 1mb Ripwave product quite happily. I've never had any problems at all. I just received an email today saying they'll be stopping this service and I'll have to change to WiMax!

Now from what I've heard of WiMax, it's nowhere near as good as it's described as being and I'm quite happy paying only 18.88 or whatever it is I pay for 1MB Ripwave and don't fancy paying more just because of the fancy name and risk getting terrible service.

Has anyone else had to make the change? Do I have any choice at all to keep Ripwave? Why fix something that's not broken?!

Would appreciate any feedback

jor el

If their switching Ripwave off, then you can't chose to keep it. Whether you switch to Wimax or not is up to you. You could find an alternate (proper) supplier.

cormie

Yeah it's a bit annoying alright Was more than happy with Ripwave!

Any suggestions on a similar package? For €18.88 it was great, 1mb always on BB with a 10gb cap. I'd be happy with something similar, no line rental etc.

Is WiMax ANY good AT ALL? How would it compare to what I've been using I wonder for the same price bracket?

jor el

There are quite a few Imagine Wimax threads, like this one, and I don't think any of them have anything good to say.

cormie

Yup, anything I've read about them has not been positive at all

Guess I'll just have to find an alternative which is a nuisance! Can you think of any good ones off hand that would offer the same always on service for around the same price at all?

watty

Mobile WiMax is better than Ripwave, and ripwave seems to be getting entirely replaced.

But because it's Mobile/Nomadic WiMax (not Fixed only WiMax protocol) and the same band, then it's not much better. Generally poorer overall than Fixed Wireless or Breeze. Some people with few users sharing mast and good signal will get better than Breeze performance.

You'd be better with Metro, Breeze, DSL, Magnet, UPC cable. etc

cormie

Thanks for the suggestions. Pretty annoying, they are all a good bit more expensive on a yearly basis it seems. I just want good reliable cheap broadband. I don't need it for any more than checking mails and light browsings

jor el

A 3G connection may be for you then, though it couldn't really be described as reliable. Look into O2 and Vodafone, check what their signal strength is in your area, and maybe consider them.

It will be cheap, and can have good speeds (plenty for light browsing or Ripwave replacement) but can also be horribly bad or even non-existent at times.

watty

For cheap, email and light browsing and using on the go, O2 or Vodafone Mobile Internet.

But sometimes may not work at all.

Mostly it's cheaper and better than dialup but not as good as Broadband.

cormie

Thanks for the suggestions

Have used mobile BB solutions before and Ripwave was a million times better for me and definitely don't want to go back to relying on a mobile BB solution I'm afraid. I might check out one of the fixed cable providers like UPC if I have no other choice!

619C

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions

Have used mobile BB solutions before and Ripwave was a million times better for me and definitely don't want to go back to relying on a mobile BB solution I'm afraid. I might check out one of the fixed cable providers like UPC if I have no other choice!

I have had wimax for years now and its perfect - no problems from Irish Broadband.
Ask other users in your area how their reception is.
You will need an antenna on the roof instead of the Ripwave box.

cormie

Are you sure it's Wimax you're using? I thought Wimax was only rolled out last year? Is it not breeze you're talking about with the antenna?

Had Digiweb here before and they couldn't install their antenna because there was no signal where I am

Hrududu

I'm on Ripwave but I haven't heard anything from them about stopping the service. Are they doing it area by area?

watty

yes.

watty

cormie wrote: »

Are you sure it's Wimax you're using? I thought Wimax was only rolled out last year? Is it not breeze you're talking about with the antenna?

Fixed WiMax has been around for several years, with many Wireless ISPs. Later Breeze systems may indeed be very similar to Fixed WiMax, some ARE WiMax.

New! BreezeMAX® Extreme!
All-in-one, all outdoor WiMAX 802.16e base station

http://www.alvarion.com/

"Imag!ne WiMax" is as far as I can see the inferior Mobile WiMax deployed in replacement of Ripwave (recycle same licences and frequencies, and mostly same base sites) with Nomadic Modems and some Fixed aerials.

"WiMax" is an umbrella term covering a lot of quite different systems and protocols with very different performance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.16e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

Two main kinds of WiMax:
* 802.16-2004 is also known as 802.16d, which refers to the working party that has developed that standard. It is sometimes referred to as "Fixed WiMAX," since it has no support for mobility.
* 802.16e-2005, often abbreviated to 802.16e, is an amendment to 802.16-2004. It introduced support for mobility, among other things and is therefore also known as "Mobile WiMAX".


Mobility support and existence of Mobile or Nomadic indoor aerials can reduce the capacity of a network by about x16 compared with a 10km radius cell with Fixed Outdoor aerials only, for the same amount of spectrum.

The 802.16-2004 is also known as 802.16d with fixed aerials is around for ages with many ISPs.

The attraction for an ISP of a Mobile/Nomadic network is saving €50 to €800 per customer install. Fixed customer install at one time costing Irish Broadband almost €1000 per customer inc equipment. Hence over €50M in debt when Imagine bought them.

Ripwave / Mobile WiMax is really a product competing with 3G/HSPA as most "mobile" data users are really in one place. By the time a mast has an economic number of users Mobile WiMax will only be offering 3G performance.

cormie

Came back to post a question and just saw your reply watty, thanks

Anyway, my connection has reeeeally slowed down, everything else is the same, distance from my router etc but the connection is just really slow these days. Could this be due to them winding down the service I wonder?

I think it's about time I started to look for some alternatives anyway. I'd prefer not to go wimax based on what I've heard about it. UPC aren't available here as far as I can see and looks like every other decent provider needs a phone line, which I don't have and don't want to end up paying 40eur+a month for the complete package.

Has anyone else experienced their connection slowing and has anyone found a viable alternative?

munstergirl

I've been using ripwave in limerick for years no major problems.
Last few weeks no signal or connects for few mins them disconnects.
I just rang up and cancelled. They don't even want the modem back.
No idea what to get next, i liked the fact it was cheap and never had worries about going over limit.
No idea who to go with next.

danjo-xx

They don't even want the modem back.

Surprised at that....I had to send mine back and cost me €12. In their T & C's there is a charge of over €100 for non return of modem so I would send it back if I were you.

I went to Meteor mobile, but I'm near a mast and signal is 3 times better than ripwave. Getting this at the moment most I ever got with Ripwave was 0.60 download speed. Take the free weeks trial from the phone companies and then decide if any of them are any good for your location.

cormie

Don't you buy the ripwave modem though, so you own it? As far as I know you buy it, own it and do what you want with it, whereas with a company such as eircom you sign up, they post you a modem and you have to post it back?

danjo-xx

cormie wrote: »

Don't you buy the ripwave modem though, so you own it? As far as I know you buy it, own it and do what you want with it, whereas with a company such as eircom you sign up, they post you a modem and you have to post it back?

When I got mine it was free....but later they were charging for it.

Now to replace it with Wimax they want a 12 month contract and a €50 activation fee...some cheek:(

watty

Imagine own all the Ripwave modems, but since they are quickly phasing it out to use Mobile WiMax, they are paper weights. Even though Navini claimed they would be upgradeable to WiMax.

smelly sock

Have to be honest my wimax is worknig okay lately (OK) only. Their a shocking bad company to deal with though. The saying " He'd tell you black was white comes to mind".

cormie

Blocks, got cut off today Haven't paid since June though which is ok. Asked what do I do with the modem and they said "we'd be grateful if you sent it back to us" I said "who pays for postage" they said "you usually would but if you don't want to, you don't have to send it back" I said "ok".

So now... to find an alternative in Dun Laoghaire where I won't be paying line rental for a phone I never use. I just need always on, reliable broadband 1mb or greater.

cormie

Has anyone experience of DigiWeb Metro at all? It's 35eur per month which is a good bit more than ripwave, but seems to be the cheapest option. 5mb wireless for €35.

watty

The lack of threads speaks for itself.

The only recent one. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055999111

cormie

Thanks for the link.

However, I just remembed I got Digiweb to do a signal test in early 2009 with no success so I don't think I can get the Metro service at all

You'd think Dun Laoghaire would have a bit more option than it does.

Does this mean I'm stuck with having to get an eircom landline? Oh noo

cormie

I think I might just have to give Wimax a shot by the looks of things :eek:

Probably go for the 3mb/30eur a month option. Even if I can get a trial period to see how it holds up and decide then I guess.

cormie

Some good news

Eircom are doing a special promotion and I qualify to get 10 months free line rental on a 12 month contract so I'll only be paying 21.42 for 10 months and then 46.78 for the last two months for 8mb uncontended, 10gb cap, free wireless modem, free local/national calls after 7pm, 30 mobile minutes per month.

Best deal by a long shot and even if it's not 8mb, I'm sure it'll still be better than anything else I can get.

omahaid

You should be a bit nervous. My ripwave was disconnected two days ago (Wimax is due to be rolled out "mid august") and I'm supposed to get wimax "by the end of the week". FFS