WiMax in Delgany - Imagine

Taltos

Have just signed up for WiMax in Delgany. Due out end of Sept.

Fairly decent reported speeds / contention compared to some of the others. Thought I would post comparison here to help others.

7Mg package - download speed.
NO caps - critical for work.
4 to 1 contention - ok not ideal but far better than Eircoms quoted 48:1.
No line rental. Very good prices too for phone bundles.

Without phone pricing bundle - 35E per month.... Will post back when it is in with an update on speeds / service. So far though their sales team were very helpful.

Cheers.

jor el

Should have done a bit more research first. That speed is not guaranteed, and not even likely. The contention ratio quoted is pure fiction. It's not unlimited, they just don't publish the cap.

If this is for work, and critical, then you should cancel it and get a real broadband service.

jay93

there is a cap of 30GB per month unlimited never means what they say they always have a fair usage policy hiden in their terms and conditions

watty

Eircom's contention is often much lower than 48:1

4:1 sales contention on Wireless isn't credible. 40:1 or more is credible. Maybe they mean real time contention, which is NOT how contention is quoted.

Industry standard
(sum of total number of packages sold on resource*)/(Sustained throughput of resource)

so if you sell 5 x 7Mbps packages and have 35 Mbps mast sector speed contention is 1:1
if you sell to 200 customers, then contention is 40:1

But if they mean that your 7Mbps can slow to 1/4 (4:1) = 1.75Mbps , that is congestion, that's too many of the people you sold transferring at the same time.

So I think they are saying your 7Mbps can be 1.75Mbps, i.e. 4:1

But that is not the real contention. Contention relies on the idea that only a percentage of your customers actually transfer data at same time. For just Web & Email, the original Comreg limit for FWA licence of 48:1 was fine. If people all use BB to watch TV, then you need 1:1 contention, massively expensive.

4:1 is not credible as that means with 200 x 7 Mbps customers on a Mast sector they would need 50 x 7 = 350Mbps capacity. Which might be 20x the speed that they have.

You have been misled.

Taltos

In terms of where I am going to though there do not appear to be many options.

Eircom - in there - but max 1.5 at 48:1 contention
UPC - no plans to roll out there yet
Magnet - need to do a line test but see 1.5 above - cannot improve on that speed
Smart - same as magnet
Irish Broadband - way too expensive

I did see the fair use policy - but stressed that I need it for work - large files etc.
At the end of the day though they will come out and do a speed test - if 7M is not achievable then that's it - option cancelled and I will have to look elsewhere again

watty

The 1.5Mbps is not contention but line length/quality. It will always connect and pretty much always give that. If Imagine WiMax gives 7Mbps today that's no guarantee that it won't be less than 1Mbps next month. In reality contention on eircom is rarely 48:1, that the max they agree to sell on an exchange. Imagine's licence allows 48:1, but with lack of small cap and nomadic / mobile system they can't guarantee that contention is exceeding 48:1

Also an Exchange can have huge number of users and bandwidth compare to a Mast Sector with 3.6GHz licensed channels, so with 48:1 contention in customer base sold, congestion can be 3 to 4 worse. Random users clump. So you will not have the customers evenly spread. This means that smaller capacity systems such as Imagine WiMax see huge swings in performance with location or time.

You may be lucky, but you could be unlucky in 2 months time.

TBH, though no fan of eircom and line rental is 5x what it should be, a real 1.5Mbps that is the same all the time is better than an up to 7Mbps that has NO contracted minimum outage or speed or performance at all.

Taltos

Maybe I should have given background a bit more.

Before Smart rolled out I was an early adopter with Eircom and paid thru the nose for work - circa 190 p/mth.
This did come down but with SMART coming out I sought what I considered a reasonable request to drop my price or reward my long term custom.
Was told that was the price to leave if I wanted to.... So I did.
Rang back with the news I was switching to Smart and wanted to cancel my subscription.... 15 min later my broadband was disconnected and Eircom played around for 3 mts in not releasing my port....

Had numerous calls, threatened legal action until they eventually released the port (once I mentioned legal route).... Swore to myself no matter what I would never go back to them.

Was basically treated like dirt - and any group that treats its customers like that will not get my custom.

watty

So Digiweb/Smart then?

jor el

Taltos wrote: »

At the end of the day though they will come out and do a speed test - if 7M is not achievable then that's it - option cancelled and I will have to look elsewhere again

You cannot trust that speed test though, as it is in no way indicative of long term performance. You need this for work, you need reliability, and you need to up/download large files. You need Magnet or Smart, even if it's only 1.5Mbps. Imagine Wimax is not an option for you. Don't be blinded by the flashy 7M, it's all fluff.

Cryos

Taltos wrote: »

At the end of the day though they will come out and do a speed test - if 7M is not achievable then that's it - option cancelled and I will have to look elsewhere again

Depending on where you are in delgany you wont get 7mb broadband, infact for delgany youll probably be lucky to see 5mb (again depends where you are). Delgany from what i know about it runs off the greystones exchange (see http://www.broadbandatoz.ie/your-area.asp?id=69 ).

Delgany is roughly 1.5km away from the greystones exchange as the crow flys so you could probably add .5km onto that for the way the cables are in the ground (some services cables go past crowabbey and others channel via the rugby club road).

Your only other option is possibly wicklow broadband (http://www.wicklowbroadband.com) im strongly concidering it myself, but as its a wireless technology watty's points do stand to some concideration.

cgarvey

Taltos wrote: »

Have just signed up for WiMax

Taltos wrote: »

NO caps - critical for work.

These 2 statements are incompatible, I'm afraid. WiMax (at least, Imagine's incarnation of it) is not up to the challenge of being suitable for "critical" work.

If no cap is critical for your work, then none of the options you mentioned will be suitable, though Magnet might just be. You can't expect to pay entry-level residential broadband prices for a critical business function.