Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

marno21

Jack Killian wrote: »

July 10th was the last update I was told. Apparently they moved from the Clarion with 150 subscriber capacity to Woodcock with 400.

The Clarion was previously their site for their subpar Ripwave & Wimax products. It's no wonder they've moved up to the Hill because LOS coverage from the city centre would be poor at best with all the buildings around.

I would hope they'd put a sector on Keeper Hill because of the excellent range from there, and it would serve very rural parts of North Co. Tipp.

Tipp FM have an allocation on 97.6 from Keeper Hill and if they ever decided to use it I reckon it would cover half the country at least.

Jack Killian

TireeTerror wrote: »

Deluded? Maybe you're deluded.

Zero to no coverage? Before you start ranting about me, perhaps think about what you're typing.

Just because there are few alternatives, it doesn't mean it is good value. Paying €150 for the install and then €60 per month for 18 months minimum is very expensive. Whether or not YOU think it's expensive does not matter to me, it is expensive.

Also, and this is only a guess, based on the series of lies and garbage Imagine have been peddling to obtain sales, I would not be surprised if we see that 400 users limit being exceeded once the greed factor kicks in, as it has done with virtually every other line of sight supplier all around Ireland. Most likely they will not oversubscribe the masts until they get a decent reputation, they will continue to link to this thread, or others, to reassure customers. But I am confident in not much time they will be making excuses about speeds dipping way below 30Mb at peak times. In fact based on their record of lies and bullsh1t so far, it is a certainty.

I will take their service in the meantime of course, Ive become accustomed to the sh1tty standards Ive witnessed in Ireland, so as long as I'm prepared for it to crumble at some point in the future, I will at least enjoy it while it lasts. I would love to be surprised and find they are honourable, but all companies are out to extract as much revenue as possible and they rarely ever play fair, because playing fair is not as profitable as scamming people.

Call me a cynic if you want, 16 years working in the telecommunications sales industry and all of the "training" I've witnessed in that time tell me to prepare for the worst.

Firstly, where did you get the €150 from ?

Secondly, do you known the price of an eircom install ? It's way more than €150 in lots of cases. And don't even dream of asking for a new line for proper broadband if the current one is crap, because you'll have used up your Public Service entitlement (assuming that still exists) on the existing line and will have to take out a mortgage.

Thirdly, you're projecting a bias of a future greed; it may happen, but it may not. And you know what ? Imagine's contract buyout is €100, not a "pay what's left of the contract that we breached" like other providers. So if they oversubscribe, everyone who wants to gets out nice and handy. Which then solves the oversubscription.

Quiksilver

Jack Killian wrote: »

Firstly, where did you get the €150 from ?

"A €100 activation fee applies and if your in outdoor coverage, there’s a €50 charge for the engineer
installation"
Thats from their price guide, from what i've gathered it's all outdoor installations for the LTE so i i'd assume it would be the €150.
I still think that's somewhat reasonable for a new connection. Most of the fixed wireless providers charge a similar installation fee.

Jack Killian

Quiksilver wrote: »

"A €100 activation fee applies and if your in outdoor coverage, there’s a €50 charge for the engineer
installation"
Thats from their price guide, from what i've gathered it's all outdoor installations for the LTE so i i'd assume it would be the €150.
I still think that's somewhat reasonable for a new connection. Most of the fixed wireless providers charge a similar installation fee.

Cheers

Knew about the €100 but wasn't aware / had forgotten about the €50; or maybe it didn't apply because I tipped off a family member and so got a referral, which I think was around €50

morgana

Quiksilver wrote: »

For those in the country side, this is not expensive, We all know those close enough to suitable exchanges can get better speed for a better price. I'm paying €50 a month for 4 Meg download where i usually get 1/3 to 1/2 of that; This was fastest i could get, i'm changing over to Three mobile broadband until Imagine is available is it the fastest provider available to me at the moment. Their are a lot of people that would easily pay that kind of price to get a 60-70 Meg average download speed not to mind the 30 Meg minim speed they are aiming to supply. The cancellation fee is only €100 if you wanted to jump ship but unless it was going sub 20 Meg, i'd still stay with them until something better came around, which it could and more than likely will; until then it is the best option for quite a few.

Totally agree. I was paying 55 Euro for an average of 6 Mbps (max. 8 MBps) and a restrictive cap of 150 meg. So this was a no-brainer. Rural options are always more expensive, and tbh, I have no problem with that if the service is at least decent.

jcd5971

morgana wrote:

Totally agree. I was paying 55 Euro for an average of 6 Mbps (max. 8 MBps) and a restrictive cap of 150 meg. So this was a no-brainer. Rural options are always more expensive, and tbh, I have no problem with that if the service is at least decent.

Being brutally honest for a guaranteed speed of even 20mb down let alone over 70mb. I'd pay up to 200 a month, yes a car loan price because high speed Internet is important to me so I see it as value.

It's all relative, price is subjective

ED E

The trick is to allow people try it. Once you have it it'll be VERY hard to give up if you care at all about your connectivity (obviously wont apply to most silver surfers but anyone with kids...).

TireeTerror

Eircom provide installation for free, as do Vodafone and most likely all other providers of fixed line broadband.

Ive had Net1 installed in 3 houses, was 100euro.

I think a lot of you are misunderstanding what I mean when I say it is expensive. I understand a lot of us are desperate for good broadband, I personally considered paying for a 1gb line of site connection until I found out it was nearly 2000 per month and that excluded VAT.

Im saying for up to 70Mb but a guarantee of 30Mb its expensive. Im not comparing it against your current rural price, im just comparing speed versus cost overall. It is not cheap. I can afford to pay a lot more for internet than 60, and I would probably pay around 200 per month myself if I had literally no alternative, but that just reflects how much I love the internet, not the actual value of the service.

Despite what a lot of people say, only a tiny minority would be willing to pay 100+ per month for internet. Most dont have so much disposable income and are very stretched as it is. They would probably struggle on with slow Eir or some mobile solution and wait it out. Its not that they dont want it, but there is a point when they just cant afford it.

I hope in 10 years time we all have reasonable broadband speeds and we cam become frustrated at something else, this saga feels like a lifetime.

ED E

Im not sure you understand the concept of expensive.

Kensington

TireeTerror wrote: »

Eircom provide installation for free, as do Vodafone and most likely all other providers of fixed line broadband.

Ive had Net1 installed in 3 houses, was 100euro.

I think a lot of you are misunderstanding what I mean when I say it is expensive. I understand a lot of us are desperate for good broadband, I personally considered paying for a 1gb line of site connection until I found out it was nearly 2000 per month and that excluded VAT.

Im saying for up to 70Mb but a guarantee of 30Mb its expensive. Im not comparing it against your current rural price, im just comparing speed versus cost overall. It is not cheap. I can afford to pay a lot more for internet than 60, and I would probably pay around 200 per month myself if I had literally no alternative, but that just reflects how much I love the internet, not the actual value of the service.

Despite what a lot of people say, only a tiny minority would be willing to pay 100+ per month for internet. Most dont have so much disposable income and are very stretched as it is. They would probably struggle on with slow Eir or some mobile solution and wait it out. Its not that they dont want it, but there is a point when they just cant afford it.

I hope in 10 years time we all have reasonable broadband speeds and we cam become frustrated at something else, this saga feels like a lifetime.

If you want an internet connection based purely on cost alone, go get yourself a €20-a-month all you can eat SIM on the Three LTE network.

Just don't expect it to work very well - if you can even get LTE from them in the first place.

Price alone is not a fair representation of value.

ItHurtsWhenIP

ED E wrote: »

The trick is to allow people try it. Once you have it it'll be VERY hard to give up if you care at all about your connectivity (obviously wont apply to most silver surfers but anyone with kids...).

I was going to make this point about the more elderly in our rural communities. In my area, those that can see their mast, have Munster Broadband's "Lite" package (which they stopped selling last year), which is 1Mbps/256Kbps for €20pm. Those neighbours of mine on this package have often complained to me about the speeds they get and I tells them "You get what you pay for. Why not upgrade to the "Home" package 3Mbps/1Mbps for €35pm. A tripling of your speed." Although sh1te for modern day needs, they tell me that the pension simply wont stretch to it.

€60pm would be too much for a lot of these people.

I was planning on making a submission to the NBP last year (but I missed he deadline) to have something in the rules that there should be a base package available for something in the €20-€25 range that gives the bare requirement of 30Mbps/6Mbps, for those people that are a bit short of disposable income.

Quiksilver

I believe that Imagine is more aimed at the heaver users, large familes etc. The "1Mbps/256Kbps for €20pm" packages would be great for those who want to do basic browsing, emails and "very" lite youtube watching. The problem is not getting the advertised speed and most people don't see the small print that the quoted speeds are "upto" speeds. (A discussion for another thread).
We don't know what the customer pricing is going to be like when NBP rolls out, it could be high to help cover the cost of implementation. (Again a discussion for another thread)

polaris68

Any updates from anyone waiting for an installation or how the service is from those who got it recently installed?

TireeTerror

Kensington wrote: »

If you want an internet connection based purely on cost alone, go get yourself a €20-a-month all you can eat SIM on the Three LTE network.

Just don't expect it to work very well - if you can even get LTE from them in the first place.

Price alone is not a fair representation of value.

Ive got one. I get 4G. Its good sometimes, annoying other times. Ive got a PAYG sim with them and a rolling month to month contract, I downloaded 165GB on the contract one last month, its how I connect online, I tether my PC to it as bluebox are a steaming pile of sh1t and I wouldnt go near them as they oversubscribed, as will Imagine, but as others have already stated, lets hop on while the speeds are good at see where it leads.

ED E

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I was planning on making a submission to the NBP last year (but I missed he deadline) to have something in the rules that there should be a base package available for something in the €20-€25 range that gives the bare requirement of 30Mbps/6Mbps, for those people that are a bit short of disposable income.

That use case only works with FWA. Wireless solutions are primarily constrained by bandwidth whereas fixed access is constrained by the carrier medium. If it costs €20/pm/per rural sub for GPON in upkeep and maintenance then a low cost package is a loss.

ItHurtsWhenIP

ED E wrote: »

That use case only works with FWA. Wireless solutions are primarily constrained by bandwidth whereas fixed access is constrained by the carrier medium. If it costs €20/pm/per rural sub for GPON in upkeep and maintenance then a low cost package is a loss.

I realise that, but the point is, the NBP is for the country - the whole country - there should be something built in (I suppose like a Social Farewell allowance) for those people of limited means to be able to get the basic package to enable them to use this utility.

Edit: Just realised waaaaay OT - sorry - I'll crawl back into my box now.

ED E

Bring back the telephone allowance.

The Telephone Allowance was discontinued from 1 January 2014. The value of the allowance was €9.50 per month per household.

A pensioners connectivity subsidy makes sense, especially for mental health reasons.

And yes, we're wayyyy OT.

marno21

ED E wrote: »

Im not sure you understand the concept of expensive.

This.

Take for example the Bweeng mast in Co. Cork

At present you can get:


Ripplecom - 8Mb - 100Gb limit - 49.99/mo
Ripplecom - 8Mb - 150Gb limit - 54.99/mo
Imagine - 30Mb at least - 20Gb/day limit - 59.99

Pious14

I think a bit of perspective is required on this forum. A service is now available to areas which was not before-because of this a premium is charged. When you compare Imagines service to comparable wireless, the extra cost (be it very little) is quite low for the increased speed and download allowance.

You can argue about future proof etc but at the end of the day, very decent high speed broadband is available to rural areas. Personally speaking, I can only get 1mb fixed line broadband and am constantly reviewing my download allowance of my Vodafone dongle which lasts less than 2 weeks.

Imagines service is a god send to me as I'm required to work from home every now and then. I can't understand the bickering here about Eircom v imagine, cost etc. We should be glad something is being done in rural areas

BuzzG

Pious14 speaks a lot of sense and I agree with him. Imagine have seen a business opportunity and have gone to fill a need in the market. As long as they are decent with their customer and provide a service customers are happy with then good luck to them.

jcd5971

TireeTerror wrote:

Eircom provide installation for free, as do Vodafone and most likely all other providers of fixed line broadband.

Nope, got Vodafone fibre into my apartment (I work in the city, but come home every weekend to West clare) 4 months ago, Eir had to install the line, as there was no previous phone in apartment(it was an old business converted into several apartments) and I had to pay 150 as well as the monthly bill.

ED E

jcd5971 wrote: »

Nope, got Vodafone fibre into my apartment (I work in the city, but come home every weekend to West clare) 4 months ago, Eir had to install the line, as there was no previous phone in apartment(it was an old business converted into several apartments) and I had to pay 150 as well as the monthly bill.

Probably because you picked a 12mo contract? Normally at 18/24 mo they'll comp you the NLP fees.

jcd5971

ED E wrote:

Probably because you picked a 12mo contract? Normally at 18/24 mo they'll comp you the NLP fees.

Not sure would have to pull out the paperwork.

TireeTerror

jcd5971 wrote: »

Not sure would have to pull out the paperwork.

Its 100% free on 18 month contract because I had the KN installer here about 1 or 2 weeks ago and it was free. Turns out I'm so far from the cabinet, as I had told them all along, that there was no point in installing it, but it was absolutely free.

Oafley Jones

pegasus1 wrote: »

Or trees etc..

Is this a significant issue for LTE? I thought it would be like your phone. I'm guessing they've installed their setup in the local tower, which we can't get LOS for. Both our neighbours Nova connection are to this mast, but this one giant tree means we're set to Nagle instead.

ED E wrote: »

That's a dodgy feed to the site itself then. I would expect Imagine would only use 5 9s masts.

Not sure what that means ED E?

What's the latency like for LTE? Our nova connection was great the start >8ms, but since this FM transmitter started it can drop to well over 100ms sometimes 500ms.

marno21

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Is this a significant issue for LTE? I thought it would be like your phone. I'm guessing they've installed their setup in the local tower, which we can't get LOS for. Both our neighbours Nova connection are to this mast, but this one giant tree means we're set to Nagle instead.




Not sure what that means ED E?

What's the latency like for LTE? Our nova connection was great the start >8ms, but since this FM transmitter started it can drop to well over 100ms sometimes 500ms.

What FM transmitter?

steve3194

Hi lads, got a phonecall from imagine yesterday about their LTE broadband coming to our area. I'd be very interested in signing up as we currently have LTE from a local company and are only getting 5mb max. Minimum of 30mb would be great didn't think it would ever happen tbh. Anyway when looking at their site I saw the 20gb daily limit and although most days this would probably be sufficient I sometimes download games from steam which can often be over 20gb each. The site says that the speed will be throttled until midnight. My question is if anyone knows how slow It would be throttled to if it was dropped? from say 30mb to 10mb that would be grand but if it would be unusably slow like 1mb that would be an issue. Appreciate a reply

Cheers

irishchris

steve3194 wrote: »

Hi lads, got a phonecall from imagine yesterday about their LTE broadband coming to our area. I'd be very interested in signing up as we currently have LTE from a local company and are only getting 5mb max. Minimum of 30mb would be great didn't think it would ever happen tbh. Anyway when looking at their site I saw the 20gb daily limit and although most days this would probably be sufficient I sometimes download games from steam which can often be over 20gb each. The site says that the speed will be throttled until midnight. My question is if anyone knows how slow It would be throttled to if it was dropped? from say 30mb to 10mb that would be grand but if it would be unusably slow like 1mb that would be an issue. Appreciate a reply

Cheers

I'm sure someone here quoted an imagine agent as saying it would drop to 5mb

steve3194

irishchris wrote: »

I'm sure someone here quoted an imagine agent as saying it would drop to 5mb

Thanks for the reply. Could be worse I suppose.

steve3194

Read a post earlier that downloading between 12am and 7am won't contribute to your daily allowance. Can anyone confirm?