Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

Dero

listermint wrote: »

They dont shutdown connections for people being under usage. It doesnt make any sense.

You must be a regular and constant high usage user and probably by a large amount. This impacts service for your neighbours.

Ive no affiliation to the company at all, but using them for 4 years with mostly decent service tbh. Odd few hiccups but overall fine.

So i dont really care if you are trying to convince me, but we live in a world were its ok to question people on the internet and thats grand.

Fair enough. I have no issue with you questioning me. It is what it is. I have no agenda other than to point out that a permanent and irrevocable limiting is a tad extreme.

Scruff

joe123 wrote: »

Jesus, just reading some of the stories in this thread, why would anyone ever go with Imagine. I know some are stuck as there is no alternative, but they really are terrible.

Just reading through Dero's experience there, to reduce the speeds to 1Mb in the middle of a pandemic is lowest of the low.

You really should contact your local TD, Paper, rise a stink over this.

Imagine seem to be a **** of a company.

Hear! Hear!
Especially as Dero had reduced his usage this month. Twitter, etc the hell out of it that they are cutting you off.
Could easily have gone over it in my house if the weather hadn't been so fine this month. :eek:

Mortelaro

Very poor here this evening
Barrackcroghan mast north wexford

Ultimanemo

Ultimanemo

Dero wrote: »

I had breached the usage limit twice previously, and current usage and trends were irrelevant

I would talk to a solicitor, breaching the limit twice is not good enough reason to cut you down to 1 mb permenantly, you pay them €60 a month for up to 1TB, after 1TB they should cut you off for the rest of the month or you pay a small fee for 1mbps for the rest of the month.
My usage last month
March 2020
Total Usage: 280.72GB
Would they reward me with higher speeds or it is just one way traffic?.

Gonzo

Dero wrote: »

Fair enough. I have no issue with you questioning me. It is what it is. I have no agenda other than to point out that a permanent and irrevocable limiting is a tad extreme.

So Imagine are giving you a permanent lifetime trottling to 1mbps for 60 euros a month. I think it's time you notify as many media companies about this and show the public the cowboys who Imagine really are. This is extreme and probably illegal?

Cancel your payment and make sure everyone gets to read your experience with Imagine. The NBP can't happen soon enough so everyone gets a future proofed connection from a selection of trusted internet providers, some of which are very customer friendly. Rural Ireland will be a better place without Imagine making a fool of their customers.

Ultimanemo

Dero wrote: »

Well you see, that's the problem. I went over in December and March, so that's what they're basing it on. I'm beyond annoyed with how they've approached it, but have to be philosophical in the long run. They're not going to change their mind, so I need to research alternatives.

I'll probably complain to Comreg anyway, but I'm sure that Imagine have had this policy checked by their own legal team.

It's just such a ****ty time to do it. Surely they could wait till the lockdown was over?

P.S. Does anyone have experience of this Netgear LTE modem or could recommend and similar equivalent 3G/4G modem with bridge capability?

I use HUAWEI B525 it is very good, it takes external antenna as well


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-B525s-23a-stat-Router-300Mbps/dp/B06Y2HDQHL/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=Huawei+B525&qid=1588416088&sr=8-9

Marlow

Ultimanemo wrote: »

I use HUAWEI B525 it is very good, it takes external antenna as well


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-B525s-23a-stat-Router-300Mbps/dp/B06Y2HDQHL/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=Huawei+B525&qid=1588416088&sr=8-9

These ones also work well: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/HUAWEI-B593-800-1800-2600MHz-4G-2G-3G-LTE-150Mbps-SMA-ANTENNA-UNLOCKED/303554395740

Tends to be plenty for most.

/M

Gonzo

Looks like most Irish ISPs are ignoring usage caps for the lockdown and have come to an agreement. This includes Eir, Vodafone, Virgin, Three, Sky, Tesco and Pure Telecom for their home broadband and mobile plans. No mention of Imagine who are doubling down on their caps and throttling customers for life during the lockdown.

https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/coronavirus-four-of-irelands-big-internet-providers-promise-slack-on-bills-and-data-limits-during-lockdown-39129878.html

deadl0ck

Ultimanemo wrote: »

I would talk to a solicitor, breaching the limit twice is not good enough reason to cut you down to 1 mb permenantly, you pay them €60 a month for up to 1TB, after 1TB they should cut you off for the rest of the month or you pay a small fee for 1mbps for the rest of the month.
My usage last month
March 2020
Total Usage: 280.72GB
Would they reward me with higher speeds or it is just one way traffic?.

I don't think there is much that can be done as it clearly breaks their fair usage policy and they don't say that they will warn you each time, just the first time (or that's how I read it):

Fair Usage Policy – Broadband
The fair usage limit for data usage on the Broadband Service in any one month is 1TB. This limit is not to be exceeded. If you exceed the fair usage limit, we will notify you by phone, text or email to advise you that you have exceeded the fair usage limit and request that you modify your usage behaviour. If you subsequently exceed the fair usage limit Imagine reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Service(s).

lawred2

The 1Mb speed makes little business sense to me.. you're simply pushing a paying customer away. Nobody in their right mind is going to hang about with 1Mb speeds.

Cut it to 10Mb maybe (possibly even 5Mb) and that user's experience is greatly reduced but it still might be enough to keep them from trying an unreliable cellular broadband service..

Dero

lawred2 wrote: »

The 1Mb speed makes little business sense to me.. you're simply pushing a paying customer away. Nobody in their right mind is going to hang about with 1Mb speeds.

Cut it to 10Mb maybe (possibly even 5Mb) and that user's experience is greatly reduced but it still might be enough to keep them from trying an unreliable cellular broadband service..

I can confirm that 1mb is essentially unusable. It's actually closer to 1.5mb, but that doesn't matter. The problem is that it saturates so easily that the latency goes through the roof and then things like DNS lookups start timing out. Once that happens, you might as well not have a connection. It also prevents us using the VoIP phone, so now we have no land line number which my wife uses to keep in contact with her cocooning mother.

The worst part though is the fact of it being permanent. The feeling of having no path to normal service restoration is very frustrating. They won't entertain it at all. So why stick around indeed.

I'll go through their formal complaint procedure and Comreg say they'll follow up if/when that process is resolved. I very much doubt that they'll back down, but the process is there so I'll use it.

Gonzo

lawred2 wrote: »

The 1Mb speed makes little business sense to me.. you're simply pushing a paying customer away. Nobody in their right mind is going to hang about with 1Mb speeds.

Cut it to 10Mb maybe (possibly even 5Mb) and that user's experience is greatly reduced but it still might be enough to keep them from trying an unreliable cellular broadband service..

It is in Imagine's contract that they can terminate a customers service once the fair usage policy has been breached more than once. 'They have a right to terminate the service'.

However Imagine are as greedy as they come and have decided to cripple Dero's connection instead to unusable speeds during the middle of a lockdown, for life and hoping that he stays forking out 60 euros a month. A shower of sharks.

Marlow

Gonzo wrote: »

It is in Imagine's contract that they can terminate a customers service once the fair usage policy has been breached more than once. 'They have a right to terminate the service'.

However Imagine are as greedy as they come and have decided to cripple Dero's connection instead to unusable speeds during the middle of a lockdown, for life and hoping that he stays forking out 60 euros a month. A shower of sharks.

What it probably is, is that they don't want to be seen, to be terminating peoples connections during the lock down, because that would be a bigger scandal (so they may think).

Sure, the extra money is probably sweet, too.

Also, the 1 Mbit/s is enough to still be able to make phone calls. Obviously only, if you don't use the internet. So in fact, they've cancelled Deros broadband leaving Dero with the phone service only. Not that that is any good to Dero.

/M

Dero

Marlow wrote: »

What it probably is, is that they don't want to be seen, to be terminating peoples connections during the lock down, because that would be a bigger scandal (so they may think).

Sure, the extra money is probably sweet, too.

Also, the 1 Mbit/s is enough to still be able to make phone calls. Obviously only, if you don't use the internet. So in fact, they've cancelled Deros broadband leaving Dero with the phone service only. Not that that is any good to Dero.

/M

This is exactly it. It think it's an optics thing only. They want to be able to say "We won't disconnect anyone during lockdown". The net effect is the same to me though. I'm still paying full price for a deliberately crippled service.

On the phone issue, yes I agree, it works fine when there is no other traffic. Life isn't like that though. We can essentially choose to have a phone or basic Internet access. I'm paying for both though.

Mastasly

Also what haven’t been mentioned here is the fact that in their recent scaremongering auto-mail send to their customers their saying something about elusive 50GB a day all of sudden I double checked and there is nothing about it in contract dat I have with them neither on their website...According to COMREG any Irish provider is OBLIGATED to notify ALL of his customers min.30days prior to any changes to contract giving the option to opt-out free of costs if you don’t like new contract...This is unlawful...

lawred2

Gonzo wrote: »

It is in Imagine's contract that they can terminate a customers service once the fair usage policy has been breached more than once. 'They have a right to terminate the service'.

However Imagine are as greedy as they come and have decided to cripple Dero's connection instead to unusable speeds during the middle of a lockdown, for life and hoping that he stays forking out 60 euros a month. A shower of sharks.

I know it's in the contract and to be honest repeat offenders should suffer punitive measures..

But from a pragmatic business point of view; cutting the service to unusable levels makes no sense. Cut it to a usable but sufficiently hampered service..

SkepticQuark

It's almost as if someone on this thread was warning people how problematic fair usage policies during the lockdown would be if enforced as is and got told they were being entitled and now we see someone being left with effectively no service. Given the spin Imagine have been trying to do about "average" monthly usage being well below 1TB I guarantee you we'll start to hear more of these issues crop up because we already know Imagine's spin machines are usually bull****. We broke the 1TB FUP for the first time last month since they changed the ToS to 1TB a month because a family member decided to download a game. That's literally all it takes for a family to breach these right now.

Grab All Association

In preparation for the network to be absolutely crippled I bet. Probably throttling people as it is with the number of people staying at home. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sooner the better the NBP is rolled out.

Before FTTH I had a rock solid 3mb+ ADSL for €40pm which I wouldn’t have given up for these cowboys. Those of you who can get a decent ADSL2 12mbps, don’t give up that service for these snake oil salesmen.

E.g Talk to Joe, TippFM, Clare FM whatever phone in show in your locality and make people aware of your situation.

I don’t know if the Ireland offline WISP map still exists, but have you tried it?

1. Try find a better service if possible first
2. Kick up a fuss and post about this everywhere tagging every journalist/MSM outlet and including comreg complaint
3. Connor Pope and other consumer complaints columns.
4. Archive.org to see what the T&Cs were at the time you signed up and proof you accepted new T&Cs it and when they updated them. How you were notified etc

Don’t let them away with this

Dero

Grab All Association wrote: »

In preparation for the network to be absolutely crippled I bet. Probably throttling people as it is with the number of people staying at home. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sooner the better the NBP is rolled out.

Before FTTH I had a rock solid 3mb+ ADSL for €40pm which I wouldn’t have given up for these cowboys. Those of you who can get a decent ADSL2 12mbps, don’t give up that service for these snake oil salesmen.

E.g Talk to Joe, TippFM, Clare FM whatever phone in show in your locality and make people aware of your situation.

I don’t know if the Ireland offline WISP map still exists, but have you tried it?

1. Try find a better service if possible first
2. Kick up a fuss and post about this everywhere tagging every journalist/MSM outlet and including comreg complaint
3. Connor Pope and other consumer complaints columns.
4. Archive.org to see what the T&Cs were at the time you signed up and proof you accepted new T&Cs it and when they updated them. How you were notified etc

Don’t let them away with this

I couldn't remember the link for the WISP map (I was sure I had it bookmarked). In any case I have found two other WISPs that say they have coverage here (Regional Broadband & Aptus).

The first step though is to exhaust the formal Imagine complaint process and try the Comreg dispute resolution process. I don't expect success from either, and I don't much want to stay with Imagine in any case, but I have to try.

At least with Imagine I know I can get a good signal. As it stands however, that is moot.

I'm not much of a one for making noise on social media, but I would hold off from that until until everything else has been tried first.

Marlow

Grab All Association wrote: »

I don’t know if the Ireland offline WISP map still exists, but have you tried it?

It does not work anymore, because Google retired the fusion tables service, that the data was stored in to create those maps.

And very few of the regional providers actually provide decent coverage maps. Often to get customers to ring them to check and get contact or to avoid sabotage to their network.

/M

Fatal Except1on

Still getting less than 1mbps download speeds after 6pm.
I've emailed imagine a few times but they refuse to even respond to me.

As Dero pointed out in an earlier message, because my connection speed is so low it gets saturated by simply opening a webpage and drives the latency throug the roof so that it can't even be used for gaming, etc.

A disgrace.

sok2005

Fatal Except1on wrote: »

Still getting less than 1mbps download speeds after 6pm.
I've emailed imagine a few times but they refuse to even respond to me.

As Dero pointed out in an earlier message, because my connection speed is so low it gets saturated by simply opening a webpage and drives the latency throug the roof so that it can't even be used for gaming, etc.

A disgrace.

Exact same situation here. Connection is constantly dropping also.
I'm working from home and it's just unusable at the moment. Kids home from school can't use their PC's for online games.
Imagine won't respond.

Wing126

Anybody have the router log in details? I remember getting them off a user here before, but they seem to have been changed.

mossie

Wing126 wrote: »

Anybody have the router log in details? I remember getting them off a user here before, but they seem to have been changed.

I think they are individual to each router. Iemailed them a few times and in the end they gave them to me. I said I needed to forward ports and would be responsible for my own actions.

Pious14

Anybody get this message. Called them and they are sending an engineer but I am now sceptical about it

URGENT BROADBAND MESSAGE - Hi, due to significant increases in internet usage country wide, we need to make some adjustments to your outdoor broadband unit.
This is a critical upgrade to free up much needed broadband capacity both locally for you and to our national broadband network. Please call us on 01 481 8406 now so we can make these changes quickly.

xxyyzz

Pious14 wrote: »

Anybody get this message. Called them and they are sending an engineer but I am now sceptical about it

URGENT BROADBAND MESSAGE - Hi, due to significant increases in internet usage country wide, we need to make some adjustments to your outdoor broadband unit.
This is a critical upgrade to free up much needed broadband capacity both locally for you and to our national broadband network. Please call us on 01 481 8406 now so we can make these changes quickly.

Sounds a bit vague, what are they proposing to do?

Pious14

xxyyzz wrote: »

Sounds a bit vague, what are they proposing to do?

Something about adjusting the roof aerial and upgrading to cat 12 cable

naughto

Do they use the antenna to distribute there connection to other users

Fatal Except1on

Pious14, will you keep us updated on what happens please?