Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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Unusable in West Cork last few days

Had very good speeds for 2 & half years but from what I have read here , its only downhill from here :(

mossie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121214510#Comment_121214510

Quite possible. I'm 4 years with them, first 2 years very good, last 2 years progressively worse to the point of being essentially unusable between 6pm and 11pm.

listermint

Mines still perfect, South East. With them 6 years. Since they stopped annoying me about data caps I'm very happy with the service.

LeeHarvey

I live in Laois and have Imagine about seven years, it's our ONLY option in this area, so we either want Internet or don't. It has always been the case that the lights indicating signal have always been no greater than two out of four and the quality has always been from OK to exceptionally poor on a Sunday night from five or six in the evening until eleven or twelve.

We recently had a 'service' from Imagine where the router was changed and the antenna was turned from the original direction it was facing to a new direction as there was 'interference' between us and the original tower (which we can see line-of-sight) and it is now facing a new direction on a mast mounted on the side of our house and is about 20' off the ground. Our Internet is now no better and seems a bit worse, still a maximum of two lights indicating signal and watching anything on Netflix or YouTube etc is impossible, especially on a Sunday night.

Calling them in the morning.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121242848#Comment_121242848

You should consider Starlink ... there is now a refurbished equipment option for half-price ... You won't suffer any slow downs like you do with Imagine.

I've used it for 18 months and am very happy with it.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121242848#Comment_121242848

Can also confirm, Starlink.

My SIL uses it for WFH and general home use. Installed since July, no issues to date.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121245992#Comment_121245992

Still Hella expensive.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121246124#Comment_121246124

Actually, after the initial purchase cost of the Starlink kit, dish €300/ethernet adapter/mounting items their monthly Starlink subscription is approximately two-thirds less than their previous setup.

It was almost €130 per month for her Bigblu satellite broadband sub, just for WFH, they also had landline phone and broadband for home use. Landline broadband was practically unusable at 4.5 km from the exchange.

They cancelled both of these services and get everything now for €65 pm plus an annual VoIP sub.

They are very happy with Starlink but will move to fibre once it arrives, expected 2025/26

LeeHarvey

Thanks for the advice, just a quick update on how I got on with Imagine today. So after a wait on hold for near 9 minutes I got talking to a guy and he took a look at our system from his end. He said it looked like our Sky Q box and its Sky range extenders for multiform were on the same "channel" as our Imagine WiFi. So he changed the Imagine WiFi to a different channel and had us run a speed test which had good upload/download speed's. The signal strength on the router was 2/3 out of four which was good. We also checked our Sky Q mini boxes in the rest of the house and all was good!

Then boom, twenty to nine tonight the main Sky Q box disconnected from the WiFi multiple times needing reset over and over. The signal strength on the router was down to 1/4. I'm going to look into Starlink tomorrow.

Dero

I don't know whether this belongs here or in the NBI progress thread, but probably here. I've been with Imagine for over seven years (!) now while waiting for fibre. I've been out of contract a long time, and waiting for the day that I can ditch them. It's been a reasonable stopgap, but they're an awful company because they know that the vast majority of their customers have no choice and they act accordingly.

Anyway, NBI are scheduled to go live here in Q2 next year. Work has already started and just this week, they started installing the fibre on our road so it finally feels palpable.

Then lo and behold this evening, I get a call from Imagine out of the blue. Seemingly I'm such a good customer that they would like to offer me a 20% discount. Wow, how generous. All I have to do is sign this itty-bitty little 18 month contract. 😂

I have to say, their sense of comic timing is amazing.

NIMAN

Imagine reps were round the doors here in North Donegal this last week doing the hard sell again, and their flyers were inside the local supermarkets postal junk mail too. They must be trying to entice more Donegal folk to buy.

I spoke to him and told him I was getting 30meg on my wireless broadband. He said he could offer multiples of that speed, I said not from what I've read online about you!

Then, as nicely as possible, told him I wouldn't be buying and am happy to wait for NBI. From what I've read on Boards, there's not a chance I'd ever sign with them.

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121264220#Comment_121264220

Don’t sign it and drop them like a hot potato the moment your fibre is ready!

I can’t wait to do the same but won’t have fibre by until close to the end of the NBI rollout!

I wouldn’t stay with imagine even if they offered it for free, no joking.

Other people on your mast will also thank you! 😂

Dero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121264673#Comment_121264673

Oh that is absolutely my intention. FTTH is so superior to any wireless option that it would never be a contest - even if Imagine were a great company. However, they burned their bridges with me a long time ago so even if they were offering me free fibre on the NBI network I'd still dump them on principle.

villa2008

What are the average speeds with imagine and how often are there outages. Seems like alot of people have had a bad experience with their system. Are these just in particular regions or all over the country. I'm in South kilkenny and was considering going with them. I currently have regional broadband and we get around 1-6 mbs download and maybe 1mbs upload at the best moments,it's not stable and can be half mbs one minute and 6 or 7 the next download. It has been very crap/ not working at all over the last month or so and they are hopeless to deal with in terms of customer system solving any problem. Would imagine be any better or just another waste of time?

mossie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121272503#Comment_121272503

From 6pm to 11pm mine averages maybe 10Mbps but can go a lot lower to the point that streaming is not working. After 11 it can hit 60 and during the night 150 isn't unusual.

villa2008

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121273428#Comment_121273428

Whats it like on the weekends, the same or worse?

What part of the country are you in?

villa2008

Is three 5g better than Imagine?

Their 5g deals say unlimited (But in terms and conditions - 750gb monthly limit fair usage)

Tommy Lagahan

Speeds starting to go all over the place for anyone else the past 2 evenings or is my modem starting to burn out (2019, ~700GB a month)?

I'm lucky enough in an under-subscribed area but I noticed sites starting to take a while to load (even boards here took a few seconds). Download looks fine if inconsistent & spikier than normal but upload is less than 1mbit. Started happening yesterday, thought I was getting throttled for going over 20GB in a day but rebooting the modem fixed it.

Ive had a few three modems burn out over the years.

Dero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121275318#Comment_121275318

I didn't notice anything yesterday, but mine has ~30% packet loss all day today, which makes it borderline unusable. I'm in Kildare, on the Old Kilcullen mast.

Tommy Lagahan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121275374#Comment_121275374

Might be nationwide then, I'm up in Donegal. I checked downdetector after I posted and saw theres some reports trickling in.

Dero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121275619#Comment_121275619

Seems to be back to normal now.

Dero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121264220#Comment_121264220

They called again last night and this morning. That's three calls now since Friday. Other than being annoying, I see this as a very good thing because it means fibre is surely not too far away now. 😎

mossie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121273695#Comment_121273695

I'm in north Cork. Weekend probably a little worse during the day but much the same in the evenings.

villa2008

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121277891#Comment_121277891

ok thanks

Ardent

Imagine called me today, for the first time in 6 years, to ask how I was getting on with the service. They then advised me of my eligibility for a monthly discount of €10 - the only catch is I have to enter an 18 month contract to avail of it.

NBI and fibre is coming to my area early next year.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121292933#Comment_121292933

They did the same in my area in the lead up to the availability of NBI - Huge local marketing push and offering discounts left and right but tied to an 18 month contract with NBI only weeks away at the time.

Hoping to lock in the low information customers before the companies offering NBI started knocking on doors.

WesternZulu

Anybody having connection issues in N.Galway at the moment?

mossie

Anytime having issues this evening? I seem to have more or less zero for the last hour or so. Rebooted the router to no effect.

mossie

Completely down again tonight with occasional spells where I get a blazing 2mbps. Starlink looks more tempting by the day.

Sponsorgate

Called Imagine this morning.Customer with 2 years. Currently pay 59.99 pm. Out of contract.

Signed up for new 18 month contract for 39.99 pm.

Surveying is complete in my area for NBI. Anticipated date for connection:July 2025 - December 2025. So still at least 18 months away I reckon so that's main reason I pushed ahead.

Currently getting speed of 140mb which is great. Will drop in the evenings but still get decent speeds. average 20-30mb. Fingers crossed it lasts for another 18 months!