Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

naughto · 10-01-2019 08:33PM

Have her tried a 3 SIM in a 4g router

Leonidas BL · 10-01-2019 08:38PM

naughto wrote: »

Have her tried a 3 SIM in a 4g router

I use my phone as a hotspot fair bit. I get 4 or 5 meg from that. I signed up for Imagine but its not due here until the end of this month.

Marlow · 11-01-2019 12:44PM

Leonidas BL wrote: »

The sooner Imagine comes to rural Sligo the better.....

There's a good few other fixed wireless providers in rural Sligo. Depends on where you are. Some good, some bad.

But there are options.

/M

Leonidas BL · 11-01-2019 01:04PM

Marlow wrote: »

There's a good few other fixed wireless providers in rural Sligo. Depends on where you are. Some good, some bad.

But there are options.

/M

But who offers LTE up to 70 meg? Even if it was a reliable 20 meg it would do the job.

Falconire · 11-01-2019 01:16PM

Leonidas BL wrote: »

But who offers LTE up to 70 meg? Even if it was a reliable 20 meg it would do the job.

https://www.nwb.ie/ seem to offer 50meg

Leonidas BL · 11-01-2019 01:21PM

Falconire wrote: »

https://www.nwb.ie/ seem to offer 50meg

I had a look at them but unfortunately they dont cover our area. You'll find it very hard to get anything decent in west Sligo

Marlow · 11-01-2019 02:30PM

Leonidas BL wrote: »

I had a look at them but unfortunately they dont cover our area. You'll find it very hard to get anything decent in west Sligo

Tried to talk to this crowd https://www.servebyte.com/Broadband ?

They seem to be active around the north west of Sligo.

/M

MuddyDog · 12-01-2019 09:48AM

Got Imagine in the other day (North Wexford) as the initial test they ran a few weeks before install during the day showed me getting speeds of about 80 MBps on the speed checker. Great I thought. So 2 days ago they installed and around 3pm when finished I was getting those speeds. However come about 6pm the speeds dipped drastically and it even cut out a couple of times completely. I was getting 5/6 MBps and a couple of times less than 1. My old provider who I left on in the meantime and where I can only get 10 MBps was solid and never went below 7/8 all night.

Initially when the guys came to check if my house could get it they told me I could but the mast I can see is full and that I'd need someone to drop off in order to sign up. Magically 3 days later I get called and was told there's room. I'm thinking they just stuck me on an already over subscribed mast and that these evening speeds will always be like this. It was the same last night as well. Although it's been 4 weeks since the team told me I could get Imagine, it's only been 3 days today since I've been Live with them so am I in my rights to call and cancel it as there is a 14 day cooling off period right?

Ultimanemo · 12-01-2019 03:50PM

MuddyDog wrote: »

Got Imagine in the other day (North Wexford) as the initial test they ran a few weeks before install during the day showed me getting speeds of about 80 MBps on the speed checker. Great I thought. So 2 days ago they installed and around 3pm when finished I was getting those speeds. However come about 6pm the speeds dipped drastically and it even cut out a couple of times completely. I was getting 5/6 MBps and a couple of times less than 1. My old provider who I left on in the meantime and where I can only get 10 MBps was solid and never went below 7/8 all night.

Initially when the guys came to check if my house could get it they told me I could but the mast I can see is full and that I'd need someone to drop off in order to sign up. Magically 3 days later I get called and was told there's room. I'm thinking they just stuck me on an already over subscribed mast and that these evening speeds will always be like this. It was the same last night as well. Although it's been 4 weeks since the team told me I could get Imagine, it's only been 3 days today since I've been Live with them so am I in my rights to call and cancel it as there is a 14 day cooling off period right?

I think you pay €100 to get out of imagine contract. I have Imagine to come next week, but I know what I am signing for, I am hoping it doesn't get much lower than 10MBps in the evening, if it does, I will get out even if I have to pay €100. I can only get Vodafone and Three or 1mb eir, Three was good but now oversubscribed.

Leonidas BL · 12-01-2019 04:52PM

Ultimanemo wrote: »

I think you pay €100 to get out of imagine contract. I have Imagine to come next week, but I know what I am signing for, I am hoping it doesn't get much lower than 10MBps in the evening, if it does, I will get out even if I have to pay €100. I can only get Vodafone and Three or 1mb eir, Three was good but now oversubscribed.

When I signed up they told me they are only taking 400 people in the area. Hopefully that will keep the contention rate down.

Mortelaro · 12-01-2019 05:34PM

MuddyDog wrote: »

Got Imagine in the other day (North Wexford) as the initial test they ran a few weeks before install during the day showed me getting speeds of about 80 MBps on the speed checker. Great I thought. So 2 days ago they installed and around 3pm when finished I was getting those speeds. However come about 6pm the speeds dipped drastically and it even cut out a couple of times completely. I was getting 5/6 MBps and a couple of times less than 1. My old provider who I left on in the meantime and where I can only get 10 MBps was solid and never went below 7/8 all night.

Initially when the guys came to check if my house could get it they told me I could but the mast I can see is full and that I'd need someone to drop off in order to sign up. Magically 3 days later I get called and was told there's room. I'm thinking they just stuck me on an already over subscribed mast and that these evening speeds will always be like this. It was the same last night as well. Although it's been 4 weeks since the team told me I could get Imagine, it's only been 3 days today since I've been Live with them so am I in my rights to call and cancel it as there is a 14 day cooling off period right?

They say the cooling off period is from when you signed up
But that couldn't be the case in my opinion so I'd give in the notice now asserting no penalty if the service does not perform in the evening
Which mast is this and how far away
There are two masts in north wexford,one near carnew/craanford on sliabh bhuí
The other overlooking northeast wexford and Arklow a few miles above Coolgreaney near Croghan

You have the right to recall your direct debit yourself but need to go into your bank

Leonidas BL · 12-01-2019 05:43PM

Try this on for size. Id say dial up is better than this....

TopTec · 13-01-2019 09:24AM

It still surprises me that after the thousands of post, a large number of which concern peak time contention, people are still surprised when they get poor speeds in the evening.

Off peak Imagine is brilliant. After 4pm and until 11pm ish expect speeds to drop to low single figures at least. It used to be the case that if you were on a quiet mast then you escaped the fall.

In my case I am on the Mayo north, Ballina mast, and have been since it went live 2 1/2 years ago and I have watched peak speeds drop to as low as 3mbps, mainly in the evenings. I get 80+ off peak but sometimes cannot even stream in the pm.

It would be helpful to new readers of this thread if there was a consumer warning on the first page explaining contention and the almost certain bane of poor evening speeds.

Having said that remember the 20gig download limits and the idiotic emails warning of caps? At least they seem to have disappeared along with the useless customer portals!!

As far as the notice of termination is concerned I recall this was challenged successfully by several posters after very low evening speeds.

TT

MuddyDog · 13-01-2019 11:17AM

I'm on the Slieve Bhui mast north wexford.

Marlow · 13-01-2019 02:35PM

Leonidas BL wrote: »

When I signed up they told me they are only taking 400 people in the area. Hopefully that will keep the contention rate down.

Erh .. no ... that figure of 400 is the problem ......

400 people per area. That 100 people per sector.

Their older tech sectors only do 150 Mbit/s aggregate ... the newer ones maybe more, but that doesn't matter.

So .. now you've 100 People that share 150 Mbit/s total.

But that assumes, that they have 600 Mbit/s total on site. And they don't have that. More like 300-500 Mbit/s depending on distance. Because the majority of these masts do not have fibre.

Either way ... that's an average of 1.5 Mbit/s available to each customer .. uncontended.

Calculate that out for yourself.

Most other Fixed Wireless providers calculate with 40-50 customers per sector max. Even on systems, that have more capacity / aggregate bandwidth per sector.

/M

Mortelaro · 13-01-2019 03:01PM

MuddyDog wrote: »

I'm on the Slieve Bhui mast north wexford.

Can you get whizzi?

https://whizzyinternet.ie

I'm on the other mast
Whizzi is all over north wexford

MuddyDog · 13-01-2019 03:34PM

Mortelaro wrote: »

Can you get whizzi?

https://whizzyinternet.ie

I'm on the other mast
Whizzi is all over north wexford

I can do. You find them better/more consistent? Do they offer VOIP?

Marlow · 13-01-2019 03:35PM

MuddyDog wrote: »

I can do. You find them better/more consistent? Do they offer VOIP?

They are fairly consistant and no, they don't do VoIP, but I think they have plans for that.

You can always sign up with somebody likes blueface or goldfish for VoIP.

/M

Mortelaro · 13-01-2019 04:06PM

MuddyDog wrote: »

I can do. You find them better/more consistent? Do they offer VOIP?

Some of my neighbours are on them,I'm on imagine but a different mast to you
If I start having your problems I'll be moving to whizzy alright because I've heard nothing but good things about them
Some slow down in the evening I hear but 10 goes down to 7
45 down to 20 at worst
They're also cheaper

I've been getting 40 or so in the evenings on imagine and daytime up to 170 but usually well above 100mb
Lucky with the sector I guess

Another difference with Whizzi is they are local so their engineers have no excuse not to maintain their network

yop · 14-01-2019 07:10PM

Anyone with Imagine around the Castlebar area? Want to get thoughts on it. Varying reports from other parts of the Country and its not that cheap.

Leonidas BL · 14-01-2019 07:54PM

yop wrote: »

Anyone with Imagine around the Castlebar area? Want to get thoughts on it. Varying reports from other parts of the Country and its not that cheap.

Seems to me from reading this thread that towns, city's and generally built up areas are not as good for imagine customers. But if your in a town or city I would've thought that there would be fiber anyway?

When I lived in Castlebar a few years ago the fiber was around 60meg

Marlow · 14-01-2019 08:03PM

Leonidas BL wrote: »

Seems to me from reading this thread that towns, city's and generally built up areas are not as good for imagine customers. But if your in a town or city I would've thought that there would be fiber anyway?

When I lived in Castlebar a few years ago the fiber was around 60meg

Castlebar has loads of fibre. Both Urban and Rural. It's covered by SIRO, it was an OpenEIR test area for their Urban FTTH rollout and OpenEIR have rolled out FTTH around Castlebar in Rural areas. A lot of houses inside Castlebar can get both OpenEIR FTTH and SIRO at the same time.

On top of that, there's also Virgin in a good few places.

Unless you're really stuck, Imagine should be your last resort. It be better to talk to Westnet.

/M

yop · 16-01-2019 11:32AM

Marlow wrote: »

Castlebar has loads of fibre. Both Urban and Rural. It's covered by SIRO, it was an OpenEIR test area for their Urban FTTH rollout and OpenEIR have rolled out FTTH around Castlebar in Rural areas. A lot of houses inside Castlebar can get both OpenEIR FTTH and SIRO at the same time.

On top of that, there's also Virgin in a good few places.

Unless you're really stuck, Imagine should be your last resort. It be better to talk to Westnet.

/M

Thanks all for the comments.

I can't get fibre, the line is 300m away and it won't be brought down any further I've been told by the engineers there and by Eir. I'm around the 3km mark away from the cabinet on the Westport road.

I'm with Westnet since 2005 and they are BRILLIANT, but with the 2 kids now on devices and everything else in the house dragging off it the 6 megs I have is been killed.
I'm VERY reluctant to have to leave Westnet, and Imagine seems the only other viable option.

naughto · 16-01-2019 12:33PM

yop wrote: »

Thanks all for the comments.

I can't get fibre, the line is 300m away and it won't be brought down any further I've been told by the engineers there and by Eir. I'm around the 3km mark away from the cabinet on the Westport road.

I'm with Westnet since 2005 and they are BRILLIANT, but with the 2 kids now on devices and everything else in the house dragging off it the 6 megs I have is been killed.
I'm VERY reluctant to have to leave Westnet, and Imagine seems the only other viable option.

I am with them as well and very happy but
There business package @ 6mb is the same price as imagine.
6mb is not near enough in this day and age if they offered 10/15 or 20 mb packages I would jump at it,but I’d say there business is ftth now and wireless 2nd in the q

yop · 16-01-2019 02:45PM

naughto wrote: »

I am with them as well and very happy but
There business package @ 6mb is the same price as imagine.
6mb is not near enough in this day and age if they offered 10/15 or 20 mb packages I would jump at it,but I’d say there business is ftth now and wireless 2nd in the q

I think thats the case indeed and you can't blame them either.

Johnboy1951 · 16-01-2019 03:11PM

yop wrote: »

I think thats the case indeed and you can't blame them either.

Do Airwire serve that part of the country?

http://www.airwire.ie/index.php/products/fwa

Marlow · 16-01-2019 03:25PM

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Do Airwire serve that part of the country?

http://www.airwire.ie/index.php/products/fwa

No. Airwire fixed wireless coverage stops where Westnet coverage starts. Only marginal overlap in South Mayo.

/M

Westnet: Paul · 16-01-2019 03:41PM

naughto wrote: »

...I’d say there business is ftth now and wireless 2nd in the q

That's a business decision we've had to make, I'm afraid. It's no secret that Imagine have invested enormous sums of money in their LTE network. We don't have that kind of money - and, even if we did, it's clear from this thread how even a substantial capital investment yields a wireless platform that doesn't exactly satisfy all of their customers all of the time.

So we've focused on keeping our existing wireless infrastructure working reliably, and on giving both new and existing customers the option of fibre if possible while absorbing the up-front costs.

We could change the way we deliver wireless by increasing both speed and contention and marketing it as an "up to" service the way some others do, but feedback from our customers is that they appreciate not being misled about what we can deliver. They would rather be told that they can't watch multiple 4k streams on our basic package than to find out the hard way that it doesn't work reliably.

yop, I have no information about what Imagine's speeds are like around Castlebar. You probably have reasonable line of sight to the mast (it's the big one at the eir exchange), and you're not that far away, so if there are no capacity issues (and at least that mast should be fibre-fed), it might be a good fit for you. Your best bet is to try to find someone who's currently connected to Imagine in Castlebar and see how it's working for them. If it makes sense for you to switch, that's not a problem - we'll look forward to winning you back when we can offer you fibre.

yop · 16-01-2019 05:07PM

Westnet: Paul wrote: »

That's a business decision we've had to make, I'm afraid. It's no secret that Imagine have invested enormous sums of money in their LTE network. We don't have that kind of money - and, even if we did, it's clear from this thread how even a substantial capital investment yields a wireless platform that doesn't exactly satisfy all of their customers all of the time.

So we've focused on keeping our existing wireless infrastructure working reliably, and on giving both new and existing customers the option of fibre if possible while absorbing the up-front costs.

We could change the way we deliver wireless by increasing both speed and contention and marketing it as an "up to" service the way some others do, but feedback from our customers is that they appreciate not being misled about what we can deliver. They would rather be told that they can't watch multiple 4k streams on our basic package than to find out the hard way that it doesn't work reliably.

yop, I have no information about what Imagine's speeds are like around Castlebar. You probably have reasonable line of sight to the mast (it's the big one at the eir exchange), and you're not that far away, so if there are no capacity issues (and at least that mast should be fibre-fed), it might be a good fit for you. Your best bet is to try to find someone who's currently connected to Imagine in Castlebar and see how it's working for them. If it makes sense for you to switch, that's not a problem - we'll look forward to winning you back when we can offer you fibre.

Cheers Paul.
Appreciate the feedback and I totally get your situation and as always you guys are straight up on that front.
Good idea on checking others to see how it is. I don't overly trust their offering, at least when I get 6 from you guys it consistent at any time of day or night.

Grab All Association · 17-01-2019 03:49AM

yop wrote: »

Cheers Paul.
Appreciate the feedback and I totally get your situation and as always you guys are straight up on that front.
Good idea on checking others to see how it is. I don't overly trust their offering, at least when I get 6 from you guys it consistent at any time of day or night.

I’d imagine (no pun intended there) it’s not as bad as other masts with contention given the fact that Castlebar is so comprehensively covered by fibre.

Ask yourself in the worse case scenario of 1-3mb peak vs 50-70mb off peak could you and your family live with that sacrifice?

Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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