Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

Oafley Jones · 10-09-2020 4:19pm

Why is my multiplayer gaming giving me lag warnings? COD, battlefront etc etc. It’s everything, so it’s not just bad netcode for Modern Warfare (a game which is nigh on unplayable) This is a wired connection. Yet every speed test I run (wirelessly) gives me sub 20ms latency. Speeds up/down are also really good.

Wing126 · 10-09-2020 4:35pm

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Why is my multiplayer gaming giving me lag warnings? COD, battlefront etc etc. It’s everything, so it’s not just bad netcode for Modern Warfare (a game which is nigh on unplayable) This is a wired connection. Yet every speed test I run (wirelessly) gives me sub 20ms latency. Speeds up/down are also really good.

NAT type maybe?

Oafley Jones · 10-09-2020 4:40pm

Wing126 wrote: »

NAT type maybe?

Nat is moderate, but I don’t know how to change that anywhere either system or game wise. I remember it was two button presses on the Xbox ... when I was with other providers. I’m just not seeing an option anywhere to switch to open. Is this an imagine thing Do I need to do open ports etc? I’m fairly clueless here.

Wing126 · 10-09-2020 4:42pm

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Nat is moderate, but I don’t know how to change that anywhere either system or game wise. I remember it was two button presses on the Xbox ... when I was with other providers. I’m just not seeing an option anywhere to switch to open. Is this an imagine thing Do I need to do open ports etc? I’m fairly clueless here.

Yeah, you'll likely need to call imagine because they keep the admin side of the router to themselves until ye contact them. The user side has limited options open to them.

deadl0ck · 10-09-2020 4:47pm

Keep us posted @Oafley Jones - I'd be interested to see how you get on

ARGINITE · 10-09-2020 6:02pm

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Why is my multiplayer gaming giving me lag warnings? COD, battlefront etc etc. It’s everything, so it’s not just bad netcode for Modern Warfare (a game which is nigh on unplayable) This is a wired connection. Yet every speed test I run (wirelessly) gives me sub 20ms latency. Speeds up/down are also really good.

NAT won't matter what is your ping to the host for the game? I'd try pinging the host if you can get it's ip for a good number of packets and not the standard three.

Jjjjjjjjbarry · 10-09-2020 9:57pm

I have Vodafone 4G home broadband which is a life saver and was tempted by adverts of Imagine in my area to switch as they have unlimited downloads (great incentive) as well as boasting higher speeds, perfect for gaming etc.

I work from home and a bit nervous about switching after reading a few pages here. Better the devll you know and all that.....

Anyone else switch from Vodafone 4G and think it was worth it?

naughto · 10-09-2020 10:15pm

ARGINITE wrote: »

NAT won't matter what is your ping to the host for the game? I'd try pinging the host if you can get it's ip for a good number of packets and not the standard three.

You can see your ping in call of duty if you go in to options while playing a game this is on the xbox 1

You need to open up the ports as well makes a big difference

joujoujou · 12-09-2020 10:33pm

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

[...] tempted by adverts of Imagine in my area to switch as they have unlimited downloads [...]

Read the small print first.

[...] The fair usage limit for data usage on the Broadband Service in any one month is 1TB. This limit is not to be exceeded. [...]

happyplants · 16-09-2020 8:23pm

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

I have Vodafone 4G home broadband which is a life saver and was tempted by adverts of Imagine in my area to switch as they have unlimited downloads (great incentive) as well as boasting higher speeds, perfect for gaming etc.

I work from home and a bit nervous about switching after reading a few pages here. Better the devll you know and all that.....

Anyone else switch from Vodafone 4G and think it was worth it?

Hi, could I ask you the reverse question - i.e. I'm being pulled away from the city for family reasons and have a need for not-too-intense OneDrive / Dropbox use. Like, I'd regularly be working with 20mb files or more on and off in email attachments. Not huge, I know, but stilll....

The 4G was good for that kind of thing? I'm likely to have only Imagine or a 4G service as an option where I'm heading.

Ultimanemo · 16-09-2020 9:08pm

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

I have Vodafone 4G home broadband which is a life saver and was tempted by adverts of Imagine in my area to switch as they have unlimited downloads (great incentive) as well as boasting higher speeds, perfect for gaming etc.

I work from home and a bit nervous about switching after reading a few pages here. Better the devll you know and all that.....

Anyone else switch from Vodafone 4G and think it was worth it?

Galway

.

Vodafone is getting slower where I live due to contention

Hedge777 · 17-09-2020 9:28am

Living in Clare outside Ennis and I work from home, I have great speeds in the morning but can drop down to as low as 5-12 mb in the evenings. I now have a FTTH line passing the door and I wrote to customer care 7 days ago to find out about cancelling the service or if they can mach eir's 150mb at 30 euro/month or 1Gb@55 euro/month but have not had a reply since, imagine that!

ARGINITE · 17-09-2020 9:31am

Hedge777 wrote: »

I have great speeds in the morning but can drop down to as low as 5-12 mb in the evenings.

Living in Galway have the same issue with peak speeds being disappointing at best.

Quin_Dub · 17-09-2020 10:15am

Hedge777 wrote: »

Living in Clare outside Ennis and I work from home, I have great speeds in the morning but can drop down to as low as 5-12 mb in the evenings. I now have a FTTH line passing the door and I wrote to customer care 7 days ago to find out about cancelling the service or if they can mach eir's 150mb at 30 euro/month or 1Gb@55 euro/month but have not had a reply since, imagine that!

[

Also in Clare , and whilst my download speeds are a similar profile to yours , my upload is a fraction of what you show , regardless or the time of day - at best I get ~4Mb/s upload.

lanod2407 · 17-09-2020 5:56pm

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Galway

Imagine do not have unlimited downloads. I signed up a week ago and my speeds are dropping from 60+ to as low as 1mb in the evening. Their tech team told me I'm being reduced because I'm using more than 2x the average each day. That's pants - I work from home and Netflix gets used in the evening. That's it.

Called them today - promised a call back and no call.
The customer service person told me there's a 1 TB monthly limit - which means it's not unlimited. It might be a huge volume but when I'm being told my speed is reduced after 4 days because of usage I'm starting to suspect that there may be processes in play that are restricting speeds.

lanod2407 · 17-09-2020 6:03pm

joujoujou wrote: »

5G with Imagine? They do not provide 5G yet, just LTE.

The fine print says it's 5G ready ðŸ€¦*♂️

mossie · 17-09-2020 6:51pm

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Also in Clare , and whilst my download speeds are a similar profile to yours , my upload is a fraction of what you show , regardless or the time of day - at best I get ~4Mb/s upload.

My download speeds are pretty consistent around 90Mbps, don't really show any major variation day or night - maybe some days it drops a bit in the evenings to a minimum of 75Mbps. Upload speeds are more variable, rarely over 8 often down to 2 or 3. My sister in law next door has lower download speed (30 - 50) and higher upload (10 - 13) so it's seems to vary from one house to the next.

happyplants · 17-09-2020 7:00pm

dashoonage wrote: »

So I'm finally going to have to give in , my neignbours trees have defeated my wireless isp after 11 years of fantastic service. Trees wont be cut unfortunately. Is anyone here out the clarina kildimo direction with imagine and what's the speeds like , also how are they on cancelling withings the two week period ?

Are they new trees? looking at a place in Kildare with trees and Imagine is the only real option. No mobile 4G comes close to our current data use save Eir and I really hate the idea of having literally one option after Imagine.

happyplants · 18-09-2020 7:22am

lanod2407 wrote: »

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Galway

Imagine do not have unlimited downloads. I signed up a week ago and my speeds are dropping from 60+ to as low as 1mb in the evening. Their tech team told me I'm being reduced because I'm using more than 2x the average each day. That's pants - I work from home and Netflix gets used in the evening. That's it.

Called them today - promised a call back and no call.
The customer service person told me there's a 1 TB monthly limit - which means it's not unlimited. It might be a huge volume but when I'm being told my speed is reduced after 4 days because of usage I'm starting to suspect that there may be processes in play that are restricting speeds.

Yeah, there is a heavy "sales" element involved in the calls. But, jesus a 1TB would be hard to hit after 4 days of netflix? Even on a projected basis...so they are throttling you after how much data use? Can you see how much you actually took down?

ARGINITE · 18-09-2020 8:37am

lanod2407 wrote: »

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Galway

Imagine do not have unlimited downloads. I signed up a week ago and my speeds are dropping from 60+ to as low as 1mb in the evening. Their tech team told me I'm being reduced because I'm using more than 2x the average each day. That's pants - I work from home and Netflix gets used in the evening. That's it.

Called them today - promised a call back and no call.
The customer service person told me there's a 1 TB monthly limit - which means it's not unlimited. It might be a huge volume but when I'm being told my speed is reduced after 4 days because of usage I'm starting to suspect that there may be processes in play that are restricting speeds.

Have you checked your data usage from your Imagine account?

Oweran · 18-09-2020 8:56pm

Created an account on Board to talk about this! I think I'm having the exact same issues as you, lanod2407. Signed-up a week ago, and now in the evenings I have as low as 1mpbs... The data usage, in the dashboard from my Imagine account, shows more than what I'm actually using.

It shows 30 GB for today for instance. However, my house is equipped with Google Nest Wifi, and when I look on the Google app, it shows that I'm actually using less than what is shown on the dashboard (around 20 GB).

With my previous ISP, I never exceeded 300-400 GB during the month, and now, after only a week with imagine, the dashboard shows me at 180 GB already, which is a bit difficult to understand.

I contacted customer service but I'm not having a conclusive answer as of now.

New user so I cannot post any image but the speed test shows at 4Mpbs right now.

happyplants · 21-09-2020 8:58pm

Oweran wrote: »

Created an account on Board to talk about this! I think I'm having the exact same issues as you, lanod2407. Signed-up a week ago, and now in the evenings I have as low as 1mpbs... The data usage, in the dashboard from my Imagine account, shows more than what I'm actually using.

It shows 30 GB for today for instance. However, my house is equipped with Google Nest Wifi, and when I look on the Google app, it shows that I'm actually using less than what is shown on the dashboard (around 20 GB).

With my previous ISP, I never exceeded 300-400 GB during the month, and now, after only a week with imagine, the dashboard shows me at 180 GB already, which is a bit difficult to understand.

I contacted customer service but I'm not having a conclusive answer as of now.

New user so I cannot post any image but the speed test shows at 4Mpbs right now.

there must be a verification way for this? I mean, it obviously sounds incredibly suspicious and because its so suspicious, it can't really be the case that Imagine just make up numbers? Like, I'm all for assuming ISPs aren't lovely etc, but this would be very, very...well, lets just say, very bad.

Is there anything "special" about their system that means data gets eaten differently?

Dero · 21-09-2020 10:12pm

happyplants wrote: »

there must be a verification way for this? I mean, it obviously sounds incredibly suspicious and because its so suspicious, it can't really be the case that Imagine just make up numbers? Like, I'm all for assuming ISPs aren't lovely etc, but this would be very, very...well, lets just say, very bad.

Is there anything "special" about their system that means data gets eaten differently?

In my direct experience, yes they do make up numbers. Well, they provide numbers and expect you to accept them regardless.

They tried that with me until I pointed out they were adding ~10GB per day (~300 GB per month) to my usage. This came to light when they throttled my connection *permanently* because said data use was tipping me over their arbitrary red line (well below the official 1TB I might add). The connection became unusable (~1mb) so I stopped using it for a while. However, the usage kept growing. I documented it and when I pointed it out to them, they reversed their permanent throttling but never offered an apology.

I still don't know where the extra data came from, but I do know that I didn't use it. I suspect it was some sort of error in their metering system, but I got no explanation so that's just speculation.

My case may be an outlier, but the point is don't take anything at face value from them. Verify everything you can yourself and challenge them on it.

And what makes their network special is that it's over subscribed and under provisioned; that's all. Their marketing is writing cheques that their network can't cash.

xxyyzz · 23-09-2020 10:49am

lanod2407 wrote: »

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Galway

Imagine do not have unlimited downloads. I signed up a week ago and my speeds are dropping from 60+ to as low as 1mb in the evening. Their tech team told me I'm being reduced because I'm using more than 2x the average each day. That's pants - I work from home and Netflix gets used in the evening. That's it.

Called them today - promised a call back and no call.
The customer service person told me there's a 1 TB monthly limit - which means it's not unlimited. It might be a huge volume but when I'm being told my speed is reduced after 4 days because of usage I'm starting to suspect that there may be processes in play that are restricting speeds.

I'm pretty certain that once you hit 19 or 20gb in a day they throttle you until midnight. Any day I've been throttled I've used >19Gb according to the portal.

Quin_Dub · 23-09-2020 11:39am

Dero wrote: »

In my direct experience, yes they do make up numbers. Well, they provide numbers and expect you to accept them regardless.

They tried that with me until I pointed out they were adding ~10GB per day (~300 GB per month) to my usage. This came to light when they throttled my connection *permanently* because said data use was tipping me over their arbitrary red line (well below the official 1TB I might add). The connection became unusable (~1mb) so I stopped using it for a while. However, the usage kept growing. I documented it and when I pointed it out to them, they reversed their permanent throttling but never offered an apology.

I still don't know where the extra data came from, but I do know that I didn't use it. I suspect it was some sort of error in their metering system, but I got no explanation so that's just speculation.

My case may be an outlier, but the point is don't take anything at face value from them. Verify everything you can yourself and challenge them on it.

And what makes their network special is that it's over subscribed and under provisioned; that's all. Their marketing is writing cheques that their network can't cash.

I had a similar issue with them as well , although I never got to a permanent throttling.

They throttled my account saying that I had exceeded the 1TB limit 3 or 4 days before the end of the billing cycle , even though their own data usage portal said I was still 150Gb or so below the limit and my own data showed even less usage than that.

When I spoke to them they claimed that "their info" showed I was over the limit , when I showed them their own portal they told me it was wrong and that they went off their "internal" numbers.

I obviously complained , but it went nowhere.

It's totally arbitrary - I have used up to 75/80GB in a single day and hear nothing and then on another day I use 20/25GB and I get an email warning me about excessing usage.

I honestly think that it's got nothing to do with individual usage and it down to their overall network - When they are get struggling with too many users , they fire out an alert to the top X% of users and give them a warning , even though that usage is perfectly reasonable , it's just as you say , they've oversold the network and can't handle the capacity.

Ketron · 23-09-2020 12:13pm

I read a few pages back that the data restriction doesn't apply in off peak hours ie. 1am to 6am etc. Is this no longer the case?

Can you increase the limit if required?

Thanks

Quin_Dub · 23-09-2020 12:46pm

Ketron wrote: »

I read a few pages back that the data restriction doesn't apply in off peak hours ie. 1am to 6am etc. Is this no longer the case?

Can you increase the limit if required?

Thanks

Yes , the off peak usage allowance thing is still in place and no you can't increase the limit.

The usage portal shows you the split usage information for peak and off-peak

pauly58 · 23-09-2020 1:46pm

I noticed on their website that your landline connection for your phone goes into the router, perhaps a silly question, but what kind of figure would say a 30 minute phone call to the UK add to your download limit.
I have reservations about signing up with them, but we only get 2.6MB at the moment on the old phone line.

Ketron · 23-09-2020 1:47pm

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Yes , the off peak usage allowance thing is still in place and no you can't increase the limit.

The usage portal shows you the split usage information for peak and off-peak

Excellent thanks, just waiting for my account to be activated.

Dero · 23-09-2020 2:03pm

pauly58 wrote: »

I noticed on their website that your landline connection for your phone goes into the router, perhaps a silly question, but what kind of figure would say a 30 minute phone call to the UK add to your download limit.
I have reservations about signing up with them, but we only get 2.6MB at the moment on the old phone line.

A phone call would add very little. Phone useage would be negligible in data terms.

The things to watch out for are HD video streaming (Netflix/Amazon/Youtube) and games consloes.

AH2016 · 23-09-2020 6:50pm

Has anyone any experience with RuralWIFI. I see that they are now offering a package identical to Imagine.

Imagine and their service is just extremely poor. I get 170+mb during the day but in the evening it is below 5/6mb all the time. The upload is just terrible all the time at below 2mb even during the day.

They sent a crew out the other day to check the connection as it kept dropping. Two lads who to be fair were sound couldn't fault them while they were here couldn't find any problems. Imagine have said that 5mb in the evening and .4mb up at times is fine basically so I either move or live with this until the NBP is complete in my area.

So back to my initial question. Anyone any experience with them?

Ultimanemo · 24-09-2020 10:13pm

AH2016 wrote: »

Has anyone any experience with RuralWIFI. I see that they are now offering a package identical to Imagine.

Imagine and their service is just extremely poor. I get 170+mb during the day but in the evening it is below 5/6mb all the time. The upload is just terrible all the time at below 2mb even during the day.

They sent a crew out the other day to check the connection as it kept dropping. Two lads who to be fair were sound couldn't fault them while they were here couldn't find any problems. Imagine have said that 5mb in the evening and .4mb up at times is fine basically so I either move or live with this until the NBP is complete in my area.

So back to my initial question. Anyone any experience with them?

I had them, they use Three network. if you buy a router and antenna with Three PAYG Card you get the same service

ARGINITE · 25-09-2020 9:43am

AH2016 wrote: »

Has anyone any experience with RuralWIFI. I see that they are now offering a package identical to Imagine.

Imagine and their service is just extremely poor. I get 170+mb during the day but in the evening it is below 5/6mb all the time. The upload is just terrible all the time at below 2mb even during the day.

They sent a crew out the other day to check the connection as it kept dropping. Two lads who to be fair were sound couldn't fault them while they were here couldn't find any problems. Imagine have said that 5mb in the evening and .4mb up at times is fine basically so I either move or live with this until the NBP is complete in my area.

So back to my initial question. Anyone any experience with them?

I also had them prior to Imagine, nothing to complain about and I got speeds pretty close to what I get from Imagine. I changed to Imagine as I hoped I would get better speeds.

NakQuada · 25-09-2020 2:29pm

So, I just got off the phone to Imagine.

Was finally told that my traffic was deprioritised for weeks. Was causing my latency in games etc etc. Basically the gist of it was that the off-peak is kind of useless as it still counts towards your daily traffic in terms of whether you are priority or not but doesnt count towards your 'fair usage of 1TB'.

So even on the days when I was using 15GB peak, but had download 30GB off peak the morning before, they saw that as 45GB and wouldnt cap my speeds but would deprioritise my traffic. Apparently it's a Covid-19 measure to stabilise the entire network.

FML.

Dero · 25-09-2020 4:07pm

NakQuada wrote: »

So, I just got off the phone to Imagine.

Was finally told that my traffic was deprioritised for weeks. Was causing my latency in games etc etc. Basically the gist of it was that the off-peak is kind of useless as it still counts towards your daily traffic in terms of whether you are priority or not but doesnt count towards your 'fair usage of 1TB'.

So even on the days when I was using 15GB peak, but had download 30GB off peak the morning before, they saw that as 45GB and wouldnt cap my speeds but would deprioritise my traffic. Apparently it's a Covid-19 measure to stabilise the entire network.

FML.

It's very sneaky and underhand. Aside from the fact that they don't notify you of this happening, it makes the off-peak hours and the 1TB fair use allowance essentially useless.

NakQuada · 25-09-2020 4:17pm

Dero wrote: »

It's very sneaky and underhand. Aside from the fact that they don't notify you of this happening, it makes the off-peak hours and the 1TB fair use allowance essentially useless.

Yeah, the guy admitted that himself. He said it was stupid. I was told that anything between 20GB and 27GB of daily usage was considered 'excessive' and would cross the line into 'deprioritised traffic'. So even if I used 8GB during the day but I downloaded 20GB off peak that would tip me over the edge.

What is the point of the off-peak then? A joke.

Quin_Dub · 25-09-2020 4:34pm

NakQuada wrote: »

Yeah, the guy admitted that himself. He said it was stupid. I was told that anything between 20GB and 27GB of daily usage was considered 'excessive' and would cross the line into 'deprioritised traffic'. So even if I used 8GB during the day but I downloaded 20GB off peak that would tip me over the edge.

What is the point of the off-peak then? A joke.

I suspect that this has happened to me more than a few times.

What is the likely impact of "deprioiritisation"?

How slow are we talking here?

And how long does it last for - Just the rest of that day or longer?

Tommy Lagahan · 26-09-2020 4:15pm

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I suspect that this has happened to me more than a few times.

What is the likely impact of "deprioiritisation"?

How slow are we talking here?

And how long does it last for - Just the rest of that day or longer?

I suppose it depends on how many people are on the mast. I regularily hit 20-30GB a day and still average 60+Mbit cos theres basically nobody else on the mast. I knew when they brought it in because it immediately dropped from the usual 120Mbit+.

This shows from 1/10/19 to start of this month:
https://imgur.com/rhYKZUc

Oweran · 28-09-2020 3:39pm

Called them as well and it confirms what was said before. If you go above roughly 20GB then you are de-prioritised. For me, it translates into 50Mbps off-peak and a whooping 2/3Mpbs peak time.

They also confirmed that the "off-peak" data, so when you download during the night, is counted toward this daily limit. It's not counted towards the 1TB Monthly allowance though. At midnight it resets... Their fair usage policy doesn't seem to talk about this at all...

Quin_Dub · 28-09-2020 3:51pm

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

I suppose it depends on how many people are on the mast. I regularily hit 20-30GB a day and still average 60+Mbit cos theres basically nobody else on the mast. I knew when they brought it in because it immediately dropped from the usual 120Mbit+.

This shows from 1/10/19 to start of this month:
https://imgur.com/rhYKZUc

Oweran wrote: »

Called them as well and it confirms what was said before. If you go above roughly 20GB then you are de-prioritised. For me, it translates into 50Mbps off-peak and a whooping 2/3Mpbs peak time.

They also confirmed that the "off-peak" data, so when you download during the night, is counted toward this daily limit. It's not counted towards the 1TB Monthly allowance though. At midnight it resets... Their fair usage policy doesn't seem to talk about this at all...

Thanks guys.

Any idea on how long the de-prioritisation lasts? - The rest of the day , the rest of the billing cycle??

Oweran · 28-09-2020 9:23pm

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Thanks guys.

Any idea on how long the de-prioritisation lasts? - The rest of the day , the rest of the billing cycle??

The rest of the day yeah. So at midnight it goes back to 0. It's 20gb per 24 hours basically, that would be the threshold. Off-peak usage counts.

Asendor · 29-09-2020 8:13am

Oweran wrote: »

The rest of the day yeah. So at midnight it goes back to 0. It's 20gb per 24 hours basically, that would be the threshold. Off-peak usage counts.

Just going though this with them and honestly, at this stage, I don't think they know their own system. Just as some background: I am an average user and I have not once gone over the 1 TB monthly limit in the last 2 years. I do download a game here and there, Steam, Netflix - typical use really. After I moved my downloads, updates off-peak earlier this year (they send an email to all customers asking to move larger downloads off peak)) I suddenly started having issues during the day. Basically 1s pings with 1 Mbit downloads (if the speed test sites even load up). Internet basically dead. That caused quite a bit of issues as I am working from home - VPN disconnects, calls not connecting etc.

When I contacted their tech support I was eventually (after several calls and extensive trouble shooting and various "changes" to my line) advised that I am being deprioritized. This only happened after the case was escalated to their second level support. They confirmed that off peak traffic counts into the daily allowance but not the monthly limit and the daily limit resets at 0:00. They refused however to provide any numbers to me. I was advised that the daily limit is based on the usage on a mast and therefore dynamic. They refused to provide any more information which eventually lead me to leave a review on Trustpilot accordingly. On there they asked me to contact them on an email address, which I did. Sufficient to say that I never got a reply, despite several reminder emails. So eventually (2 months later) I contacted them again via chat. to summarize: they refused to answer, opened a case, someone will contact me or I can call a number and disconnected the chat. (no, I was not abusive or anything - I just asked what is the daily limit so I can plan accordingly?)

When no one contacted me I called their support as advised and they told me I would need to go to their technical support team (back to square one..). They did confirm however that the daily allowance is 8 GB per day, which they CURRENTLY, in a "gesture of good will", double for every customer before restrictions kick in. According to yesterdays call with them 16GB per day is the current limit and starts the deprioritization, once you hit 20GB it fully kicks in.

Currently waiting for a call back from their tech support department (because apparently it should not "turn your internet off" which it effectively does). I don't think this will go anywhere to be honest.. and I don't really have any alternative options (backroad in the middle of nowhere.. no fiber or other alternatives.)

ARGINITE · 29-09-2020 9:01am

Asendor wrote: »

Currently waiting for a call back from their tech support department (because apparently it should not "turn your internet off" which it effectively does)

The more you read about this the more you realize they have no idea how they have configured their network coupled with rubbish tech support makes for an awful experience.

Oweran · 29-09-2020 9:29am

Asendor wrote: »

Just going though this with them and honestly, at this stage, I don't think they know their own system. Just as some background: I am an average user and I have not once gone over the 1 TB monthly limit in the last 2 years. I do download a game here and there, Steam, Netflix - typical use really. After I moved my downloads, updates off-peak earlier this year (they send an email to all customers asking to move larger downloads off peak)) I suddenly started having issues during the day. Basically 1s pings with 1 Mbit downloads (if the speed test sites even load up). Internet basically dead. That caused quite a bit of issues as I am working from home - VPN disconnects, calls not connecting etc.

When I contacted their tech support I was eventually (after several calls and extensive trouble shooting and various "changes" to my line) advised that I am being deprioritized. This only happened after the case was escalated to their second level support. They confirmed that off peak traffic counts into the daily allowance but not the monthly limit and the daily limit resets at 0:00. They refused however to provide any numbers to me. I was advised that the daily limit is based on the usage on a mast and therefore dynamic. They refused to provide any more information which eventually lead me to leave a review on Trustpilot accordingly. On there they asked me to contact them on an email address, which I did. Sufficient to say that I never got a reply, despite several reminder emails. So eventually (2 months later) I contacted them again via chat. to summarize: they refused to answer, opened a case, someone will contact me or I can call a number and disconnected the chat. (no, I was not abusive or anything - I just asked what is the daily limit so I can plan accordingly?)

When no one contacted me I called their support as advised and they told me I would need to go to their technical support team (back to square one..). They did confirm however that the daily allowance is 8 GB per day, which they CURRENTLY, in a "gesture of good will", double for every customer before restrictions kick in. According to yesterdays call with them 16GB per day is the current limit and starts the deprioritization, once you hit 20GB it fully kicks in.

Currently waiting for a call back from their tech support department (because apparently it should not "turn your internet off" which it effectively does). I don't think this will go anywhere to be honest.. and I don't really have any alternative options (backroad in the middle of nowhere.. no fiber or other alternatives.)

Thanks for that! Actually looks worse than what I thought but makes perfect sense with what I experienced. The 20GB figure I threw around was actually not confirmed by the advisor I had on the phone who said it was "around that figure but couldn't provide me a clear number".

I'm in the same boat with them not answering to any of my emails. The advisor also "applied a fix" to my router which, of course, did nothing. 16GB a day is really a joke. If the monthly limit is 1TB then we should logically be looking at a daily limit of 30GB.

16GB is really nothing in this day and age. I'm not even greedy I'd be OK with having 15 Mbps once the daily limit is hit. Even 10 I can manage. But the 1 or Mpbs I'm getting is just not on. Not sure what the next step is to be honest.

Quin_Dub · 29-09-2020 9:32am

So - 8GB/16GB a day before they start to throttle you?

Less than a quarter or currently les than half what they say is the allowance for the month??

8GB is only a little bit more than you'd use for 1hr of Netflix at 4k resolution?

How are they actually able to do that legally?

Asendor · 29-09-2020 11:03am

Quin_Dub wrote: »

So - 8GB/16GB a day before they start to throttle you?

Less than a quarter or currently les than half what they say is the allowance for the month??

8GB is only a little bit more than you'd use for 1hr of Netflix at 4k resolution?

How are they actually able to do that legally?

Correct, this is what I was told. 8GB is what they think is acceptable and average use per day, 16GB is what they give you out of good will, once you hit 16 GB they start throttling and at 20GB you get the full slow down. And yes, its ridiculous in this day and age. As an example, I cant even update my sons games without experiencing slow downs. Watching Netflix for a few hours? forget about it. Updating Windows? that's it for the day.

They do list something about "right to throttle" in their fair use policy however there are no numbers. Even when I asked for numbers it took 2 months to get an answer - which is an abysmal level of support. They guard the numbers like a state secret, obviously because no one would really sign up once this widely known.

There is a major difference between the daily limits and what they advertise as monthly allowance, I am not sure though if this is anything you could use against them from a consumer rights point of view.

Quin_Dub · 29-09-2020 11:18am

Asendor wrote: »

Correct, this is what I was told. 8GB is what they think is acceptable and average use per day, 16GB is what they give you out of good will, once you hit 16 GB they start throttling and at 20GB you get the full slow down. And yes, its ridiculous in this day and age. As an example, I cant even update my sons games without experiencing slow downs. Watching Netflix for a few hours? forget about it. Updating Windows? that's it for the day.

They do list something about "right to throttle" in their fair use policy however there are no numbers. Even when I asked for numbers it took 2 months to get an answer - which is an abysmal level of support. They guard the numbers like a state secret, obviously because no one would really sign up once this widely known.

There is a major difference between the daily limits and what they advertise as monthly allowance, I am not sure though if this is anything you could use against them from a consumer rights point of view.

There surely has to be - It's not like usage of between 8GB and 16GB is even remotely excessive.

It's a couple of hours of Netflix from a single device or as you mention, a single game update for an Xbox/PS system.

So basically , unless you barely use the functionality they provide they reserve the right to throttle your connection because they have rampantly oversold capacity on their network.

Fundamentally I sincerely doubt that there are many (if any really) people who are using Imagine by choice.

Almost all of us are essentially captives to their Service as we don't have alternatives.

Gonzo · 29-09-2020 1:07pm

so Imagine have reverted back to the 20 gig per day allowance over a 24 hour period?

anyone with Imagine who is planning to get the new consoles (PS5, Xbox) in November is going to have quite a time downloading game files in access of 100 gigs, how are they meant to do this? Download a game in chunks over a week so that they don't get throttled every single day?

Imagine are cowboys, always have been always will be. Having said that their network was grinding to a halt with the 1 tb per month allowance so putting it back to 20 gigs per days probably makes sense to relief the strain on their completely oversubscribed network. A making of Imagine's own greed in selling the service to far too many people for maximum profit.

Asendor · 29-09-2020 1:47pm

Gonzo wrote: »

so Imagine have reverted back to the 20 gig per day allowance over a 24 hour period?

anyone with Imagine who is planning to get the new consoles (PS5, Xbox) in November is going to have quite a time downloading game files in access of 100 gigs, how are they meant to do this? Download a game in chunks over a week so that they don't get throttled every single day?

Imagine are cowboys, always have been always will be. Having said that their network was grinding to a halt with the 1 tb per month allowance so putting it back to 20 gigs per days probably makes sense to relief the strain on their completely oversubscribed network. A making of Imagine's own greed in selling the service to far too many people for maximum profit.

It is both actually - 1 TB per month(only peak time traffic counted) and 16-20GB per day (full day counted, no matter if peak or off-peak). What makes it so bad is that they asked customers to move their downloads to off peak.

To quote from the email they sent out:

"We understand and expect that occasionally users require to upload and download large data files, including large image files and games and back up data. However doing this during busy times, when the internet is at its busiest, the services you are using are in high demand and everyone at home is on line, this takes longer, reduces available speed and degrades the service and user experience for you and everyone else in your home sharing the same Wi-Fi connection and uses your data allowance.

You can avoid this by doing this activity in non-busy times. Many of these activities can be easily timed to automatically work in off peak hours during the night. If you choose to do this, you will greatly improve your service experience during busy times.

So, to help everyone, we are changing our Fair Usage Policy. Until further notice, ALL data usage between 1am and 7am will NOT be counted as part of your monthly data usage."

So if you are nice and do what they ask (like me...), you start downloading AFTER their counter for the day reset.

In the past, if I downloaded something in the evening, I did not notice any major issues the next day because the counter resets at 0:00. After I changed over to off peak, all traffic counts into the current day, i.e. I get throttled down.

Quin_Dub · 29-09-2020 1:59pm

Asendor wrote: »

It is both actually - 1 TB per month(only peak time traffic counted) and 16-20GB per day (full day counted, no matter if peak or off-peak). What makes it so bad is that they asked customers to move their downloads to off peak.

To quote from the email they sent out:

"We understand and expect that occasionally users require to upload and download large data files, including large image files and games and back up data. However doing this during busy times, when the internet is at its busiest, the services you are using are in high demand and everyone at home is on line, this takes longer, reduces available speed and degrades the service and user experience for you and everyone else in your home sharing the same Wi-Fi connection and uses your data allowance.

You can avoid this by doing this activity in non-busy times. Many of these activities can be easily timed to automatically work in off peak hours during the night. If you choose to do this, you will greatly improve your service experience during busy times.

So, to help everyone, we are changing our Fair Usage Policy. Until further notice, ALL data usage between 1am and 7am will NOT be counted as part of your monthly data usage."

So if you are nice and do what they ask (like me...), you start downloading AFTER their counter for the day reset.

In the past, if I downloaded something in the evening, I did not notice any major issues the next day because the counter resets at 0:00. After I changed over to off peak, all traffic counts into the current day, i.e. I get throttled down.

Back to starting your downloads at about 9pm so...

Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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