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Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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  • Registered Users Posts: 15,508 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    On WISP vs. MBB, mobile has its place in the hierarchy being national networks that fill the mobile and fixed wireless niche, backed by large MNOs. WISPs are always going to be limited by spectrum availability and regionality.

    My brother uses a 4G router going on 2 years now, with a €10 per month SIM, and wouldn't even consider the reduced €50 per month Starlink sub.

    WISP coverage has pretty much disappeared in our area bar Imagine of course, if you have decent line of sight to one of their scarce masts.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,169 ✭✭✭mossie


    Phoned Imagine to cancel this morning. Kept me on hold for 15 minutes and came back with an offer of €29.99 per month for 24 months. Would be fine if they could give me Starlink speeds for that. Anyway, 30 days notice and bye bye Imagine.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,265 ✭✭✭pizzahead77


    I wonder when Amazon's Project Kuiper will launch? Will there be price war between them and Starlink then?



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,550 ✭✭✭✭joujoujou
    Unregistered Users


    Just a quick information for all interested re: off-peak hours as there were confusing and sometimes contradicting infos posted here. It's 1am to 7am.

    It's well hidden on the website, search box returns 0 results, google won't give anything useful either.

    Browsed through articles and found this one:

    https://www.imagine.ie/support/#/articles/why-is-my-usage-so-high----8d51e2d5-3905-48e2-80fc-8cdcca19ea3b

    Funny thing: asked on their chat and rep answered (after good 10 minutes between question and answer) "well, I think it's 11pm to 8am". No relevant link given despite asking, finally redirected me to their tech team, they're not really helpful either (what a surprise! LOL). At that stage that was already approx 1 hour of my time wasted with them, but in the meantime I kept browsing articles and eventually found what I found. ;-)



  • Registered Users Posts: 51 ✭✭Fichtl


    Has there been a price increase lately? Wondering about the difference between this and last month's bill



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  • Registered Users Posts: 15,508 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    Have they also jumped onto the 3% + CPI sub increase every April bandwagon?



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,787 ✭✭✭✭listermint




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,457 ✭✭✭KildareP




  • Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭Tucker.Tim


    With NBI finally arriving I've been left with the P2P receiver from my old Imagine subscription that they chose never to pick up. Does anyone have any knowledge on what the receiver actually is and if it's able to be reset and paired with another P2P unit?



  • Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,792 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    Imagine kit operates in the 3.5GHz spectrum, for which they have a licence and you don't. Even if you could get it working, you can't do so legally.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 15,508 ✭✭✭✭The Cush


    https://www.independent.ie/regionals/tipperary/news/tipperary-td-warns-of-catastrophic-broadband-blackouts-if-suppliers-withdraw-before-nbi-rollout/a624818513.html

    Michael Lowey advocating for Imagine Broadband in the Dáil yesterday

    Imagine are in financial dire straits by the looks of things. Starlink may be gaining some new subscribers in the coming months.

    A Tipperary TD has warned of the possibility of “catastrophic” broadband blackouts across large swathes of the country if a leading supplier withdraws before the National Broadband Plan (NBI) rollout is completed.

    Despite being plagued by delays, National Broadband Ireland has stated that it is confident that all areas will be completed by the beginning of 2028, said Independent TD Michael Lowry.

    As a result, existing commercial suppliers of broadband, like ‘Imagine’, have an immediate and serious financial viability problem, he said.

    “They are now closely examining their immediate future in the market and the outlook for them is bleak without Government support,” Deputy Lowry told the Taoiseach during Leaders Questions on Tuesday. “Imagine currently have 47,000 customers across every county in Ireland with 2,400 of these in Tipperary.

    “These are predominantly rural connections. If Imagine is forced to wind down in the coming months without a planned transition to NBI there will be a broadband blackout for an unsuspecting 47,000 customers,” he said.

    “The impact of this would be catastrophic. Allowing the unplanned wind-down of this commercial provider would set the impacted regions across the country back years.

    The actual discussion between Michael Lowry and the Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2024-04-30/speech/31/

    The Indo published an article on their financial problems back in February



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,787 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    We shouldn't be bailing out Canadian investment firms.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,469 ✭✭✭bennyineire


    What's their turnover, can't be more that 30 million per year with the current (shrinking) subscriptions base.

    There is zero chance this company will survive the next 4 years, that Canadian investment company have lost their shirt on this one



  • Registered Users Posts: 12 Ciferos


    Cant say I am very surprised.

    I was with them for maybe 1.5years a few years ago, it was hard to get them out to collect their equipment and the speeds were very hit and miss.

    I suppose it was better than nothing at the time, but definitively would not be using today with all the other offers on the market. They should have expanded their offering and especially their speed reliability.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭Ardent


    Finally free of Imagine, gave notice yesterday.

    Enjoying lightning speeds and fantastic pings with NBI fibre. Probably the biggest relief is not having to worry about a monthly cap while updating games or downloading content.

    I can't complain about them too much, they provided a passable service when there was nothing else available.

    Took their equipment down today. Will put it in a box for when they come to collect (which I doubt they will).



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 16,752 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gonzo


    If Imagine are to survive in any way they need to become FTTH resellers on OpenEir and Siro just like all the other providers. In about 4 years time there will be nobody left using wireless masts to the house for their internet. Once Eir rolled out FTTH to rural areas since 2016 the writing was on the wall for them and then StarLink becoming available with genuine decent speeds all across is Ireland has probably been the killing blow, between that and the fact that the NBI is now making decent inroads to remaining areas without commercial FTTH.

    Strict monthly data usage caps are also becoming a thing of the past as nearly everything is done online these days and data consumption has skyrocketed in recent years and will continue to do so.



  • Registered Users Posts: 729 ✭✭✭Dero


    So we finally went live on NBI and now have 1Gb FTTH up and running, so I rang Imagine yesterday to cancel my service. I've been a customer since 2016, so long since out of contract.

    I clearly remember getting (three) calls last year trying to get me in to a new contract. So much so that I even posted it here. Imagine my surprise then when they told me that I am in a contract and have been since last November. I told them I had explicitly declined to enter a contract and had not signed anything. They said I didn't have to - it's all done verbally! That seems mad (and ripe for abuse). It's most likely a mistake, as I received no mails or other notification, and definitely have not received the discount they were touting. I have asked them to review the call recordings and clarify and they said they will, but of course that will take time.

    The Imagine agent said I'm showing as in-contract on the billing system, but there is no corresponding notes on my account. Even if it is just a mistake or system glitch, it just complicates the cancellation process and further sours a relationship that entered the irreconcilable differences phase many years ago…

    So basically, if you got one of these calls and believe you are not in contract, it might be a good idea to double check with them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,769 ✭✭✭clohamon


    There’s more on Imagine's woes from the Examiner.

    The Irish Examiner understands that the company has been struggling to keep itself afloat and if something isn’t done soon 120 jobs could be lost if the company is forced to wind down operations.

    FWIW ComReg are reporting a slight dip in total FWA subscribers in Q4 2023 on the back of a reasonable run since 2021.

    They paid ComReg €8M for 3.6GHz spectrum in 2017 and another €12M for 2.3/2.6GHz in 2022. Then there’s ongoing spectrum usage fees @ c. €500k/yr. It’s not clear if they continue to lease additional ‘5g’ spectrum from other providers.

    Not clear either if the reported ‘investment’ from Brookfield was actual equity or an “equity loan’ with corresponding interest. Or whether there are annual ‘management fees’ payable to Brookfield or whether dividend payments have been made in past years.

    So it might be a different story if the overheads, debt, dividends and vampire fees were stripped out.



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,787 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    It's always always not investment.

    Absolute drain and dregs these funds



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,457 ✭✭✭KildareP


    Unfortunately.

    I can't help but feel the fund will now try to extract as much as it absolutely can for the forseeable and then call time on operations.

    Can't see anyone lining up to buy the company. The bulk of the company is the LTE network which is too bespoke and designed for fixed point-to-point rather than mobile.

    Can't see them pivoting as an OpenEir/NBI/SIRO reseller, as the accumulated debt hanging around their necks would make the retail pricing unviable in order to service the debt.

    And there's not a hope any more money will be put into upgrading what they have which means fibre will just end up being even more attractive as it rolls further and deeper into their traditional customer base.



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