Imagine launch Midband Ripwave Replacement - WiMAX

anoble66 · 24-11-2009 05:42PM

so has anyone tried their 7mb home broadband yet? not the mobile option. I am just about to be forced into Vodafone so I am seriously thinking of switching....but after a very bad experience with IBB previously I am reluctant to switch.

So anyone tried their service yet? Speed / contention ok etc?

thanks

Hammer of Thor · 25-11-2009 04:42PM

Yeah this I am wondering also! In addition to the email I received a couple of days ago I got a phonecall telling me the phase including Wexford town would be up and running in 2 weeks, and that she's going to ring back in a couple of days to take order info! I had to laugh tho, when I asked her about latency, informing her it was very important to me that the ping is as low as possible for gaming; her response was "I'm not a techie", what the hell? She did go off to find out what I should expect tho, turns out they're happy enough to promise less than 100ms, should be around 75....not fantastic, but much better than the 250ms or so I'm getting with 3 hsdpa.

anoble66 · 25-11-2009 05:12PM

Thanks for responding. Yeah <100ms is not great....and I am assuming they are just talking about latency within Ireland at that figure. Ping the US and you will be up to 220-250ms I bet.

Currently 45ms within Ireland.....maybe I will have to stick with Vodafone.

Sponge Bob · 25-11-2009 05:27PM

This is the biggest load of Vapourware since Ice Broadband announced a "customer satisfaction" survey last year

OgreSwamp · 26-11-2009 03:40PM

Just called to Imagine customer support. WiMax isn't available for apartments. That is really weird, just couldn't understand what is a problem...

IrishTonyO · 26-11-2009 04:54PM

OgreSwamp wrote: »

Just called to Imagine customer support. WiMax isn't available for apartments. That is really weird, just couldn't understand what is a problem...

That's very weird they are cutting out a lot of potential customers with that policy.

daffy_duc · 27-11-2009 11:34AM

OgreSwamp wrote: »

Just called to Imagine customer support. WiMax isn't available for apartments. That is really weird, just couldn't understand what is a problem...

That is very strange. I thought that was the whole point?
No installation, its perfect for apartments that won't let you bolt on external equipment.
Weird.

OgreSwamp · 27-11-2009 11:45AM

Actually I called twice.
Second time customer service guy told me that it should be ok. There are 2 types of installation: internal one if you have strong signal (within ~1km from base station) and external - when you have an antenna. I think second option won't be available for apartments. For the moment Dun Laoghaire almost isn't covered, only Deansgrange area. Hopefully they'll cover Dun Laoghaire during next 2 months. I bought 3 prepay as temp solution coz I don't wanna pay "world most expensive" ((c) Wikipedia) line rental to one big Irish company. Will wait for Imagine in Dun Laoghaire town center.
BTW, they told me that cover plan depends on people who registered interest in their website. Probably just marketing trick but just register yourself on their website, probably it will help to cover your area faster.

IrishTonyO · 01-12-2009 01:39PM

Still no feedback from any users? Has anyone got the equipment installed at all?

cormie · 01-12-2009 02:21PM

As I keep saying, and if Imagine are reading, if you can guarantee wimax 3mb at its worst, will be better than ripwave at its best, I'll move immediately

mout · 02-12-2009 07:17PM

I have it at home and am pretty satisfied with service.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 5260 kbps (657.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 436 kbps (54.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Ping 52ms.

thebman · 02-12-2009 07:54PM

How long have you had it and were you previously a customer?

I'm interested in the unlimited downloads but it is going to go to crap then I won't get it.

If your an existing customer and new people have yet to sign up and contention hasn't kicked in, I'll give it a miss I think.

I don't suppose you play games or do anything other than browse boards on it

Specifically looking to see are they blocking ports or anything like that.

Sponge Bob · 02-12-2009 09:01PM

Imagine 7mbit DSL that says , no confirmed sighting of wimax in the wild yet The Bman

thebman · 02-12-2009 09:48PM

oh lol, I thought it was a bit weird, them having a customer and all.

Come on Imagine :-/

Capt'n Midnight · 03-12-2009 03:02PM

daffy_duc wrote: »

That is very strange. I thought that was the whole point?
No installation, its perfect for apartments that won't let you bolt on external equipment.
Weird.

external antenna is a no-no

internal might work apart from the problem of radio waves not going through steel and damp concrete

it should work if you have a window with line of sight to the antenna, most apartments won't / most aparatments will be at the edges of the 20Km circles, than at the centre of them so low signal level to begin with

OgreSwamp · 03-12-2009 03:22PM

20K??? C'mon, Dun Laoghaire is much closer to the Deansgrange, but it is still unavailable in DL... Anyway, if signal will be strength enough it will go through window and reflect from walls.
And why tell people that they don't install in the apartments? May be my window is in straight line with base station. Or may be my PC is near bay window... etc... there are thousands of reasons when signal could be good enough (sometimes even better the in houses coz apartment can be on 2nd floor with large bay windows...

IrishTonyO · 03-12-2009 03:28PM

When I rang Imagine a while back I was told the range from the wimax base station would be 2-3km definitely not 20km and they also said depending on location and whether there were large buildings in the area.
And I reckon you might need an elephant or 2 flying in the area as well for really good coverage

kincsem · 03-12-2009 08:24PM

I read the first seven pages of this thread but can't face reading the full 36 pages.
I get a letter in the post from Imagine that told me nothing much except my service will change.
Today I got an email that included
"Over the coming days, we will be in touch with you to arrange a time to upgrade you to your new WiMax service. During this process, you may experience a temporary interruption to your existing Ripwave service. Our intention is to avoid or minimise any interruption.
You will be provided with a new WiMax hub to replace your existing Ripwave modem and as an existing customer you will be upgraded free of charge."
No mention of price and the e-mail was from noreply@imagine.ie so I assume no discussion / questions allowed.

Do I just cancel my credit card payment? I don't like this cloak and daggers. I don't want the "extras" Advanced phone service with unlimited Local, National and UK calls. Mobile Broadband on the move with speeds up to 7Mb

Can anyone tell me without using big words -
New price per month?
Is there hardware installed? (e.g roof arial)
Is it a long-term contract or month by month?

IrishTonyO · 03-12-2009 08:31PM

If you look at their website you will see details of the price plans, but if you don't want to go to wimax call them and tell them so. As regards contract terms for existing owners not sure if you are classed as a new customer or not. But they have to provide with you with these details and get your permission before they 'upgrade' you.

thebman · 04-12-2009 12:05AM

kincsem wrote: »

I read the first seven pages of this thread but can't face reading the full 36 pages.
I get a letter in the post from Imagine that told me nothing much except my service will change.
Today I got an email that included
"Over the coming days, we will be in touch with you to arrange a time to upgrade you to your new WiMax service. During this process, you may experience a temporary interruption to your existing Ripwave service. Our intention is to avoid or minimise any interruption.
You will be provided with a new WiMax hub to replace your existing Ripwave modem and as an existing customer you will be upgraded free of charge."
No mention of price and the e-mail was from noreply@imagine.ie so I assume no discussion / questions allowed.

Do I just cancel my credit card payment? I don't like this cloak and daggers. I don't want the "extras" Advanced phone service with unlimited Local, National and UK calls. Mobile Broadband on the move with speeds up to 7Mb

Can anyone tell me without using big words -
New price per month?
Is there hardware installed? (e.g roof arial)
Is it a long-term contract or month by month?

Noreply doesn't mean don't contact them, it just means that was a mass marketing automated email and not sent from an actual persons email address so if you reply nobody will get it.

Sponge Bob · 04-12-2009 08:39AM

So has ANYBODY seen an Imagine wimax yoke ANYWHERE in the wild in ANY part of Ireland since they launched the thing 8 WEEKS AGO ???

I just want one confirmed sighting, that is all.

iUseVi · 04-12-2009 12:50PM

Sponge Bob wrote: »

So has ANYBODY seen an Imagine wimax yoke ANYWHERE in the wild in ANY part of Ireland since they launched the thing 8 WEEKS AGO ???

I just want one confirmed sighting, that is all.

I have yet to see one, they still wouldn't sell to me in the Dublin area, are they selling at all yet? Why is the website giving prices if they are not?

I got this back in an email from them:

The capability and range of the WiMax technology is between 8 and 10 kilometres. At the moment, we are restricting customer connections to within 2 kilometres to facilitate our ongoing network planning and roll out.

Makes me very suspicious. They aren't just passing off 3G as Wimax now are they and pretending to have limited the range?

IrishTonyO · 04-12-2009 12:55PM

This is the reply I got from them when I asked about range

Our coverage would normally extend to about 3km radius from our base station, depending on the landscape and how built up the area is. I don't have the exact coverage map for Parkwest just now, but if you'd like to go on to our website www.imagine.ie and register your interest in WiMax we'll keep you up to date on when we're getting to your area.

iUseVi · 04-12-2009 12:59PM

IrishTonyO wrote: »

This is the reply I got from them when I asked about range

Our coverage would normally extend to about 3km radius from our base station, depending on the landscape and how built up the area is. I don't have the exact coverage map for Parkwest just now, but if you'd like to go on to our website www.imagine.ie and register your interest in WiMax we'll keep you up to date on when we're getting to your area.

So even their own staff are giving slightly different answers. I dunno I don't see why they would limit it to 2-3 if its capable of 10. Just means they need more base stations to cover the same number of people.

IrishTonyO · 04-12-2009 01:04PM

I reckon they will connect people 2-3 km from base stations first and then feedback on the service will be good, then they will connect users further away who have been influenced by good reports from the initial closer users. If they started connected people at the further edges of their claimed range feedback would not be so good.

But I still can't understand why not one single person has posted any feedback on the internet anywhere. Can only assume no one is actually connected yet.

04-12-2009 07:26PM

I just got an internal hub and its absolutely useless.

I live about 800 metres from the base station.

The average speed would be ~1-3Mb and average ping times would be ~200ms.

If I'm connected to xbox live the pings times become more like 500ms and speeds drop under 1Mb.

The Speedtest was done on Speedtest.net using Dublin server (Digiweb which is located around 2 miles from me).

I WOULD NOT recommend Imagine WiMax!!

Going back to Eircom ASAP as this WiMax is complete shi*e!

Edit:
Here is a Speedtest I just done (with only 1 computer connected to the network):

IrishTonyO · 04-12-2009 07:29PM

Where are you laughingjoker? what base station you connected to?

04-12-2009 07:41PM

Blanchardstown.

copacetic · 04-12-2009 07:43PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I just got an internal hub and its absolutely useless.

I live about 800 metres from the base station.

The average speed would be ~1-3Mb and average ping times would be ~200ms.

If I'm connected to xbox live the pings times become more like 500ms and speeds drop under 1Mb.

The Speedtest was done on Speedtest.net using Dublin server (Digiweb which is located around 2 miles from me).

I WOULD NOT recommend Imagine WiMax!!

Going back to Eircom ASAP as this WiMax is complete shi*e!

Edit:
Here is a Speedtest I just done (with only 1 computer connected to the network):

could you post a pic of your install?

IrishTonyO · 04-12-2009 07:53PM

Laughingjoker, yours is the first piece of feedback regarding Imagine Wimax anywhere on the web to date. I have been checking everyday since their woeful launch. Did it take long for you to get your equipment? Have you called their support department regarding the slow speeds and the terrible pings?

I used to use my Nokia N95 as a modem with O2 and used to get download speeds of 2-3Mb and pings of about 30ms.

So much for their superfast broadband. But then again suppose can't judge everything on one experience, but not a good omen!

Imagine launch Midband Ripwave Replacement - WiMAX

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