Imagine launch Midband Ripwave Replacement - WiMAX

the_real_dave · 25-10-2010 11:04PM

Herby12 wrote: »

Did you get external antenna instaled for 50 Eur or you have to pay 100eru. Thanks for answer if you get external antenna for 50 I will request change my internal hub for antenna.

I paid 150 Euro, 100 for the antenna, and a 50 euro connection fee.

watty wrote: »

Yes they should.

Your experience is not typical. Inherently on average DSL (perlico and eircom) is far better than Imagine WiMax. The 3G/HSPA of Vodafone, O2, 3 and Meteor/eircom on average is inherently a bit worse, but unlike Imagine WiMax is genuine National Coverage and works far better Portable. 3G is on 2100MHz and Imagine Wimax is 3.6GHz which is an unsuitably high band for their system. At that band they should ONLY use outdoor radio sets with directional aerials. Most of the Imagine WiMax are near Omnidirectional indoor units. It's inherently a poorly engineered wasteful system.

I've spent a while reading this, and I havn't found many people complaining when they have an external aerial. People with indoor hubs can have poor reception and service. That said, I know two people with indoor hubs, one on a 1Mb package (who averages 2Mb speed) and another on 3Mb (who averages around 3.8Mb). In those cases, the indoor hubs work and suit perfectly.

But in general, I would advise people to spend the little bit extra and get an aerial. You can then be assured of good stable coverage. I'm about 6km from the main hub in town, and yet when the engineers set up my antenna and ran a speed test, they got 9Mb. They then limited it

That said, my max achieved speed is

A more average speed (performed whilst typing this) is;

MyKeyG wrote: »

People should most certainly be put off by this thread. Granted it's individual experiences and should not be considered as proof of general service but one or two good reports in 94 pages of complaining is hardly good advertising.

In my opinion they are liars, crooks and cheats. They sold me their product before it was even fully available in my area (they were still upgrading ripwave) they promised fast uninterupted service and my average speed is 2.3 on a 7Mb package even the phone service is crap, and from the looks of things here getting rid will be a nightmare.

I would drop to my knees and beg if someone told me they were going to go with these thieves.

All ISPs promise fast uninterupted service. In the same way all computer salesmen promise a fast system. Rarely do either deliver. In my case, and those of the people I know Imagine have been doing a great job. As a contrast, Perlico owe me 50 euro which I've been doggedly chasing since May, and Vodafone have sent me a bill for a month in which I received no service (and tagged on the cost of software I never used). This time however, I was smart enough to cancel the direct debit >.<

I'm not saying everyone will get a perfect service, in fact, I'm sure no one will. I'm saying that everyone I know who is with Imagine is more than happy, and that if you're willing to spend a little more on an external antenna, you won't be far astray. It's worth it for a fast, reliable service, especially in areas where DSL simply isn't up to scratch.

(For me, the houses to my right can achieve up to 1.5Mb as they're connected to a newer exchange/line, whereas from my house down, a max of .25Mb can be achieved. Eircom said that they weren't obliged to fix it, Vodafone and Perlico could do no more than submit line faults.)

the_real_dave · 25-10-2010 11:13PM

lisij wrote: »

hello, im on eircom NGB, im getting something like 6mb download, would it be worth to sign in with imagine wimax?

If your happy with your service on Eircom, and happy with your speed, then no. Imagine Wimax offer packages up to 7Mb (which can be a little faster in practice), but based on a varying services some customers experience, in my opinion the small possible increase in speed would not be worth it.

Remember to go to speedtest.net to test your connection speed, to see if you are getting what you are paying for.

deravarra · 26-10-2010 12:29AM

the_real_dave wrote: »

Remember to go to speedtest.net to test your connection speed, to see if you are getting what you are paying for.

Seriously, does anybody not read the "up to" bit?

the_real_dave · 26-10-2010 08:12AM

deravarra wrote: »

Seriously, does anybody not read the "up to" bit?

I'm fully aware of how ISPs sell their broadband connections. However, in this case, the guy wanted to know if it was worth switching. If he was getting a full 6Mb with Eircom, then obviously not.

On the other hand, if he was getting an inferior speed, then switching might genuinely be beneficial to him.

The only way to know whether it would be or not, is to run a speed test.

cancercowboy · 26-10-2010 01:23PM

Imagine WiMax is the worst internet service I have ever used. I usually get under 1 megabit, and I have full reception. When you call to request that the service be improved, regardless of what speed you'rte getting, they reply with "it's within our contention rate".

This is a load of ****e they say to get you off the phone.

When the service first came online my former flat mate ordered it and we were impressed with the speed. Youtube videos loaded fast, the connection was robust. When he moved out, I ordered service of my own and it's been really ****. I have the same exact plan as he did (7Mb WiMax €35 per month), the WiMax home hub is located in the same spot and I have full reception.

The problem is they are over selling the service "expanding" and it's making the quality of service for existing users crap.

I have rarely gotten above 1 megabit and the upload has consistently been under 128 kbps.

watty · 26-10-2010 03:18PM

Dialup, Clearwire, Imagine Ripwave (if any left) and 3G/Mobile are potentially poorer. It's not actually the worst.

DHFrame · 26-10-2010 03:37PM

Digiweb or Wimax?

Digiweb have just increased download limit across their products which I have at the moment, but I really want unlimited. I find my digiweb is reliable and good for MW2 on the PC. Would you recommend Wimax over Digiweb? Also, vodafone offer a Landline BB product with 120Gb download limit.

Don't know whether to stick with what I have or go for Wimax because of the unlimited, being outside my 12 month contract is a good feeling too.

watty · 26-10-2010 06:43PM

You know that "Imagine WiMax" have a "Fair Usage Policy" and it's about 30Gbyte a month?

Please don't say "Wimax". That's a family of technologies, some good. some not so good and some poorly applied.

No domestic products "really" unlimited. All have some kind of limit. In the case of Magnet and some UPC packages, it's really high.

Rule of thumb.
If it isn't broken don't fix it.
Or: It's so hard to get Broadband at all, never mind good Broadband, that if you have reliable Broadband, don't cancel till you have tried the alternative for 2 months!

DHFrame · 26-10-2010 07:09PM

watty wrote: »

You know that "Imagine WiMax" have a "Fair Usage Policy" and it's about 30Gbyte a month?

Please don't say "Wimax". That's a family of technologies, some good. some not so good and some poorly applied.

No domestic products "really" unlimited. All have some kind of limit. In the case of Magnet and some UPC packages, it's really high.

Rule of thumb.
If it isn't broken don't fix it.
Or: It's so hard to get Broadband at all, never mind good Broadband, that if you have reliable Broadband, don't cancel till you have tried the alternative for 2 months!

good to know thanks!

Biggins · 28-10-2010 12:42PM

For anyone interested in following one persons Wimax experience, go HERE to keep track of how my Imagine Wimax service is going!

watty · 28-10-2010 02:04PM

Nice and all as it is, A single persons experience with a mobile/Nomadic product like Imagine WiMax on 3.6Ghz is nearly worthless, good or bad.

What counts is the average experience and what percent of users have a "poor experience".

These articles ( http://www.techtir.ie/comms ) are very technical, but explain the issue and why some systems are inherently mis-sold.

ei9go · 29-10-2010 03:07PM

MyKeyG wrote: »

Bear in mind WIMAX is a technology not a specific provider. This thread relates to IMAGINE wimax which uses a nomadic midband service, it's a dressed up version of Irish Broadband. There's nothing wrong with Wimax as a technology it's how IMAGINE are making a hash of it is the issue here. There are other wimax providers are you sure that yours is IMAGINE since the whole external arial thing sounds like your service is with a fixed Wimax provider.

Yes it is Imagine.

MrT123 · 01-11-2010 12:20AM

cancercowboy wrote: »

Imagine WiMax is the worst internet service I have ever used. I usually get under 1 megabit, and I have full reception. When you call to request that the service be improved, regardless of what speed you'rte getting, they reply with "it's within our contention rate".

This is a load of ****e they say to get you off the phone.

When the service first came online my former flat mate ordered it and we were impressed with the speed. Youtube videos loaded fast, the connection was robust. When he moved out, I ordered service of my own and it's been really ****. I have the same exact plan as he did (7Mb WiMax €35 per month), the WiMax home hub is located in the same spot and I have full reception.

The problem is they are over selling the service "expanding" and it's making the quality of service for existing users crap.

I have rarely gotten above 1 megabit and the upload has consistently been under 128 kbps.

I've noticed that fiddling with transmission power and channel on your motorola can have impact on your speed(it shouldn't, but in reality it does - could be due to low specs/quality of the device). My Girlfriend had it by default on maximum power and channel 6. Changed power to minimum and got 3Mb/s instead of 2. Than when we connected another laptop wirelessly we had to increase the signal to medium, otherwise one of the laptops would get intermittent connection. Also we had to change channel to 11 and that made the ping go from 108 to about 70. Again it shoulnd't but it did had an impact on speeds/ping. So maybe your housemate had it set up differently ;-)

nava · 01-11-2010 01:52PM

Hi all, reading here looks like quite unhappy customers with Wimax,

My question is the following: I have live in Aylesbury (Dublin 24) using the Ripware service, got a letter that service will be discontinue soon, so we were asked to register for Wimax with Imagine, I been reading the feedback here is not the best, what I wanted to check is if any other users here are in the same area or Tallaght that can give some feedback on Wimax. We will have a couple of laptops online at the same time, no gaming or anything like that just browsing, maybe watching some Youtube videos and in some occasions connect form external location using VNC to those laptops.

Also reading looks like the modem provided cannot be access to do do port forwarding, is that correct? In that case can we connect the router they have now to the Wimax router and use that router to do port forwarding etc as we do now so we can connect using VNC to them using ports 5900, 5902, etc Also does the model allow remote connection to connect to the Modem as we do now with the router.

Does anyone know an alternative provider that doesn't need a phone line, also UPC is not an option because previous bad experience.

Thanks all for the help.

MyKeyG · 01-11-2010 02:34PM

deravarra wrote: »

Seriously, does anybody not read the "up to" bit?

I worked for Perlico BB support and we were always encouraged to use that little 'get out of jail free card' but this was when we were only offering 1Mb pacakges. You can't use it to justify paying for a company's 7Mb package and your download is less than their 3Mb package. I was expecting at least better than the max speed of the next package down. Magnate have PROMISED me that whatever my line tests that's what I'll get uninterrupted if I sign with them for BB. Now that's a service I'd bank on.

Saying that since I joined these threads Imagine have improved dramatically however I live at home and my mam is adamant that we're going back to Eircom. I used to see it all the time when I worked with Perlico. The slightest upset and people would zoom back to the devil you know, Eircom.

barrmur · 06-11-2010 01:21AM

Latest update on my dealings with Imagine. After promising to cancel my account and wave all charges they have now stolen €116.67 from my bank account with out permission, I do not have a dd set up, and have sent me a bill for the coming month.

Once again today after contacting customer care the promised call back from their care team did not happen.

Imagine are thieves and fraudsters.

Advise anyone.

Chaz · 06-11-2010 10:26AM

barrmur wrote: »

Latest update on my dealings with Imagine. After promising to cancel my account and wave all charges they have now stolen €116.67 from my bank account with out permission, I do not have a dd set up, and have sent me a bill for the coming month.

Once again today after contacting customer care the promised call back from their care team did not happen.

Imagine are thieves and fraudsters.

Advise anyone.

How did they get your bank details?

ei9go · 06-11-2010 03:28PM

ei9go wrote: »

I have WIMAX in Waterford City for nearly 3 months.

It is just so much better than the Vodaphone fixed line BB that I had.

The 7mb package generally runs close to the 7mb and sometimes quite a bit faster.

I did have a couple of days where I was only getting between 1 - 2 mbit but I complained and that seemed to be sorted after that.

There are up to six computers and an xbox running on it.

I have seen downloads running at 800 kbit.

I have the external antenna.

At 45 euro a month, I break even on the installation costs in around 10 months. Vodaphone was 62 euro a month.

I had terrible problems with Vodaphone disconnecting every now and again.

They would not accept that they had a problem and would only send an engineer with the threat of charging me 150 euro if he did not find a fault at or before the master socket.

While Wimax may not be perfect, it works fine for me.

Here's a sample of my download speed from Imagine wimax. Look at the jpg

alanfa · 06-11-2010 04:03PM

the_real_dave wrote: »

Hmmm, well in stark contrast to just about every other post in this thread, I'm incredibly happy with my service from Imagine.

My speed is great, and consistant, 3.8-5Mb on a 3Mb package. I've been using the service since the middle of September and am 6km from the main antenna.

I have an external antenna placed on my chimney. During the install I requested that the cabling be brought through my attic. Due to their own insurance issues, they're not allowed to enter attics. I told them so, to leave me the necessary cables and I would bring it through my attic. They did so, and returned two days later as agreed, and had the system running in no time. The external antenna is quite small and neat.

I have had no speed/connection issues bar a bug I've found with my torrent program. If I allow large numbers of peers to connect, without limiting upload speed, my internet becomes incredibly congested, and unresponsive. I can only assume that the number of requests being sent out conflict with the software that limits the upload speed (which is .5Mb, and stays at it). The problem is easily solved by limiting upload speeds to .4Mb, allowing spare upload bandwidth. And yes, you can simply request for them to remove all firewalls from your modem, or to open specific ports, allowing full speed torrent downloading. (For me ~500KB/s, 5Mb/s)

When they say "No bandwidth limit" they mean it. I have downloaded in excess of 500GB in total in September and October, and have uploaded perhaps 120GB (I only track my download usage).

I've found their customer support helpful and polite, much better than some others (Perlico!! >.<)

Most of the issues raised here deal with people either acting like idiots and expecting Imagine to take the blame for their own mistakes, or people using the indoor hubs. I've very little experience with them (A friend of mine in Mallow town gets 2MB on a 1MB package on his).

People should not be put off Imagine by this thread. I've been through many ISPs, Eircom, Perlico, Vodafone, O2, 3 and now Imagine, and so far, Imagine are on top. The service and support are great for me.

How long have you been working for Imagine.

barrmur · 06-11-2010 08:36PM

When signing up they were given a laser card in order to take a €50 charge for install. I was told I would be mailed a bill and I could then set up a DD. Acccording to their webpage the DD has been set up though there is no record of it on my online bank account and I did not give any permission for a DD to start.

Even this charge should not have come out as I had been told that all fees would be waved as I had been given incorrect information when they signed me up. Next thing, I'm down almost €120 because of these thieves.

alanfa · 06-11-2010 08:40PM

barrmur wrote: »

When signing up they were given a laser card in order to take a €50 charge for install. I was told I would be mailed a bill and I could then set up a DD. Acccording to their webpage the DD has been set up though there is no record of it on my online bank account and I did not give any permission for a DD to start.

Even this charge should not have come out as I had been told that all fees would be waved as I had been given incorrect information when they signed me up. Next thing, I'm down almost €120 because of these thieves.

Contact Com reg immediately they will sort you out

barrmur · 06-11-2010 08:44PM

Already done mate, though they have to treat it as a separate complaint, from the one I raised about non service, despite it being obvious that Imagine have not cancelled my account as they previously told Comreg they would. I cant believe the balls of these ****ers to keep sending me bills.

I am also compiling a a report for the small claims court in case it come to it.

alanfa · 06-11-2010 08:48PM

barrmur wrote: »

Already done mate, though they have to treat it as a separate complaint, from the one I raised about non service, despite it being obvious that Imagine have not cancelled my account as they previously told Comreg they would. I cant believe the balls of these ****ers to keep sending me bills.

I am also compiling a a report for the small claims court in case it come to it.

I've trying to cancel since september 11 I got a threat from their credit control dept. I told them if any money was taken from my account I'd go down and hold them personally responsible I think it worked... any posts on this thread about how good their service is it must be being placed by employee's... they are definitely a Company that knows no shame

watty · 07-11-2010 05:04PM

But it's a LOS frequency, so only outdoor directional aerials uses the spectrum properly.

MyKeyG · 07-11-2010 06:15PM

Achilles wrote: »

I used to post on boards in IBB and Imagine's defence at times back when I was working for the company and I got disciplined for it numerous times even when all I was trying to do was help people and improve the company's image though.

Dude that's the one thing about it that really gets on my nerves. When I worked for Perlico at our less than successful start we got a whole day on Joe Duffy (lucky us) and were complained about on boards.ie. But at the very least our MD used to scour the forums particularly Boards.ie. He gave his real name and addressed everyones concerns even inviting people into our offices for a coffee and a chat. Imagine are like some shadow organisation fronted by a lad with a guitar and a once catchy jingle. Even when people complain on Facebook they totally ignore it.

alanfa · 07-11-2010 06:30PM

Achilles wrote: »

Having previously worked for Irish Broadband and then consequently working for Imagine when they bought out IBB I would tend to agree.

They went with the cheapest option for their equipment against the advice of people working in the radio engineering department of IBB at the time (who did a fantastic job with the Breeze service).

They also decided not to go with a LOS service as it cost them too much money for installs and wanted to cut down on the number of installers.

When you get a 'fixed' installation of Wimax it's akin to having an external ariel hooked up to your Ripwave modem for a better signal.

You can Imagine what that would be like.

I wouldn't they that they have shills on boards though... I used to post on boards in IBB and Imagine's defence at times back when I was working for the company and I got disciplined for it numerous times even when all I was trying to do was help people and improve the company's image though.

Hell I once got into trouble for posting about them on Facebook... and now they have a poxy Facebook page.

I am no lover of Imagine. I can tell you one thing... the last thing they want to do is actually help their customers. They once had a policy of 'say anything to get them off the phone as quickly as possible and improve our AHT stats'.

That's the company you're dealing with. I once met Sean Bolger and he has nothing but distain for customers...

muchos gracias for the insight

OVERTONE69 · 09-11-2010 06:12PM

jor el wrote: »

Exactly as I thought, their press release was nothing but hype and fud. 15 times faster, me arse. Let's see, what's one 15th of 8Mbps? Hmm.... oh yeah, Imagine's own Ripwave service.

that was irish broadband. their trying to get rid of the ripwaves because their hogging the signal strenghts of the already exsisting highsites.

once ripwave is gone, wimax speed will increase

alanfa · 09-11-2010 06:46PM

OVERTONE69 wrote: »

that was irish broadband. their trying to get rid of the ripwaves because their hogging the signal strenghts of the already exsisting highsites.

once ripwave is gone, wimax speed will increase

then why are they not stating this on their advertising , why when you question the speeds you people in Imagine dispute this

jor el · 09-11-2010 09:36PM

OVERTONE69 wrote: »

that was irish broadband.

Irish Broadband was bought by Imagine several years ago, so no, it was Imagine at the time I posted that (a year ago).

OVERTONE69 wrote: »

their trying to get rid of the ripwaves because their hogging the signal strenghts of the already exsisting highsites.

once ripwave is gone, wimax speed will increase

I very much doubt that.

MrVestek · 09-11-2010 11:31PM

OVERTONE69 wrote: »

once ripwave is gone, wimax speed will increase

No it won't... each highsite will have the same backhaul bandwidth it's always had.

Imagine launch Midband Ripwave Replacement - WiMAX

Comments