Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

morgana · 08-02-2016 2:25pm #1

Ok, so i live in the sticks in North Cork and have had Ripplecom's fixed wireless at 5-6 Mbps since forever. Now that crowd comes along and, at the initial contact, offers fast BB (max. 100, average 40 - 60 mbps) for 100e with a 200 gig monthly cap (including unlimited VOIP landline calls, but who needs that nowadays) .
As much as I would have liked faster BB, this offer wasn't going to cut it. Which I told the rep on the phone. Whats the point of having fast BB if you can't use its benefits due to price and very very restrictive cap. I left it at that and he agreed to come back to me if they would change their plans.
Lo and behold, a week later (!!!!!) I got another phone call - and they changed their plans completely: Now its a 20 gig cap/day (with throttling up to midnight if you go over) for 59.99! Now that's an offer I can live with. Setup fee 150 e, 18 months contract.
I took a deep breath and said YES, lol. WIthin 2 days I had an installation date just 3 days later. So contract agreed MOnday, finished installation one week later!
I am impressed. Poor guys had to install in the tail end of storm Imogen!

Still fiddling around to get it set up fully with my Asus RT-N66U. Its working but not quite the way I want it lol.
So one very happy camper indeed.

seaniefr · 08-02-2016 4:03pm

morgana wrote: »

Ok, so i live in the sticks in North Cork and have had Ripplecom's fixed wireless at 5-6 Mbps since forever. Now that crowd comes along and, at the initial contact, offers fast BB (max. 100, average 40 - 60 mbps) for 100e with a 200 gig monthly cap (including unlimited VOIP landline calls, but who needs that nowadays) .
As much as I would have liked faster BB, this offer wasn't going to cut it. Which I told the rep on the phone. Whats the point of having fast BB if you can't use its benefits due to price and very very restrictive cap. I left it at that and he agreed to come back to me if they would change their plans.
Lo and behold, a week later (!!!!!) I got another phone call - and they changed their plans completely: Now its a 20 gig cap/day (with throttling up to midnight if you go over) for 59.99! Now that's an offer I can live with. Setup fee 150 e, 18 months contract.
I took a deep breath and said YES, lol. WIthin 2 days I had an installation date just 3 days later. So contract agreed MOnday, finished installation one week later!
I am impressed. Poor guys had to install in the tail end of storm Imogen!

Still fiddling around to get it set up fully with my Asus RT-N66U. Its working but not quite the way I want it lol.
So one very happy camper indeed.

Sounds great!
What kind of tech are they using? can you post photos?

morgana · 08-02-2016 4:56pm

Some kind of LTE technology - the supplied modem is a Greenpack router (haven't been able to find out more as it does not let you log into it).
He told me to just connect the Asus to the router (and it seems to automatically put it into bridge mode, wireless access on the old wireless Intranet is working fine, but wired from my PC to the Asus just gives the guest network, hopefully i can figure out whats going on there).

Pics of the outdoor unit:

(BTW, can you believe the colour of the sky :P )

seaniefr · 08-02-2016 5:10pm

Great pics. That system should be interesting. I would love to know how it works after they have a good few more houses connected. The contention ratio would be interesting..but it certainly looks good on the website

seaniefr · 08-02-2016 5:18pm

think this is the supplier

http://www.greenpacket.com/

morgana · 08-02-2016 5:25pm

Yes I know - but i couldn't find the router on their webpage. Yr man was saying they will limit the number of subscriber to 400 to the one mast (Bweeng) to keep everybody happy :P. If such a deduction can be made from my ID, I'm customer 117 :P

ED E · 08-02-2016 5:39pm

Any reason to think its not WiMax vs LTE? Didnt think they had any spectrum for LTE use.

rob808 · 08-02-2016 7:12pm

The question is how long will his 50mb broadband last when they add more subscribers to it guess they try keep it low.

mass_debater · 08-02-2016 7:27pm

It's most likely 3.6ghz but may or may not be WiMax

seaniefr · 09-02-2016 12:08am

I think this is it - website description says that it is LTE, can serve up to 4 subs and that Wimax is optional

http://www.greenpacket.com/duo-outdoor-modem/

ussjtrunks · 09-02-2016 12:38am

I get very good service on nova atm, do imagine cover the same area? the price is about the same so its tempting

ussjtrunks · 09-02-2016 12:38am

*Double Post*

The Cush · 09-02-2016 12:43am

mass_debater wrote: »

It's most likely 3.6ghz but may or may not be WiMax

TDD-LTE in Band 42/43 most likely

http://www.gtigroup.org/35ghz/keynotes/2015-03-20/5825.html

Ould Mr Brennan · 09-02-2016 6:30am

ussjtrunks wrote: »

I get very good service on nova atm, do imagine cover the same area? the price is about the same so its tempting

If you go over your 20gb data allowance with nova what speed roughly do they drop you to? I'm half tempted to join them

ussjtrunks · 09-02-2016 7:45pm

Ould Mr Brennan wrote: »

If you go over your 20gb data allowance with nova what speed roughly do they drop you to? I'm half tempted to join them

I think its around 1mb, though tbh I've never gone over it so I'm not sure. Its an awful lot to use in a day.

ED E · 09-02-2016 8:21pm

ussjtrunks wrote: »

I think its around 1mb, though tbh I've never gone over it so I'm not sure. Its an awful lot to use in a day.

Depends on the user. A single PC game via steam can account for 60GB.

ED E · 09-02-2016 8:43pm

The Cush wrote: »

TDD-LTE in Band 42/43 most likely

http://www.gtigroup.org/35ghz/keynotes/2015-03-20/5825.html

Imagine must have got it on a trial as submissions are open for another three days:

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1605.pdf

While fiber > Wireless is still very much true as an interim upgrade this could make a big and welcomed impact in some rural areas. Taking chunks of users off overloaded cellular bands and dropping them onto 3.6-3.8(Preferred) and maybe 3.4 to 3.6 would be great.

Only downside is Comreg are intent on breaking down 200Mhz bands into 5Mhz chunks possibly to try and rake in next years budget in one foul swoop. If the Department/Minister were clever they'd give it away on the basis of a commitment to deploy X number of towers rurally within the next few years.

morgana · 11-02-2016 1:17pm

Just a little update after a few days (still pinching myself, lol).
Service has actually been improving, wired connection often gets up to 60+ Mbps.
Very steady even over wifi getting speeds between 20 - 35 Mbps depending on location.

Ould Mr Brennan · 11-02-2016 4:06pm

ussjtrunks wrote: »

I think its around 1mb, though tbh I've never gone over it so I'm not sure. Its an awful lot to use in a day.

Ouch. Don't think I could do that. I am a gamer so sucks to be me. Please hurry eircom

fitzie79 · 12-02-2016 3:19pm

morgana wrote: »

Some kind of LTE technology - the supplied modem is a Greenpack router (haven't been able to find out more as it does not let you log into it).
He told me to just connect the Asus to the router (and it seems to automatically put it into bridge mode, wireless access on the old wireless Intranet is working fine, but wired from my PC to the Asus just gives the guest network, hopefully i can figure out whats going on there).

Pics of the outdoor unit:

(BTW, can you believe the colour of the sky :P )

i had a similar experience. received a call a few weeks ago after expressing interest online but the prices and data limitations made it unappealing. 60 per month for those speeds is attractive - need to monitor my typical usage but doubt i come close to 20gb any day.

was there a lot of drilling involved in the installation. i don't want soemthing that is going to leave a load of cables and holes in my wall.

is the voice service working ok - don't use it often but always handy to have

morgana · 13-02-2016 2:25am

One hole through the gable into the attic then dropped down into hall though existing hole plus fixings of the unit itself. They will discuss location with you.
Haven't used the phone much except for some test calls, perfectly fine. VOIP setup directly in the supplied router.
20 gig is a lot even with Netflix etc. Only time I will come near or even exceed it is a large game download (which can be worked with good timing :P)

Ten Pin · 13-02-2016 1:10pm

When you say 20 gig, is that:
20GBytes
or
20Gbits
According to their website it's 20Gb which is a factor of 8 less (2.5GB). Doesn't seem to be any penalty other than throttling back but worth checking all the same.

Also included calls are up to 60 mins, charges apply after that.

Imagine are fairly good at the small print, just be sure what it is.

mass_debater · 13-02-2016 1:24pm

Ten Pin wrote: »

When you say 20 gig, is that:
20GBytes
or
20Gbits
According to their website it's 20Gb which is a factor of 8 less (2.5GB). Doesn't seem to be any penalty other than throttling back but worth checking all the same.

Also included calls are up to 60 mins, charges apply after that.

Imagine are fairly good at the small print, just be sure what it is.

Data is always measured in bytes, speed in bits, so it will be gigabytes, their website will be a typo

fitzie79 · 22-02-2016 10:36pm

just had imagine install the broadband receiver today. results are impressive! i clocked a download of 69MB/s earlier and averaging around 50MB/s with uploads consistently around 6MB/s.

I would like to change the default password to something easier to remember and also to link the unit to a wifi extender i have located in the house to ensure the signal reaches everywhere. has anyone managed to find a manual for the unit as i can't see to find anything online?

finally, i see they are launching a smart tv box in april. i must check with them to ensure that i will be given this unit. hopefully this will enable me to cancel my sky subscription and therefore save on the monthly bills.

ED E · 22-02-2016 10:47pm

I'd question the logic of deploying an IPTV product on a shared medium product. Instead of spikes of heavy load from random users you'll end up with constant 8-10Mb load from most clients at times. Obviously it makes business sense but itll be interesting to see what happens to speeds.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 23-02-2016 12:15am

ED E wrote: »

I'd question the logic of deploying an IPTV product on a shared medium product. Instead of spikes of heavy load from random users you'll end up with constant 8-10Mb load from most clients at times. Obviously it makes business sense but itll be interesting to see what happens to speeds.

On looking at their site it doesn't seem to be a true IPTV product like eir or Vodafone, more a collection of TV players and streaming services.

They quote:

"Using the power of Fibre Connect Broadband with our Smart TV Box, open up a whole world of content & entertainment on your TV. Netflix, TV players, Google Play Store, Sports, Videos, games, Apps, and loads more all now live on your TV."

The only TV channel logo on the page is ITV and I assume this is referring to their player.

irishchris · 17-03-2016 9:06pm

Just wondering how everyone is getting on with this since. Has it maintained its quality and speed?
Could anyone post up some ping test results so can see latency and packet loss. Very interested in this as coming to galway shortly and am going to sign up.
Cheers

morgana · 18-03-2016 2:20am

Yes it has been very good - no complains, overall speed has gone down somewhat but not so you notice. Usually around 45 - 58 with spikes of 60+. Pings to nearest out of network point around 25 - 40, in-game pings (MMO, server in Amsterdam around 47 - 69). Very steady, no noticeable packet loss.
Once or twice small outages lasting no more than a few minutes and once a massive speed drop easily fixed by a router reboot.

irishchris · 18-03-2016 12:25pm

morgana wrote: »

Yes it has been very good - no complains, overall speed has gone down somewhat but not so you notice. Usually around 45 - 58 with spikes of 60+. Pings to nearest out of network point around 25 - 40, in-game pings (MMO, server in Amsterdam around 47 - 69). Very steady, no noticeable packet loss.
Once or twice small outages lasting no more than a few minutes and once a massive speed drop easily fixed by a router reboot.

thanks very much for the update. much appreciated!

leex · 18-03-2016 2:46pm

Any of you in Galway connected to this service? I am just over 11 miles as the crow flies from the transmitter and am told I am within coverage area. I'd be interested in hearing other people's experiences before committing.

irishchris · 18-03-2016 6:41pm

leex wrote: »

Any of you in Galway connected to this service? I am just over 11 miles as the crow flies from the transmitter and am told I am within coverage area. I'd be interested in hearing other people's experiences before committing.

i was told i was in the coverage area but then today when i gave my eircode again they told me i was not. not impressed!

tsue921i8wljb3 · 18-03-2016 6:46pm

morgana wrote: »

Yes it has been very good - no complains, overall speed has gone down somewhat but not so you notice. Usually around 45 - 58 with spikes of 60+. Pings to nearest out of network point around 25 - 40, in-game pings (MMO, server in Amsterdam around 47 - 69). Very steady, no noticeable packet loss.
Once or twice small outages lasting no more than a few minutes and once a massive speed drop easily fixed by a router reboot.

You should get a SamKnows box if you are interested in monitoring the connection more closely.

http://www.samknows.ie

Oafley Jones · 18-03-2016 9:43pm

Interested in this as well. I'm with Nova broadband in Whitechurch in Cork and their product is awful. Was great for the first 8 or 9 months ( 8ms, 19 down, 1 up at peak times) but it's been completely unreliable since. Currently looking at 0.4 down on my 20mb package. Some of their support staff are simply dreadful, although the last guy I dealt with was really excellent. Seems he's moved on though. It's not just us, it's a very common story from people I've spoken to in area. It'll be years before we get fibre here.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 19-03-2016 5:40pm

I see under the "Legal Bit" section there is the following quote:

"A €100 activation fee applies and if your in outdoor coverage, there’s a €50 charge for the engineer installation." [sic]

*If* you are in outdoor coverage. They are hardly using a mobile/nomadic system like they did with their Wimax product?

ED E · 19-03-2016 6:03pm

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

I see under the "Legal Bit" section there is the following quote:

"A €100 activation fee applies and if your in outdoor coverage, there’s a €50 charge for the engineer installation." [sic]

*If* you are in outdoor coverage. They are hardly using a mobile/nomadic system like they did with their Wimax product?

Its TDD LTE, so very similar to a cellular systems used in the US/Asia/Aus. They're using fixed antennas for improved performance but in stationary positions.

tsue921i8wljb3 · 19-03-2016 6:13pm

ED E wrote: »

Its TDD LTE, so very similar to a cellular systems used in the US/Asia/Aus. They're using fixed antennas for improved performance but in stationary positions.

Ok thanks, from the wording of the terms it could be implied that they were also doing indoor self-installs. That didn't work well with Wimax though so hopefully they have learned.

I guess they just resued the Wimax T&C's on the site.

irishfeen · 20-03-2016 10:17pm

This LTE Fibre is now available to us here in Cork, we currently have Nova but we are finding online streaming almost impossible... we have to use the tethering on the Vodafone 4G network to get us out of a hole.

Anyone know what LTE is like for streaming live events and IPTV?

digiman · 20-03-2016 10:44pm

Sounds like a solid enough alternative to FTTC but in no way should the word fibre be mentioned in any of the marketing promotion for this. I'm surprised companies like Eir and Siro aren't complaining about this. Mind you Eir are hardly innocent in such marketing terms either!!

Oafley Jones · 20-03-2016 11:21pm

irishfeen wrote: »

This LTE Fibre is now available to us here in Cork, we currently have Nova but we are finding online streaming almost impossible... we have to use the tethering on the Vodafone 4G network to get us out of a hole.

Anyone know what LTE is like for streaming live events and IPTV?

Had to give up on Netflix again tonight. Speeds completely in the toilet, Pings approaching 1000ms. I'm guessing that new radio transmitter on the Nagle mast is causing interference again. Would be nice if Nova actually engaged with their customers. You'll notice that they no longer respond to individual cases on their Facebook. Too many questions from too many angry people. They've taken the customer care approach of a major ISP ie contempt.

morgana · 21-03-2016 2:35am

Streaming is absolutely fine, we are using Netflix and streaming HD is no problem. Only thing, if you are watching a lot in HD, you need to keep the 20 gig/day limit in mind. But that's really a lot of streaming :P. Cant say I've reached it yet so i don't know what their throttling is like.

irishfeen · 21-03-2016 9:30pm

morgana wrote: »

Streaming is absolutely fine, we are using Netflix and streaming HD is no problem. Only thing, if you are watching a lot in HD, you need to keep the 20 gig/day limit in mind. But that's really a lot of streaming :P. Cant say I've reached it yet so i don't know what their throttling is like.

Very good to hear this, we left Ripplecom for Nova and tbh they are exactly the same... constant streaming is impossible with 4G remarkably better.

We have 1 month left on our Nova contract but I think we'll chance imagine - exactly the same price too!

irishfeen · 21-03-2016 9:32pm

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Had to give up on Netflix again tonight. Speeds completely in the toilet, Pings approaching 1000ms. I'm guessing that new radio transmitter on the Nagle mast is causing interference again. Would be nice if Nova actually engaged with their customers. You'll notice that they no longer respond to individual cases on their Facebook. Too many questions from too many angry people. They've taken the customer care approach of a major ISP ie contempt.

I presume you are talking about Nova? ... we are taking it from the mast in Mourneabbey and I must say we have been disappointed overall with the service.... certainly don't seem like the highest rated ISP in Ireland.

Quiksilver · 26-03-2016 7:12pm

Hi All,
I'm living out in the country and broadband has been limited to BBNet, €50 for 4Meg Down and 1 Meg Up and with a 12:1 contention ration i'm getting less than 1 Meg Down most of the time lately. We used to get 4 Meg Down and Up but they changed their plan and the quality has gotten very bad, we get a lot of micro disconnects which wrecks havoc with online games. The new imagine Fibre Connect seems too good to be true but if its half as good as they advertise its's well worth it. The 20GB daily limit is pretty great but their are times when i would need to download more than 20GB (Some steam games are pretty big) I know that BBNet only monitor traffic between 08:00 and 24:00, imagine say on their page
"If you go over your daily usage limit of 20Gb, we will simply slow your broadband speed down until midnight of that same day. At the beginning of the next day, your speed and usage will be reset."
Does anyone know if this is similar what BBNet have with their traffic management, Does imagine allow for full speed downloads between midnight and some point in the morning that does not add to your new daily cap? Would be nice to let large games download overnight.

Also has anyone tried Twitch streaming with imagine? On paper is should work pretty well.

morgana · 27-03-2016 9:49am

I am not sure how they monitor it the info they gave re the daily cap is what is on the website. I asked if they had a monitoring tool but none yet. I make do with my routers monitoring capabilities rudimentary as they are and have yet to reach it.
And I worked larger game downloads by starting them late so the majority is downloaded in the end of that days cap with the rest moving into the next days at midnight

I haven't streamed twitch myself (I could try it one night to test lol) but watching while playing and Netflix streaming in another room works fine.

Quiksilver · 28-03-2016 10:15pm

@morgana, thanks for the info, it will be interesting to know how slow it will get, i know my 4Meg download goes down to 0.3-0.5 Meg a lot. Wonder what the slowest speeds people have gotten.

morgana · 29-03-2016 10:29am

http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=ea8f1e9c6d1da05f431f9ddbbabebe23&ria=0

My sporadic testing when I remember ^^ - It has very rarely gone down below 30. Any significant drops could be weather related (heavy rain) - peak times are pretty good, time doesn't seem to make much difference. There was an outage of a few hours last week - phoned CS (apparently this plan is considered premium service) and they went through the usual trouble shooting steps (to rule out stupid mistakes, fair enough, at least the guy didn't talk down to me when he noticed I knew what he was talking about), and it was a network issue, as suspected. He didn't seem to have access to that info straight away.
Anyhow, service was back after a few hours, and, to-date, I had two calls from customer service (one on the same day shortly after service as resumed) explaining the outage (problem/work carried out at Bweeng mast) and making sure my service had resumed and I had no problems. Consider me impressed (hoping this level of service will last).

Johnboy1951 · 29-03-2016 10:53am

Just checked the site, and broadband without phone is
€40 per month ....... BUT has a 30GB monthly cap!!!!!

To get the higher cap of 20GB per day, you must take the
€60 per month package which includes phone.

Then I find I am not in a coverage area anyway

leex · 29-03-2016 11:53am

What is the phone service like? VOIP service? Guessing existing landline number can be ported etc? At 60euro pm I'd need to be getting rid of my landline and existing 2.5mbps DSL connection to make it cost effective.

ED E · 29-03-2016 1:55pm

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Just checked the site, and broadband without phone is
€40 per month ....... BUT has a 30GB monthly cap!!!!!

To get the higher cap of 20GB per day, you must take the
€60 per month package which includes phone.

Assuming they dont oversell it down the road €60/mo for such a product in less than central locations is a steal. For those lucky to be in a catchment area it really is a no brainer as it currently stands.

morgana · 29-03-2016 4:20pm

ED E wrote: »

Assuming they dont oversell it down the road €60/mo for such a product in less than central locations is a steal. For those lucky to be in a catchment area it really is a no brainer as it currently stands.

Fully agree

(obviously!).
Phone is VOIP, I got a Cork prefix (021) number, no idea if you can port your existing one. Works fine, in fairness, never had any problems with VOIP phone lines. Only disadvantage is if your net goes down so does the phone line. Doesn't bother me as we haven't had a land (VOIP) line for years and use mobiles all the way :P

fitzie79 · 29-03-2016 8:40pm

you can port across the number from landline - takes about 3 days to complete

Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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