Ice Broadband steadily becoming even more terrible

bassy

i was a ice customer up on till the 25th january this year when out of the blue the service went down,i still have the ice antenna on my chimney etc.will ripplecom contact me in regards to getting my service up and running again?.

Maints

watty wrote: »

Quality Fixed Wireless Broadband uses separate channels for Download and Upload and licensed spectrum.

.

I disagree. I use un-licensed spectrum and provide a Quality service to all our customers. Don't tar all smaller IPS's with the same brush...there are good one's out there!

Paul.

watty

Then you must limit the number of users to a small number per mast.

And be lucky with locations.

JasonR16

In my conversation with them they are hoping to improve the current offering if possible. There should be new plans to choose from in the next 2-4 weeks.

If you were on an ICE contract, the terms haven't (well can't) change so you get the same speeds at the same price as before.

For those of us with no other alternative, an unknown taking over is better than no one!

PS. I don't agree about the 3G argument but that may just be our location. The signal has never degraded to dialup (Just under 1M at its worst on a Sunday evening)We use VOIP and play games with no issues.

3G dependence would have been a disaster for us.

That being said I wouldn't argue with an upgrade to Fixed WiMax

Peanut

watty wrote: »

Then you must limit the number of users to a small number per mast.

And be lucky with locations.

This was the case with the original 802.11 b/g specs, however things have moved on since then especially with subsequent Atheros chipsets becoming more advanced, and software like StarOS/StarV3/Mikrotik etc. taking advantage of this (cloaked narrower band channels, adaptive noise algorithms, hardware compression, move from b/g/ to a/b/g radios etc.)

Still not appropriate for a nationwide provider, but a local all-Atheros setup could support many more than 5 or 6 simultaneous users.

watty

Hardware compression does nearly nothing for compressed webservers, and does nothing for audio and video streaming.

It's shared spectrum with domestic & office Wifi, Video senders, Baby alarms and more.

The channel speed at 2km is such that with more than 5 users streaming the latency will rise and you will have difficulty getting real broadband speed. Even so you need external aerials and gear at the customer premises that costs the same to install (about 1/2 the real cost) and almost the same to buy as licensed gear.

Comreg needs to make more licensed spectrum available at frequencies cheap gear is available on.

Then users will have lower latency, almost no interference, and x10 speed (or the mini-ISP can have x10 the number of users per sector).

Some of the licensed gear is actually cheaper than proper professional outdoor WiFi gear. Fixed Wimax is not the only Fixed Wireless solution either. Fixed Wireless DOCSIS probably gives more capacity and is just as suited for rural terrain above 3GHz where LOS is needed. At 700MHz to 3GHz if there is not perfect LOS (especially toward lower frequencies and in Urban /Suburban areas) the Fixed WiMax is better if lower gain aerials are in use on smaller cells and there is multipath.

Peanut

watty wrote: »

Hardware compression does nearly nothing for compressed webservers, and does nothing for audio and video streaming.

Not suggesting it would, however there are still many websites that don't use HTTP compression on their servers.

watty wrote: »

The channel speed at 2km is such that with more than 5 users streaming the latency will rise and you will have difficulty getting real broadband speed.

If you're using legacy .11b/g clients, yes. A modern all-atheros a/g setup will easily be able to handle this, unlicensed spectrum issues notwithstanding.

I don't disagree that 802.11 based is unsuitable for anything more than a small size WISP, but it is still a workable alternative for small communities.

watty

But the PROPER much better alternatives are hardly more expensive.

Unless you only have < 10 people online in a sector any WiFi solution is just so much poorer.

WiFi was maybe a good idea for a very small setup 8 or 10 years ago, or at most 5 years ago. Not now when so many better alternatives exist.

lubo_moravcik

i'm in longwood in county meath, are ICE any good there??? i spoke with them just now and the salesman tried telling me they were very good and there are many many satisfied customers in the area. can any satisfied customers confirm this???


thank you

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=54655008185&ref=ts

JasonR16

lubo_moravcik wrote: »

i'm in longwood in county meath, are ICE any good there??? i spoke with them just now and the salesman tried telling me they were very good and there are many many satisfied customers in the area. can any satisfied customers confirm this???


thank you

I was always happy with the product, it was the service that was bad. They were bought by Ripplecom which may fix that.

For Longwood they are the best (and only as mobile from 3 is pretty bad) - If we had the choice between Eircom, UPC etc it would be different.

I average out around 1.5m on the 3m plan although you get below 1 on a Sunday night. Still fine for Skype and doing most things. Streaming video like the Sky Player really only works consistently very late at night or sometimes in the afternoon on those speeds but its still way better than a capped mobile solution.

Nikkit2010

Hi there,

I am curious about the areas covered by the ICE Network. Would anyone have a map?
My Wireless ISP (www.wicklowbroadband.com) would be delighted to deploy a RELIABLE high speed network in these areas.

Thanks, Nikki

Tibbers

'sup guise.

I have the D/3mb/s U/1mb/s broadband from ICE broadband. Have been a costumer for about a year and a half. I'm not happy.

Currently my connection is almost unusable. I can have a connection for a minute or two and then it dissappears for 5 or so minutes. This has been going on for 10 days now. 3 days ago I got a text on my phone about them having technical shenanigans in my area. It was signed 'ripplecom'. This was news to me. Not only did I spend a week without interbutts, I get news that ICE has been taken over. Is it for the best? Ha, don't make me laugh. Some of you are actually optimistic about this. Since I started giving ICE my money I slaved for in the capitalist system I've always had trouble with the connection and service, that hasn't changed.

Once I spent a month without broadband. You guessed it, I paid for it in full. I did indeed complain about this madness, I didn't even get a response. I have complained now and I'm still waiting for a response.

I want to move to a better service, but ICE is the only ISP providing broadband without a download cap in my area (Offaly, Tullamore). Monopoly is never good for the consumer.

Whatever you do, do not even think about getting ICE broadband. The agony of a nail going through your foot is nowhere near that, what you will feel like after dealing with ICE for a year.

kopite davo

i have ice (ripple now), and i think it has been very good. speeds are mostly constant, occaionally drops connection, but on the whole it has been good. i've been with them for about 2.5 years.

gingerGiant

Has there been any noticeable difference in service since rippplecom came in, is it better or worse now, are they easier to contact than ice were, do they try harder to fix the problems when you call than ice, or is it basically a same company different name situation.

watty

Ripplecom are different company (Amoco and some others that got bought or merged). They bought the remains of ICE. AFAIK it's not a Phoenix.

pauldaly1888

ive had no problem with ice in the last year. at the start i had awful problems, was forever on the phone to them. they upped their game and i havent had to ring them since. service has been perfect, cant fault it. i think it went down once and they sent me a text to advise me of this the day before as they were doing upgrade work. since ripple took over it has been the same. no probs. im getting it for 25 a month after threatening to leave over prices. in co. meath by the way

MagicSean

gingerGiant wrote: »

Has there been any noticeable difference in service since rippplecom came in, is it better or worse now, are they easier to contact than ice were, do they try harder to fix the problems when you call than ice, or is it basically a same company different name situation.

I've been reduced to a 0.5mb speed in peak times instead of the 3mb i pay for. Rang them today and they said theyd look into it.

AARRRRGH

Im waiting to see if their quality of service is any better than Ices was.
So far anyone I know who still has it says its the very same as Ice, except that they answer the phone more. Still as slow and unreliable though.

I live in hope

JasonR16

As others have said, the quality of the connection, speed, etc is exactly the same as ICE. The main difference is you can get them on the phone for the most part (If you email them they call you back pretty fast).

I wish they had faster packages and more reasonable prices but at least I have a decent service in an area with no alternatives.

niallam

I'm in Meath and have it, as said before at the start Ice were bad but they did get better after 20-30 phonecalls and threatening to leave them. Even in my bedroom with the router downstairs and my brother playing his PS3 online it was never too bad.
BUT since ripplecom took over it's just terrible, most of the time i cant even open a webpage, havent been able to play the PS3 online for well over a month now.
Was getting the run around on the phone every time i rang then.
Still my 3MB connection usually runs at about 1mb, thats if i can get on at all. It's on, it's off, it's slow then slower.......
Looking at the wimax thread then too and they seem marginally better, i think.
The house alarm is wired into the phones to text us if it goes off so we were told we couldnt get a fixed line broadband but anyone know if thats true???

watty

No. it's not true,
1) The alarm can be wired to a micro DSL filter
2) You can get a GSM adaptor if you have no phone line.