Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

wotzgoingon

Wing126 wrote: »

Have you confirmed with Eir that you won't be getting it?

No, but I am not sure if they do have it up the road and down the road. On the website the yellow line on the road stops 2 mins up the road from one town and then the 1 minute drive down the road the yellow marking stops coming from another small town/village.

d31b0y

Check your eircode on the NBP site;
http://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/high-speed-broadband-map/Pages/Interactive-Map.aspx

d31b0y

emm80 wrote: »

Mine is a white unbranded one, row of green lights all across the front, even the box was unbranded.

Unbranded here too... I think it's the same as what you have. Model number on the back is WVRTM-127ACN
Had some issues with xbox live last night but a restart of the xbox sorted it.

wotzgoingon

d31b0y wrote: »

Check your eircode on the NBP site;
http://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/high-speed-broadband-map/Pages/Interactive-Map.aspx

Yes I'm definitely not getting it. My neighbours 2 mins drive or less down the road will get it from one town while my neighbours 1 min up the road will get it soon also from another village. I'm just stuck here in no mans land.

I have no idea when my neighbours will get it but I am assuming my speeds will increase anyway when they get it. I am on a 2 Mb line at the minute.

Another sickening thing is my uncle who lives 5 mins anyway who is more a more rural setting than me(further away from a town) will get it as well some time in the future there is a fibre cabinet planned just down the road from him.

SkepticQuark

thefisherbuy wrote: »

Strange so on the ehternet cable your on 60mb plus ?

Yeah, to be fair it's not a big deal but just strange how the Wi-Fi was getting pretty close to speeds that you can get via ethernet until the last few days when it's dropped off. Not Imagine's fault at least.

seanvanseanvan

Gonzo wrote: »

The sooner everyone get's rid of Imagine for FTTH the better.

What do you expect those that FTTH isn't an option for them do?
The majority of people on this thread using Imagine have no other viable option, you do understand that, don't you?

Gonzo

seanvanseanvan wrote: »

What do you expect those that FTTH isn't an option for them do?
The majority of people on this thread using Imagine have no other viable option, you do understand that, don't you?

I perfectly understand. What I am getting at is that over the next 2 to 3 years many Imagine customers will finally have an option to move onto something better, something that won't be obsolete after 2020.

When Imagine launched their wimax service they were singing from the rooftops that it was revolutionary and then it become obsolete, abandoned and the current 4G LTE service was rolled out. The same will happen again after 2020, because their 4G LTE network doesn't have an upgrade path. Imagine are publicly against the NBP because their product failed to meet the criteria and are against FTTH rollouts because it's future proofed and far superior to any wireless technology.

There are many rural areas going live for FTTH over the next 2 years where Imagine currently operate. The NBP should also kick off in 2018 leading to hopefully many more FTTH connections by 2020 in rural areas where Eir's current rollout is not planned.

Imagine's LTE is fine for now, it's a stop gap till something better comes along.

d31b0y

d31b0y wrote: »

Check your eircode on the NBP site;
http://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/Broadband/national-broadband-plan/high-speed-broadband-map/Pages/Interactive-Map.aspx

I'm in the light-blue zone..hurrah for me?

TopTec

I'm amber with a 51% chance....

Woe is me!

TT

Happy_Harry

As of late I must have been using the internet a lot more as I now more or less go over my allowance on a daily basis, and that is only with browsing and netflix. No games download or similar here.

I am actually starting to doubt them a bit..
I made sure Netflix is set to medium streaming (Up to 0.7Gb/hour according to them)

So 20 GB would last for 28 hours...we are not that sad we are watching TV 24 hrs a day..

I know that sometimes I would have 2 TVs running netflix or my daughter on youtube on her phone, wife on facebook... but that is it.. and for about 4-5 hours a day, maybe a few more during the weekend
I am starting to wonder where my 20GBs are going.

I also noticed that I get a 15GB warning at let's say 20.15 and then a 20GB warning at 21.45.. That would mean something would be eating 5GB in 90 minutes ? Sometimes it is even less than 90 minutes.

They provide no way of tracking overall usage, so do I really need to buy a new router that I can control and where I can police usage myself ?
It is fishy, very fishy..

Gonzo

Happy_Harry wrote: »

As of late I must have been using the internet a lot more as I now more or less go over my allowance on a daily basis, and that is only with browsing and netflix. No games download or similar here.

I am actually starting to doubt them a bit..
I made sure Netflix is set to medium streaming (Up to 0.7Gb/hour according to them)

So 20 GB would last for 28 hours...we are not that sad we are watching TV 24 hrs a day..

I know that sometimes I would have 2 TVs running netflix or my daughter on youtube on her phone, wife on facebook... but that is it.. and for about 4-5 hours a day, maybe a few more during the weekend
I am starting to wonder where my 20GBs are going.

I also noticed that I get a 15GB warning at let's say 20.15 and then a 20GB warning at 21.45.. That would mean something would be eating 5GB in 90 minutes ? Sometimes it is even less than 90 minutes.

They provide no way of tracking overall usage, so do I really need to buy a new router that I can control and where I can police usage myself ?
It is fishy, very fishy..

it's scary how fast you use up data when you move from a crap connection to a fast one. I myself just checked my allowance since I got my new connection on Friday and it's already at over 105gb, yet all Ive done is download 1 game (30 gigs), download 1 Hd movie through Sky on demand and streamed 4 Hd episodes on Netflix, few hours of online gaming, some Youtube and general surfing. Now this is with Eir so I don't have the strict 20gigs per day allowance but just to say, what I've done so far is by no means heavy useage. Imagine's daily cap is very strict and really only accommodates light usage. As you've said yourself all you've done is a few hours of Netflix, some social media and youtube, not exactly pushing the envelope on the 'downloads' and your already over the limit.

I reckon these streaming services use more than we think, I'm still trying to figure out how I've downloaded 105gb in 2 days. Youtube and Netflix must use more than we think. Also social media with embedded videos playing through Facebook and Twitter also quickly add to the daily usage. What if a patch download generates in the background, without your knowledge pulling down several gigs. These data limits really leave very little room for error.

I would also add that performing multiple Speedtests through speedtest.net eats through data quickly as well, each speedtest must be at least 50/60megs. So be careful how many of those you do.

Johnboy1951

Gonzo wrote: »

it's scary how fast you use up data when you move from a crap connection to a fast one. I myself just checked my allowance since I got my new connection on Friday and it's already at over 105gb, yet all Ive done is download 1 game (30 gigs), download 1 Hd movie through Sky on demand and streamed 4 Hd episodes on Netflix, few hours of online gaming, some Youtube and general surfing. Now this is with Eir so I don't have the strict 20gigs per day allowance but just to say, what I've done so far is by no means heavy useage. Imagine's daily cap is very strict and really only accommodates light usage. As you've said yourself all you've done is a few hours of Netflix, some social media and youtube, not exactly pushing the envelope on the 'downloads' and your already over the limit.

I reckon these streaming services use more than we think, I'm still trying to figure out how I've downloaded 105gb in 2 days. Youtube and Netflix must use more than we think. Also social media with embedded videos playing through Facebook and Twitter also quickly add to the daily usage. What if a patch download generates in the background, without your knowledge pulling down several gigs. These data limits really leave very little room for error.

While I understand the difficulties with a fast connection and a data cap, I have no sympathy with this event.
I am in charge of my device so it is incumbent on me to know what that device is doing.
'I didn't know/realise/whatever' is no excuse!

Happy_Harry

Gonzo wrote: »

it's scary how fast you use up data when you move from a crap connection to a fast one. I myself just checked my allowance since I got my new connection on Friday and it's already at over 105gb, yet all Ive done is download 1 game (30 gigs), download 1 Hd movie through Sky on demand and streamed 4 Hd episodes on Netflix, few hours of online gaming, some Youtube and general surfing. Now this is with Eir so I don't have the strict 20gigs per day allowance but just to say, what I've done so far is by no means heavy useage. Imagine's daily cap is very strict and really only accommodates light usage. As you've said yourself all you've done is a few hours of Netflix, some social media and youtube, not exactly pushing the envelope on the 'downloads' and your already over the limit.

I reckon these streaming services use more than we think, I'm still trying to figure out how I've downloaded 105gb in 2 days. Youtube and Netflix must use more than we think. Also social media with embedded videos playing through Facebook and Twitter also quickly add to the daily usage. What if a patch download generates in the background, without your knowledge pulling down several gigs. These data limits really leave very little room for error.

I would also add that performing multiple Speedtests through speedtest.net eats through data quickly as well, each speedtest must be at least 50/60megs. So be careful how many of those you do.

You are right, but what I find fishy is that for the first 3 months with Imagine I never got any warnings, and now they are almost daily occurrences..I may be using netflix a bit more, but I now have also changed the streaming setting to lower the data download.

Either way I can be paranoid, but best is to figure out where my data is going.
Is anyone here using a data usage monitor ? I am thinking of adding a router with such capabilities and switching wifi off on the imagine router. Any ideas ? (or better - experiences , ideas I have plenty )

excollier

Can the router be accessed to set reserved DHCP LAN IP addresses for such as a NAS and networked printer? And what range do they set on the router? 192.168.xxxx.xxxx or 10.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx. or is it possible to change this later too?

Gonzo

Happy_Harry wrote: »

You are right, but what I find fishy is that for the first 3 months with Imagine I never got any warnings, and now they are almost daily occurrences..I may be using netflix a bit more, but I now have also changed the streaming setting to lower the data download.

Either way I can be paranoid, but best is to figure out where my data is going.
Is anyone here using a data usage monitor ? I am thinking of adding a router with such capabilities and switching wifi off on the imagine router. Any ideas ? (or better - experiences , ideas I have plenty )

up till a few months ago there was only minor instances of people reporting warning emails from Imagine on certain masts. Then there is a different story every day from Imagine in what you can download and what you cant and at what time. Lately their arrogant emails have become much more widespread so the bully tactics once you hit 15gigs seems to be the new norm. The only way to enjoy Netflix with Imagine is set your streaming quality to 480p to maximize the amount of time you can watch it if you binge watch on a few occasions per month.

DredFX

Got it installed last Tuesday. Engineers came along, got everything working in around forty minutes. Did a speed test on the ladder, said, "Grand job. Getting fifty there." Minute they came down it fell like a rock to the twenties, but they insisted that fluctuations were normal and that fifty should be the common figure. "Keep running speed tests, blah, blah, no worries, man."

Has proven to be utter crap since. Struggling to maintain the 30mbps minimum, and when we do graze it the speed dives back to the early twenties in seconds. It regularly, especially at night, slips down to the teens, and there have been several occasions where it's just flat out stopped working. Open up Chrome and you get the ominous 8-bit dinosaur. Also several areas in the house that the signal simply can't reach much of the time, despite previous providers encompassing said areas without any issues.

Called tech support this morning and they ran me through the procedures that seem to popping up in this thread a lot. Tech fella even suggested that our electronic pest repellents could be the cause. They hadn't been with our previous providers and the speed is no different even with an ethernet connection, but he still insisted we turn them off during the day.
Right, buck, but when I connect the router to my laptop or try my desktop which is connected via wired TP-Links, we're never seeing the big three-oh. "Turn it off and on." No luck. "I'll reset something here. Monitor it over the next few days." Have. Internet is still sub-par, and has slowed down repeatedly.


Believe me. This is at its best...

So, utter crap. Will be ringing them tomorrow and insisting that the error must lie with the hardware provided. If not, it looks like my house will be reverting to the pre-teen speeds of old. Ugh.

Lads, if you're due for an install in the coming days, don't let the engineers go if your preliminary speed tests struggle to hit thirty. My impression is that the minute they see anything north of 30mbps, even for just half a second, they'll give you the thumbs-up and piss off. Save yourself the frustration. Daily 20GB limits and sixty quid a month are hardly worth that crap.

tsue921i8wljb3

DredFX wrote: »

Got it installed last Tuesday. Engineers came along, got everything working in around forty minutes. Did a speed test on the ladder, said, "Grand job. Getting fifty there." Minute they came down it fell like a rock to the twenties, but they insisted that fluctuations were normal and that fifty should be the common figure. "Keep running speed tests, blah, blah, no worries, man."

Has proven to be utter crap since. Struggling to maintain the 30mbps minimum, and when we do graze it the speed dives back to the early twenties in seconds. It regularly, especially at night, slips down to the teens, and there have been several occasions where it's just flat out stopped working. Open up Chrome and you get the ominous 8-bit dinosaur. Also several areas in the house that the signal simply can't reach much of the time, despite previous providers encompassing said areas without any issues.

Called tech support this morning and they ran me through the procedures that seem to popping up in this thread a lot. Tech fella even suggested that our electronic pest repellents could be the cause. They hadn't been with our previous providers and the speed is no different even with an ethernet connection, but he still insisted we turn them off during the day.
Right, buck, but when I connect the router to my laptop or try my desktop which is connected via wired TP-Links, we're never seeing the big three-oh. "Turn it off and on." No luck. "I'll reset something here. Monitor it over the next few days." Have. Internet is still sub-par, and has slowed down repeatedly.


Believe me. This is at its best...

So, utter crap. Will be ringing them tomorrow and insisting that the error must lie with the hardware provided. If not, it looks like my house will be reverting to the pre-teen speeds of old. Ugh.

Lads, if you're due for an install in the coming days, don't let the engineers go if your preliminary speed tests struggle to hit thirty. My impression is that the minute they see anything north of 30mbps, even for just half a second, they'll give you the thumbs-up and piss off. Save yourself the frustration.

Something similar happened with my install. The installer had moved the antenna to a higher position and inadvertently made the connection worse. I ended up having to go onto the roof myself and readjust the antenna. I'm not suggesting you do this unless you are comfortable working at heights but it could be an explanation for what happened.

Johnboy1951

Gonzo wrote: »

up till a few months ago there was only minor instances of people reporting warning emails from Imagine on certain masts. Then there is a different story every day from Imagine in what you can download and what you cant and at what time. Lately their arrogant emails have become much more widespread so the bully tactics once you hit 15gigs seems to be the new norm. The only way to enjoy Netflix with Imagine is set your streaming quality to 480p to maximize the amount of time you can watch it if you binge watch on a few occasions per month.

It is possible that with more people signing up and connecting to their masts that they find their service being overloaded, and are taking action that should not be needed if the service was 'fit for purpose'.

Dero

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It is possible that with more people signing up and connecting to their masts that they find their service being overloaded, and are taking action that should not be needed if the service was 'fit for purpose'.

Yeah, it seems that way to me. A honeymoon period for the early adopters that quickly deteriorates once the mast starts to fill up.

The thing is, they're marketing it on the basis of the "empty mast" performance, and not on the more realistic contended service scenario. That's disingenuous and dishonest, but that's essentially marketing defined...

tsue921i8wljb3

Imagine were quick to trumpet the Speedtest.net test results that saw them coming in second behind Virgin Media. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are reluctant to mention the Netflix ISP speed index which sees them in last position of the major ISPs.

https://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/ireland/

km79

Hit the cap for the second time
Got the email at 15gb
As soon as i hit the 20gb speeds dropped to 1

But it's a steady consistent 1 so i can still browse away

No complaints from me so far

Wing126

Constant DNS timeouts tonight since about 10. Going bananas here.

Happy_Harry

Finally got around to ringing them the other day for intermittent connection issues... In fairness, the guy I spoke to seemed quite OK (my expectations were very low though)... He did some "tests" on their end to put me on hold and then I was told the whole lot (modem/antenna and router) needs to be replaced. After 6 months.... I have a Huawei CPE so you would think it would last a bit longer (never had any issues with huawei stuff),
Did anyone else got their equipment exchanged ? Do they have "good" and "bad" hardware ? The huawei wifi was the best I have seen on any router in terms of coverage throughout the house.

morgana

Yea they replaced my outdoor unit a few months after installation as one of the antennas inside was not working causing dramatically reduced speeds. My router is a Greenpack. Been working away fine ever since.

flexcon

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Imagine were quick to trumpet the Speedtest.net test results that saw them coming in second behind Virgin Media. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are reluctant to mention the Netflix ISP speed index which sees them in last position of the major ISPs.

https://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/ireland/

That chart is odd. 3.68Mbps is average on Virgin, and Imagine are at 2.84Mbps. That's a difference of only 0.82Mbps from a 4G wireless network to a UP to 360MB Cable only network.

That seems a bit iffy, if totally irrelevant. Looks more like how fast they peer with the network. Even then though, that chart is just weird.

tsue921i8wljb3

flexcon wrote: »

That chart is odd. 3.68Mbps is average on Virgin, and Imagine are at 2.84Mbps. That's a difference of only 0.82Mbps from a 4G wireless network to a UP to 360MB Cable only network.

That seems a bit iffy, if totally irrelevant. Looks more like how fast they peer with the network. Even then though, that chart is just weird.

It is not a speed test in the traditional sense, rather it is a measure​ of the bitrate that the customer of a particular ISP gets. Virgin is the best so on average their customers are getting higher quality streams from Netfix. If you look at different countries you will see that true fibre and cable operators top the rankings so it is another nail in the coffin for Imagine's claim that LTE is a suitable fibre replacement.

d31b0y

You need to take into account that people may be worried about going over the relatively small data cap of 20GB too though. Users of imagine could be, and a lot of them likely are, limiting the bit rate themselves by manually lowering the quality.

I fully agree that LTE is not a suitable replacement for fibre and as soon as FTTH has been made available to my house, I'll be switching. Until then, it is a suitable stop gap and improvement over the ~3 Mbps that I was getting from DSL providers.

flexcon

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

It is not a speed test in the traditional sense, rather it is a measure​ of the bitrate that the customer of a particular ISP gets. Virgin is the best so on average their customers are getting higher quality streams from Netfix. If you look at different countries you will see that true fibre and cable operators top the rankings so it is another nail in the coffin for Imagine's claim that LTE is a suitable fibre replacement.

I understand that part, but what I don't understand is how the spread is tiny.

I would have expected the fibre from Virgin to be in or around the 5Mbps for HD. In other words, there shouldn't be any event where by a Virgin media customer does not get a HD picture, The virgin network is cable network, as opposed to the DSL or FTTC where by natural degrading of the network can drop from the exchange.

So in other words, shouldn't every stream on netflix be at least on average around 5mbps since it will be HD using the virgin network.

Anyway, it's probably just myself missing a bigger picture, but it would seem that the speed on average with virgin media customers connecting at 3mbps is less than the 5mbps for their HD. Seems odd that the average speed is less than the required HD that netflix mention you need - even on a cable network.

tsue921i8wljb3

flexcon wrote: »

I understand that part, but what I don't understand is how the spread is tiny.

I would have expected the fibre from Virgin to be in or around the 5Mbps for HD. In other words, there shouldn't be any event where by a Virgin media customer does not get a HD picture, The virgin network is cable network, as opposed to the DSL or FTTC where by natural degrading of the network can drop from the exchange.

So in other words, shouldn't every stream on netflix be at least on average around 5mbps since it will be HD using the virgin network.

Anyway, it's probably just myself missing a bigger picture, but it would seem that the speed on average with virgin media customers connecting at 3mbps is less than the 5mbps for their HD. Seems odd that the average speed is less than the required HD that netflix mention you need - even on a cable network.

Good point and one I am not entirely sure of the answer to. Even the top country in the world Switzerland has it's top ISP ImproWare at 4.46. Perhaps as d31b0y says it is people choosing a lower resolution dragging the average down. I also don't know if it takes into account Ultra HD streams.

Also when they say you need 5Mb for HD and 25Mb for UHD the streams may not use that actual amount. UHD streams have been shown to use about 16Mb.

kazoo106

It will be people's expectations of Wifi - Wifi is no medium for video. Run a cat5 to your TV's people !