Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

hbab2009

Speed issues with Imagine LTe

Hi Folks,

My initial install was great, was getting speeds of 40 meg but now over time these speeds have dropped to below 10 meg. I do my speed tests with just laptop connected to router LAN port. I spoke to imagine support and they said I was getting a very strong signal, they asked me to send links of the speed tests. Sent the links daily at different times but I have not heard back from them yet.

Has anyone else seen this deterioration in speeds?
As more people use the service(outside of my house) do speeds get affected or should I still be getting the 40 meg?
I can understand my speeds being affected if there were a number of people in my house watching youtube or netflix on different devices, but this is never the case.

amadablam

hbab2009 wrote: »

Speed issues with Imagine LTe

Hi Folks,

My initial install was great, was getting speeds of 40 meg but now over time these speeds have dropped to below 10 meg. I do my speed tests with just laptop connected to router LAN port. I spoke to imagine support and they said I was getting a very strong signal, they asked me to send links of the speed tests. Sent the links daily at different times but I have not heard back from them yet.

Has anyone else seen this deterioration in speeds?
As more people use the service(outside of my house) do speeds get affected or should I still be getting the 40 meg?
I can understand my speeds being affected if there were a number of people in my house watching youtube or netflix on different devices, but this is never the case.

This is pretty common and although they say it is not a service that is affected by contention, it is.

My own speeds were 90 or so last year, they settled around 45 and now, a year later, if I am getting anything above 12-16, it's as good as it gets.

I too, have a great signal when I speak to them but it doesn't matter as there are more customers using the service and that is what is reducing the speeds.

ED E

The numbers are up to about 130 customers (so thats up to 650 people) per sector which supports 100Mb or 200Mb.


In areas where they're popular (AKA where competition is low) peak speeds will never be as advertised. Test at 4AM to confirm that.

hbab2009

Thank you amadablam.

I thought the whole idea of having just 400 subscriptions(i think it was) was to stop such contention issues.

I have emailed the LTe support team now on many occasions with links of speed tests taken and no response from them. Spoke to one of the tech support people at 7:20pm one evening this week and I could tell he had no interest, all he seemed to be worried about was getting out by 8pm.

If I even had a constant 15 meg at this stage i'd be happy.

deadl0ck

hbab2009 wrote: »

Thank you amadablam.

I thought the whole idea of having just 400 subscriptions(i think it was) was to stop such contention issues.

I have emailed the LTe support team now on many occasions with links of speed tests taken and no response from them. Spoke to one of the tech support people at 7:20pm one evening this week and I could tell he had no interest, all he seemed to be worried about was getting out by 8pm.

If I even had a constant 15 meg at this stage i'd be happy.

Doesn't sound good

What area are you in ?

Also - know anybody else on the same mast locally and if they are seeing the same ?

hbab2009

no it's crap to be honest, the support is crap too..........plug out router, plug in router, turn off wireless and use the LAN for speed test........all of this doesn't help my speeds.

I live in the suburbs of Limerick.

amadablam

hbab2009 wrote: »

no it's crap to be honest, the support is crap too..........plug out router, plug in router, turn off wireless and use the LAN for speed test........all of this doesn't help my speeds.

I live in the suburbs of Limerick.

Same as myself. Im getting my signal from Birdhill.

km79

Downloaded 15 GB of an Xbox game between 11am and midnight last night and then stopped it
Received the warning email
Woke up this morning to another email at 2am saying usage had now been exceeded and my internet would be slowed until midnight tonight
Now that is really annoying
I should have just tried to exceed the usage a couple?e of minutes before midnight last night !

deadl0ck

Have you tried to use Twitter for support as it's more public ?

I've found with other companies (not for broadband) that Twitter is the way to go....

hbab2009

was close to using twitter but will hold tough for this week to see if i get a response.

George Sunsnow

km79 wrote: »

I should have just tried to exceed the usage a couple?e of minutes before midnight last night !

Yeah you're better off doing that
Some masts seem to be luckily stuck on a setting that allows an extra overnight allowance and others aren't
When you know what yours does then you know if you can use it or not

ED E wrote: »

The numbers are up to about 130 customers (so thats up to 650 people) per sector which supports 100Mb or 200Mb.


In areas where they're popular (AKA where competition is low) peak speeds will never be as advertised. Test at 4AM to confirm that.

This is it in a nutshell
Imagine can limit masts to 400 but if 200 of those have high data users at varying times of the day,then it's no use,there will be contention
My area has 3 wisps and now ftth so still getting circa 60Mb from Imagine which suits us fine until ftth reaches us,we are unfortunately in the amber on that but a lot of the local Imagine coverage area is ftth enabled (thankfully for us) so our Imagine service is rather good

chrismon

Imagine sent engineers to test the speeds at the house.
They were getting speeds of less than 10Mb/s.
Iv been told I'll be served with a 30 day notice because they can't fulfill their end of the contract.

deadl0ck

chrismon wrote: »

Imagine sent engineers to test the speeds at the house.
They were getting speeds of less than 10Mb/s.
Iv been told I'll be served with a 30 day notice because they can't fulfill their end of the contract.

Bummer - was it ever good speed ?

chrismon

deadl0ck wrote: »

Bummer - was it ever good speed ?

I never seen more than 30.
Average way 10ish.
Lately it had been under 3.

Fibre is going to be available very soon where I live.

John_2187

I'm not happy with the Imagine service. Our speeds have never went above 45MB, and it only reaches this if you place your device which is performing the speedtest ON TOP of the router. Not very convenient. Support isn't responsive.

I did a speedtest in a room roughly 6 or 7 metres from the router. We have concrete walls so that doesn't help. The internet is going from the router into a WiFi booster by wireless, and from that booster into my PC. I understand there would be some loss of speed and latency, but not as much as I'm getting now.



Note to anybody thinking about getting this service: Don't!!!

George Sunsnow

It depends on the mast and the competition in the area
Ultimately almost everyone should be on ftth
But imagine is a stopgap
Mines slowed a lot since last October but still an impressive 50 to 70 at peak times
Currently 73 on wifi in the same room as the router
Imagine won't tell you if you've a lot of heavy users in your group
If you have you'll have sh1t speeds

Barackcroghan mast in North Wexford is the one I'm on

xxyyzz

John_2187 wrote: »

I'm not happy with the Imagine service. Our speeds have never went above 45MB, and it only reaches this if you place your device which is performing the speedtest ON TOP of the router. Not very convenient. Support isn't responsive.

I did a speedtest in a room roughly 6 or 7 metres from the router. We have concrete walls so that doesn't help. The internet is going from the router into a WiFi booster by wireless, and from that booster into my PC. I understand there would be some loss of speed and latency, but not as much as I'm getting now.



Note to anybody thinking about getting this service: Don't!!!

I would say you shouldn't do a speed test over Wi-Fi . It would be worth doing it with a wired connection to the router just to rule out any wireless issues in the house. Any number of things can block the Wi-Fi signal.

kesey

John_2187 wrote: »

I'm not happy with the Imagine service. Our speeds have never went above 45MB, and it only reaches this if you place your device which is performing the speedtest ON TOP of the router. Not very convenient. Support isn't responsive.

I did a speedtest in a room roughly 6 or 7 metres from the router. We have concrete walls so that doesn't help. The internet is going from the router into a WiFi booster by wireless, and from that booster into my PC. I understand there would be some loss of speed and latency, but not as much as I'm getting now.



Note to anybody thinking about getting this service: Don't!!!

You may be short-changing your internet feed. Have you tried using HomePlugs to extend your internet access? I use them, some with wifi homeplugs and some with Ethernet connections only, and find that they help in distributing my Imagine feed around the house - over quite large distances. I also use a second router to extend my wifi


FYI, I bought TP-link gigabyte homeplugs as I live in hope that sooner or later I'll join the ranks of the mega high speed receivers.
At the moment, Imagine is the best available to me in my part of rural Co. Cork.

John_2187

kesey wrote: »

You may be short-changing your internet feed. Have you tried using HomePlugs to extend your internet access? I use them, some with wifi homeplugs and some with Ethernet connections only, and find that they help in distributing my Imagine feed around the house - over quite large distances. I also use a second router to extend my wifi


FYI, I bought TP-link gigabyte homeplugs as I live in hope that sooner or later I'll join the ranks of the mega high speed receivers.
At the moment, Imagine is the best available to me in my part of rural Co. Cork.

So I should pick up a homeplug? Are they the same as a WiFi booster/WiFi Signal Extender?

Kristopherus

John_2187 wrote: »

So I should pick up a homeplug? Are they the same as a WiFi booster/WiFi Signal Extender?

Yep. Have a look at amazon.uk. Go for the BT ones, like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/BT-Broadband-Extender-Powerline-Adapters/dp/B00D84BYP0/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1499539956&sr=8-13&keywords=homeplugs+passthrough

kesey

John_2187 wrote: »

So I should pick up a homeplug? Are they the same as a WiFi booster/WiFi Signal Extender?

Have a read here:
http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/cat-18_TL-WPA8630P-KIT.html
and
http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/powerline-adapters/tp-link-av1200-gigabit-powerline-adapter-review-3610443/

The articles will tell you what homeplugs do. You could certainly choose a slower and cheaper version if you wish. I went for the av1200 just in case that giga internet ever makes it to my area, and I just preferred to buy the best I could at the time.

Obviously have a look at other makes also.

These are some Speedtest results through one of the homeplug units:

Date Latency Download Upload ConnType ServerName
Jul/09/2017 10:32 22.57 59.44 4.55 Ethernet Dublin
Jul/08/2017 11:46 29.81 43.28 2.44 Ethernet Dublin
Jul/05/2017 8:46 23.68 39.24 3.26 Ethernet Dublin
Jun/29/2017 8:27 35.19 50.47 2.28 Ethernet Dublin
Jun/27/2017 15:28 35.89 35.09 1.71 Ethernet Dublin

Sorry for the formatting.

Download:
59.44, 43.28, 23.68, 35.19, 35.89.

Uploads: 4.55, 2.44, 3.26, 2.28, 1.71

seanvanseanvan

deadl0ck wrote: »

Do Imagine have a usage monitor to keep an eye on things daily ?

I monitor mine with a router connected to the imagine one and switched their wifi off.

deadl0ck

OK - so you just ethernet to you own router with Bandwidth monitoring, correct ?

Do you find that their stats (i.e. the 15GB email warning) roughly matches what you're logging also ?

alec76

deadl0ck wrote: »

OK - so you just ethernet to you own router with Bandwidth monitoring, correct ?

Do you find that their stats (i.e. the 15GB email warning) roughly matches what you're logging also ?

I've similar setup, their stats seems to be more or less accurate .

amadablam

The last few evenings I've had you down load a few updates but I have limited them to no more than 10-12 gb in one night.

No one using broadband in the house but me so I know what is being used, give or take a gig.

However, each evening after I download that amount, my service to Xbox live and Psn is blocked and all devices in my home tell me that I have to reconnect to my WiFi and I am then constantly put in a loop to Google main page when I try to search.

Is this the new way of giving you the 15 gb warning??

No warning and stop you connecting to the services you are using??

thefisherbuy

amadablam wrote: »

The last few evenings I've had you down load a few updates but I have limited them to no more than 10-12 gb in one night.

No one using broadband in the house but me so I know what is being used, give or take a gig.

However, each evening after I download that amount, my service to Xbox live and Psn is blocked and all devices in my home tell me that I have to reconnect to my WiFi and I am then constantly put in a loop to Google main page when I try to search.

Is this the new way of giving you the 15 gb warning??

No warning and stop you connecting to the services you are using??

What yOur saying happened to me kept getting reset to the google page there's some sort of glitch in there 20gb limit you have to ring in and they'll fix it..

Also it's been around a month since my install speeds are still doing great.

Mr Velo

chrismon wrote: »

deadl0ck wrote: »

Bummer - was it ever good speed ?

I never seen more than 30.
Average way 10ish.
Lately it had been under 3.

Fibre is going to be available very soon where I live.

What area are you in Chris? Mine is acting the very same way for months.... and i'm still getting the runaround from Imagine.

Possedion

also have the same issue - will be switching... initially speed was very good... now I am lucky if I get 15.
it did drop to below 3 and they sent enginer to reset connector, but max speed was 30
They seem to advertise that people will get 70 mbs which is not exactly upfront

tiny timy

Possedion wrote: »

also have the same issue - will be switching... initially speed was very good... now I am lucky if I get 15.
it did drop to below 3 and they sent enginer to reset connector, but max speed was 30
They seem to advertise that people will get 70 mbs which is not exactly upfront

To be fair they advertise it as "up to" 70Mb

George Sunsnow

Reading here,Imagine needs to stop installing anything below 50Mb in the daytime as their 30Mb threshold is not fit for purpose when the mast is full
When full some sectors are going to be unlucky and have too many heavy users leading to a bad experience for everyone on that sector of the mast
The 30Mb threshold doesn't have the leeway to account for that