Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

opinionated3

I'm in a similar situation but because I'm literally at the outer limits of the ben dash mast, the most I'm getting via WiFi is around 25mb (some close trees are impacting the signal). My neighbours are getting 3mb with eir. I view imagine as a stop gap until fibre power is brought to my area. We have been officially informed that we come in under the national broadband plan so until that tender is sorted out I'll have to stick with imagine. I wonder though, will there be a long term future for imagine if they eventually start losing customers like me to companies that will provide TV, phone and broadband services under one bill on high speed broadband?

alec76

opinionated3 wrote: »

. I wonder though, will there be a long term future for imagine if they eventually start losing customers like me to companies that will provide TV, phone and broadband services under one bill on high speed broadband?

Only time will tell . They are already shutting down services in some areas due to “network optimization “ I’ve been told .
Cavan area , if not mistaken , 25 customers lost service last month , had it for long time , 60-90 mb/s day or night . They turned down 1 sector , I presume .

smokingman

Anyone else getting the 75% limit crap without actually going over it?
Getting fed up of getting multiples of those mails at stupid hours of the morning and sometimes with no way of getting off that redirect page they have with the looping "I agree" button.
Athy mast again btw

Ultimanemo

opinionated3 wrote: »

national broadband plan so until that tender is sorted out I'll have to stick with imagine. I wonder though, will there be a long term future for imagine

If NBP is the main threat to Imagine, then Imagine is safe for the rest of the century.

morgana

ED E wrote: »

@Morgana: Long time no see, how are you getting on if still reading this?

Still around, nothing much to say, lol. Imagine is working good for me, struggling with the cap sometimes like everybody else (damn OneDrive & game downloads :P), but overall service is steady and tech support actually responsive and solved issues when pointed out to them.
Waiting for FTTH as in amber area, looks like I will be with Imagine for a long time to come. Getting close to 18 months now.

Goreme

smokingman wrote: »

Anyone else getting the 75% limit crap without actually going over it?
Getting fed up of getting multiples of those mails at stupid hours of the morning and sometimes with no way of getting off that redirect page they have with the looping "I agree"  button.
Athy mast again btw

I see that 75% limit web page when surfing from time to time, but I have never got the emails (I think we are supposed to get email too?). I think I get past that warning page without too much hassle.
So you are getting a 75% warning email each time you hit the limit - I wonder why I'm not getting those?

terrarev

terrarev wrote: »

Thanks, I've done a lot that. I've disconnected everything and confirmed there was no leases ( I have the p/w to access the router) apart from the device I was using. There was nothing heavy running on the machine. Imagine can log into the router themselves and view all the stats etc. and they confirmed there was no heavy usage on our side cuasing the issue.

For what it's worth I don't think it's a network problem with imagine either, I think it's a hardware issue on their side. I think the issue is somewhere between the aerial on the house and the router bringing the signal in.

just an update on this, Imagine have been back in touch and believe the issue is with their hardware also. They are doing a full re-installation of aerial and router so we'll see how that goes.

Wegian

Anybody have experience of Imagine LTE in South Galway?

Ultimanemo

Wegian wrote: »

Anybody have experience of Imagine LTE in South Galway?

Yes, I couldn't get it "west of Galway" but Galway anyway

Wegian

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Yes, I couldn't get it "west of Galway" but Galway anyway

You had them out and they couldnt pick up a signal?

Ultimanemo

Wegian wrote: »

You had them out and they couldnt pick up a signal?

No their mast is full they have no places

david85

Sorry to hijack post. Anybody have any experience with imagine LTE losing power to antenna on roof for a few seconds every now and again which loses connection to main mast. Had technicians out to check but they couldn’t find any fault. Tried plugging into stand alone power Source, reset router ... when connected I’m getting between 10/ 60 mps ( depending on time of day). Many Thabks if anyone can help

Marlow

Ultimanemo wrote: »

No their mast is full they have no places

They've also cut down on masts around Galway City. During Irish Broadband times, they had gear on 4 masts: Ballybaan, Thonabrucky, Ballinfoyle and Oranmore.

Ballinfoyle, they removed their gear entirely. I believe also in Oranmore, but not sure. They still have Ballybaan and Thonabrucky (which is fed from Ballybaan and feeds north Co. Galway). It think that's the only 2 sites in the city.

They've taken mast space towards Kilchreest, in Cappataggle and in Abbeyknockmoy, but the initial run died quickly off as these sites seemed to become heavily contended. And they nearly lost the Abbey site because their contractors made a mess of the place. Farmer was not happy.

Well, in Cappataggle it took them 6+ months from the initial advertising before they even had bandwidth to the mast. By then, they had disgruntled a lot of people around there.

/M

Ultimanemo

Marlow wrote: »

They've also cut down on masts around Galway City. During Irish Broadband times, they had gear on 4 masts: Ballybaan, Thonabrucky, Ballinfoyle and Oranmore.

Ballinfoyle, they removed their gear entirely. I believe also in Oranmore, but not sure. They still have Ballybaan and Thonabrucky (which is fed from Ballybaan and feeds north Co. Galway). It think that's the only 2 sites in the city.

They've taken mast space towards Kilchreest, in Cappataggle and in Abbeyknockmoy, but the initial run died quickly off as these sites seemed to become heavily contended. And they nearly lost the Abbey site because their contractors made a mess of the place. Farmer was not happy.

Well, in Cappataggle it took them 6+ months from the initial advertising before they even had bandwidth to the mast. By then, they had disgruntled a lot of people around there.

/M

Thank you for the info.
I guess they couldn't invest money in their infrastructure because they are afraid of the NBP, I wish if this NBP was scrapped, at least companies can invest in broadband infrastructure. Now we are stuck, NBP is stagnant and hampering other solutions.

Marlow

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Thank you for the info.
I guess they couldn't invest money in their infrastructure because they are afraid of the NBP, I wish if this NBP was scrapped, at least companies can invest in broadband infrastructure. Now we are stuck, NBP is stagnant and hampering other solutions.

There's lots of businesses that will build and provide disregardless of NBP. The question is just, how much of a profit they're after or what they can afford to invest. The previous 2 National Broadband Schemes failed, too. And then how many people will block development by objecting to masts, asking for money for getting poles errected etc and holding their hand open.

/M

Ultimanemo

Marlow wrote: »

There's lots of businesses that will build and provide disregardless of NBP. The question is just, how much of a profit they're after or what they can afford to invest. The previous 2 National Broadband Schemes failed, too. And then how many people will block development by objecting to masts, asking for money for getting poles errected etc and holding their hand open.

/M

Unfortunately true

dufferlover

Just reserved my spot in rural Meath with a view for installation to take place in the New Year. Fingers crossed that, firstly, it can be installed, and secondly that it's decent in what is a black hole of an area for comms! The landline is the only thing that works out there!

hatchman

dufferlover wrote:

Just reserved my spot in rural Meath with a view for installation to take place in the New Year. Fingers crossed that, firstly, it can be installed, and secondly that it's decent in what is a black hole of an area for comms! The landline is the only thing that works out there!

What part of Meath are u in ? Im in south Meath and mask is full wondering are they putting up another

dufferlover

hatchman wrote: »

What part of Meath are u in ? Im in south Meath and mask is full wondering are they putting up another

We are in Lismullen/Garlow Cross, about eight miles outside of Navan.

What mast did they tell you was full?

hatchman

dufferlover wrote:

What mast did they tell you was full?

Mast near Enfield I'm on eir 4g with 50gb limit a month hard to make it stretch with three kids mad for netflicks ! Landline will only give 0.9mb no sign of anything better coming near me at the moment.

wotzgoingon

hatchman wrote: »

Mast near Enfield I'm on eir 4g with 50gb limit a month hard to make it stretch with three kids mad for netflicks ! Landline will only give 0.9mb no sign of anything better coming near me at the moment.

Jesus, that's a bad speed and I thought I was bad on my 3Mb line in rural Mayo. A 2 min drive up the road are getting FTTH in early of next year and 2 min drive down the same road are getting FTTH also but later in next year but from a different cabinet. And here I am stuck in the middle with 3Mb. I am hoping when they upgrade the line next year I will see a speed imporovement, obviously not as good as FTTH but I'm hoping I should get a 7Mb connection.

spankalish

Anyone getting slow WiFi speeds with the imagine router? I've had imagine now for a few months, WiFi was between 30 - 60mbs. Then it dropped back to 5-10. With the ethernet connection slow too. I complained and it was fixed for a few days. Then the WiFi dropped back again, but the ethernet is still fast, I complained, but in the mean time connected a WiFi router to the ethernet port to get full speed. I complained about the WiFi and they told me to use the ethernet port and that they can disable the WiFi if I want. WTF??

Ultimanemo

spankalish wrote: »

Anyone getting slow WiFi speeds with the imagine router? I've had imagine now for a few months, WiFi was between 30 - 60mbs. Then it dropped back to 5-10. With the ethernet connection slow too. I complained and it was fixed for a few days. Then the WiFi dropped back again, but the ethernet is still fast, I complained, but in the mean time connected a WiFi router to the ethernet port to get full speed. I complained about the WiFi and they told me to use the ethernet port and that they can disable the WiFi if I want. WTF??

Buy a good TP-link wireless extender, problem solved

spankalish

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Buy a good TP-link wireless extender, problem solved

That's not the point. The imagine router is supplied by imagine there for it should work properly. If it does not work, then it should be replaced, but they expect me to by another router, because there's doesn't work. That's a joke!

Trick of the Tail

I've had Imagine LTE for over a year now, generally its been very good, I was getting over 60Mbps download until quite recently, now during the day its around 30, and in the eves can be down to 12 or so.

Upon installation I was told that they'd guarantee 60, but when I've contacted them recently they've said 30 is OK and invoked the 'up to' phrase.

Also recently I've been getting the 15GB daily download warning, sometimes halfway through the day, and even the 20GB cut-off (speed drops down to about 1Mbps if you reach 20GB download in 1 day).

I'm puzzled about this, as my usage hasn't changed. I work from home, use a browser and email. No downloading of movies, no Android box on the premises.

Until recently I was only rarely reaching their limits, now its every day. And their system does a dns redirect when 15 is reached, which means if you don't realise, everything stops working until you visit a webpage, get redirected to their page and click an 'accept' button. THAT is annoying.

I've spoken to them on the phone, but they just say 'you ARE using that data', but can't tell me how I am or prove it to me in any way.

I suspect something is wrong with the way their router is measuring traffic. But I'm getting nowhere with them, and of course I can't gain access to the router here to have a look.

The very second another provider is available here I'm gone. Eir's fibre passes my house but its not lit up yet.

d31b0y

Blogin

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

I've had Imagine LTE for over a year now, generally its been very good, I was getting over 60Mbps download until quite recently, now during the day its around 30, and in the eves can be down to 12 or so.

Upon installation I was told that they'd guarantee 60, but when I've contacted them recently they've said 30 is OK and invoked the 'up to' phrase.

Also recently I've been getting the 15GB daily download warning, sometimes halfway through the day, and even the 20GB cut-off (speed drops down to about 1Mbps if you reach 20GB download in 1 day).

I'm puzzled about this, as my usage hasn't changed. I work from home, use a browser and email. No downloading of movies, no Android box on the premises.

Until recently I was only rarely reaching their limits, now its every day. And their system does a dns redirect when 15 is reached, which means if you don't realise, everything stops working until you visit a webpage, get redirected to their page and click an 'accept' button. THAT is annoying.

I've spoken to them on the phone, but they just say 'you ARE using that data', but can't tell me how I am or prove it to me in any way.

I suspect something is wrong with the way their router is measuring traffic. But I'm getting nowhere with them, and of course I can't gain access to the router here to have a look.

The very second another provider is available here I'm gone. Eir's fibre passes my house but its not lit up yet.

If you are using Windows check the windows data usage in the settings to see if it's doing it (One drive could easily do it if not configured well)

Marlow

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

I'm puzzled about this, as my usage hasn't changed. I work from home, use a browser and email. No downloading of movies, no Android box on the premises.

Background downloads ?

- Android Play Store
- iPhone Updates.
- iCloud enabled ?
- Sky box connected to your internet ? That uses like 10GB a week on channel updates at least.

The best one is, if you have a Windows 10 update, that fails. It'll start downloading all over again in background, fail again and continue to loop like that ! All without telling you apart from the failed installs.

/M

Gonzo

also internet usage in general is more demanding than it was a year ago for everyone, patch updates are getting bigger all the time, streaming is getting better quality all the time meaning bigger data usage. Websites have more heavy content on them than ever before as well such as larger images, better quality, more images, videos etc.

Quin_Dub

My Experience with Imagine - 3 Months in.

Alternative Options available :-

Fixed line - Max 3Mb/s line from exchange , but in reality it would average 1Mb/s at best and effectively Zero at peak times.

Mobile Broadband - 3 Router , 200Gb/Month limit - Would average 12-15Mb/s at best but drop to 1-2Mb/s at peak with terrible ping times.

Neither of the above options were viable for gaming or streaming (Netflix etc.) and at many times were totally unusable.

My exchange, whilst upgraded to Fibre for those in range is still using an 8mb/s Sat link for those out of range , so basically useless. For various range and topographical reasons I can't use any of the local Fixed wireless providers (Ripplecom etc.)

My area is listed on the National Broadband plan , so I'm not getting fixed line services anytime soon.

And now to the Imagine Service.

At it's best I'm getting ~80Mb/s with low single digit ping times , average is more like 50-60mb/s with 10-15ms ping times and the worst I've personally experienced is 20-25Mb/s with 25-30ms ping.

I'm connected to the Maghera mast about 14km away with direct line of sight.

In all of the above scenarios I can use the Internet comfortably , streaming Netflix etc. without issue.

In terms of the usage cap - I get the 15Gb warning maybe once a week , usually on a weekend but always after 10pm so I've thankfully never hit the usage cap , and that's with 2 teenagers gaming and streaming as well as me working from home and streaming. Having tailored my usage in the past to fit a 200Gb/Month limit with 3 I find the 20Gb/day limit much easier to manage but obviously I'd prefer if it was higher but for me the best thing they could do is move the warning from 15Gb to maybe 18Gb , I reckon I'd never see it all then.


Is it as good as a similar speed fixed line connection with unlimited downloads?

Of course not , but it is orders of magnitude better than any other option I have available to me and for me it's the first time I've had an Internet connection that allows me to do anything I want online (albeit with the download limit).

So for me , for now I am very happy with what I'm getting and hopefully it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.