Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

Dero

Not sure why I'm thanking you, cos now we're competing for that precious peak bandwidth. :pac:

j/k, hope it goes well for you, and here's to a fibre future (some day!).

Herrohatton

Hey guys.
I really don't know much when it comes to broadband terminology etc. so I'm not quite sure what I should do.
My area is terrible for any sort of broadband. My uncle knows a lot about broadband etc. and basically he was saying there are no lines down our road because Eir never put any in or something? You can get Vodafone gigabit, Eir, etc. 2 mins up the road. Pretty sure they have fibre too.
But down where my house is, we can't get anything. Literally only mobile broadband. Even at that, the speeds are stone age. Vodafone speeds weren't great, and with their pricing etc. they aren't worth it. We went with Three, €30 a month unlimited. We can watch Netflix etc. but it's rarely full 4k quality on the tv or has to keep loading. I can't even download updates on my ps4, let alone 20gb games etc.

So I got an email off imagine to say my area is a priority now and they will be rolling out their broadband asap.

Are they really my only option of somewhat decent speeds?
In fairness anything is better than the 1mbps or less we get now...

*my location is Garadice, Co. Meath

Gonzo

Herrohatton wrote: »

Hey guys.
I really don't know much when it comes to broadband terminology etc. so I'm not quite sure what I should do.
My area is terrible for any sort of broadband. My uncle knows a lot about broadband etc. and basically he was saying there are no lines down our road because Eir never put any in or something? You can get Vodafone gigabit, Eir, etc. 2 mins up the road. Pretty sure they have fibre too.
But down where my house is, we can't get anything. Literally only mobile broadband. Even at that, the speeds are stone age. Vodafone speeds weren't great, and with their pricing etc. they aren't worth it. We went with Three, €30 a month unlimited. We can watch Netflix etc. but it's rarely full 4k quality on the tv or has to keep loading. I can't even download updates on my ps4, let alone 20gb games etc.

So I got an email off imagine to say my area is a priority now and they will be rolling out their broadband asap.

Are they really my only option of somewhat decent speeds?
In fairness anything is better than the 1mbps or less we get now...

*my location is Garadice, Co. Meath

If you have no other option, no dsl, no fibre, no mobile broadband coverage that's usable, then Imagine may be your only hope. Imagine claim up to 150meg broadband, but in reality very few people see such speeds, except maybe in the small hours of the morning and early in the day.

Imagine claim to not install if speeds are under 30 meg during installation, but many people here and on Facebook are getting less than 5 meg during peak hours due to contention.

It's tough recommending a company like Imagine but if there really isn't any other option available to you, then it will be worth your while getting it installed and see how you get on, just don't expect speeds of 150 meg 24/7.

rodge123

Herrohatton wrote: »

Hey guys.
I really don't know much when it comes to broadband terminology etc. so I'm not quite sure what I should do.
My area is terrible for any sort of broadband. My uncle knows a lot about broadband etc. and basically he was saying there are no lines down our road because Eir never put any in or something? You can get Vodafone gigabit, Eir, etc. 2 mins up the road. Pretty sure they have fibre too.
But down where my house is, we can't get anything. Literally only mobile broadband. Even at that, the speeds are stone age. Vodafone speeds weren't great, and with their pricing etc. they aren't worth it. We went with Three, €30 a month unlimited. We can watch Netflix etc. but it's rarely full 4k quality on the tv or has to keep loading. I can't even download updates on my ps4, let alone 20gb games etc.

So I got an email off imagine to say my area is a priority now and they will be rolling out their broadband asap.

Are they really my only option of somewhat decent speeds?
In fairness anything is better than the 1mbps or less we get now...

*my location is Garadice, Co. Meath

I’m only 1 minute down the road from garadice and have imagine, connected to their Cappagh, north kildare mast about 7km away.

Speeds average about 7Mb down / 1Mb up in the evenings with 50 ping.
Just about does the job for two of us but it would be a struggle if had older kids in house.

Based on their response to you, I wonder are they planning on installing a new mast around the area.
Or my more skeptical hat says that they will throw more customers onto the existing Cappagh mast when they upgrade it therefore probably negating a lot of the supposed speed improvements we have been told are coming with 5G!

irishchris

Signed up for install of the abbeyknockmoy mast in Galway but would love some examples of speeds from people of this mast in peak hours first

Nyum Nyum

Nyum Nyum wrote: »

Is there anywhere online you can check where Imagine's masts/towers/whatever are located? Thanks

Anyone?

alec76

irishchris wrote: »

Signed up for install of the abbeyknockmoy mast in Galway but would love some examples of speeds from people of this mast in peak hours first

Why would you come back to Imagine ?

Herrohatton

Gonzo wrote: »

If you have no other option, no dsl, no fibre, no mobile broadband coverage that's usable, then Imagine may be your only hope. Imagine claim up to 150meg broadband, but in reality very few people see such speeds, except maybe in the small hours of the morning and early in the day.

Imagine claim to not install if speeds are under 30 meg during installation, but many people here and on Facebook are getting less than 5 meg during peak hours due to contention.

It's tough recommending a company like Imagine but if there really isn't any other option available to you, then it will be worth your while getting it installed and see how you get on, just don't expect speeds of 150 meg 24/7.

Thanks for that! Honestly, with the speeds I'm getting now, 4 or 5meg would be a massive step up for me.

Herrohatton

rodge123 wrote: »

I’m only 1 minute down the road from garadice and have imagine, connected to their Cappagh, north kildare mast about 7km away.

Speeds average about 7Mb down / 1Mb up in the evenings with 50 ping.
Just about does the job for two of us but it would be a struggle if had older kids in house.

Based on their response to you, I wonder are they planning on installing a new mast around the area.
Or my more skeptical hat says that they will throw more customers onto the existing Cappagh mast when they upgrade it therefore probably negating a lot of the supposed speed improvements we have been told are coming with 5G!

Hmmm they actually rang me yesterday and said my house is only 1,000mtrs from the mast. They didn't say which one, but I'm nearly sure it's the one close to Moynalvey, I think it's called clarkstown mast? Even still, 7mb in the evening would be a huge step up for me. I'm barely getting 1mb as it is

Ultimanemo

Herrohatton wrote: »

Even still, 7mb in the evening would be a huge step up for me. I'm barely getting 1mb as it is

If your speed is 1mbps then go for, I am on Tonabrocky mast in Galway. very rarely it goes below 7mbps. I will run a speed test now and at peak times, each will be run once only and hosted by Vodafone Dublin.

tsue921i8wljb3

Nyum Nyum wrote: »

Anyone?

Not that I know of. They used to have coverage maps on their site where you could infer the locations but even they have now gone.

Nyum Nyum

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Not that I know of. They used to have coverage maps on their site where you could infer the locations but even they have now gone.

Ah ok, thanks anyway

SkepticQuark

The Cush

Nyum Nyum wrote: »

Is there anywhere online you can check where Imagine's masts/towers/whatever are located? Thanks

Comreg did have a map on its site before the 3.4-3.8 GHz band was auctioned but that whole band is now in a phased transition from the old licencees to the new licensees so any of the old site maps wouldn't be reliable.

Ultimanemo

Gonzo

Herrohatton wrote: »

Hmmm they actually rang me yesterday and said my house is only 1,000mtrs from the mast. They didn't say which one, but I'm nearly sure it's the one close to Moynalvey, I think it's called clarkstown mast? Even still, 7mb in the evening would be a huge step up for me. I'm barely getting 1mb as it is

Only reason I'm recommending Imagine to you is that your current speeds of less than 1meg is unusable, even opening a google search before typing in your query will take some time on that. If you get 5 or 10 meg with Imagine (which is well below what they should be providing you), is close to money back territory, but for you this would still be a big improvement on what you have now. You've nothing really to lose unless your really unfortunate and end up getting less than 1 meg. (I've seen speedtests of 0.10 meg download and 0.002 upload on Imagine's Facebook, they get deleted fairly quickly and the customer get's banned from posting again.).

ED E

Pat Kennys stand in today said that his Imagine is 70Mb off peak and 6Mb peak. There you have it on the national airways.

And reported his site is full.

SkepticQuark

ED E wrote: »

Pat Kennys stand in today said that his Imagine is 70Mb off peak and 6Mb peak. There you have it on the national airways.

And reported his site is full.

About time someone did that.

The Cush

ED E wrote: »

Pat Kennys stand in today said that his Imagine is 70Mb off peak and 6Mb peak. There you have it on the national airways.

And reported his site is full.

Podcast here - https://www.newstalk.com/shows/pat-kenny-show-234857

MarkoF

I'm on the Carrigaline mast.

In the last few weeks my router will lock up every night around 8:30 pm. This requires a power down to get it going again.

Last night it was locking up every 20 minutes or so. I eventually gave up and used my phone as a hot-spot instead.

This morning the router had rebooted by itself and now the Wi-fi names have changed.

Any idea about what's going on?

Mark

Zagato

MarkoF wrote: »

I'm on the Carrigaline mast.

In the last few weeks my router will lock up every night around 8:30 pm. This requires a power down to get it going again.

Last night it was locking up every 20 minutes or so. I eventually gave up and used my phone as a hot-spot instead.

This morning the router had rebooted by itself and now the Wi-fi names have changed.

Any idea about what's going on?

Mark

I regularly had issues with it stopping working until I plugged it in with a timer. It switches off for 10mins every night now and has solved my issue.

Ultimanemo

Zagato wrote: »

I regularly had issues with it stopping working until I plugged it in with a timer. It switches off for 10mins every night now and has solved my issue.

I have the router plugged in a timer from day one, "same experience with 3 router"

Ultimanemo

Above 100 today, normally 98 max, I will see what speed I will get around 9 pm.

SpannerMonkey

Anyone having any issues with their imagine internet today in clare.
Im on the Ben Dash site and have had no internet all day

irishchris

alec76 wrote: »

Why would you come back to Imagine ?

Brief moment of madness I think. Using three up to now and was fine but the last 6 months it is unusable at peak times. Gone with Vodafone 80-100mbs for now but the limit is a bit of a killer. Imagine rang me about the install promising the earth - peak speeds of 70+ off peak of 150 etc 😀. Told them I haven't a chance of getting those and had changed my mind about install but they have since plagued me with calls. Thankfully this thread made me see sense again,. Cheers everyone

cherryghost

I don't watch TV normally but was my folks place over the weekend and TV was on, I was shocked and frankly disgusted by the latest Imagine ad. They couldn't advertise this ****e in the UK I'd imagine.

Gonzo

cherryghost wrote: »

I don't watch TV normally but was my folks place over the weekend and TV was on, I was shocked and frankly disgusted by the latest Imagine ad. They couldn't advertise this ****e in the UK I'd imagine.

is this a new ad or the one they've been running for the past few weeks?

rayfitzharris

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

Comreg did have a map on its site before the 3.4-3.8 GHz band was auctioned but that whole band is now in a phased transition from the old licencees to the new licensees so any of the old site maps wouldn't be reliable.

According to an article in the Irish Times recently the transition to the new licensees is making slow progress - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/comreg-admits-to-paying-rebates-to-5g-auction-winners-1.3868344

Comreg is having to pay a rebate to some of the operators that won spectrum in the auction but hasn't been cleared yet. The article says at least one operator is considering court action.

According to Comreg, Imagine still operates in approx. 200 transition areas, thus preventing the new licensees accessing the spectrum they won at auction almost 2 years ago. Imagine has full unrestricted access to the 60MHz of spectrum it won at auction, since Sept last year.

While the company [Vodafone] declined to comment on the subject, Liam O’Brien, the company’s director of strategy and external affairs, told the Dáil communications committee last June that the fact that another operator was still on the spectrum meant that “money that was paid to ComReg to purchase the spectrum is now being effectively drip-fed back to some operators”.

“It has been a very lengthy process. It has probably been longer than those who are trying to get access to the spectrum to provide services would have anticipated,” Mr O’Brien told the committee.

ComReg said the transition arrangements for the spectrum award were designed so that customers could continue to receive services while the new operators were planning their network rollout.

“It has taken some operators longer than we had originally intended to finalise their plans, and existing uses have continued in the meantime in some areas. However a substantial amount of the 3.6GHz spectrum is available for use by new operators,” a spokesman said.

“When the new operators inform us of their plans for each area, we arrange for the spectrum to be cleared in good time to enable them to roll out their networks,” he added.

In an Oireachtas Committee last year

Mr. Liam O'Brien: … A slightly tangential point is that there was an auction early in 2017 for 3.6 GHz spectrum, the so-called 5G spectrum. The auction was run by ComReg. That spectrum is key for the roll-out of 5G in the coming years. Another operator still remains on that spectrum nearly 18 months later and ComReg is refunding money to operators as a result. This is money that was paid to ComReg to purchase the spectrum and that is now being effectively drip fed back to some operators because we have not had access to that spectrum. We do not want that to continue

---

Deputy Timmy Dooley: Who is responsible for that? Is it an issue for ComReg that Eir has not given companies access?

Mr. Liam O'Brien: In effect, the market operators have to agree. ComReg will oversee a transition plan. It cannot force access to the spectrum. It will oversee a transition plan. We are engaging with ComReg on that. It has been a very lengthy process. It has probably been longer than those who are trying to get access to the spectrum to provide services would have anticipated.

ED E

Was coming here to post about same. Yet again, Imagine really playing the bousy.