Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

oscarBravo

TonyAdams1998 wrote: »

Seems that distance from the mast and any obstacles could be a huge hindrance.

Yup, that's called "physics", as opposed to all the hype around 5G, which is called "marketing".

Distance from the mast: the strength of a radiated signal is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Double the distance, quarter the signal. It's the inverse square law, and nothing will change it.

Information theory tells us that the throughput of a given channel increases with signal strength and decreases with noise level. If you're further from the mast, you'll get less throughput, and that's just how it is.

As for obstacles, they either attenuate the signal or distort it - in other words, they reduce the signal or increase the noise. Same laws of physics apply.

Quin_Dub

oscarBravo wrote: »

Yup, that's called "physics", as opposed to all the hype around 5G, which is called "marketing".

Distance from the mast: the strength of a radiated signal is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Double the distance, quarter the signal. It's the inverse square law, and nothing will change it.

Information theory tells us that the throughput of a given channel increases with signal strength and decreases with noise level. If you're further from the mast, you'll get less throughput, and that's just how it is.

As for obstacles, they either attenuate the signal or distort it - in other words, they reduce the signal or increase the noise. Same laws of physics apply.

Which for Imagine means that "5G" is a complete Chocolate teapot.

A tiny percentage of their customers would be right on top of the masts , most are at least a few KM away so 5G will offer them absolutely no major improvement over the current solution.

For Imagine to offer an actual 5G service to its current customer base they'd have to add literally thousands of nodes on lamp-posts up and down every little boreen in the country.

In reality , they'll add nodes to their existing masts , claim "Up to 1Gbs" speed (for those within 100M) and charge everyone a premium for the new service.

tsue921i8wljb3

Marlow wrote: »

Also .. the 5G, that the poster is referring to is the 5 GHz signal of the router ... has nothing to do with 5th Generation LTE.

/M

deadl0ck wrote: »

I understand that's what you're saying - but where is this information being obtained from ? Is it on their poster or where does it say that ?

Marlow was referring to the poster Galway_guy_33 not a poster as in a printed document. Is this where the confusion stemmed from?

Sterling Archer

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Marlow was referring to the poster Galway_guy_33 not a poster as in a printed document. Is this where the confusion stemmed from?

I think so.. I made the point about 5G ready meaning nothing really, and then a "poster" was mentioned, referring to a post here on the forum, not an actual Poster in the real world.. Imagine if imagine actual put that in small print on a real poster :pac::pac::pac: the marketing team would be sacked

deadl0ck

Ahh....now I stand under you

xxyyzz

The Irish Times: Broadband firms face clampdown on ads for ‘misleading’ top speeds.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/broadband-firms-face-clampdown-on-misleading-speed-ads-1.3991813?localLinksEnabled=false

d31b0y

This will have very little effect on Imagine, I suspect...

Under new rules from the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), companies will now have to include the percentage of customers that the advertised speeds are delivered to.

My speed at night is almost 200 mbps every night. My speed at peak is less than 10 mbps currently. The solutions and suggestions provided by the ASAI won't cover my (or most other imagine users) situation.

rodge123

d31b0y wrote: »

This will have very little effect on Imagine, I suspect...



My speed at night is almost 200 mbps every night. My speed at peak is less than 10 mbps currently. The solutions and suggestions provided by the ASAI won't cover my (or most other imagine users) situation.

Good point, need to instead say something like “
Under new rules from the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), companies will now have to include the percentage of customers that the advertised speeds are delivered to for 95% of the day”!

dashoonage

I'm going through the usual phase where i consider switching to imagine. Anyone being served off woodcock hill in limerick ? what are peak speeds like. currently on a 4mbs wireless service.

Quin_Dub

rodge123 wrote: »

Good point, need to instead say something like “
Under new rules from the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), companies will now have to include the percentage of customers that the advertised speeds are delivered to for 95% of the day”!

That's the only way to do it - "Maximum speeds of XXX and average speed of YY"

They also need to nix the "unlimited" crap as well

AH2016

Have many people on this thread "upgraded" to the new 5g ready?

I am on the Carin Hill mast Longford which has been upgraded last month but dont know if it is worth my while getting the install. FTTH has stopped about 1.5km from my house unfortunately so thats not an option at the moment but i dont want to upgrade and pay an install fee for a service that is not any better.

koppy

Upgraded about two weeks ago.
Before upgrade we had at best 10-12 download. Worst was about 2. Average ws prob around 4 download.Ping and jitter were both between 50 and 100. Upload about 1 mpbs.
After upgrade we re getting 60-120 download. Ping and jitter were both under 20. Upload about 10 mpvs.

Massive improvements for us but the amount on your mast probably has big effect. Not sure how many is on our mast. Only 2 weeks in but very happy so far

PepePareja

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Which for Imagine means that "5G" is a complete Chocolate teapot.

A tiny percentage of their customers would be right on top of the masts , most are at least a few KM away so 5G will offer them absolutely no major improvement over the current solution.

For Imagine to offer an actual 5G service to its current customer base they'd have to add literally thousands of nodes on lamp-posts up and down every little boreen in the country.

In reality , they'll add nodes to their existing masts , claim "Up to 1Gbs" speed (for those within 100M) and charge everyone a premium for the new service.

Sadly, it seems I can vouch for this. Our local mast got 'upgraded' to 5G yesterday. Hooray!.

The only problem is that Ookla speedtest yesterday, pre 5G showed figures of over 50 mbps, sometimes as high as 85 (It was never consistent). However, the upload was consistently awful. Usually .9 or .7 mbps. The connection prior to 5G was useable for general internet browsing but useless for uploads and streaming/gaming were bad. Netflix constantly buffers for example.

Today, with 5G our uploads have improved and I'm getting up to 5mbps, but the downloads are consistently below 10mbps. Ping has also gone as high as 130 this morning.

So far, 5G has not been good. However, tech support are currently looking into this for me and I am hopeful that something can be done to rectify the situation.

I am concerned that whatever tech existed before today had a better range and this morning, with 5G, our house is beyond the range. Time will tell however.

Shorty69664

I take it customers don't have to upgrade to 5G and can continue with Imagine's 4G offering?

ED E

Shorty69664 wrote: »

I take it customers don't have to upgrade to 5G and can continue with Imagine's 4G offering?

Its late and Im not 100% on the allocations but going forward I believe Imagine only have the one very small block. Use is liberalised but if they put 5G in there they can't really also put 4G in the same space. Like hosting a rugby and football match on the same pitch at the same time.

Upgrade or eventually be disconnected.

morgana

I've been mulling that over as well - I'm happy enough with what I have been getting for the last few years, but afraid I'll have to bite the bullet and give them the 100 E to "upgrade" just to ensure my Internet access in the future. As the NBP seems more troubled and uncertain.
Any idea of a time frame of when they can't use (i.e. get kicked off) the current spectrum any more ?

micksey1969

I seen imagine in our estate doing a survey the other day and they came to the house giving out leaflets with €50 off the installation, i said you cant get a signal here and he said ive just done a survey and this is estate is covered.I told him i had Aptus and Regional broadband out and they couldnt get a signal, well i guarantee theres a signal here he said,Now my house is down the back surrounded by trees and other houses so i was sure there would be no signal so he rang one of the guys who has the van with the testing equiptment to come to the house and do a quick test. 15 minutes later he arrived and pulled up a pole with a small white box on it to the height of my 2 storey house and pointed it at a load of trees and the speed 130mbps i saw the speed test on the tablet he was holding. He said the guys will do a proper test when i order it and they will be able to improve that speed, he said this new 5G ready equiptment doesnt need proper line of sight like the old LTE stuff did so now im confused. Im afraid to go with them from what im reading on boards.ie. This is a new mast just gone up on Tullow Hill only 450 customers allowed on each cell and theres 3 cells.

listermint

micksey1969 wrote: »

I seen imagine in our estate doing a survey the other day and they came to the house giving out leaflets with €50 off the installation, i said you cant get a signal here and he said ive just done a survey and this is estate is covered.I told him i had Aptus and Regional broadband out and they couldnt get a signal, well i guarantee theres a signal here he said,Now my house is down the back surrounded by trees and other houses so i was sure there would be no signal so he rang one of the guys who has the van with the testing equiptment to come to the house and do a quick test. 15 minutes later he arrived and pulled up a pole with a small white box on it to the height of my 2 storey house and pointed it at a load of trees and the speed 130mbps i saw the speed test on the tablet he was holding. He said the guys will do a proper test when i order it and they will be able to improve that speed, he said this new 5G ready equiptment doesnt need proper line of sight like the old LTE stuff did so now im confused. Im afraid to go with them from what im reading on boards.ie. This is a new mast just gone up on Tullow Hill only 450 customers allowed on each cell and theres 3 cells.

It most certainly does.

micksey1969

when i was with vodafones 4G 150GB plan i was getting 70mbps down and 40mbps upload and the mast was around 15 kms away and i couldnt see it, why is it that imagine need line of sight like Aptus and Regional Broadband when vodafone doesnt.

Blowheads

Evening all,
Long time Imagine customer in Abbeyknockmoy, mostly happy save evening contention.
The mast was recently upgraded and I can avail of the 5g (or whatever it actually is) service.
Question, what distance from the mast will be closer enough to get the best does or the other way, how far away before the speed starts to dip. Have a perfect line of sight let's say 2 km away

ED E

morgana wrote: »

I've been mulling that over as well - I'm happy enough with what I have been getting for the last few years, but afraid I'll have to bite the bullet and give them the 100 E to "upgrade" just to ensure my Internet access in the future. As the NBP seems more troubled and uncertain.
Any idea of a time frame of when they can't use (i.e. get kicked off) the current spectrum any more ?

Its already months overdue. The govt are issuing rebates to Vodafone monthly.

maxymo

Hi, I am looking into get Imagine connection, anyone know where I can find the masts locations of Imagine? I went to www.comreg.ie but only saw mobile operators in their map. Thanks

ItHurtsWhenIP

maxymo wrote: »

Hi, I am looking into get Imagine connection, anyone know where I can find the masts locations of Imagine? I went to www.comreg.ie but only saw mobile operators in their map. Thanks

They've a map on their website and a check availability facility too.
https://www.imagine.ie/

Marlow

micksey1969 wrote: »

when i was with vodafones 4G 150GB plan i was getting 70mbps down and 40mbps upload and the mast was around 15 kms away and i couldnt see it, why is it that imagine need line of sight like Aptus and Regional Broadband when vodafone doesnt.

4G is a different frequency band. 4G (LTE) is either at 800, 1800 or 2600Mhz. Imagines LTE and the new 5G services (when they eventually roll it out) operate in 3.5 GHz and that most certainly needs line of sight.

There is some gear out there, that will do near line of sight in 3.5 GHz, but not the LTE gear, that these guys are using. Even at 5th generation, it will still need line of sight.

3G/4G/5G/LTE just describes a technology. It does not tell you what frequency it operates on. And line of sight (or not) is depending on frequency most of all.

/M

maxymo

ItHurtsWhenIP wrote: »

They've a map on their website and a check availability facility too.
https://www.imagine.ie/

Thanks, I know I have availability according to them but just looking to see how far I am from the closest mast, to know what to expect in terms of speed. The map they have in their home page seems just a random map unless there is another somewhere in the website I am missing.

ItHurtsWhenIP

maxymo wrote: »

Thanks, I know I have availability according to them but just looking to see how far I am from the closest mast, to know what to expect in terms of speed. The map they have in their home page seems just a random map unless there is another somewhere in the website I am missing.

I think they put up actual coverage maps of different areas on their Facebook page, so maybe check there.

seanvanseanvan

seanvanseanvan wrote: »

Coming up on a year now with Imagine and to be honest I can't fault them in the slightest.

Nearly 2 yeas since that post and it appears my dream is over. Totally unusable between 5pm and 12am for the last 3 weeks, funny enough it coincided with the upgrade to 5g text, Knockraha mast in Cork. They came out within 2 days of my complaint and changed all my equipment but nothing changed service wise and I am now waiting for a report from the 2nd line team(what ever that means). My speed tests clearly show that it is a contention issue as after 12 I get speeds of 80,90mb. How is did Bolger get off so lightly at the PAC. I quote,

Mr. Sean Bolger
Today, the capacity of 5G is substantially beyond what normal demand will be. By that I mean heavy users and everything they want to do.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/committee_of_public_accounts/2019-02-14/9/

I have speed tests that prove the opposite.

Scruff

i've been trying to reset my password for the MyImagine portal but because they are so slow at sending out the email with the reset link it has expired 3 times now by the time i've gotten round to trying it. Takes about 1.5 hours for the email to arrive!
Maybe they too are suffering from the non existent congestion...

Happy_Harry

Happy_Harry wrote: »

During day typically 40-50 Mb/s down, 5 up, from 6.30/7 PM it drops to about 5 Mb/s down and 2 Up , from 10.30 PM goes back up to 20 down and 4 up.

This really started to happen about a year ago, before that it was 20 Mb/s down in the peak as well. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

But like I said it is sporadically that the speeds in the evening cause an issue for us (well, me) The one suffering is usual my daughter on youtube.

Beats the 1.5Mb/s which is the alternative through the phone line

So allegedly the upgrade happened last week (without any downtime, which I find a bit strange)

I don't see triple digits download speed throughout the day, but now at peak time I still have 50-60 Mbps download, compared to 60-70 during the day. My upload speed however has seen no improvement whatsoever.. 2 Mbps during peak hours , 5 during the day.

Eire-Dearg

Anyone using Imagine in Birdhill/North Tipp area?