Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

Waffleon

I got my service installed on Friday. I had speeds of around 50M but this drops from time to time to around 30M, disgraceful really... :-) .I am delighted so far. As for all the legal experts advising on the future of the service..well...worst case scenario is I revert back to my previous provider, or there will be a new provider offering a similar service like big red or whomever..! I've been living in the sticks now for a long time and have had numerous "broadband" solutions like Skydsl (phone line upload, satellite download), and tooway satellite..etc. All of these had issues but I used them because there was no alternative. Now we have alternatives and if they don't pan out we can revert back.
Morgana, you have had the service quite a while now, can you provide any detail on the phone app that was due? Also is there any way to check usage and billing info like a customer portal..?

morgana

Waffleon wrote: »

Morgana, you have had the service quite a while now, can you provide any detail on the phone app that was due? Also is there any way to check usage and billing info like a customer portal..?

No to both. I've been asking them occasionally about the mobile app, still under development apparently. Not that I'm bothered, but they are advertising it while it is not yet available.
Regarding usage, no portal AFAIK, I use Networx logging router traffic via UPnP which give usage reports (or my own router's interface which also has some limited traffic reports - (wave to Ed E - I'd have to install SNMP on the RT-N66U it doesn't come with it out of the box, I'll get around to it eventually )

polaris68

Waffleon wrote: »

I got my service installed on Friday. I had speeds of around 50M but this drops from time to time to around 30M, disgraceful really... :-) .I am delighted so far. As for all the legal experts advising on the future of the service..well...worst case scenario is I revert back to my previous provider, or there will be a new provider offering a similar service like big red or whomever..! I've been living in the sticks now for a long time and have had numerous "broadband" solutions like Skydsl (phone line upload, satellite download), and tooway satellite..etc. All of these had issues but I used them because there was no alternative. Now we have alternatives and if they don't pan out we can revert back.
Morgana, you have had the service quite a while now, can you provide any detail on the phone app that was due? Also is there any way to check usage and billing info like a customer portal..?

Do you find out what mast you are connected to?

editorsean

Based on my observations so far, if Imagine reaches my area, I'll likely sign up once my phone/DSL contract is up:

• Their aftersales support appears to be very good and quick to respond. They are actually trying to help the customer rather than make up excuses about contention or the customer's equipment.
• The minimum speed I've seen posted here is sufficient YouTube 1080p streaming (requires 5-6Mbps sustained). Then again, let's hope it's just a one-off. Even that's twice as fast as what I can get with DSL here for the foreseeable future and I'm outside Eir's FTTH roadmap.
• They don't appear to be fiddling with traffic shaping to make Speedtest.net results stand out, one reason I asked to see a few TestMy graphs. This result is the best peak time result on TestMy I've seen to date with any consumer ISP in Ireland apart from Virgin Media.
• They perform regular network upgrades, such as mentioned here.

As they are a new fixed wireless ISP aiming to compete with VDSL, it remains to be seen how well they keep up with network upgrades and performance as more subscribers join, not to mention the continued growth in usage per user as more people get streaming set-top boxes and subscriptions, IPTV services, game consoles and the move to 4K video.

A couple of other potential issues to add:

• Lengthy delay between ordering the service including €100 deposit for a mast due to go live and it getting installed, plus a long wait to get the deposit refunded if they cannot install.
• It remains to be seen what happens when the 3.6GHz licence is up for auction when it expires at the end of July 2017.
• Reports of erratic speeds with some users, such as further down this page (after posting this).
• They will not go ahead with the installation if they measure less than 30Mbps in a make-shift setup, even if the customer would really like the lower speed.

Waffleon

polaris68 wrote: »

Do you find out what mast you are connected to?

Yeah, the sale guy on the phone told my Rylane. It's actually Mylane near ovens.

rob808

editorsean wrote: »

Based on my observations so far, if Imagine reaches my area, I'll likely sign up once my phone/DSL contract is up:

• Their aftersales support appears to be very good and quick to respond. They are actually trying to help the customer rather than make up excuses about contention or the customer's equipment.
• The minimum speed I've seen posted here is sufficient YouTube 1080p streaming (requires 5-6Mbps sustained). Then again, let's hope it's just a one-off. Even that's twice as fast as what I can get with DSL here for the foreseeable future and I'm outside Eir's FTTH roadmap.
• They don't appear to be fiddling with traffic shaping to make Speedtest.net results stand out, one reason I asked to see a few TestMy graphs. This result is the best peak time result on TestMy I've seen to date with any consumer ISP in Ireland apart from Virgin Media.
• They perform regular network upgrades, such as mentioned here.

As they are a new fixed wireless ISP aiming to compete with VDSL, it remains to be seen how well they keep up with network upgrades and performance as more subscribers join, not to mention the continued growth in usage per user as more people get streaming set-top boxes and subscriptions, IPTV services, game consoles and the move to 4K video.

I don't think LTE would suit people who want to stream or watch Tv in 4K unless they want to stay up all night the download cap is to small.

Wing126

So can anyone clear up something for me? Reading through this thread I see lot's of people posting speed tests of less than 30 mb. Now these speeds are still higher than my eircom speeds (1-2mb, 3 if im lucky) but Imagine have a very clear message on their page that says "The minimum speed Imagine will connect you at is 30mb". Their T's&C's do state that the speeds are all "up to", but what I'm wondering is why the hell are they allowed to display that message about speed if they're not providing it?

Also noticed that they're advertising it as available and then people in this thread are reporting that when they contact Imagine, they're being told that they're only pre-ordering the service!

Lot of miscommunication and flubbing the exact details of their service from Imagine it seems.

Regardless, I've already checked and while they specifically mention my townland as an area that's within their coverage, their coverage checker has told me I'm out of their coverage...

I do see that lot's of people are posting great speed results too.

Anybody got any insight after signing up and not receiving what's been advertised? How have they dealt with it, how was it resolved etc etc.

irishchris

Hoping imagine get back to sorting out the abbeyknockmoy mast tomorrow as speeds are just so inconsistent all weekend



Anyone else here connected to this mast?

marno21

Waffleon wrote: »

Yeah, the sale guy on the phone told my Rylane. It's actually Mylane near ovens.

Is this the site that the ESB also use for SCADA telemetry or am I thinking of a different one?

It's something Hill, beginning with a K.

tsue921i8wljb3

irishchris wrote: »

Hoping imagine get back to sorting out the abbeyknockmoy mast tomorrow as speeds are just so inconsistent all weekend



Anyone else here connected to this mast?

When the new installer came out did he move the antenna or is it still wedged up against your soffit? Did you ask for it to be moved? Did the installer happen to mention your signal strength? It would be useful if you could find the login details for the antenna.

irishchris

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

When the new installer came out did he move the antenna or is it still wedged up against your soffit? Did you ask for it to be moved? Did the installer happen to mention your signal strength? It would be useful if you could find the login details for the antenna.

They (quickly) realigned the antenna on the same mount. He said signal was 105dbm.not sure how that compared to others here?

9726_9726

Sounds like he gave you the wrong figure. -105dBm would be a noise floor.

irishchris

9726_9726 wrote: »

Sounds like he gave you the wrong figure. -105dBm would be a noise floor.

RSRQ: -6dB
RSRP: -105dBm
SINR: 19dB

These were the signal levels be showed me on his pc after setup. I take it these are not good signal readings?

Anyone here with imagine know what their signal levels are like?

9726_9726

Ok so that's RSRP rather than RSSI, so that's an even better way of reading your signal.

irishchris

9726_9726 wrote: »

Ok so that's RSRP rather than RSSI, so that's an even better way of reading your signal.

yes it is rsrp signal for lte. what would be a good rsrp signal?

coffeeJohn92

Signged up last week for Imagine LTE. The rep was a genuine enough guy. He told me the mast would be up and running for my area at the end of July.

Just wondering is there anyone else on here that's signed up in the Ballina, Mayo area?

If so are ye connected? or what did the rep tell you about timeline to be connected?


Also is there anyway to check on the masts Imagine use? How there doing in terms of progress?

Cheers

TireeTerror

I was onto Imagine earlier looking for an update on when the service would go live in my area and I asked how many were currently subscribed. I was only able to get through to tech support as the CS and Sales departments were too busy due to some service going down in Dublin.

He didnt give me a number for how many were subscribed to the mast as he didnt have access to that as he was not CS, however he did say this.

"Me: Are you able to see how many have currently subscribed to the mast?
Glen: As far as I know there is already a sample of customers testing the product
Me: Ah no way. Who do I speak to to be involved in "further" testing?
Glen: I can't see that but I can ensure you that LTE is not prone to contention, so that would not matter.
Me: its not prone to contention?
Me: How can that be? Surely the available bandwidth is shared amongst all users on the mast?
Me: I see people on boards.ie talking about getting up to 80Mbps but its dropping to as low as 10Mpbs during peak times
Me: and that so long as the installer can obtain 30Mbps at the actual time of the install, which would be off peak anyway, its installed.
Glen: There are several E Node B units installed which manage the traffic in tandem, preventing any major bandwidth. We have tested this here by running 42 different computers streaming and gaming simultaneously with no drop in connection
Me: So why are people consistently having much slower speeds during peak times then?
Glen: Due to the MIMO service offered with LTE, signal can alter if not configured correctly, in short, these reported speeds are directly related to teething problems."

Any tech heads want to comment on this?

ED E

Sounds like he's suggesting its using multiband in the same sector. Ill edit this post in a minute.

42 streams at a nominal 5Mbps YouTube clip would only mean 210Mps which really isn't a big test for a 3x150Mb site with 400 customers.

EDIT1: Have those bands been free since 2012?

3.4 GHz – 3.8
GHz band
Channels
Channel
Bandwidth
Mode of
Operation
Transmit centre frequency
(MHz)
Base Station CPE
K/K‟ 1 x 11 MHz
and
1 x 16 MHz
FDD or TDD 3459.5 3529
L 1 x 10 MHz TDD 3605
Table 1: Additional spectrum being released in 3.5GHz FWALA band

EDIT2:
Comregs map shows them as currently deploying: A, B, K*, K, D, E

In built up areas there are multiple bands deployed from the same/nearby locations to build capacity but at 30KM non overlap zones theres not a huge amount of room. Looks like its 400 users for one 14Mhz band on Bweeng for example. This is where my knowledge lets me down but considering the mobile telcos are managing 225Mb on 15Mhz CAT6 and 300Mb at 20Mhz I'm not sure how contention isnt a huge factor.

TireeTerror

ED E wrote: »

Sounds like he's suggesting its using multiband in the same sector. Ill edit this post in a minute.

42 streams at a nominal 5Mbps YouTube clip would only mean 210Mps which really isn't a big test for a 3x150Mb site with 400 customers.

3 x 150Mbps? Is that the full bandwidth available at the site? Shared among 400 customers?? WOW! That is going to collapse at peak times.

Chef-1st

Just been off the phone with tech support. That's what I got told there too. Before I signed up, I was told the contention ratio was 4:1.
Now I'm been told there is no contention. Amount of users online shouldn't affect speeds with the way it's set up. There have been some optimisations done the past few days on the service is what Ive been told, so I can just monitor it and see what it's like. Nothing else they can do. Rebooting the router and check speeds again seems to be the popular one with broadband providers tech support.
I shouldn't need to, and I don't need to, as the next day, without touching anything, speeds are back up to +80m.

If anyone wants to see my recorded speed results over the past 3 weeks, you're more than welcome.
http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=ca0743c0b8cf444e2d91bc3118335acd&ria=0

As you can see, it's not as pretty as Morgana's graph! I've very varied speed results.
Her speeds are pretty consistent and robust. Less variance. Except for once, hers never dropped below 40M.
Morgana's speedtest results link:
http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?hd=04/01/2016&sh=d1d2ec92489d3a1a71988c36955e2437&s=0

I've just emailed my results to Imagine, so makes no odds who sees it now. Tests will be ongoing over the next few days and weeks.

Edit: Tests are all on wired connection to the router. Speeds have also been confirmed using testmy.net, which I find is an excellent speed test website and would highly recommend using it. And like speedtest.net, you can also sign up to hold on to all your speed results.

9726_9726

Here are the spec sheets of the equipment that I can say for absolute certain that is being used on the Imagine sites:

The RRU is the Huawei RRU3356 3400-3600 4T4R:
www.huawei.com/ilink/enenterprise/download/HW_275860

The indoor part of the eNodeB is the BBU3910:
enterprise.huawei.com/ilink/cnenterprise/download/HW_328207
(See page 15)

The BBU claims it does Category 3/4 but no higher. This means a theoretical 75Mbps maximum per chain. The CPEs will be 2x2 and the BBU can only do Category 4, so that's 2x2. See below for further details on this.

Remember all of this is TDD too, so has to be split on a FIXED down/up ratio and your maximum throughput will have to be shared between down and up. So say you had 150Mbps, you could go 100 down and 50 up for example.


The BBU claims a maximum downstream throughput of 100Mbps and maximum upstream of 50Mbps, per RRU.

It also claims that a 4T4R RRU can be used as 2 x 2T2R RRUs, which would mean that Imagine (if they have the spectrum) will be able to use two channels on the same physical sector.


This means one of two things:

1) Imagine can use 2x20MHz channels on the site and each sector uses 2 x (2x2 MIMO), so 200Mbps down per sector.

2) Imagine can use 1x20MHz channel = 100Mbps down per sector.

People, I really think we are looking at 100Mbps per channel per sector here. Right now with the limited 3.5GHz spectrum, I'd guess there is one channel in use. So as thought before, 400 customers, 3 sectors = 133 customers/sector.

So that's 100Mbps for every 133 customers by that reckoning.

Edit: Just to add also, for the sales people to ay there is no contention on a fixed wireless network is bloody terrible.

WonkyMe

Not sure what to make of these guys. I phoned a week ago and signed up. The salesman, who seemed competent, went away to check availability and, having checked, confirmed that my mast would be live mid july 'in fact probably before then , but we say mid july to be safe'. I gave them my deposit of 100EUR.

Two days later I received an email from a 'no-reply' Imagine address which just contained a standard graphic saying "We have just checked your address and unfortunately your home is outside of our initial phase one coverage area. " and referring me to their coverage map, which clearly shows my area is already supposed to be covered.

I have replied to them, using the two email addresses that I have been able to find, asking them for an updated installation date, and confirmation that if this is not Ok that my 100EUR deposit will be refunded. To date I havent got any reply.

The whole thing seems messy and disorganised and doesnt inspire confidence..

rob808

WonkyMe wrote: »

Not sure what to make of these guys. I phoned a week ago and signed up. The salesman, who seemed competent, went away to check availability and, having checked, confirmed that my mast would be live mid july 'in fact probably before then , but we say mid july to be safe'. I gave them my deposit of 100EUR.

Two days later I received an email from a 'no-reply' Imagine address which just contained a standard graphic saying "We have just checked your address and unfortunately your home is outside of our initial phase one coverage area. " and referring me to their coverage map, which clearly shows my area is already supposed to be covered.

I have replied to them, using the two email addresses that I have been able to find, asking them for an updated installation date, and confirmation that if this is not Ok that my 100EUR deposit will be refunded. To date I havent got any reply.

The whole thing seems messy and disorganised and doesnt inspire confidence..

Imagine are good at coming after you for money if you owe them it but other way around they leave you waiting on your refund.

SCOOP 64

rob808 wrote: »

Imagine are good at coming after you for money if you owe them it but other way around they leave you waiting on your refund.

Was told it will take up to 10 working days to get refund, when i gave my card details over the phone it was out in minutes.

woody1

coffeeJohn92 wrote: »

Signged up last week for Imagine LTE. The rep was a genuine enough guy. He told me the mast would be up and running for my area at the end of July.

Just wondering is there anyone else on here that's signed up in the Ballina, Mayo area?

If so are ye connected? or what did the rep tell you about timeline to be connected?


Also is there anyway to check on the masts Imagine use? How there doing in terms of progress?

Cheers

i was on to them last week, they said 4 weeks to me, been thinking about it since then, and reading this thread on and off, wasnt sure , til my existing crappy 1mb connection started giving hassle yesterday.. be ringing tomorrow

TireeTerror

9726_9726 wrote: »

Edit: Just to add also, for the sales people to ay there is no contention on a fixed wireless network is bloody terrible.

The big problem for me is that my conversation in relation to there being no contention was not with the sales department, but was with the technical support department. I can understand that the sales guy stretch the truth, outright lie as they have a vested interest in doing so to achieve targets, its unfortunately the very standard behaviour from all of the service providers providing utilities. I have always found though, from my own personal experience with the likes of Vodafone, Sky, Eir, Talk Talk, o2, Orange, T-Mobile, Cellnet, Net1, BT, Movistar, Telefonica, that the tech support people are sick of the problems they have to contend with as a direct result of customer's expectations being unrealistic based exclusively on the lies they have been told by their companies sales teams. They have always put me straight and been very up front with the harsh reality.

How can they possible promise 30Mb as a minimum speed if the contention is so ridiculously high? This is a very clear piece of evidence that explains why they have changed their terminology to including "30Mb at point of install", which of course will be during the daytime when most people are away working or at school and the service will not be massively being used. I am not seeing one piece of evidence that makes me have even the slightest bit of faith that they are going to be any better than the shower of sh1te we have had before.

They have us over a barrel and they know it.

Waffleon

Ok. I have had this service only since Friday. I can only rate it as excellent. Currently I am getting speeds in the region of 40-60Meg. I previously had a 12M maximum which was quite stable but it cost exactly the same as imagine. To everyone else here posting problems with the service I'm quite sure all your issues plague other isp's also. W.R.T. speeds, as long as it's quick enough to do what I want...ie watch Netflix, YouTube, and download the odd personal files , then if it's 10M or 80M, it's fine by me. I do understand all your concerns but is there any serious alternative at the moment...? Sure, you could wait for the government to step up to the plate, but frankly I have been wIting for decent broadband from them for 10 years. Thanks for a great service Imagine...

leex

Has anybody with a Static IP successfully bridged their supplied router and has the static IP still been assigned as expected?

Wing126

Just been off the phone with them, was told I'd be covered by their site at Mount Oriel and that I would be live by the end of August... Sales guy also said that speeds would never drop below 30mb. From what I've seen in this thread though that's definitely untrue. Still speeds are better than my eircom and by the looks of it I'm not gonna get fibre with eircom by 2020, so I'm Gonna call up and reserve my installation. Hopefully I've no issues...

Anybody who has it, what way does the phone work? Do they take your existing landline number, do they give you a new mobile number or what happens?

leex

Wing126 wrote: »

Just been off the phone with them, was told I'd be covered by their site at Mount Oriel and that I would be live by the end of August... Sales guy also said that speeds would never drop below 30mb. From what I've seen in this thread though that's definitely untrue. Still speeds are better than my eircom and by the looks of it I'm not gonna get fibre with eircom by 2020, so I'm Gonna call up and reserve my installation. Hopefully I've no issues...

Anybody who has it, what way does the phone work? Do they take your existing landline number, do they give you a new mobile number or what happens?

They supply you with a phone number and you can port your own number also (optional). I am in the process of porting my number and have been told this will trigger the disabling of my Eircom line and line rental etc.