Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

The Big Gun

After Z years with Vodafone noBroadband, I signed upto imagine LTE on Fri PM. Wednesday, told installation will be on Thurs pm. Got a call Thurs am from engineer, they have a cancellation, they can fit me in Thurs am (Bit the hand off him). I'm in Donoughmore, Co. Cork, surrounded by large trees. Team Imagine arrive 11 am, hop up on roof immediately. after 30 mins of trying North, South, East, West testing Result = 6. Devasted. Team persisted, after an hour = Result = 60. Whitechurch transmitter. What a relief, as I was thinking " I have no plan B". This evening, constant 50 - 60 Thank you to Boards.ie & a MAJOR thank you to morgana, not many mere mortals can lead a soul to heaven.

mkristiansen

Goreme wrote: »

Agree with you there Morgana... We are 6miles from Kells, 9 miles from Navan... could only dream about an AdSL phone line being provided in our area of the countryside by those moneygrabbing losers Eir(com), even the mobile phone reception in the house is crap, so we have the added expence currently of a landliine which is needed to be sure you are actually reachable by telephone. When the kids watch cartoons on Youtube it often paused every minute or two... I was trying to watch some Dublin concert footage of Bruce Springsteen from this summer (was there, great concerts), but no, even Bruce won't stream on Three's NarrowBand (0.5Mb half the time when you Speedtest it!!). We get Three's NarrowBand from Rathmore/Jamestown transmitter (you know, the Irish Government's 2009 "Broadband" to every citizen in Ireland guarantee). And to add insult to injury, for the hell of it I called Ripple a few weeks ago - and they said my area (Cortown) wasn't covered by Ripple.. you'd have to laugh!! So, needless to say, if I finally, in a few weeks get an allowance of 20GB per day and a minimum speed of 30Mbps, I'll be delighted!

Goreme,
I'm in the same general area as you, a bit closer to Navan..
I signed up last week.. did you? Be sure to let us know when they install and what speeds you're getting..

robert muldoon

How do I find imagine on Facebook , have searched for them but nothing comes up

editorsean

They seem to have changed their Facebook name (previously imaginewimax), but forgot to update the Facebook URLs on their website.

The following is their Facebook URL:
https://www.facebook.com/imaginelte/

morgana

List of speed test results / masts by some of the active posters in this thread:

Morgana Bweeng, Co. Cork
Ruffty Galway
Chef-1st Wexford
irishchris Abbeyknockmoy, Galway

irishchris

morgana wrote: »

List of speed test results / masts by some of the active posters in this thread:

Morgana Bweeng, Co. Cork
Ruffty Galway
Chef-1st Wexford
irishchris Galway (i think)

cheers morgana, yep I'm in Galway off the abbeyknockmoy mast as opposed to the Galway tornabrookey mast. I notice you accidently put chef1 results linked to my name :-)
Wonder would one of the mods place these Speedtest result pages in your first post in this thread so would be easy to find for people instead of the having to read through tens of pages to see them?

morgana

Fixed it and will contact mods to add it to my first post.

long_b

editorsean wrote: »

They seem to have changed their Facebook name (previously imaginewimax), but forgot to update the Facebook URLs on their website.

The following is their Facebook URL:
https://www.facebook.com/imaginelte/

Sent them a mail about that a while back. Too busy signing up new customers no doubt!

long_b

The Big Gun wrote: »

After Z years with Vodafone noBroadband, I signed upto imagine LTE on Fri PM. Wednesday, told installation will be on Thurs pm. Got a call Thurs am from engineer, they have a cancellation, they can fit me in Thurs am (Bit the hand off him). I'm in Donoughmore, Co. Cork, surrounded by large trees. Team Imagine arrive 11 am, hop up on roof immediately. after 30 mins of trying North, South, East, West testing Result = 6. Devasted. Team persisted, after an hour = Result = 60. Whitechurch transmitter. What a relief, as I was thinking " I have no plan B". This evening, constant 50 - 60 Thank you to Boards.ie & a MAJOR thank you to morgana, not many mere mortals can lead a soul to heaven.

Can you tell us what they tried in the second half an hour that got your result up?
Longer pole? Different aerial? Different mast? Different antenna location?

I'm a bit of an Ewok myself when it comes to living in trees and have already had Ripplecom fail to find a signal on site.

Eir042

Did you have any luck in contacting them. I'm also waiting.. paid €100 deposit 2 was ago. Heard nothing since.

The Big Gun

long_b wrote: »

Can you tell us what they tried in the second half an hour that got your result up?
Longer pole? Different aerial? Different mast? Different antenna location?

I'm a bit of an Ewok myself when it comes to living in trees and have already had Ripplecom fail to find a signal on site.

It took patience. Different mast, opposite side of house, minute changes in position had massive differences in signal. The crew were excellent. That was the key.

long_b

The Big Gun wrote: »

It took patience. Different mast, opposite side of house, minute changes in position had massive differences in signal. The crew were excellent. That was the key.

You mean moving the antenna by a few inches? Or tiny changes of direction?

TireeTerror

I have been camping for the last week so did not post.

I emailed Imagine after Morgana's first mention of being throttled.

This is what I sent them.

[I]Hi,
>
>
> I have a question relating to when I can download and the limits imposed.
>
>
> I was told, and I have the entire telephone conversation recorded on my mobile, that I would have a 20GB per day data allowance. This would be reset at midnight each evening. I was told that between midnight and 7am I could consume as much data as I liked as it was unmonitored. I expressly asked about torrents and explained that I use torrent sites frequently and have large game downloads and would it be OK to use as much data as I liked before 7am when the 20GB daily limit would start to be recorded.
>
>
> I was guaranteed that so long as I made sure the file sharing/game downloads were stopped before 7am, I could do it as often as I liked. I also explained that with virgin Media it is truly unlimited and I had often used several TB of data each month and was concerned about exceeding my limit. Despitethis, I see on boards.ie that you have altered terms and conditions since I first registered interest in the service. It now states that I can download data occasionally and that you may terminate my LTE service if I download data between midnight and 7am frequently. I also have seen other posters, Morgana, state that her 20GB limit was started at midnight, and that a file she downloaded between midnight and 7am was actually monitored and as a result of this she exceeded her daily limit early and had her speeds throttled.
>
>
> Can you clarify in writing exactly what I can and cannot do. If the conditions have changed since I spoke to you, why have I not been informed of this? 20GB just is not enough data if it's going to be counted off peak. It was the unmonitored data period which really appealed to me with LTE, not just the slightly better speeds.
>
>
> Regards[/I]

and here is their reply.

Hi XXXXXXX

Thank you for your email.

I sincerely apologise for any inaccurate information that might have been provided.
We currently don't offer unlimited dowloads between 12 and 7 am.
The limit is simply 20gb per day in order to provide good speed to all our customers

The best solution would be to begin bigger downloads before 12am
and allow them to continue after midnight.
It may also be a good idea to use download scheduler tools on your torrents.

If you have any issues or comments regarding this query, please do not hesitate to contact us on 1890 929 139 or by email to fibersupport@imagine.ie. Phone lines are open from 9 AM to 8 PM Monday to Friday, and from 10 AM to 4 PM on weekends and bank holidays.

Thank you again for your valued custom.

Pawel

Imagine LTE Support

So it is confirmed, it is a hard 20Gb per day limit.

I do not know about you guys, but I will not be accepting this. I'm going to ring them and find out what they are going to say about the lies and if their solution is not good enough the regulator will be getting a call.

The Big Gun

long_b wrote: »

You mean moving the antenna by a few inches? Or tiny changes of direction?

Tiny changes of direction.

morgana

So now even the occasional going over the cap as stated in their T&Cs is gone? I know it says discretion, they just refuse to be discretionary ? :P
I can understand why to a certain degree but I still fail to see how allowing downloads early in the morning would affect other peoples' enjoyment of the service. Starting large downloads during or towards the end of the peak period would surely affect service performance more?
Also, in light of no usage monitoring being provided, you have to be very vigilant and aware of how much you are using - not easy if many devices are connected to the network streaming, youtubing, etc.
I'm keeping a record of my usage now, just in case.
OTH, for me they are the only kid in town. In fairness, it doesn't affect me greatly, only when major game updates are due which you want to get as soon as they become available - with both people in the household being gamers, that can be an issue!

Dero

morgana wrote: »

for me they are the only kid in town. In fairness, it doesn't affect me greatly, only when major game updates are due which you want to get as soon as they become available

I'm the same in that my options are Ripplecom or Imagine, and that's a no-brainer -- even with the caveats about limits and bridging etc.

I'm not much of a downloader myself, but there are 3x Netflix/Youtube users in the house, so I'll be keeping an eye on that, although I don't think streaming is the biggest issue.

I'm guessing the biggest issue will be games. My son is an avid gamer, and whatever about updates, buying games will be a major headache. It may only be once a month, but if a single game is ~60GB, it will mean careful management of download times etc. That's a major pity, because one of the attractions of a fast Internet connection is being able to actually buy games online etc. without thinking about the download.

I would much rather a monthly 500GB limit rather than a daily 20GB limit. :-/

morgana

Dero wrote: »

I'm guessing the biggest issue will be games. My son is an avid gamer, and whatever about updates, buying games will be a major headache. It may only be once a month, but if a single game is ~60GB, it will mean careful management of download times etc. That's a major pity, because one of the attractions of a fast Internet connection is being able to actually buy games online etc. without thinking about the download.

I would much rather a monthly 500GB limit rather than a daily 20GB limit. :-/

Indeed that is the biggest issue, nowadays not many games are sold in brick & mortar shops with their poor PC selection and high prices. In some cases (Fallout 4 comes to mind) even buying the DVD copy would have still required a 40 gig download.
They should really look at that policy again, as I am sure, gamers are one of the major target groups for the service.

editorsean

I wonder if any of the games consoles gives the option to manually resume partial downloads. For example, try starting a game download, disconnect the network cable until the download fails and see whether it gives the option to resume or pause the download when the cable is plugged back in.

If the download can be paused or manually resumed after the network connection is lost, this would provide a potential option to use a metered router (e.g. Garoyle OS based) that disconnects devices after they consume a specified amount of data, such as 10GB per day. So a 60GB game could potentially be downloaded over 6 days in 10GB chunks, leaving 10GB each day for other Internet usage.

Dero

editorsean wrote: »

I wonder if any of the games consoles gives the option to manually resume partial downloads. For example, try starting a game download, disconnect the network cable until the download fails and see whether it gives the option to resume or pause the download when the cable is plugged back in.

If the download can be paused or manually resumed after the network connection is lost, this would provide a potential option to use a metered router (e.g. Garoyle OS based) that disconnects devices after they consume a specified amount of data, such as 10GB per day. So a 60GB game could potentially be downloaded over 6 days in 10GB chunks, leaving 10GB each day for other Internet usage.

You see, that's all viable, and there are various schemes one could employ to manage large downloads. However, the point remains that to a large degree, such micro-management of individual downloads somewhat nullifies the benefits of having a fast connection in the first place.

guil

On PS4 downloads can be started manually or paused anytime. Only downside is you generally can't play the game online until the update is installed.

So they ha e lied through their teeth about 12-7 usage, how long before they decide to lump 800, 1200 users per mast instead of the initial max 400?

morgana

Some routers allow to set bandwidth / download limits for devices.

mass_debater

So basically they've lied through their teeth from the get go. I predicted this was full of deception, I was right. Imagine have a history on here of shilling and lying

Mr Velo

morgana wrote: »

Some routers allow to set bandwidth / download limits for devices.

Hi Morgana,

I have just signed up and install is scheduled for next week.
I'm considering using Asus RT-N66U as the Wireless router - rather than the default Imagine one.
I think that's the way you have it set up also.

In terms of setting this up - do you set up the router as an access point? I know that comes as an option on the Asus.

km79

The main reason this excites me was for the Xbox one
I was happy to do updates from 12am to 7am
If that's gone I'd be damn near back to square one !
But I'm not in coverage yet anyway

morgana

Not true, earlier in this thread people have reported using the early morning period to download large files without being throttled.
So this is a recent policy change.

Johnboy1951

morgana wrote: »

Indeed that is the biggest issue, nowadays not many games are sold in brick & mortar shops with their poor PC selection and high prices. In some cases (Fallout 4 comes to mind) even buying the DVD copy would have still required a 40 gig download.
They should really look at that policy again, as I am sure, gamers are one of the major target groups for the service.

I would not have considered that gamers were the priority, but rather all those people who have no real broadband for general purpose use, in which case 20GB per day is ideal.

Dero

It may even be ad-hoc and per-mast, Internet weather dependent etc., but the lack of clarity and the mixed messages from Imagine don't help.

morgana

Mr Velo wrote: »

Hi Morgana,

I have just signed up and install is scheduled for next week.
I'm considering using Asus RT-N66U as the Wireless router - rather than the default Imagine one.
I think that's the way you have it set up also.

In terms of setting this up - do you set up the router as an access point? I know that comes as an option on the Asus.

Yes that is the router i use. And no, I just connected the WAN to the imagine router's WAN port and left the Asus it in automatic wireless network mode. If you configure it as as access point you loose a lot of the features you want the Asus for.
Works perfectly fine that way. Only thing I did was disabling the wireless network on the Imagine router. Feel free to PM me if you want more detail .

guil

morgana wrote: »

Not true, earlier in this thread people have reported using the early morning period to download large files without being throttled.
So this is a recent policy change.

It's a massive policy change in the space of 6 months.

Wing126

If they're changing policies like this, does that mean they will need to release people from their contracts without penalty, or do they have themselves covered for this somehow?