Poor Mobile Phone Reception

[Charles Hunt]

Land line. Fax. Telegram.

(Do the latter still exist?)

[stevelup]

We've had the O2 one in our office since August - it works perfectly.

3G data speeds are fantastic as well and match our internet line speed almost 100%

They do two versions - the 'standard' which can handle four concurrent calls and is not meshable, and the 'large' which can handle eight concurrent calls as well as multiple units being meshed together to cover a larger area. We have a single 'large' unit and it covers our 3750 sq ft of mixed office and warehouse without any problem.

The 'standard' is £150 (which is more than twice the cost of the Vodafone SureSignal - despite being identical hardware...) and the 'large' is £250

Although it is not actively promoted I believe home users can buy the 'standard' one by calling customer services

[nbayliff]

Out of curiosity (if anyone there is in the know) why does this technology need a 1MB line ? Surely all you need is 64kb/s for the voice and a bit extra for the overhead.

As it is using VoIP, I guess it needs to be certain of non-contention for a path when your family are also using the broadband. I have one from about a year ago, not sure if Mk1 or 2, but it works fine. Turns one bar into full five. It cost £50.

[NickS]

During one sales call from Vodafone I had a conversation that went roughly like:
"Do you have any issues with our service?"
"Yes, reception at home is carp"
"We have a box that will fix that. It costs £75"
"It isn't worth it to me. I use a landline."
"you can have it for £50"
"no thanks"
"How much is it worth to you?"
"Nothing - It is only my son's phone on Vodafone"
"OK, I shall send you one free of charge."

It is still in its box.

Nick

[wonko the sane]

Presumably, though, they don't lock it to specific mobile phones, so everybody else in the area benefits from it. Much like the BT FON WiFi - you get WiFi, but so does everyone else walking past your house/office.

[Colonel Panic]

The Voda femtocell used to be limited to a certain number of handsets (?6?).

[stevelup]

On the O2 product you have to register the SIM serial numbers for the handsets that can access it.

You can add (I think) 10 on the standard unit and 100 on the bigger one.

[Elecy]

The Vodafone sure signal requires you to add the phone numbers to be allowed access, via a Voda website portal thingy. Up to 32 numbers can be registered.

Mark