[Ben]

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-accessories/vodafone-sure-signal

Can now be had for £120 or £5/mo on a £25+/mo tariff.

Better, but not by much. And still the only one :(

[Hands0n]

Or, can be had for a one-off £50 if you are on a £25+/Mo tariff


What is Vodafone Sure Signal?

Vodafone Sure Signal gives you a strong mobile phone signal in your home - no matter where you live. Using your home broadband, it boosts the signal throughout your house for up to four people at the same time. And it's really easy to set up.

Do you need Sure Signal?
If you live in a mobile signal blackspot - places in the UK where mobile operators are unable to give customers a strong enough signal in their homes - Sure Signal is for you. You just need home broadband with a minimum line speed of 1Mbps, plus a 3G mobile phone.

What does it cost?
Sure Signal is available from just £50 as a one-off cost - or you can get it for only £5 a month from your local store. What you'll pay is based on your price plan.

It almost makes me wish I were in a poor signal area ROTFL :D

Now if O2 had come out with this they might not have lost my business. But they didn't. And they have.

[getti]

I wonder if the rename has anything to do with the actual name. How many people will walk into a Vodafone store, speak to a salesperson and ask to buy a VAG :D

Good marketing from Vodafone on this though, on every phone and all over the windows they have guaranteed signal stickers up and that on its own is a powerful message to have especially with the new handsets they have in the N900 and the iPhone 3GS

[Ben]

Can't really fault mine. Unfortunately with no mobile signal comes no real ADSL, so I don't really have the bandwidth to do it justice. Hopefully if I can get that sorted it'll really come into its own!

For people with bad at-home reception on all networks Vodafone really is the only option. But what an option it is.

[solo12002]

Sorry but i dont agree. To me this is just another way of the networks screwing money out of you for their failure to provide a decent service. If the signal was that bad in my house i woule moved network before I suppy them with more money.

The B check of it is you paying them to use your own Broadband to make calls over their network not only are you screwed to buy the thing but you are screed the price of a call over their net.

Nice one

[Ben]

Oh totally. But what about where there's no mobile coverage on any network? That's true for me.

We should have the choice, as it's our bandwidth, whether to open up the femtocell for 'public' use. Pre-registering numbers is a pain in the arse sometimes.

[Hands0n]

Actually Orange do something very similar with their Blackberry handsets - See here --> https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7616

Femtocells are also UMA devices and use the same principle of the customer's ADSL service to route handset traffic (calls, sms, mms and mobile data). Only in Orange/Blackberry's case - once you set the Blackberry up to use your WiFi it will automatically go into UMA mode when you get within range even without your knowing. I wonder, then, how many people are unknowingly using their own ADSL to route Orange calls etc.

At least with the Vodafone Sure Signal it is offering its customers a way out of the "no signal" problem that a lot of people can face. There are at least two dips in the local landscape here where there is zero signal from any mobile network operator. Femtocell is the way forward for these areas.

[3GScottishUser]

Just saw this as it is being promoted now on facebook.

£50 for you own personal Picocell is a bargain!

[3GScottishUser]

Just had to post another issue re this device.

OK so I pay the £50 and fit the device and it uses my home broadband to route calls.

Fine but if it's using my home broadband that means it's not using Vodafone's wireless network and rerouting using VOIP will be much cheaper for Vodafone.

How come I still have to pay the standard call tarriff then if I provide the wired bandwidth and Vodafone only provide what amounts to some IP routing and convert my 3G handet to the equivilent of a DECT/IP Phone device?

[miffed]

I've never understood it myself , seems really weird to pay vodafone to route calls (which you have already paid Vodafone for once !) through your phone line (which you are also already paying for !) -So that you'd pay for that call 3 times ! Twice to Vodafone , and once via your broadband -
It's like some kind of OCD , If you talk to someone face to face in the street , do you feel the need to time the conversation , then pop a cheque in the post to Vodafone for it ? ;)

Or maybe the ultimate in Vodafone customer satisfaction would be to feed the VAG with a 3G router (powered by a Vodafone SIM of course !) - that way you could pay Vodafone 3 times ! ..... oh , wait - there'd be no signal would there ? :rolleyes:

Tee hee hee ! :D

[Hands0n]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, come come now :)

The whole idea of the Femtocell technology is for use where the Vodafone airtime signal is inadequate or non-existent. There are plenty of such locations around our tiny little island.

In such cases, where the customer has ADSL, they can then regain the use of their mobile for voice/sms/mms etc. in the immediate vicinity of the Femtocell. Otherwise you're out of contact on your mobile number which may, or may not, be important to you. Some might define being out of contact as agreeable ;)

I'm not sure what @miffed is on abaht re paying three times? There is no cost to your broadband, it is incumbent, already there - unless of course you were daft enough to get the broadband in for the sole purpose of supporting the Femtocell. Then you're only paying Vodfaone a one-off charge of £50 for the Femtocell itself, it is then yours to keep for life. And so the only other cost is the actual call charge itself which is either the minutes from your included bundle or any out of bundle call costs if you've gone over.

Tee hee indeed :D :D

[gorilla]

The whole idea of the Femtocell technology is for use where the Vodafone airtime signal is inadequate or non-existent. There are plenty of such locations around our tiny little island.

Ok, I take your point. Why then dosen't Vodafone provide it free for the life of the contract? Or, if reception is that bad offer to cancel the contract?

Ok, in Ben's case he would be no better off.

What we really need is a transportable booster, so that you can take the device with you and plug it in to an electric socket and boost your coverage indoors. My work is never going to approve 'Sure Signal' or any other such device, but if you could bypass IT and just plug it in yourself it could then be a viable option.
You could also presumably take it on trips and plug it into your hotel room etc.

Let's not forget that the vast majority of people live in urban areas, where there is at least one mobile operator offering good coverage. This is not going to be a successful product.

[miffed]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, come come now :)


I'm not sure what @miffed is on abaht re paying three times? There is no cost to your broadband,



Stop paying your bill and see what happens ! :D


Ah , so do you no longer have to pay LR on the femtocell ? If so then perhaps things are getting more like they should be ! I thought you had to pay LR on the cell itself as well as your Phone ?

[Hands0n]

Ah , so do you no longer have to pay LR on the femtocell ? If so then perhaps things are getting more like they should be ! I thought you had to pay LR on the cell itself as well as your Phone ?

No, it is a one-off charge to purchase the femtocell and thats it. How much you pay depends on what your contract fee is. I guess Vodafone are taking it that with a femtocell you are going to use up more of your minutes and texts on their network rather than going to another means of communications.

Thinking ahead, I suspect that in due time Vodafone will be offering the femtocell fully inclusive in the contract fee where the customer has marginal or no signal. It could be the differentiator for a customer to select Vodafone rather than go off to another mobile network supplier.

All mobile network operators are going to have to adopt femtocell. Orange customers with Blackberry handsets are already catered for via the built-in UMA.

[Hands0n]

Ok, I take your point. Why then dosen't Vodafone provide it free for the life of the contract? Or, if reception is that bad offer to cancel the contract?

Those are great ideas, and I wonder if 3 [again] are not doing a bit of trail-blazing themselves in that respect. Of late they allow you to get out of your mobile broadband contract if the reception/speed in your area of use is poor. I'm not sure how you quality for contract termination, perhaps they are able to pull records of your experience. But it is certainly a first and very customer-friendly step of theirs. Other operators may have to follow suit if this catches the public's eye.

Of course, if 3 are focussing on the customer experience, they will absolutely have to address their perpetual demon, that being their off-shore customer services centre that has cost them so dearly in reputation, goodwill and actual churn away of customers.

[gorilla]

If google voice was ever to make it over here, then this would totally negate the need for a femtocell.

Example: I have a generic landline number (that telcos allow you to call at the standard rate) that I give out as my number. This gets forwarded to my mobile when I'm not in wifi.
If, I live in a house with no coverage, but I have wifi then google voice kicks in and I can make and receive all the calls I need.

Quite possibly a scenary that will never happen here, but none the less an alternative.

I just think femtocell's are not the answer.

[Hands0n]

I just think femtocell's are not the answer.

I'd agree, but they are "an" answer. Google Voice is an attractive proposition in the USA where people pay to receive their calls on mobile. But there are commercial hurdles for Google to overcome in the rest of the world [pretty much] where the operators make their money on termination charges instead.