[Hands0n]

There seems to be some confusion about the Sure Signal pricing being put about on other forums and blogs. I'm not sure why as it seems reasonably clear to me. So for the sake of clarity here it is in a nutshell.

Vodafone, in February 2010, is offering the device for a one-off cost of £50, or £5 per month for a year, to home users on plans of £25 or more per month. For home users on plans of less than £25 per month, Sure Signal will cost £120, or £5 per month for 24 months.

The Sure Signal offers a minimum1Mbps download when connected to a broadband line, and can be registered with up to 32 different mobile phones and used by up to four Vodafone handsets at the same time.

Many more questions are answered on the Vodafone Sure Signal FAQ (http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template12&pageID=PPP_0162) page

The Sure Signal Broadband Checker (http://vodafone.femtolite.epitiro.com/vodafone.htm) can be used to test whether your broadband line is suited to support the device.

Hopefully that will help clear up any FUD :D

NB: Router Firewall could cause problems.
The Sure Signal needs TCP port 4500 open for it to communicate with Vodafone. If your initial registration of the Femtocell does not work then check that TCP port is open or set up Port Forwarding on your router to allow the device through.

If setting up port forwarding you'll need to establish a fixed IP address for the Sure Signal.

[Hands0n]

For further reading I have posted below URLs to a few blogs that caught my eye as I was researching this technology.

1. http://blog.hargrave.org.uk/2010/01/vodafone-sure-signal-review.html
2. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/30884/vodafone-access-gateway-femtocell-relaunches-sure-signal (the readers comments alone make this an entertaining read).
3. http://www.itpro.co.uk/619615/vodafone-rebrands-femtocell-system-as-sure-signal
4. http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49304799,00.htm - includes some useful user experience
5. http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs/chrisoldroyd/archive/2010/01/23/vodafone_2D00_access_2D00_gateway_2D00_review_2D00 _sure_2D00_signal.aspx - a nice practical review complete with pictures (grammatical errors abound!)
6. http://www.whatmobile.net/Reviews/accessoryreviews/283707/vodafone_access_gateway_sure_signal_femtocell_revi ew.html

[Ben]

I should add that while they state a 1mbps minimum mine happily accepts the 300k up and down it gets. There were two concurrent calls on it yesterday and I was bumped off onto the external Vodafone network without the call dropping (I had a whopping 1 bar of 2G, I wonder if that's why it picked me...) but it doesn't complain and handles one active user no problem.

[The Mullet of G]

I should add that while they state a 1mbps minimum mine happily accepts the 300k up and down it gets. There were two concurrent calls on it yesterday and I was bumped off onto the external Vodafone network without the call dropping (I had a whopping 1 bar of 2G, I wonder if that's why it picked me...) but it doesn't complain and handles one active user no problem.

Can I ask a question, I expect there is a perfectly reasonable answer, but why is yours restricted to 300k both ways?

Also I'm guessing this uses your broadband connection, which is kinda cheeky, they make you pay for the Sure Signal, then for coverage on their network, but its the broadband that your already paying for thats doing all the work. That right there, is an absolute genius business model, and while it is tremendously beneficial to people in low signal areas, I really hope the allure of money for nothing doesn't sway the networks away from genuine improvements to infrastructure.

[Ben]

Aside from being devoid of mobile signal, ADSL also barely functions at my new place :(

[Hands0n]

Also I'm guessing this uses your broadband connection, which is kinda cheeky, they make you pay for the Sure Signal, then for coverage on their network, but its the broadband that your already paying for thats doing all the work. .

In practise that is it in a nutshell.

Think of the Sure Signal (a Femtocell) as a local transmitter mast with the complete kit and caboodle in a small modem-sized box. Your mobile phone/s are able to switch to it seamlessly as if they were to any other regular UMTS (3G) mast out there in the wild. And this Femtocell completes the analogy by using your ADSL service as its own backhaul link into Vodafone's core network in the same way that all full-sized transmitter masts use their own backhauls into Vodafone's core.

All that has really happened is a case of miniaturisation. This technology is completely useless to anyone that does not have a terrestrial broadband service.

As a business model it makes superb sense in that the Sure Signal will help reduce customer churn. And I think that Vodafone have made it all the more palatable by their pricing of the tech - at £5 for 12 months it is an absolute steal to anyone who cannot stump up the £50 up-front cost.

I do expect that, in time, Vodafone and others will be handing these out like candy to those in areas of no signal. O2, for example, may just have kept my business with them had they a Femtocell to give me some kind of 3G service where I live.

[The Mullet of G]

Aside from being devoid of mobile signal, ADSL also barely functions at my new place :(

Eeek nightmare, I'm guessing its an extremely nice house then that you were willing to do without mobile signal or broadband? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel as it were?


In practise that is it in a nutshell.

Think of the Sure Signal (a Femtocell) as a local transmitter mast with the complete kit and caboodle in a small modem-sized box. Your mobile phone/s are able to switch to it seamlessly as if they were to any other regular UMTS (3G) mast out there in the wild. And this Femtocell completes the analogy by using your ADSL service as its own backhaul link into Vodafone's core network in the same way that all full-sized transmitter masts use their own backhauls into Vodafone's core.

All that has really happened is a case of miniaturisation. This technology is completely useless to anyone that does not have a terrestrial broadband service.

As a business model it makes superb sense in that the Sure Signal will help reduce customer churn. And I think that Vodafone have made it all the more palatable by their pricing of the tech - at £5 for 12 months it is an absolute steal to anyone who cannot stump up the £50 up-front cost.

I do expect that, in time, Vodafone and others will be handing these out like candy to those in areas of no signal. O2, for example, may just have kept my business with them had they a Femtocell to give me some kind of 3G service where I live.

Basically its a WiFi router for mobile phones, for want of a more basic explanation. I wonder how long it'll be before we actually see the first WiFi router with built in Femtocell? Maybe they could could it FiFi, yeah I'm gonna copyright that. :D

[Hands0n]

There is a 9-minute video that explains Femtocell technology here http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26293 Quite a good bit of viewing for those who want to know more about it.

Reference in the video to T1 (1.5Mbps) backhaul translates in the EU to E1 (2Mbps) typically, we don't use T1s here.