O2 Boostbox

[Ben]

O2 is, as far as I am aware, only the second mobile network in the UK to be officially selling a femtocell solution. Three are also offering one, called Home Signal, but I believe these are supplied at Three's discretion. O2, on the other hand, will sell you one, but you must be a business customer with 10 or more connections, unless you're on the trial. The only femtocell solution that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can go out and buy at this time is Vodafone's market-leading Sure Signal.

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Despite a very different exterior, I believe the Boostbox to be the same basic femtocell as Vodafone's Sure Signal, the current generation manufactured by Alcatel-Lucent. I think the Boostbox looks nicer, but in all honesty the Sure Signal isn't a bad looking box these days either. If anything the Boostbox may have slightly better range... perhaps that's something to do with the enclosure. There's not much in it, though.

What was a bonus for me was that the Boostbox connected within a couple of hours without any intervention. Sure Signal, on the other hand, wouldn't connect over my fibre internet connection for weeks until Vodafone added my ISPs IP range to a whitelist.

I have a large house with thick walls, and placed in the centre the Alcatel-Lucent box comfortably covers it all. Would I like another box for my garage and another to cover some of the garden? Sure, but that's a frivolity for another day.

Unfortunately there's still no call handover on these femtocell products, so when you wonder out of range your call will drop. It's mildly annoying, but will only affect you if you're wondering in and out of the house while you're on a call.

Visual Voicemail works, for anyone interested, and the box is broadcasting on 2100MHz as expected.

O2 doesn't have any sort of administration interface for the Boostbox, much like Vodafone when it launched Sure Signal. Now, however, Vodafone has a comprehensive online administration page where the owner can add and remove numbers instantly and at a whim. A telephone call to O2 is the only way to add new numbers to the Boostbox.

So there you have it. A mobile network (well, technically two for me now) in your house. A modern day miracle. I really do love technology when it works like this... I live in the woods, with fibre internet and 3G mobile coverage from O2 and Vodafone, and all because the market has provided it, not the state.

[Sajjad Rahman]

Great post, had a great time reading.

[Wilt]

and all because the market has provided it, not the state.

Hmm, the market may be able to provide to a few, but not to many. I don't personally know many (any) people with the resources to have fibre installed to the middle of the woods (or for that matter FTTP in a city centre), or anybody who can order ten business lines on a whim.

The market can provide anything if you throw enough money at it - the problem is, not everybody has that money. In a world where reliable data is becoming as important as the other vital utilities the state needs to stop those living in rural communities being left behind.

[Ben]

Oh absolutely, but BT have now taken Canterbury FTTC and included my village cabinet in the upgrade, so as of right now the same thing could be achieved at a much more reasonable cost using that and Vodafone's Sure Signal. Things seem to be moving in the right direction.

Femtocells in themselves are not something the state has had to mandate, but a response to a commercial requirement. It's interesting to me to see the market responding to these problems.

Even with the fibre, come to think of it, it was only BT's technical advancements in putting fibre up on telegraph poles that made it an option that could be considered.

10 years ago my house would have had diddly squat more than dial-up. What I'm saying is, the advancements have happened thanks to the market, not the state.

[Wilt]

Oh yes, the market is the primary source for innovation in most fields - if all national telcos were nationalised I doubt we'd be anywhere near the place we are now. For civilian use, anyway.

But there is a place for the state in terms of getting these advancements out into the sticks where it might not necessarily be considered worth it to private organisations. To be fair, femtocells are a bit of a fudge so mobile operators can at last attempt to cover those who are still not in reach of the 'proper' networks. Useful for some, I don't dispute that, but not a very elegant solution - the better solution would be to actually cover these areas but as I said, it's not really worth it for a private organisation. Perhaps this will improve if one of the 4G licenses stipulates a high coverage requirement.

[Hands0n]

@Wilt - I come from a time of nationalised industries. It was horrible. Working at telecommunications in London's The City I saw first hand what the state machine delivered. Crushing bureaucracy, stifled innovation (forbidden even) and workers bored out of their collective skulls, following union-mandated "Spanish practises" that would appear ludicrous today.

For example, it took a full 14 months to get a Telex line installed at our office. A telephone line would be a minimum of six months. Working for a City financial institution we could not wait this time for telecommunication services, and so it was the norm to bribe engineers to do the work. Everyone did it, or waited out the lead time.

Stifled innovation was the norm - the notion of connecting any equipment not supplied by The Post Office Telecommunications to one of their lines was abhorrent, forbidden. Fines could be levied if you were discovered. And so when private industry tried to make advances, in my case computerised Telex and message switches, these had to be connected via Post Office supplied DC3A "isolation" devices. Mounted in 6" cabinets these things were monstrous. They did nothing at all much that a simple pocket-sized filter would. One time, an engineer delivering one after a 12 month wait, was greeted by my line manager with a mild complaint. "Do you want this now or do you want to wait another 12 months?" was the humble response from the Post Office Engineer. Needless to say my manager shut up and behaved himself :)

So I make you right Wilt, if we were still nationalised we'd be in the dark ages.

We can see how the state still performs when we look at OFCOM. Here we have a regulator who is supposed to guide private industry, or the market, into supplying quality value services to the UK. They are supposed to make sure that we are not held back or disadvantaged by industry self-interest, every bit as damaging as the Post Office Telecommunications of old. Yet OFCOM have presided over the over-priced 3G auctions that actually hurt all of those that participated and has taken 8 years to get us to where we are today. They have presided over the current-day stalling of LTE auctions, allowing self-interest industrialists to cause delay after delay. Someone show me where OFCOM are regulating, mandating, LTE into existence so that we may at least compete with our European partners who are no doubt having a quiet chuckle at our expense.

Tricky, really.

[Sajjad Rahman]

@Wilt - I come from a time of nationalised industries. It was horrible. Working at telecommunications in London's The City I saw first hand what the state machine delivered. Crushing bureaucracy, stifled innovation (forbidden even) and workers bored out of their collective skulls, following union-mandated "Spanish practises" that would appear ludicrous today.

For example, it took a full 14 months to get a Telex line installed at our office. A telephone line would be a minimum of six months. Working for a City financial institution we could not wait this time for telecommunication services, and so it was the norm to bribe engineers to do the work. Everyone did it, or waited out the lead time.

Stifled innovation was the norm - the notion of connecting any equipment not supplied by The Post Office Telecommunications to one of their lines was abhorrent, forbidden. Fines could be levied if you were discovered. And so when private industry tried to make advances, in my case computerised Telex and message switches, these had to be connected via Post Office supplied DC3A "isolation" devices. Mounted in 6" cabinets these things were monstrous. They did nothing at all much that a simple pocket-sized filter would. One time, an engineer delivering one after a 12 month wait, was greeted by my line manager with a mild complaint. "Do you want this now or do you want to wait another 12 months?" was the humble response from the Post Office Engineer. Needless to say my manager shut up and behaved himself :)

So I make you right Wilt, if we were still nationalised we'd be in the dark ages.

We can see how the state still performs when we look at OFCOM. Here we have a regulator who is supposed to guide private industry, or the market, into supplying quality value services to the UK. They are supposed to make sure that we are not held back or disadvantaged by industry self-interest, every bit as damaging as the Post Office Telecommunications of old. Yet OFCOM have presided over the over-priced 3G auctions that actually hurt all of those that participated and has taken 8 years to get us to where we are today. They have presided over the current-day stalling of LTE auctions, allowing self-interest industrialists to cause delay after delay. Someone show me where OFCOM are regulating, mandating, LTE into existence so that we may at least compete with our European partners who are no doubt having a quiet chuckle at our expense.

Tricky, really.

Well said, tricky indeed.

[Ben]

Perhaps this will improve if one of the 4G licenses stipulates a high coverage requirement.
Unfortunately the auction process seems more designed to stifle innovation and build-out by having its primary focus on raising the maximum amount possible for the state; the belief of governments being that they better know how to spend money than the private companies that create it in the first place.

It has been my increasing belief that the high sums achieved in the 3G spectrum auction have crippled the UK mobile industry, resulting in consolidation and putting it on the back foot internationally. No, the UK wasn't the only country that went over the top on 3G bidding, but we didn't half push the boat out. I can't help but think that a paltry 80% population coverage requirement, backed by little to no enforcement, did as much to inflate the value of the licences as the dot-com bubble.

You're absolutely right, though. Proper conditions built into the 4G licences, which should have also been present in the 3G licences, would give a better outcome for the consumer. Unfortunately they would also devalue the licences, as bidders factor in additional infrastructure costs, which would mean less up-front money for the state.

Edit: I should probably add, as things get increasingly political, that as a Parish Councillor in a rural community I've done my bit to ensure the availability of high speed internet access for the Parish as a whole. I also actively campaigned for ADSL in the last village I lived at. In both cases, service was provided without further intervention from the state.

[gorilla]

With three claiming (http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Network/The_future_of_our_network) that they'll have 98.5% outdoor coverage I'm not sure how fussed I'll be on 4G (I know I'll probably be the first in the queue when the time finally comes) if 3G can indeed be widespread.

[Ben]

With three claiming (http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Network/The_future_of_our_network) that they'll have 98.5% outdoor coverage I'm not sure how fussed I'll be on 4G (I know I'll probably be the first in the queue when the time finally comes) if 3G can indeed be widespread.
They've done so well to come this far. But I think they really do need a solid femtocell strategy to complete the setup. They were >this close
I think we're starting to approach the limits of what can be done under 3G, though. Give it two years and we'll all be pining for 4G!

[Hands0n]

I think we're starting to approach the limits of what can be done under 3G, though. Give it two years and we'll all be pining for 4G!

I wonder about that :) I might agree if the cell density were to be too thin or is now set to stagnate while all effort and cash is ploughed into 4G. But experiencing Three at its best, with HSPA+21, that totally outstrips my ADSL provision, I wonder if there is at least a good five or more years left for 3G. That gives 4G some slack to build out and terminal prices to commoditise.