[Lifeboatman]

So does a femto use the phones radio signal on 3g and your home broadband then? I..E. you don't need to turn on your WiFi on your phone? I know a celfi works by boosting the signal but still uses the mast for the connection. Is a femto in a way the same except it uses your broadband instead meaning if the local mast was out of action it would still work? Also what would the range be compared to a WiFi router etc? Cheers

[Daveoc64]

Originally Posted by Lifeboatman

So does a femto use the phones radio signal on 3g and your home broadband then? I..E. you don't need to turn on your WiFi on your phone? I know a celfi works by boosting the signal but still uses the mast for the connection. Is a femto in a way the same except it uses your broadband instead meaning if the local mast was out of action it would still work? Also what would the range be compared to a WiFi router etc? Cheers

A femtocell is (as the name quite literally means) a very small cell site (what people often refer to as a "mobile phone mast").

It transmits the same signal that a full sized mobile phone mast does, just at a lower strength (so that it only covers a typical house).

When your 3G phone (or other 3G device) picks up the signal, it connects to it as if you were out and about using the 3G network.

All of the data from the femtocell (including phone calls, text messages and internet) is fed through your broadband connection back to the mobile phone company who then forward the calls/texts/data on to the right destination.

[Lifeboatman]

Originally Posted by Daveoc64

A femtocell is (as the name quite literally means) a very small cell site (what people often refer to as a "mobile phone mast").

It transmits the same signal that a full sized mobile phone mast does, just at a lower strength (so that it only covers a typical house).

When your 3G phone (or other 3G device) picks up the signal, it connects to it as if you were out and about using the 3G network.

All of the data from the femtocell (including phone calls, text messages and internet) is fed through your broadband connection back to the mobile phone company who then forward the calls/texts/data on to the right destination.

Thanks for that - sounds like the solution in my home if i stay with Orange at the end of the year...lets hope they do roll something out before then and I may be able to get one when re-newing my contract! Maybe I could be a guinea pig for Orange testing one out in a location where i have an iffy indoor signal or else it jumps between various masts on 2G/3G depending where I am in the house. I'm in the communications industry so maybe Plymouth could consider it....Plymouth...?

[plymouthbloke1974]

Originally Posted by Lifeboatman

Thanks for that - sounds like the solution in my home if i stay with Orange at the end of the year...lets hope they do roll something out before then and I may be able to get one when re-newing my contract! Maybe I could be a guinea pig for Orange testing one out in a location where i have an iffy indoor signal or else it jumps between various masts on 2G/3G depending where I am in the house. I'm in the communications industry so maybe Plymouth could consider it....Plymouth...?

Trial came to an end 2 weeks ago

[sparky93]

i'd like to trial one too. see how it gets on within reach of my ham radio gear lol.

[DevonBloke]

I've been waiting for one ever since Vodafone launched their Suresignal Femto. Set several of these up for my customers and they are brilliant. One guy in my home village who lives in a dead spot (there's not even a sniff of a signal on ANY network outside his house) loves seeing the reaction of his friends while he's walking around indoors talking on his mobile.
I personally live in an old house with 3 foot thick walls and a 1-2 bar signal outside so I would love one. I have a 2.5 meg ADSL connection so it should be fine. have had the Suresignal working on a 512Kbps connection but it can drop out if your PC starts downloading something. Anything over 1Meg seems to be fine.

[paulker]

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

I've been waiting for one ever since Vodafone launched their Suresignal Femto. Set several of these up for my customers and they are brilliant. One guy in my home village who lives in a dead spot (there's not even a sniff of a signal on ANY network outside his house) loves seeing the reaction of his friends while he's walking around indoors talking on his mobile.
I personally live in an old house with 3 foot thick walls and a 1-2 bar signal outside so I would love one. I have a 2.5 meg ADSL connection so it should be fine. have had the Suresignal working on a 512Kbps connection but it can drop out if your PC starts downloading something. Anything over 1Meg seems to be fine.

Do you think a femtocell would work well with 40 meg down and 9 meg up

[plymouthbloke1974]

Originally Posted by paulker

Do you think a femtocell would work well with 40 meg down and 9 meg up

Depends on how much HD porn you're downloading

[paulker]

Originally Posted by plymouthbloke1974

Depends on how much HD porn you're downloading

[DevonBloke]

So let's see.....
20 Hi Def porn streams would swamp your connection.
You might need to only be viewing 18-19 simultaneous streams in order to make a call............... with your spare hand!
Hahahahahahahhahahahahah.....
I normally don't use "LOL" as it's the sort of thing teenagers use on Facebook and you shouldn't laugh at your own jokes but I am LMFAO!

[interactiv-uk]

Plymouth, can you see if EE are trialling a different 3G sharing set up in and around the Darlington Orange offices? I've noticed seamless switching between T-Mobile and Orange lately without the phone going down to one bar before switching - it just seems to jump between maintaining the strongest of the two signals which works brilliantly! Up in Newcastle today it was back to the 1 bar threshold but as soon as I got back to Darlington I noticed the difference.

[wrexham103.4]

Originally Posted by interactiv-uk

Plymouth, can you see if EE are trialling a different 3G sharing set up in and around the Darlington Orange offices? I've noticed seamless switching between T-Mobile and Orange lately without the phone going down to one bar before switching - it just seems to jump between maintaining the strongest of the two signals which works brilliantly! Up in Newcastle today it was back to the 1 bar threshold but as soon as I got back to Darlington I noticed the difference.

that sounds good

[sparky93]

Originally Posted by interactiv-uk

Plymouth, can you see if EE are trialling a different 3G sharing set up in and around the Darlington Orange offices? I've noticed seamless switching between T-Mobile and Orange lately without the phone going down to one bar before switching - it just seems to jump between maintaining the strongest of the two signals which works brilliantly! Up in Newcastle today it was back to the 1 bar threshold but as soon as I got back to Darlington I noticed the difference.

I have noticed the same but Im in Redditch, Worc's.(on 3g. 2g still 1bar)

[louisg]

Originally Posted by plymouthbloke1974

Trial came to an end 2 weeks ago

Any ideas of launch date and price?

[plymouthbloke1974]

Originally Posted by interactiv-uk

Plymouth, can you see if EE are trialling a different 3G sharing set up in and around the Darlington Orange offices? I've noticed seamless switching between T-Mobile and Orange lately without the phone going down to one bar before switching - it just seems to jump between maintaining the strongest of the two signals which works brilliantly! Up in Newcastle today it was back to the 1 bar threshold but as soon as I got back to Darlington I noticed the difference.

This seems to be what we have in the South West.... my phone switches whenever it damn well feels like it lol

[plymouthbloke1974]

Originally Posted by louisg

Any ideas of launch date and price?

Nothing as yet, no.

[Skippy2005]

Originally Posted by interactiv-uk

Plymouth, can you see if EE are trialling a different 3G sharing set up in and around the Darlington Orange offices? I've noticed seamless switching between T-Mobile and Orange lately without the phone going down to one bar before switching - it just seems to jump between maintaining the strongest of the two signals which works brilliantly! Up in Newcastle today it was back to the 1 bar threshold but as soon as I got back to Darlington I noticed the difference.

We have it in Wakefield too. It makes my 3g coverage far more solid

[Lifeboatman]

My Desire HD is showing no bars before switching although still holding a signal (just) and I've had dropped calls too. The signal seems worse at moment. None or one bar 3g indoors then either loosing network briefly or jumps to 2g. This is compared to fulll 3g signal on O2. Still teething problems or maybe a mast is down in Exmouth area of Devon..? I'd definitely prefer switching at a higher signal strength threshold.

[DevonBloke]

Still working properly here in the South Hams (Totnes area).
From what I can tell speaking to various people, it does seem to work better on iPhones.
My 3Gs switches whenever it damn well feels like it too (even if it's got a strong 4 bar signal). My wife's iPhone 4 also does this as does my borther's 4s.
Some freinds with Galaxy's and HTCs have more problems.
What's that all about?

[mogzyboy]

My iPhone (4S) seems to switch whenever it feels like it, too. I get 4 bars on both Orange and T-M where I live, and it just seems to pick one at random.

I'm about fifteen miles north of Cardiff, and 3G is excellent around my town (both networks).

[DevonBloke]

It must rely to some extent then on how the handset itself deals with roaming (as this is still essentialy what it's doing).
Does anyone else in the South West (which is apparently using a "better" more dynamic version of Smart Signal), who has something other than an iPhone find it works ok or do you have issues with switching i.e. the handset won't switch unless it's down to a very low or no signal?
Let us know.

[-ajm-]

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

It must rely to some extent then on how the handset itself deals with roaming (as this is still essentialy what it's doing).
Does anyone else in the South West (which is apparently using a "better" more dynamic version of Smart Signal), who has something other than an iPhone find it works ok or do you have issues with switching i.e. the handset won't switch unless it's down to a very low or no signal?
Let us know.

My W995.

[interactiv-uk]

I don't know if it's something to do with the SS config, but if I manually select the Orange network on my iPhone 4S and then return the phone to automatic network search, the signal jumping is a lot "stickier". If I manually select T-Mobile and thn auto it works a lot better. I'm a TMO customer btw...

[sparky93]

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

It must rely to some extent then on how the handset itself deals with roaming (as this is still essentialy what it's doing).
Does anyone else in the South West (which is apparently using a "better" more dynamic version of Smart Signal), who has something other than an iPhone find it works ok or do you have issues with switching i.e. the handset won't switch unless it's down to a very low or no signal?
Let us know.

the switching seems to be working as if the networks are one. hops around nicely and not waiting to drop to 1 bar.

this is the same on both 2g and 3g.

fones tested are
nokia e71
htc chacha
orange barcelona
samsung galaxy ace
nokia n95

even my old working moto mr30 with cc sim is 'roaming' to the best signal :-)

[mogzyboy]

I asked this question on the O2 network outage thread, and didn't really get an answer, so I'll try again... Lol.

If such a problem happened to Orange/T-M as what happened to O2 this week, would it be such an issue? Would phones just hop onto the other network? Or would the home network still need to 'give permission', as it were, to allow the phone to 'roam'?