I've been to Oulton Park today and they had a temporary phone mast which was clearly o2 given the full signal and 3G coverage that worked most of the time. However I'm amazed as how do these things work?

It looked like something that was on a 3legged tripod and a few cream coloured boxes at the side. But where does the data connection go to these masts? Are they wired into phonelines at the venue or some sort of morcowave link to other masts?

It's not a mast, it's a cow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_on_wheels
http://www.techopedia.com/definition...-on-wheels-cow

Interesting. So in the UK are they mobile companies using satellite to haul the data as that sounds expensive? Is it more common to have some setup with the surrounding cell sites?

Vodafone do these too at festivals it was all promoted at one I went to a few years ago 👍

Most have a microwave back haul .... But both DSL and VSAT can also be used.

Yup, usually microwave.

So are these things cheap to install and usually shared between all operators or just something each network does to keep their own customers happy at large events?

I believe each network invests in them separately.

Cost wise, I have no idea.

It was clearly only one provider as I and several other people I knew up and down the pit lane could barely post a tweet. It was really poor signal by comparison to recent visits to Brands, Snetterton and Silverstone.

Yes a friend of mine on EE was complaining about it as he had full signal but would not make calls, texts or any form of data. However O2 certainly was working well in the morning and later afternoon - data seemed not to work during the peek period, but calls and texts worked on full signal.

That is a major improvement for O2 as usually Oulton is shocking and you get no network coverage on O2 all day. I think the local masts can't cope with the network load.

There were 3 different cream colored boxes next to the mast, hence I assumed that must be each of the providers?

I suspect that Oulton weren't expecting such a bumper turnout of people, but crowds do seem to be up at BTCC this year and so any infrastructure is going to be stretched. I do wish venue providers would consider mobile signal and load at events like this. They need to prioritise to get more capacity. We live in an age of social media and people love to share those types of experiences with their friends.

I think they knew about it, however I have nagged at O2 for years about covering the events like this at Oulton. Maybe others have done the same and finally this year they did something to improve the situation. I know EE has worked in the past, but maybe they have been removing mast sites as part of the share so now the local masts cant cope with the additional demands.

Do we know anything official on the crowd numbers yesterday from the BTCC?

O2 plug an EE 4G dongle that into the back of the COW.

Drinking again eh?

No, but now you mention it I think i'll go to the fridge!

So do they have to upgrade the capacity at the mast site that these temporary masts feed back to?

Not necessarily, just the onward transmission links.

Sometimes they change the parameters of the normal sites so that calls from the event don't go through them.... thus meaning that locals can still use their phones.

Some events have more than one temp mast from each operator.... but will depend on if there is any sponsorship involved. They wouldnt want to have their corporate branding everywhere with people unable to make calls......

Parklife at Heaton Park had a temporary mast - 75,000 people. Must admit I saw plenty of people on O2 perfectly fine, but my Vodafone phone and Three wifi dongle ground to a halt pretty quickly. So presumably was only an o2 mast.

Biggest issue as such was the lack of data - iMessage obviously didn't work. So messages sent as texts were fine. But frankly data isn't the vital one, I'd rather they priorities voice and text over data, which they appeared to do.

How did you know they were on O2, were they wearing special T Shirts or something ?

They were jumping around and looking ecstatic because they finally saw a '3G' icon on their phone?

Full signal does not mean that you will be able to actually make calls or have data. All its saying is you can connect to the tower.

Does anyone know if three ever have temporary cell sites at Glastonbury?

I found out that it was patchy and when I could get reception, it would be unusable - texting, calling and internet didn't work.

O2 normally do, so can only assume TMO/Three/EE will too.

That was the problem at Oulton as when it got busy the data dropped off, calls and texts were fine. At the start and end of the day it was all fine though and getting some impressive data speeds.

I wonder if the networks rent the masts from some company for events or if they have their own supply of temp mast sites that they just move around the UK as and when required?