Posted by Bonovox
I have been reading recently about Vodafone & O2 carrying out trials for something called Femtocells. These Femtocells apparently improve 3G coverage indoors in peoples homes. Has anyone heard of this and when it will be rolled out? Will anyone be able to have these in their homes if they have poor coverage? Im curious :-S
Posted by imazz
Quite a good page on the BBC about it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6916125.stm
Posted by Bonovox
Oh cheers. Be nice to know when trials will be over its been a long time.
Posted by carkitter
From Wikipedia's GSM page:
"There are five different cell sizes in a GSM network—macro, micro, pico, femto and umbrella cells...
...Femtocells are cells designed for use in residential or small business environments and connect to the service provider’s network via a broadband internet connection."
Networks are finding that although they want to roll out faster 3.5G and 4G network infrastructure and customers like us want it too, no-one actually wants to pay much to have it.
Market research has found that it costs about 900 Euro per subscriber to build a cellsite with the latest technology but if a personal cellsite about the size of a wifi router which plugs into a landline broadband connection was supplied to customers the cost would come down to about 200 Euro per subscriber. Assuming a fibre optic connection to the home, the lower traffic through the femtocell compared to a macrocell would mean data speeds closer to the peak levels.
Plus enthusiasts like me might even pay the 200 Euro cost to get 7.2-42Mbps HSDPA or 150Mbps LTE speeds. Otherwise the cost could be subsidized in the same way as a USB modem is, on a 24 month plan.
Basically it's all about the money. Mobile data going forward has to be cheap to get near universal takeup and the conventional infrastructure is too expensive to get a return on investment.
Personally, I can't wait - I'd have a femtocell in a nanosecond. I guess I'll have to have the landline reconnected at some point in the future to enable it though. I've been mobile only since 2006.
Read more about femtocells here:
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/May200[....]le_3G_LTE_User_Experience.html
or here:
http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/news.php?id=80
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-05-27 13:24 ]
Posted by Bonovox
Wow great insite into it there thanks. But do you think then pay as you go customers wont be offered one of these guess pay as you go customers would have to buy one
I guess too this could really help with future home coverage where people are struggling with a signal. Lets hope. [ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-05-27 18:06 ]
Posted by coolharsh55
great!!!#this tech has got a long way to go
#and we have a long wait to make..##
till they become affordable!
Posted by carkitter
Yeah, pay as you go subscribers who want the benefits of a femtocell would have to pay upfront, but a femtocell won't be compulsory to get 3.5 or 4G. There will still be new technology rolled out to existing cellsites and you'll still be able to use a future phone in the same way the a current one is used for data. It's just that you can either wait for your network to eventually roll out the new technology and hope that distance, weather, terrain (hills/trees) and the construction of your house/workplace don't degrade the signal too much, or pay for a femtocell and have Wifi like performance.
It's not that far away. The pressure is on to roll out LTE (4G) and femtocells are going to be crucial in keeping the costs down, especially in a recession.
Posted by Bonovox
Yes indeed and alot more happy people with coverage at home. Though i cant see 4G happening anytime soon when 3G is still quite poor in many areas of the UK. I would be happy to pay up front for one
depending on cost.
Posted by coolharsh55
i dont think there's any point in 4g for common people.... we already have just been utilising 20%3g..... all these times
there's still a lot more bandwidth into 3g iteself...
so we will see better speed and tech on 3g...
how i wish i get a portable femtocell with 3.5g and unlimited data coverage!!!!
i think that would be saying i got nirvana!
Posted by carkitter
4G is just beginning in Sweden and the US is raring to go. I think the yanks have realised that they're so far behind on 3G that they might as well just skip 7.2, 14.4, 21 and 42 Mbps 3G and go straight to LTE; can't say I blame them. This will hasten the appearance of some LTE handsets, modems and LTE equipped netbooks/laptops I hope.
Posted by Bonovox
Well the US needs to get ahead on something cos i can imagine its a hard place to roll out coverage.
Posted by masseur
more on this topic in this BBC article
Vodafone is to start selling hardware that makes it easier to use a mobile in the home.
...
The Access Gateway will go on sale on 1 July for a one-off purchase of £160, a monthly charge of £5 or as part of a £15 per month mobile deal.
Posted by faissel
What is the different between 3G and 4G I THink 4G it is fast than 3G but what is their advantages (4G)
Posted by Bonovox
4G might be as good as home broadband. But in the UK 3G coverage is still so patchy they will be biting off more than they can chew if they start going on about 4G.
Posted by masseur
so is anyone here planning to buy one of these products (that sound more like a feminine hygene product)?
I definitely can't see me getting one. 3g for iphone on o2 is not brilliant in my area but its adequate, and for data, I have an almost 50mbit fibre optic line for my downloads! but if I didn't I would probably have at least an 8mbit line and still wouldn't want one of these
I can only image that vodafone assume that unknowledgable people will be buying these at £160 a pop!?
Posted by Bonovox
I guess if people dont want to move networks and their coverage looks like never improving then it could be a worthy investment for mobile home coverage. By the way your 50mb downloads i presume your on Virgin? Is it what its cracked up to be? When i first heard about 50mb speeds i was sceptical at first.
Posted by masseur
um, ok, I don't actually get 50mbit... but by 3 separate speed tests I get around 48mbit which is close enough
it took Virgin engineers 3 attempts to get me that speed though otherwise I wasn't going to pay for it
fortunately, I have 200mbit A/C adaptor thingys through the house in the various rooms that have PC's, and my vaio has 802.11n wifi to make use of it too
coming from BT, then Sky ADSL with max 8mbit, I'm well impressed
Posted by Bonovox
Wow 200mb
I recently seen on the news about still large parts of the UK still have dial up speeds. Oh dear. We are very far behind on tech in the UK.
Posted by masseur
well, these 200mbit adaptors achieve that through the electricity supply of the house, but if they are only fed by 48mbit thats all you get. But when I finally get the server setup I want (i.e. several terrabytes of HD space) with videos etc then it will hopefully work better for that than any current broadband delivery
Posted by Bonovox
Oh through the electric i see. And terrabytes blimey try not to blow the house power up now lol. At present i dont have home broadband i use an Orange mobile modem. Its ok for my use i used to have a 3UK one but found their network slow where i live cos of poor coverage. My best friend in Hungary she lives out in the sticks there by lake Balaton and she still has slow dial up speeds its awful. Anyway im off to sleep now got a day of packing to do tomorrow am off to see family in Ireland on Friday. Ciao
_________________
DON'T LET THE B*****D'S GRIND YOU DOWN!!
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2009-06-25 02:07 ]
Posted by imazz
Some more info:-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/26/vodafone_femtocell/
Posted by carkitter
On 2009-06-24 14:20:00, Bonovox wrote:
4G might be as good as home broadband. But in the UK 3G coverage is still so patchy they will be biting off more than they can chew if they start going on about 4G.
Exactly.
3G at 3.6Mbps should be ok for home broadband but it was revealed recently that the UK gets on average 1.0Mbps through 3G and that's even using some 7.2Mbps capable towers. The problem therefore is getting the signal from the macrocell (celltower) to the handset and femtocells remove a lot of that problem. Can you imagine 4G arriving and networks advertising speeds up to 155Mbps and then delivering 1/7 of that speed due to traffic and signal decay? They'd generate even more negative press than they get now over 3G speeds.
@Massuer
OOOh! Ethernet over power - Nice!
Is it secure? I've heard that the signal travels to your neighbours power sockets too. Do you get many lost packets or interference of any sort?
Posted by Superluminova
Vodafone is really pushing these to our staff, should be good for customer in patchy areas like me, but i think i will need to upgrade my broadband from 2mb, damm Virgin. lol
To be honest we don't expect man people to buy these they will be bundled in with packages etc...
Posted by masseur
On 2009-06-29 23:46:08, carkitter wrote:
snip...
@Massuer
OOOh! Ethernet over power - Nice!
Is it secure? I've heard that the signal travels to your neighbours power sockets too. Do you get many lost packets or interference of any sort?
works perfectly in my experience, and apparantly the signal does not go out of your house
this is what I use and here is their FAQ for how safe and secure it is, including an item on exactly your question
Posted by Superluminova
Ok can finally inform folks of pricing:
12 month connection: £10pm
18 month connection: £7pm
24 month connection: £5pm
£160 to buy outright.
It will also be bundled into selected price plans.
Posted by lukechris
On 2009-06-29 23:46:08, carkitter wrote:
@Massuer
OOOh! Ethernet over power - Nice!
Is it secure? I've heard that the signal travels to your neighbours power sockets too. Do you get many lost packets or interference of any sort?
I've used those for nearly 2 years now, yes their safe, they just lose connection if a neighbour gets one, just reconnect them and walla
Posted by Bonovox
I cant get one of these yet. But i have a question. I currently am back with O2 pay and go and their internet still leaves much to be desired. At the best of times its slower than Vodafone GPRS lol. Anyway i would love to go back to Vodafone cos i love their pre pay tariff but where i live there is zero 3G unless i stand in my garden
Now with that in mind i now know O2 and Vodafone have tied up to share networks and O2 have perfect 3G coverage where i live. My question is how long does it normally take for masts to start being shared and can i ring or mail head office at Vodafone and ask them to put things up a gear for the masts to be shared by me? Its been since 2002 that Vodafone where i live to this day that they still have no 3G where i live. GSM is perfect.