Poor signal problem solved... Got a Femtocell

Dr House · 14 Mar 2013 at 14:59

I have had real signal issues at home and in my office so I managed to get T-Mobile to sell me a microcell.

It cost just over £100 but I think it will be a life saver for me.

imb4tman · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:08

I got sent something very similar looking from Three when I complained about low indoor signal. Woks very well and mine was free.

Ricochet J · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:17

How does it work? Does it just plug into a spare ethernet socket in your router or something?

tom_e · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:20

Ricochet J said:
How does it work? Does it just plug into a spare ethernet socket in your router or something?

Yep that's the basics of it, it just gives you your own personal cell tower than runs through the web.

Dr House · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:27

I wonder if they monitor the IP addresses if not I could take it outside of the country.

Ricochet J · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:31

tom_e said:
Yep that's the basics of it, it just gives you your own personal cell tower than runs through the web.

What stops your neighbor from using the signal? Is the signal protected? My thinking is that if the Femtocell becomes over subscribed as too many neighbours use it it could mean:
1. You'll no longer have great mobile phone signal indoors.
2. May cause congestion on your home internet broadband rendering internet browsing to be rubbish and slow.

tom_e · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:33

It's set up to only allow specific numbers to connect to it.

Ricochet J · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:33

tom_e said:
It's set up to only allow specific numbers to connect to it.

Ah.

edscdk · 14 Mar 2013 at 15:35

Dr House said:
I wonder if they monitor the IP addresses if not I could take it outside of the country.

it does, one uk isp went via a german ISP so these cells did nto work on their network..

Dr House · 14 Mar 2013 at 18:23

edscdk said:
it does, one uk isp went via a german ISP so these cells did nto work on their network..

ah shame, so we need a VPN!

Fillado · 14 Mar 2013 at 21:42

I'm not sure if it's actually illegal to move it to a different location but I know for sure they need to know its physical location for emergency service reasons.

estebanrey · 14 Mar 2013 at 22:04

Ricochet J said:
1. You'll no longer have great mobile phone signal indoors.

I thought signal strength was based on distance, not on number of users :confused:

Scougar · 15 Mar 2013 at 01:01

estebarnrey... think 'interference' with the number of people all using the same signal. Also, performance will be degraded with a high number of users.... but it doesn't apply in this instance with a Femtocell :-)

stoofa · 15 Mar 2013 at 10:58

I've been using one of the Vodafone "Sure Signal" devices for a few years now. Absolutely excellent pieces of kit.
I get a full 3G signal everywhere in the house and half way down the garden too.
Think I paid £50 for mine as I was on a monthly contract over a certain amount.

davido_labido · 19 Mar 2013 at 08:49

i saw this last week, i too get poor signal at home, but im on three.

I emailed 3 and they rang me back yesterday, they proceded to tell me there were no signal problems in my area, but that for £130+ quid i could get a home signal box. I told them im not paying for it, as with that 130 quid i could just grab a half decent phone on another provider.

they are sending me one free, its coming today, between 3 and 4 pm.

not sure about yours but the three one can have up to 22 numbers stored on the line (for friends and family) but only 4 of them can work at any one time.

the box can be transferred to another address, but you have to tell them, so that they can set it up.

Terrier_Jimlad · 19 Mar 2013 at 08:55

Trialling the o2 version called BoostBox at the moment at work, seems to work well!

Rich_L · 19 Mar 2013 at 09:00

These are really neat but I swear the networks are on to something here - don't bother spending on infrastructure and not only will people pay you for the hardware but will then continue to pay subscriptions for the privilege of using your own broadband connection for bandwidth.

Genius idea really!

davido_labido · 19 Mar 2013 at 09:03

thats why i refused to pay for it. i said that i pay my contract not only for the phone and package, but for the provider to expand.

il post back on here after i get mine with first impressions!

413x · 19 Mar 2013 at 11:10

Grr I want one. Have just moved, me and my partner now get almost no signal, she's on contract with o2 I'm on PAYG with 3

Do you get 3g even if you wouldn't have it normally?

kbc · 19 Mar 2013 at 11:16

I need one of these for Vodafone. But I cannot believe they are charging £100 for the device. The amount of frustration I get by talking on the phone and the other person cannot hear me. :mad: