3G Signal Booster

[Tomo1971]

AstonZagato said:

I hadn't heard of the O2 Boostbox, so I tried looking for it one their website. Nothing obvious. So after some "live chat", it turns out that it is only available to business customers,

But 3 of my 5 phones are out of contract so I can make one of them a business phone at an almost identical price and get one.

It seems a bit mad but there you go.

Any downsides to being a business customer?

Dont need a boost box with O2.... they have an app (android for sure, maybe iToy too?) called Tu-Go

http://www.o2.co.uk/tugo/want-it

[AstonZagato]

Except it isn't very good. Ok for sending texts but doesn't seem to connect calls reliably. Especially incoming calls.

[Mr E]

AstonZagato said:

Except it isn't very good. Ok for sending texts but doesn't seem to connect calls reliably. Especially incoming calls.

Can it handle mobility?

[NDA]

Pints said:

To activate your Signal Box you'll need to call Customer Services.

If you’re an Orange customer call 0800 079 0275
If you’re a T-mobile customer call 0800 956 3146
If you’re an EE customer call 0800 956 6141

Thanks very much.... Really appreciate it.

AZ...... EE do not offer the box to anything other than business customers. So I dropped a nice email to the CEO of EE explaining that signal was rubbish and that I was a non exec of several media companies and spent much of my time working from home. I asked how I could acquire the box. He sent me one. Immediately. And I had a follow up call from his office to see if all was ok.

It might be worth a similar note to the CEO of O2. It's only an email and you might get lucky.

I don't know how the 02 box compares... The EE one is brilliant, the Vodafone one, rubbish. Also worth adding that the range isn't huge - so you need to be in a roughly 3 room radius of the box. Therefore siting it is important - particularly if you live in a palatial gaff mate!

[AstonZagato]

I think it flakes - it tries to flip from wifi to 3G and fails.

[Dodsy]

EE hand them out to anyone with a poor signal , just call 150 on your phone and complain and it arrives next day by courier for free :-)

Love this thread, some really good info and clear explanations of how things work.

[Mr E]

AstonZagato said:

I think it flakes - it tries to flip from wifi to 3G and fails.

Wifi (probably gan) to legacy telecoms is potentially tricky. Possible, but tricky...

[broadcaststorm]

Dodsy said:

EE hand them out to anyone with a poor signal , just call 150 on your phone and complain and it arrives next day by courier for free :-)

Love this thread, some really good info and clear explanations of how things work.

T-Mobile have been promising me that I will receive one "In a few days" for 3 months now.
Shocking service.

[Dodsy]

broadcaststorm said:

T-Mobile have been promising me that I will receive one "In a few days" for 3 months now.
Shocking service.

Sorry should have said, got mine from T mobile last week for free :-)

[Walter Sobchak]

How do you get one on EE?, I've just moved from GiffGaff(O2) where the signal wasn't great but passable at home to EE where the signal is pretty much non existent unless by a window.

[Dodsy]

Walter Sobchak said:

How do you get one on EE?, I've just moved from GiffGaff(O2) where the signal wasn't great but passable at home to EE where the signal is pretty much non existent unless by a window.

I got mine from Tmobile by calling 150 then telling them my 2 phones no longer work since they became EE as they have turned one of the transmitters off. My understanding from the conversation is that if you are in a poor service area they just send one out. Of course its an EE box you get not a tmobile one, I assume that you call up EE and they do something similar.

[NDA]

EE told me 'business customers only'.

So it's clearly not a consistent approach.

[skilly1]

I have just had one delivered from 3 mobile. It arrived the next day, plugged it on and works great. Just told them I have no reception on the house (which i don't), they checked a few things and sent one out the next day.

[Nice But Dim]

I only amanaged to get an EE booster box from my neighbour whose business had provided it for him..... He claimed for him it did not make much difference and hes now moved.

But for us its ace.

[Pints]

Mr E said:

Without getting too far into exactly what the box does, a typical 3G call is 12k2 AMR. So 12.2Kbps.
Raw user data for a 20 minute call with 100% voice would be 14640Kb (bits).
Calls aren't usually 100% talking (unless your mother is like mine and stuck on transmit). So, the codec will drop into silent mode and reduce that number a bit. But let's stick with ~15Mb (bits) DL or UL (or both) for a call of 20 mins.
Let's ignore setup signalling as negligible.

The traffic is protected between the small cell (the box) and the security gateway to prevent anyone else looking at the contents. So, let's assume ~20% overhead for security because I don't want to to the maths properly and I don't want details of our actual solution on a public forum.

I make that 18Mb (bits). Nowhere near the 9MB (bytes) quoted above.

In reality, if you assume 50% silence in each direction on a call, and the same security overhead, you get a number nearer 9Mb (bits) (silent frames aren't free).

I suspect you're correct and someone has got their bits and bytes mixed up.
I also wonder if the source of the numbers quoted was me...




WideBand AMR improves voice quality but is also heavier on bandwidth.



(Arse-covering disclaimer. The above is off the top of my head whilst drinking tea and eating a twix. It is not peer reviewed. It could well be wrong. It does not represent my professional view and has nothing to do with my employer. Frankly if you use for anything other than a discussion point on this thread you're insane).

Edited by Mr E on Friday 10th January 15:43

In your experience, what is the approximate range of the signal booster box?

[Mr E]

Pints said:

In your experience, what is the approximate range of the signal booster box?

Honestly, utterly dependant on the model (we have different units with different capacities and output powers), configuration and radio environment.

I know that's a crap answer, but it really is a site/config dependant question.

[Walter Sobchak]

I read something about the 1800 Mhz signal(EE) not being as effective at reaching indoors as the 900 Mhz signal (Vodafone and O2) I don't know how true this is, though in my it would make sense.

[Mr E]

Walter Sobchak said:

I read something about the 1800 Mhz signal(EE) not being as effective at reaching indoors as the 900 Mhz signal (Vodafone and O2) I don't know how true this is, though in my it would make sense.

The higher the frequency, the more easily it's stopped by walls/clutter.

900Mhz penetrates better than 1800. 3G was initially at 2100Mhz and LTE is going to be all over the place depending on operator.

[luketheblue79]

Hi folks,

Just a quick question before I purchase one of these boosters, I only need one for the next 4 months, after I've registered it and used it, is it possible to un-register it when I no longer need it and then I can flog it to someone and it will still work for them properly?

Thanks in advance

Luke

[survivalist]

You can, but you need to de-register the sure signal with vodafone before you kill the contract. For security reasons they can't enable a sure signal that's registered to an existing account to a new customer