Something whiffy about Vodafone’s Sure Signal booster
Vodafone Sure Signal
- Made by Alcatel Lucent, Vodafone's Sure Signal box is what the industry terms a "femtocell" - essentially a mini cellsite.
- It's roughly the size of a modem, and sits inside your home, or business, rerouting cellphone calls to your landline broadband connection
- A business version, which beams a 3G signal over a 40m radius and supports up to 8 cellphones, costs $1033.
- A home version (pictured), which beams a 3G signal over a 20m radius and supports up to 4 cellphones, costs $349 (a $99 launch deal applies until March 15).
- There's a 14-day moneyback guarantee if it doesn't work at your place.
- Requires a Vodafone broadband landline (won't work wiht other ISPs)
- Visitors phones can use a Sure Signal too, but only devices with a Vodafone SIM can connect
- Connection is automatic.
- Calls, txt and data are charged at the normal rate for your mobile plan; DSL data is unmetere
Vodafone helicoptered journalists to Bethells Beach to show of its new Sure Signal product, a gadget you can place in your home, or business, to boost poor mobile phone reception.
A real-life local couple was chosen to demonstrate Sure Signal, which has been on the market for a couple of weeks.
A remote west coast beach was a nice, uncontroversial place for the demo. It’s a location where nobody expects good cell service from any carrier.
They should have come to my place.
I happen to get lousy reception from Vodafone (and, unlike the tormented couple in the promo video below, whom you’ll notice has tried a bunch of different handsets, one conspicuously badged Telecom), I do get good reception from other carriers.
That’s not to bag Vodafone. Reception is a function of how close you are, and how many obstacles lay inbetween, you and the nearest celltower operated by your mobile provider. In another property, I could just as easily get strong Vodafone reception, but a weak XT or 2degrees signal.
And the official video (above) deserves points for honesty. It unashamedly addresses the fact that some homes have terrible reception. That’s just a fact of life. Especially given so many moan about poor reception in the same breath they object to any phone company planting a new celltower in their neighbourhood. So good on Vodafone for addressing the problem squarely with Sure Signal.
But here’s the thing.
Sure Signal - essentially a mini 3G cellsite - works by connecting your cellphone (and the cellphone of anyone who visits your home or work) to your landline broadband connection.
But if you want to plonk a Sure Signal box in your home (or work), your landline broadband account must be with Vodafone. Now, again I can see some logic here.
Alas, I was unable to attend the launch, but I checked in with Geekzone’s Maurcio Freitas, who told me Vodafone put forward various arguments for tying Sure Signal to one of its landlines, including quality-of-service, and the fact that associated data was unmetered (that is, doesn’t count toward your broadband plan’s monthly data cap).
I’d like the choice to pay for the associated data (which would easily fit inside my monthly cap).
But, perversely, as things stand, if I bought a Sure Signal box ($99) to cure my home’s lousy cellphone reception (and I am quite tempted), I would have to switch my landline to Vodafone.
For delivering me lousy reception at home, Vodafone would be rewarded by gaining my broadband business.
And some who are already on Vodafone, I suspect, will just find it too gauling a prospect to pay the telco for a gadget that makes up for gaps in its network (which only covers 40% of the country geographically, if 97% of populated areas). Still, if you live in an area that's way out of range, or blocked by an inconvenient urban volcano, you might just relent.
Telecom’s turn
Incidentally, Sure Signal – in industry jargon, a femtocell - is made by Alcatel Lucent, most famous in these parts for being Telecom’s hardware partner of many years.
And ironically, I first discussed femtocells – more than a year ago - with Alcatel Lucent staff, at their office nested inside a Telecom building.
Somewhere, there’s someone with lousy XT reception at their place, hoping Telecom will release its own version of Sure Signal (I’ll let you know if I hear anything on that front, or from 2degrees).
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Comments and questions52
Vodafone's reception is ridiculously poor, seem like they are beating around the bush here. Why not just put the towers up that are required to run a network properly. Not being able to get reception 15 mins from the centre of a city the size of Auckland can only be described as 3rd world. It baffles me as to why anyone would be on the VF network.
"third world" - bit of an exaggeration there Mr 2 degrees. Third world wouldn't have a cell phone.
But I do agree with your point about cell towers, and Chris's assertions about forcing the landline change based on poor cell coverage.
Actually, 3rd world has some of the best mobile infrastructure. (they lack wired infrastructure)
I would rate Vodafone NZ as worse than 3rd world.
The only reason Vodafone customers even need something like Sure Signal in the first place is because of Voda's appalling network reception.
The best kept secret in telco circles surely has to be Vodafone's reception which feels third world given it's drop out and fail to connect rate.
Our business was convinced into switching from XT to Voda with assurances that reception and service were equal if not better. The truth is, it's not within a bull's roar of Telecom XT. We now have another 18 months of our contract before we can switch back and are one unhappy customer.
Kristina, I know a large part of the Eastern Suburbs including St Heliers, Glendowie & Kohimarama where reception is almost non-existent on the VF network. If 2degrees and Telecom can provide full reception, there no is reason why VF can't do the same. It is an absolutely disgraceful service.
Interesting that Voda can't provide decent coverage in Auckland but Steven Joyce is giving them $185m for RBI to deploy rural broadband on old 3G! Telstra today announced a massive LTE roll out this year. Joyce and MED say LTE isn't ready - do they know something that Telstra and Verizon and Vodafone Germany (all LTE) don't know?
WOuld there be any MTR rates payable to Voda in this product if you were not on a Voda mobile plan, or is that only if you call Voda mobiles?
Yet again, I am currently in discussion with Vodafone over how many times a day my service drops off in Kohimarama!
In Wellington over the weekend, and the service was fine. But here in Auckland, it sucks!
Mr Happy if only if putting up new cells was that easy! Maybe you need to go speak to the protesters on behalf of Vodafone
Telecom's have had its probs, for sure (with XT and all) but I wouldn't change from them for quids. Been with their mobile network since its inception in 1987(?)
For those on expensive contracts, one should come free, especially since it takes load of their towers.
Also, it isn't restricted to certain handsets so you pay the $99 and your 4 vodafone neighbours hog your suresignal!
Also, paying expensive mobile data rates even though you are using essentially a broadband connection (though your phone should switch to wifi so not a real issue).
It's clearly a business decision by Vodafone NZ. As an expat living in the UK I have the UK version of suresignal. Over here tt works on any broadband connection.
S
It's clearly a business decision by Vodafone NZ. As an expat living in the UK I have the UK version of suresignal. Over here tt works on any broadband connection.
S
In the UK Vodafone launched Sure Signal locked to certain handsets which the new purchaser defined. It was a PITA because every time someone came to visit you'd have to add them to your white list.
Leaving it open makes much more sense - and if you try to make a call and discover other users hogging your connection, unplug it and plug it back in. That'll sort them.
Cant wait for them to deploy RBI then!!
I used a sure signal in the UK and it was a god awful experience. Event though it had a whitelist of phones it would allow to connect, if anyone was streaming video or using lots of internet, the sure signal was unusable. The people I stayed with said that there had been huge problems with it and sites like the register and engagdget mobile highlight this. Max out your brodband allowance and get throttled and I'd wager that the sure signal would be a sure dud
In New Zealand - Sure Signal is Unmetered for your Home BB Data cap - so Data will not be deducted off your cap.........the article also mentions this!
@G yes the sure signal doesnt count against your allowance but if you exceed your allowance by other means (e.g. normal use) then your sure signal surely wont work :) as it needs more than the near dial up speed of a throttled connection
Simple Solution - don't go over your BB Cap :-)
what about those of us that want to purchase more data but vodafone does not provide anyhtiong higher than 30GB(60GB if doubled)
I can use up 10GB easily while streaming 1080p movies from hulu/netflix
do they not want my money?
Wow! All the Telecon & 2 Degrees staff member are out in force today aren't they?? Whine, whine, whine, is all they can do - yet they FAIL to provide a similar product to their customers, who have poor or no coverage!!!!
For Vodafone customers who have poor signal strength, this is a great solution for them & at the Intro' Price of $99 - you can hardly go wrong. Not forgetting - you also get a FREE Vodafone BB Complete Router & 14 Day Money Back Guarantee.
http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/index.jsp
There are plenty of areas where Telecon & 2 Degrees don't provide coverage & Vodafone does (some parts of the Canterbury Plains, parts of Central Otago & Lake Waikaremoana, just to name a few).
At the end of the day - this article is about providing usable Mobile Coverage to a Vodafone customer, who otherwise would not have adequate or any coverage at all & for those people - that can only be a good thing!!
@G thats rich as you're obviously a vodafone apologist... petty stuff aside, it should surely be about providing coverage and not needing to flog these over priced boxes
Vodafone continue to increase & improve coverage.
See here:
http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/topic/140-new-coverage/
However, like ANY network - there will be blackspots - this device helps to fix those & for a device 1/10th of the price of a Smartphone (as an introductory offer) you can't go wrong really.......
G these people sond like disgruntled customers from voda to me. Id also be annoyed if I had to pay this price for shonky reception, especially when vodafone are using MY broadband to make up for their poor network... most reliable network? YEAH RIGHT!
You obviously have little, to no knowledge about the limitations of Mobile Networks.
Read this:
http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/topic/7283-boost-your-bars-with-vodafone-sure-signal/
Exerpt from above link:
“Mobile signal strength isn’t always a case of how near you are to a cell site. It can be affected by New Zealand’s unique topography, or the location or type of building you’re in - living in a basement, high apartment building or being close to hills and valleys can result in a weaker signal, even in cities with lots of cell sites,” says Tony Baird, Vodafone New Zealand General Manager – Network and Services."
The above statement can apply to ANY Mobile Network - just accept that fact & move on.
So what is "your broadband" is used to enable the service to work?? The Data used for this service is "unmetered" it won't affect your Data Cap.
Why is it that ALL the other networks can reception throughout the Eastern Suburbs, but Vodafone can't.
A bit funny VF has to keep making excuses and coming up with products like this. They are a joke.
Simple dont go over your data allowance??? You obvously dont have kids - what planet are you on??
Then restrict their access - there is more to life than the Internet - what planet are you on??
Living on a hill in St Marys Bay with unobstructed views of the Skytower I have very poor reception from Vodafone. I also have a Telecom mobile which is far superior in reception quality but on the odd occasion when I have had issues with my Telcom mobile at least they were honest that there was a problem. Vodafone has lied time and time again when asked about reception problems until finally after five weeks recently of almost non existent reception a Vodafone engineer called me and admitted that work was done on Vodafone's Cook St cell site which reduced load capacity and "Vodafone thought they would get away with it with most of the CBD away for a few weeks"!!!!
What has that got to do with Sure Signal, other than nothing at all??
This ain't a Vodafone Hate Website ffs!
For that - kindly post on Geekzone!
Leaving the BS Vodafone bashing aside - check out this video, from the Vodafone Press Release for this new product, it's interesting, informative & talks about a lot of technologies in general:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLs3mAzY_oU&feature=player_embedded#at=167
G
Thanks G Ill stick with another provider youve convibnced me that I really shouldnt bother. If your attitude is indicative of what Ill get from voda Ill go elsewhere. No doubt most families will do likewise
I agree - G's attitud epretty much sums up[ vodaphones cust service to a T
100% pure arrogance which is something vodaphone cannot afford when other choices exist...
So I have to fork out my hard warned cash for a sure signal? and worse still, let voda use my broadband because they are too lazy to build a proper mobile network? Penalising customers like me for their inabulity to provide coverage just sucks. No wonder there are so many agitated replies to this G person who is obviously a vodafone staffer
Wow. Some good discussion - and then crappy whining - which is all a bit off-topic.
I think it's a cool piece of kit - and no doubt Telecom will be offering something similar some time soon.
Femtocells have been in use in the States for a couple of years now - and of course in the UK as some people mentioned.
I have a mate who works in an office that is pretty much a concrete bunker. They don't get any signal from any network.
This would be perfect for them
or they could just use their <*gasp*> landline? I hear they work fine in a concrete bunker :)
TXT messages don't work that great on landlines. Nor does that iPhone Twitter App.
I think this says it all http://www.itnews.com.au/News/248165,vodafone-hit-by-nz-network-issues.aspx
So it proves that the iPhone is a piece of crap - what's new??
Steevo - I'd rather my staff just got on with work and didnt muck about on company time with text messaging, iphone or twitter etc.... Landlines are simple and they dont need this box of tricks
That's nice, Anonymous. For my work, TXTing IS for business and essential for the company - not personal stuff.
If it doesn't suit you - or you just don't get it - stop talking about it.
Add something useful instead of being a Black Hole.
I can't get ANY broadband services on my landline and goodness knows I pleaded for it.
I can't get Vodafone or Telecon cell phone coverage and I pleaded for that too.
I do have a broadband connected via a neighbors house over 2Km away using WiFi after spending money and putting in a lot of work.
But... they use Orcon as their ISP (great service BTW) So why would they change to Vodafone? Anyway there is a device to allow me to use my cellphone at home but its useless to me as I can't connect through another ISP! What dick in Vodafone specified that rule? Come to NZ and grow your business... yeh right!
@ IT Professional
If you viewed the You Tube video link I posed - it mentions that Vodafone are bringing out a device that can be used with a Satellite service......
Sure Signal Product Launch Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLs3mAzY_oU&feature=player_embedded#at=167
I notice from your post that Telecon can't provide you any Mobile services either - so why not have a dig at them as well??
I note that Vodafone Sure Signal in the UK does not mandate a Vodafone broadband connection - any 1+ Mbps connection from any ISP is fine. The restiction in NZ with Sure Signal to work with Vodafone broadband connections only is an artifical, contrived restriction imposed by a monopolistic-mindset that is clearly immoral and would surely be illegal in most civilised countries (maybe even in NZ?)
I have p*ss poor Vodafone reception at home and would buy this unit in a blink of the eye were it not for my ISP being TNZ. I suppose when we have govt-sponsored ultrafast broadband in the future we'll still have to pay Vodafone for the privilege of being able to use their mobiles where they can't be ar*ed to fix up their signals. Our ISP's suck.
I'm in the UK where we also have this box - except, it costs just £50 and supports 32 phones (google for 'vodafone sure signal uk')
I can't believe Vodafone are ripping you guys off there - when they supply the same box for next to nothing here.
$400 a month average bill on Voda.
Poor customer service.
Poor coverage.
They seem like the last 10 years have been focused on marketing and sponsoring cool events to attract new customers. Then once you are a customer the service is crap.
Moved to 2 Degrees.
Reception not better but my bill is down from $400 to $120.
Hi all, suresignal still uses broadband data. Your neighbours will be enjoying full speed 3G at the cost of your broadband data
check out these two recent threads:
1. (mypost) - http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/topic/7516-is-your-suresignal-3g-data-adding-to-your-fixed-line-broadband-data-usage/
2- http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/topic/7525-sure-signal-data-use/
I made this video to demonstrate how much
Sure signal has turned out to be NOT SO SURE SIGNAL! Bloogy oath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayolgUKG8zA
Love this, "For delivering me lousy reception at home, Vodafone would be rewarded by gaining my broadband business"
I made the mistake of changing broadband provider to Vodafone and taking up sure signal.
1. I live in Pt Chevalier and there is no 3G coverage at my house and I work from home. While I don't need 3G the device and network don’t cope with this and often device is off-line with calls going straight to voicemail or calls dropping during set-up or after a period of time.
2. Within a day of transferring my home line and broadband (required to get Suresignal) it was disconnected in error and took 48 hours for them to return my call after lodging fault, turned out the error which was due to Voda not provisioning the line correctly!
Oh and I had to drive for 5 minutes to make the call to them as no coverage at home.
3. Almost immediately after getting the line and while I was overseas for 2 weeks Voda sent a firmware update to my ADSL router (without my knowledge) this disabled voice calls to the house for over 2 weeks. My 4 children and nanny had no way of contacting me while I was overseas and none of us knew the line was down!
4. Even with the Suresignal, within line of sight, I can barely hold a call for more than a few seconds. It seems to switch from the SureSignal to the looking for the public network and the signal drops.
I have reported this problem several times and each time they provide me a reference number, every time i call back and quote the reference number they have no record of either the reference number or me calling!
My advice to anyone considering Vodafone or the Sure Signal is don't believe the hype or promises I have only ever experienced over promises and under delivery. I am in the process of investigating other providers, problem is my company has over 3000 connections with them and have a degree of loyalty, but this is changing due to the many issues.
I bought a sure signal on the intro offfer earlier this year. Its been good for my situation which isn't an unusual one. I live in a sunny north facing valley on the fringe of urban sprall and my cell reception is marginal on all 3 networks. I was already on VF bb as they offered Naked bb at the best rates I could find. Sure signal has done exactly what it promised. Txts have intermittedly backed up though, and coverage for my partners 2d phone has worsened. I've had no problems with call quality, even with 2 lines open while voiping on same dsl connection. Not suprising when its 17Mb/s down and 1.3 up.
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