Femtocell or similar on Telecom NZ?

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RedJungle

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#72261 23-Nov-2010 17:55

Hi folks,

I have a client with very poor / near-non-existed Telecom coverage at their property. I know the likes of the Femtocell's were designed to solve this problem by using your broadband as backhaul - is anyone up to date on the play with these types of devices? specifically is there anything available on the market in NZ yet?

Cheers!

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#408443 23-Nov-2010 18:11

Would be nice, since I am in a telecom nz blackspot here. Otherwise one of those not really legal repeaters might be an option?

Richard rich.ms

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#409448 25-Nov-2010 13:30

Disclaimer - I am a Gen-i (Telecom) employee, but I'm not representing Telecom with what I've written here. I'm simply sharing information based on my experience.

Currently Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either. As far as I'm aware, there has been some investigation into this at Telecom, but the challenges in getting it to work in the real world are difficult. (Medium to long term, I think that the joint Telecom/Voda RBI bid (if accepted) would go a long way to solving rural/remote coverage problems.)

Re the unnapproved repeaters - my strong advice is don't go there. Both Voda and Telecom have made pretty direct statements about the risks these things pose to mobile networks from interference (despite what the vendors claim to the contrary) and they threaten prosecution if they find one. Not worth it. Too many $$ at risk here.

Depending on the size of the customer you could talk to Telecom about installing a Telecom Repeater. On XT the cost of these things has diminished significantly from what it was on the CDMA netwwork and there are more options too. There needs to be a commercial return attached to the investment in deploying the solution (ie it has to be worth doing based on the size of customer, volume of calling and data use etc) but Repeaters are deployed quite commonly now to fill in holes for specific customer needs. You can email me directly if you want me to explain in more detail how to go about this.

If all you need to achieve is to provide your base operations with a basic mobile communication improvement in the office, then if you have some mobile signal, a Yagi Aerial and a "Fixed Line Terminal" (FWT) (Huawei and others make 'em) will do the trick nicely. A FWT is basically a grunty mobile receiver that looks like a desk-phone, but accepts a SIM and connects to mobile - there are models that support either Voda or XT. Some models have ethernet ports too so can provide mobile data connectivity. I've trialled one of these in a pretty remote spot in hills where the best we could get was 1-2 bars of patchy coverage outside - and couldn't hold a call inside a building. The FWT without even a Yagi aerial worked really well inside the builing - really puilling the signal in and allowing great call quality. Its a good soultion for a fixed base and is realtively low cost.

I hope that helps :)

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#800898 17-Apr-2013 12:35

Jumping ahead to 2013.... any news that Telecom will be rolling out a femtocell offering for XT any time soon?

Thanks.

DjShadow

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#800900 17-Apr-2013 12:38

I did ask them a few months ago on Twitter and they said they were doing a trial

johnr

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#800925 17-Apr-2013 13:00

sothereiwas: Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either.

Vodafone NZ has been offering Femtocell for approx 2 years brand name is Sure Signal

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/

John

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#800929 17-Apr-2013 13:08

RedJungle: Hi folks,

I have a client with very poor / near-non-existed Telecom coverage at their property. I know the likes of the Femtocell's were designed to solve this problem by using your broadband as backhaul - is anyone up to date on the play with these types of devices? specifically is there anything available on the market in NZ yet?

Cheers!

Vodafone NZ offer Femtocell now well since 2011 if you would like a test unit let me know, The Broadband connection needs to be on Vodafone for it to work

Check out some of the comments from Vodafone NZ customers that are using them now

http://community.vodafone.co.nz/t5/Mobile-phones-and-cellular/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/td-p/58603

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#800930 17-Apr-2013 13:09

johnr:
sothereiwas: Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either.&nbsp

Vodafone NZ has been offering Femtocell for approx 2 years brand name is Sure Signal

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/

John

The need has always been greater for them on Vodafone due to terrible real world coverage footprint.

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#800933 17-Apr-2013 13:10

ajobbins:
johnr:
sothereiwas: Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either.&nbsp

Vodafone NZ has been offering Femtocell for approx 2 years brand name is Sure Signal

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/

John

The need has always been greater for them on Vodafone due to terrible real world coverage footprint.

We have 100s of customers using them now that have zero coverage from any mobile provider as of today

DjShadow

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#800938 17-Apr-2013 13:16

I do remember talking to a client on a mobile phone who mentioned he uses sure signal, I wasn't able to tell any difference in the Call Quality.

jfrance

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#800955 17-Apr-2013 13:31

The question was in regards to Telecom XT, not Vodafone.

jfrance

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#800966 17-Apr-2013 13:39

I would be delighted to trial an XT femtocell here in Hawke's Bay if anyone in Telecom can offer me one (thanks for the offer of the Voda version Johnr!!). Cheers.

johnr

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#800970 17-Apr-2013 13:45

jfrance: I would be delighted to trial an XT femtocell here in Hawke's Bay if anyone in Telecom can offer me one (thanks for the offer of the Voda version Johnr!!). Cheers.

The offer was for RedJungle but hey if you want to try one let me know or are you the client of RedJungle?

Sorry bit confused here

NonprayingMantis

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#800972 17-Apr-2013 13:48

johnr:
sothereiwas: Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either.&nbsp

Vodafone NZ has been offering Femtocell for approx 2 years brand name is Sure Signal

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/

John

note the date on the post.

this is a major thread resurrect

johnr

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#800976 17-Apr-2013 13:50

NonprayingMantis:
johnr:
sothereiwas: Telecom don't support Femtocell technology. I believe Voda don't either.&nbsp

Vodafone NZ has been offering Femtocell for approx 2 years brand name is Sure Signal

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/

John

note the date on the post.

this is a major thread resurrect

Holy crap batman you are right I did not even look at that

RedJungle

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#801013 17-Apr-2013 14:14

Lol, I didn't notice the date either (or that it was my thread!) so was totally confused for a minute there too John when you offered me one!

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