Vodafone at Home

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#94803 12-Nov-2007 12:25

The easiest thing to do is just see what kind of 2G cellphone coverage you get on your property. The reason for not specifying coverage in a particular house is that it's just too difficult to do reliably from the network point of view. Your property might be in a shadow, it might be built of a strange material... the tin-foil hat might be on too tight... just about anything.

However, if you get 2G coverage on your property then you can use the at home service.

For example my uncle-in-law is a farmer in Matamata. He gets 2G coverage in one corner of the cowshed. He can now plug in an at home box and have a DECT cordless phone (with a range of what, half a kilometre?) and can walk around the house or ride around the farm happily making free toll calls to landlines in NZ.

I think that's pretty cool.

Cheers

Paul

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jarodcn

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#94805 12-Nov-2007 12:28

Could i add at home service to my current mobile no.?

grant_k

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#94806 12-Nov-2007 12:29

bcourtney: I'd love to know what sort of service level guarantees there are for this. It's hugely tempting (although not where I live currently as we don't get reliable GSM coverage).

The main concern I'd have is that VF employees on these forums make it PLAINLY clear for all that VF only guarantees coverage to the street and that the results from the coverage tools on the website are given with this in mind...

Coverage from Vodafone is dicey as it is when out in the open, but what sort of guarantees are made around reliability or suitability for any given location?

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea and would be tempted to convince family and clients to look in to going down this route, but not if the service is flaky.

Such is the nature of wireless communication. In areas with a strong signal it's great, but in fringe areas, it will work in some places on your property, but not others.

The beauty of a gadget like Vodafone at Home is that you could put it up in your roof (assuming it's made from tiles rather than corrugated iron), or in any other place with good signal and access to power, and run a telephone extension cord back into a handy jackpoint within the telephone wiring system of your house. Just make sure you snip the connection to Telecom's cable at the Point of Entry and then Bob's your uncle -- you have phone service throughout your house without the need for a landline.

As with anything wireless, if you are in a fringe area, you will need to wander around with your cellphone and work out which places have the best signal, then work out how to get power and phone cables connected to that place.

For non-technical people, it wouldn't be worth the bother, but for anyone with basic wiring skills, it is a piece of cake

EDIT: As Paul says above, just use a DECT cordless base station plugged in to the Vodafone at Home box and then you don't need to worry about the phone cable at all. In our case we use a High-Powered Cordless Phone called Voyager, which gives about 2km coverage all around our property in all the areas where the Vodafone signal doesn't reach.

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#94808 12-Nov-2007 12:33

grant_k: ... Just make sure you snip the connection to Telecom's cable at the Point of Entry and then Bob's your uncle -- you have phone service throughout your house without the need for a landline.

But you'll run into the possible problem of not enough power current on the line to power all wired phones in the house. There's no indication whether @home box supply power down the wire to all connected phone devices.

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grant_k

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#94809 12-Nov-2007 12:37

chiefie: But you'll run into the possible problem of not enough power current on the line to power all wired phones in the house. There's no indication whether @home box supply power down the wire to all connected phone devices.

I have used a PAP2T ATA and now a WRTP54G VoIP router and both of them happily power all the jackpoints in the house with DECT Phone, Long-range Cordless, Fax Machine and MySky connected.

That's 4 devices and we never had any problems with lack of line current or the ringing signal. Modern phones draw very little current so I don't see any problem with Vodafone at Home in this regard.

kfella2000

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#94811 12-Nov-2007 12:39

The best answer to that would be to replace all corded phones to a DECT cordless phone system where you can have about 5 or 6 cordless phones running off the one base unit that connects to the At home box

sleemanj

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#94812 12-Nov-2007 12:39

But what about incoming calls? Do you get a local number, in an area code of your choice, or is it a mobile number meaning people are gonna have to pay to call you?

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chiefie

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#94813 12-Nov-2007 12:40

grant_k: ...with DECT Phone, Long-range Cordless, Fax Machine and MySky connected.

That's 4 devices and we never had any problems with lack of line current or the ringing signal. Modern phones draw very little current so I don't see any problem with Vodafone at Home in this regard.

BUT... that's 4 devices which already have their own power supply! normal wired phone draws power from the line, which with hard wire, the power comes from the Exchange.

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VFNZPaulBrislen

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#94814 12-Nov-2007 12:40

Re: more than one phone in the house, the at home box has two jack points on the back... so feel free to plug in a landline in one (curly corded) and a cordless in the other... and if you REALLY want more units, feel free to buy a new corldess phone that has a slave unit as well (I think Uniden have one like that but there'll be others).

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
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Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

chiefie

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#94815 12-Nov-2007 12:42

sleemanj: But what about incoming calls? Do you get a local number, in an area code of your choice, or is it a mobile number meaning people are gonna have to pay to call you?

I think, in most likelihood, it will be a local number. To minimise the confusion of people not willing to pay for a "local" call. Beside, it is marketed as @Home service, so naturally it would be a local number.

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#94816 12-Nov-2007 12:42

sleemanj: But what about incoming calls? Do you get a local number, in an area code of your choice, or is it a mobile number meaning people are gonna have to pay to call you?

YES, you get a local number in the area where you are located. Remember that Voda recently had to go to the ComCom to force Telecom to offer Local Number interconnection, or else this new service wouldn't be possible.

NO, it's not a Mobile Number, just a local number which is free to call within the respective LICA.

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#94818 12-Nov-2007 12:43

PaulBrislen: ... and if you REALLY want more units, feel free to buy a new corldess phone that has a slave unit as well (I think Uniden have one like that but there'll be others).

All DECT cordless phones must operate with a master unit and slaves.

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willnz

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#94819 12-Nov-2007 12:43

Hi Guys,

It appears I'm the first Vodafone At Home customer in the country. I'm pleased to say that yes, it is possible to get your mobile, broadband, and At Home services on the one bill.

So far so good, just waiting on the device to be sent to me by urgent courier (which Vodafone are covering the costs on) - so I should be able to tell more in the next few hours :)

I highly recommend Dave Gailey and Luciano (not sure of spelling on that - sorry! :P) at Vodafone Sylvia Park (the only store in Auckland currently selling At Home). These guys were awesome! Store number is 09 909 4420. Tell them I recommended you! :P

Cheers
Will

EDIT: I was assigned a 09 948 XXXX number, and all national calls are free (any NZ landline). Mobile calls to Vodafone are 39c per minute, Other networks 55c per minute. Free caller ID, voicemail is $5 per month though, and call waiting/call diversion is $2 per month.

I can also choose from any of the Ihug international calling packages.

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#94820 12-Nov-2007 12:45

Will, when you got yours, can you do an experiment to see if you can try out faxing? I know Paul said there's no fax capability. *hehe*

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#94821 12-Nov-2007 12:46

chiefie: BUT... that's 4 devices which already have their own power supply! normal wired phone draws power from the line, which with hard wire, the power comes from the Exchange.

Yes, that's right Chiefie. We would need to see the specs to work out exactly how many Hard-Wired phones could be powered by this device. IIRC, it's called REN (Ringer Equivalence Number).

However, I would be very surprised if it isn't at least 2 or more.

In any case, it's unimportant to many people these days with the advent of cheap DECT cordless phones which are now every bit as good as wired phones regarding voice quality.

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