Portable cell sites

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Zeon

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#405053 15-Nov-2010 20:17

I remember there was talk of small devices that you could plug into your home broadband to expand mobile phone coverage. Maybe one of these plugged into a local DSL line? Do Telecom XT mobiles roam onto vodafone GSM if there isn't signal available BTW?

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johnr

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#405062 15-Nov-2010 20:38

Zeon: I remember there was talk of small devices that you could plug into your home broadband to expand mobile phone coverage. Maybe one of these plugged into a local DSL line? Do Telecom XT mobiles roam onto vodafone GSM if there isn't signal available BTW?

You are talking about femtocell which has not launched in New Zealand yet

Vodafone NZ and Telecom NZ do not have a roaming agreement in anyway

johnr

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#405063 15-Nov-2010 20:39

jjnz1:
johnr: A Cow requires transmission and if it was not a cow then the serving cell would require more transmission

By transmission you mean a hard wired feed from an exchange to a transmitter (COW or otherwise)??

Correct could be microwave as well

sothereiwas

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#405118 15-Nov-2010 22:57

kewefella: Thanks for the info NZFINEST, there will be fixed lines running past I presume to a couple of houses up the road but I imagine telling them we're gonna disconnect them for a day wouldn't be overly neighbourly. Its basically a paddock we use so no there is no fixed amenities of any sort. So least I know this idea is a no go.

Thanks for the info tho.

As a Gen-i person - these are my thoughts...

A COW is basically a Repeater - it pulls in mobile signal from the nearest cell site and transmits it locally over a limited area. So it doesn't use fixed line back-haul to connect to the rest of the network and therefore doesn't impact local fixed line services - so your neighbours will be ok. (by the way - I can't imagine a situation where any telco would remove a fixed line service from one customer to provide a service to another - it simply isn't safe for a starter).

If all you need to achieve is to provide your base operations with a basic health and safety communication and eftpos 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.

Alternatively you could consider a good truck phone and hi-gain aerial but this will have fewer connectivity options for other devices.

If you want to provide anyone at the event with Cellular coverage - then you'll likey have to present a solid business case to either of the Network carriers based on them achieving a positive return on the required investment of time, materials and labout to install, test and deploy the COW for a weekend. Usually these things are used at pretty big events - Fieldays, big conferences and festivals for example.

The quality of a COW can be a bit limitied too. Remeber, they use connectivity off another cellsite, so have limited capacity. Telcom had an XT one up Ruapehu but users complained about poor quality and it was replaced with a permanent site recently I believe.

Blindspot

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#407535 22-Nov-2010 09:37

sothereiwas COW is an abbreviation for Cellsite on Wheels and it is exactly that... its not a repeater, it does not feed off other cells in the area.. its a standalone enclosed cellsite with some extras to make deployment a bit more flexible.

Because its a cellsite it needs some form of Tx to feed back into the network.. this is usually copper but microwave, fibre and satellite can be used.

The COW needs to be intergrated into the network in the same way a normal cellsite does... neighbours, optimisation, cabline etc etc

Because of this there is a significant cost associated with this deployment.. If you do feel you need one you can contact me and I will put you onto the right people.

I am a Vodafone employee, however all comments/opinions expressed are my own. i.e. I do not represent Vodafone.

sothereiwas

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#409438 25-Nov-2010 13:04

Blindspot: sothereiwas COW is an abbreviation for Cellsite on Wheels and it is exactly that... its not a repeater, it does not feed off other cells in the area.. its a standalone enclosed cellsite with some extras to make deployment a bit more flexible.

Because its a cellsite it needs some form of Tx to feed back into the network.. this is usually copper but microwave, fibre and satellite can be used.

The COW needs to be intergrated into the network in the same way a normal cellsite does... neighbours, optimisation, cabline etc etc

Because of this there is a significant cost associated with this deployment.. If you do feel you need one you can contact me and I will put you onto the right people.

Hey, thanks for that clarification. Clearly I am not hugely technical. But regardless of whether a COW is acting as a repeater or not, in this instance where it seems they have only limited POTS network in the area; then backhaul and capacity is going to be an issue, as will the cost, business case etc. I think my earlier comments apply still - if it's a purely health and safety issue,and they only need connectivity for a limited number of people, then there are much more economical ways to achieve this than with a COW. As long as they have some signal to work with :)

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sleemanj

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#409983 26-Nov-2010 17:16

Thinking laterally, what about VOIP over a fixed base satellite internet connection. Perhaps one of the sat internet vendors would like to sponsor the event.

Have a couple of mobile phones hanging off it, your EFTPOS should of course hook right on up (just an internet connection), you could even setup a pay-wall and provide WIFI in the basecamp mess tent or something.

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deadlyllama

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#410406 28-Nov-2010 15:24

If it's only the base area that has issues, and the base area is near some houses, you could go and talk to whoever lived there and ask if you could borrow their ADSL connection (offer to pay for a plan upgrade?) and stick a big wifi dish outside their house. The cheapie halogen lights on a stand that hardware shops sell are pretty cheap and make reasonable stands.

Then stick another dish on a stand at your base area, plug an ATA in, phone! You say the rest of the track has reasonable cell so people can just call the ATA's number.

Alternatively get a large pile of 12V batteries and a bunch of the village-telco.org units and attach them to trees along your track - that sounds like overkill though.

Where in the country is this event, anyway?

quickymart

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#410423 28-Nov-2010 17:00

Yes...that's something I was wondering too.

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