Femto-cells

[rcon]

Just installed an Optus HomeZone device on the weekend, and I now get full signal reception at home. Leaving aside the fact it is pretty poor to have customers patch up blackspots for networks, anyone got any thoughts on femto cell devices?

I tried sending pics via MMS last night, and no go. Perfect reception, but MMS just wouldn't go. Strange.

Oh, if anyone is unclear on what femto cell technology is, basically it is a mini 3G mobile phone tower for your house. You plug what looks like a wireless access point into your router and your phone routes calls thru the 3G device back to your carrier.


Pretty cool, but given you're chewing your data plan, would be good think they'd give you some discount on calls. Not the case. Tho I think I saw some additional plan you could purchase to make some calls for free.

[bennymacca]

if they were actively giving these out to people it would be really cool. but having to pay extra for reception that you should get anyway sucks a bit

[rcon]

particularly when their coverage maps show me getting full 3g. I sometimes have to drive to the end of the street to make a call.


But it will get me through until I can go well, that other company I can't quite bring myself to say.

[bennymacca]

yeah it sucks to say, but i will be switching to telstra at my earliest opportunity as well. i should have done it already given that i am with voda and i should just ring the TIO.

dave sent me a picture message on friday night, i didnt get it for 60 hours, 4am monday morning. it was a bottle of red wine, for a second i was worried about dave and then i realised when it was supposed to be. chereen told me she once had a pxt she sent arrive like 3 weeks late

[wabbit999]

Geez this brings back memories.... If you can speak to an Aussie csr then say you will complain to the TIO, they usually will try (or at least I did) to fix the issue (when I say fix I mean compensation) when I was there it was usually about $500.00 basically a TIO complaint costs the carrier money and is stat against there name so complain hard complain long but don't swear at them:)

I swear my optus coverage has gone down since femto was introduced

[BigPete33]

Matt, if you're with Optus and have an issue, make use of twitter or facebook to contact them and someone will contact you. Really.

(or you could have just asked me you clown)

Homezone (Optus's name for Femtocell) is a great idea, considering the alternative was nothing at all. Most people have way more quota than they need to start with, you're not really losing anything to use a GB or two.

Let's not forget that mobile phones aren't just for in the home, so why would anyone give you discount on your calls from your mobile? You make all your mobile calls from home? Weird.

Just a word of caution for those that think saying "TIO" is the answer to everything...

By all means go to the TIO if you feel you're actually getting nowhere, but if your first thought after 3 seconds is "I'm going to the TIO" then the problem is likely to be you to start with. When you go to the TIO if you haven't actually attempted any troubleshooting/dispute resolution and you just think you're being clever, you'll soon find out that the TIO will only send you straight back to your provider to do what you should have attempted in the first place and only when your providers troubleshooting/resolution avenues have been exhausted will it actually prove useful.

Quite literally, it could take you weeks of messing about via the TIO instead of a few minutes on the phone with support. Just depends if there is actually an issue or just a perceived issue.

[bennymacca]

fair point - i have rung voda once with no resolution, in fact the problems have probably gotten worse, but i should ring them again

[BigPete33]

From what I understand, Voda has several issues that aren't about to be resolved quickly. All you can do is try and call them though.

[bennymacca]

Pretty cool, but given you're chewing your data plan, would be good think they'd give you some discount on calls. Not the case. Tho I think I saw some additional plan you could purchase to make some calls for free.

for $5 a month, it looks like you get unlimited calls to all home phones and mobiles in australia. sounds like a pretty good plan to me

http://www.optus.com.au/dafiles/OCA/Opt ... /howtobuy/

[rcon]

Matt, if you're with Optus and have an issue, make use of twitter or facebook to contact them and someone will contact you. Really.

I've only tried to send one message that didn't work, other than that is has been fantastic (all 3 days of it!). Lately I've found Optus's online chat option fantastic. This post more about femtocells in general and other people's experience with them.

I'm not concerned about the data use on the plan (legacy of Caleb is 200GB plans )

Actually, something you might be able to tell me, what could cause facebook to download 80mb in 1 day thru my mobile? I got a little bill shock this month with a $250 one and it seems I hammered my "social media", so either twitter or facebook went nuts. Several days of 20mb+ and one of over 80, that compares with 2-5mb on most days, even when I was in a boring conference.

Have spoken with Optus and they (quite rightfully) pointed out what I do with the service they provide is my business.