Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: zirk on 19 July 2014, 15:20:19
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As some know been with them a looong time, so tend to try a get some good deals from them where possible, although lately as more time goes on the more difficult it seems to get. Currently on a 12 month 3g Airtime only contract, which gets me 900 Mob mins, 1000 Land mins, Unlimited Text and 1Gb of Data all for £10.50 a month as Ive got a 50% Discount.
Any way gets a call yesterday from Vodafone Business go's something like this -
Voda, Hello, your 12 month contract is nearly up and your due an upgrade, would you like to go on one of our new 4G Red plans?
Me, How much?
Voda, Unlimited Call, Unlimited Text and 1GB of 4G, £21, same as what your paying now!
Me, but I get 50% off so is that still going to happen?
Voda, Oh, No, but I can give you 15% or a bit more Data.
Me, No Thanks, I'll stick to what Ive got.
Voda, Just to let you know when your Plan finished you will loss the 50% unless you up grade.
Me, Forget it then, I probably go, as Im sick and tied now of having to fight for a deal every 12 months when I've been with you for donkeys years.
Voda, let me talk to my Manager about that.
Me, Ok.
Voda, Cant do anything on 12 months, if you go with a New Phone and 24 months I could build a package for you and do a deal.
Me, Dont want a new Phone, and to be honest on the Airtime I'd sign up for 3 years if the price was right.
Voda, Give me a few mins.........Music.
Voda, Ok, Samsung Galaxy Fame, worth £85, cheapest phone I can put on a plan..
Me, How much?
Voda,...24 months Unlimited Calls and Text, First 3 months unlimited 4G Data there after 10 GB per month...
Me. 10GB!, ok, how much?
Voda, not finished yet, I throw in Vodafone Passport and EUro Travaler, so you can use your calls and data abroad, 24 Red Care, and 24 months of SkySports or Spotify or Netflix.
Me, How much?
Voda, £6 + Vat
Me, How much, no, forget that where do I sign.
:o :o :o :o
So anyone wonna buy a Sumsung Galaxy Fame!, ;D ;)
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Well done, that IS a deal!
BT would not listen to me or co-operate in any way, which is why I left them after 47 years - can they see where they went wrong, there?......
Ron.
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That gives me a target when I phone them shortly!
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BT would not listen to me or co-operate in any way, which is why I left them after 47 years - can they see where they went wrong, there?......
As a (near) monopoly for consumer landland based services, BT would be in breach of its licence if it offered discounts for consumer landline services. It a simple case of a government run regulator making things more expensive for the public.
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Good deal. Did you get Sky Sports, Spotify or Netflix?
My team built the Sky option and integration with Voda :D
Wonder how they make a profit on that, I'm sure we charge Voda in the region of £4/m for each Sports Mobile user. :-\
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I'm on O2 and just renewed for another 2 years after being with them for a good 15 years overall.
Managed to get
Unlimited calls, text and 2gig of internet, free answer machine messages on a 4G plan for 14 quid :y
Also a nice new iPhone 4s for 10 quid a month interest free over the 2 years so pretty happy :)
O2 are splitting the contract up between the phone and airtime so if your feeling flush and want to pay off the balance on the phone then you can upgrade when ever you feel its best for you :y
Also to add the post about ios a few days ago, mine is running 7.1.2 with no problems whatsoever :y
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I cannot wait for Vodafone to contact me, or even better one of it's 3rd parties. Then I will have their nuts in a sling ready to fire at the ICO :y
Despite opting out of anything in my contract several months ago giving them permission to contact me or to send my details to any 3rd party, a warning letter sent after the first (albeit minor) infraction and a subsequent apology from management I am sure it is going to happen. And when it does........muwahahahaha
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Mini me tried Vodafone for a couple of years.
Never again :-X
With so much competition out there, you would think they would be pulling the stops out to keep customers but now days they just don't seem to give a toss :(
Tbh, I can see mobile phone contracts ending up like car insurance.
Get near to the end and change provider :-\
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I change to get the best deals, but I'm kinda forced onto the O2 network, as Voda simply doesn't work here (because they are mongrels, and mounted their 2 masts in the valley), and the EE pair and Three don't work rural.
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That gives me a target when I phone them shortly!
Should do, dont quote me though, not sure if your get the same deal, think I was just lucky that they phoned me to up grade to 4G and not the other way round.
I did phone them back today, to see if I could mirror the deal on an additional number but they were having none of it. In fact the guy on the end said really not sure how youve managed to get that but glad your happy with it.
For the last few years Ive always gone down the Sim Only Airtime thing without a phone, which doesn't really rock my boat, if I need a new phone I'll go out and buy one when the need takes me rather than pay though the nose for a new one every 24 months.
But seems like if your prepared the do the 24 month thing and except a crap, cheapest or what ever there trying to get rid of, then a good Airtime deal package could be there to be had. ;)
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Good deal. Did you get Sky Sports, Spotify or Netflix?
My team built the Sky option and integration with Voda :D
Wonder how they make a profit on that, I'm sure we charge Voda in the region of £4/m for each Sports Mobile user. :-\
yea, any one of them, haven't decided which one yet. :-\
Wont be Sky Sport Im afraid Tunnie, I'll do the few games that England play then thatsme done for the next 4 years ;D,
Spotify package is the premium one, but from memory although its downloadable seem to remember its Encrypted to your device?, Netflix? no idea anything on there worth downloading, lets face it you want to watch the latest Films, you (cough) get them through other means.
Anyone recommend which package? :-\
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I change to get the best deals, but I'm kinda forced onto the O2 network, as Voda simply doesn't work here (because they are mongrels, and mounted their 2 masts in the valley), and the EE pair and Three don't work rural.
Nah, My Motorola M8989 Carphone had 3 - 4 Bars outside yours a few weeks back....
Mind you I suppose it's a class II device with a +4db hole mount antenna... Your just not giving that RF a chance!
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Good deal. Did you get Sky Sports, Spotify or Netflix?
My team built the Sky option and integration with Voda :D
Wonder how they make a profit on that, I'm sure we charge Voda in the region of £4/m for each Sports Mobile user. :-\
yea, any one of them, haven't decided which one yet. :-\
Wont be Sky Sport Im afraid Tunnie, I'll do the few games that England play then thatsme done for the next 4 years ;D,
Spotify package is the premium one, but from memory although its downloadable seem to remember its Encrypted to your device?, Netflix? no idea anything on there worth downloading, lets face it you want to watch the latest Films, you (cough) get them through other means.
Anyone recommend which package? :-\
Wise move, our product is a bit flaky ;D ;D
I'd vote spotify, Netflix content is quite old go, you can go through it quite quickly.
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Good deal. Did you get Sky Sports, Spotify or Netflix?
My team built the Sky option and integration with Voda :D
Wonder how they make a profit on that, I'm sure we charge Voda in the region of £4/m for each Sports Mobile user. :-\
yea, any one of them, haven't decided which one yet. :-\
Wont be Sky Sport Im afraid Tunnie, I'll do the few games that England play then thatsme done for the next 4 years ;D,
Spotify package is the premium one, but from memory although its downloadable seem to remember its Encrypted to your device?, Netflix? no idea anything on there worth downloading, lets face it you want to watch the latest Films, you (cough) get them through other means.
Anyone recommend which package? :-\
Wise move, our product is a bit flaky ;D ;D
I'd vote spotify, Netflix content is quite old go, you can go through it quite quickly.
tbh dont think your sky app would work on my phone anyway, Nokia N9 Dual Boot running Meego or Sailfish?
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I change to get the best deals, but I'm kinda forced onto the O2 network, as Voda simply doesn't work here (because they are mongrels, and mounted their 2 masts in the valley), and the EE pair and Three don't work rural.
Nah, My Motorola M8989 Carphone had 3 - 4 Bars outside yours a few weeks back....
Mind you I suppose it's a class II device with a +4db hole mount antenna... Your just not giving that RF a chance!
My telematics can pick up a Voda signal from the road, but struggles from the driveway :o
The nearest Voda mast is about three quarters of a mile away...
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I change to get the best deals, but I'm kinda forced onto the O2 network, as Voda simply doesn't work here (because they are mongrels, and mounted their 2 masts in the valley), and the EE pair and Three don't work rural.
Nah, My Motorola M8989 Carphone had 3 - 4 Bars outside yours a few weeks back....
Mind you I suppose it's a class II device with a +4db hole mount antenna... Your just not giving that RF a chance!
My telematics can pick up a Voda signal from the road, but struggles from the driveway :o
The nearest Voda mast is about three quarters of a mile away...
Using the standard GM 'unity gain' (+0db) twig on the roof? Problem I have with that setup is that by the time the signal has traversed a joint two inches from the aerial, a joint at the kick panel and a joint onto the unit itself, there has been quite a signal loss.
I think the saving grace is the power class of the unit.
I would like to know if all 900Mhz supporting cell sites still support the 8W class though, I know infilling for certain areas has been achieved by utilising 1800Mhz channels and dual / multiband phones. Certainly from by experience though, Telematics and GSM carphones still rule when you are off the beaten track, even now, approx 14 years after Motorola and Nokia ditched making the 6090 / M8989 and 2700. Who needs a smartphone to make a voice call!
Maybe a certain Mr Wood could advise?
[sad mode off] lol
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You called? ::)
You are right to point out that you've got a bit of loss in the connectors and, more importantly, all that RG58 cable between the footwell and the GSM antenna. In comparison to the woefully inefficient antennas on the hand held mobiles that make up the majority these days, you've still got a pretty decent receive setup, though, although receivers have got better in the years since the telematics was developed.
On the transmit side, yes, you have a higher power class but whether it's fully utilised depends on the cell planning in the area. Since 90% of mobiles are handheld, it's likely that the cell sites have been planned based on their output power. (and I'm talking effective radiated power here, so considering their 2W output AND the very lossy patch antenna on the PCB in the phone).
In urban areas, the cell site planning will therefore probably have been quite tight, and bandwidth is pretty scarce at 900 MHz, so co-channel interference with neighbouring cells might be an issue which prevents the network from commanding 8W units to full power.
Also, it's worth remembering that the signal path has to be reciprocal. The base site will have a much better receiver and receive antenna, and will most likely be using diversity, so the uplink path is probably going to be a good few db up on the downlink. A BTS can, of course, use much higher transmit power on the downlink but won't do so if the frequency re-use is a bit critical in the area.
GSM doesn't support layered use of other bands and micro/picocells to infill 900 band coverage that well - it was all a bit of an after-thought.
So, go out into the sticks where the GSM900 cells are turned up to cover the largest area possible and you'll have an advantage, but maybe not in more urban areas.
Unless we know details of how the networks plan cells these days (I don't) it's pure speculation, really, but because 8W mobiles are scarce these days, they won't figure highly in network planning and might end up getting neutered to avoid co-channel interference.
Or, in other words, "it depends". ::)
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Thanks Kevin.
So, ultimately, 'in the sticks', from a network hardware perspective in the 900Mhz bandwidth, An up to 8W transciever is still the answer then. Appreciate there is a multitude of variables in an urban area.
Incidently, the Motorola M8989 carphone I have supports both 900Mhz and 1800Mhz networks. I'm sure I read somewhere that at 1800Mhz this phone can support up to 5W Tx..... Presumably that was never implemented by the 1800Mhz networks here?
Apologies to the original poster for the thread drift. :-[
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Thanks Kevin.
So, ultimately, 'in the sticks', from a network hardware perspective in the 900Mhz bandwidth, An up to 8W transciever is still the answer then. Appreciate there is a multitude of variables in an urban area.
Incidently, the Motorola M8989 carphone I have supports both 900Mhz and 1800Mhz networks. I'm sure I read somewhere that at 1800Mhz this phone can support up to 5W Tx..... Presumably that was never implemented by the 1800Mhz networks here?
Apologies to the original poster for the thread drift. :-[
1.2 Watts max at 1800 seems to ring a bell in the back of my brain, although I think it was Country / Region specific, also worth pointing out the original True Global Mobile idea was all based around the 900 GSM Spec. The 1800 PCN plan was originally developed to run Personal Communicators with Value Added Services and Integration within the Home and Office, which never really happened due to the way it was Marketed as just another Mobile Network, so the follow up to that is that 1800 Networks was back boned with Roaming Agreements betwwen Countries before becoming truly Global and soon formed part of the 900 / 1800 World Wide Mobile Bands.
Im surprised the likes of Hutchinson, 121 and T Mobile got away with it tbh, they were issued with Licences to run 1800 PCN Services and then just developed a Portable Mobile Network to compete with the GSM Operators, still there still here to tell the tale.
The one that did fail was Dolphin Telecom, in the late 90's the UK had the first Commercial Nation Wide Digital Tetra Network, but Dolphin in there wisdom decided to Market itself as another Mobile Network to compete with the Big Boys rather than just sell it as what it was designed for, a Secure Digital Push to Talk Service with some decent Data Applications, shame.
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Yes, looks like 1W at 1800Mhz according to the Motorola PDF i've found:-
http://www.rivanetworks.com/products/m8989.pdf
Also worth a nose:-
http://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/GSM-MS-Power-Class.html
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GSM1800 was originally spec'ed for 30dbm max (1W) as it was indeed originally only conceived for urban area coverage but they did add power control levels up to 36dbm later on when larger cells were required (INHO because OFCOM started carving up the spectrum with all the finesse and understanding of propagation conditions as a bride cutting a wedding cake, so operators had to make do with whatever band their slice ended up in.) ::)