back to article EE's not-spot-busting small cell trial delights Cumbrian villagers

If EE was being its normal hype-filled self, it would call its latest mobile trial in Cumbria 5G. Its restraint is admirable – and the technology even more so. Putting up cell sites is one way of solving rural mobile not-spots, but getting data from those sites back to the network is an increasingly thorny problem. Building …

  1. Alister

    What’s the opposite of a NIMBY?

    How about IMBYP...

    In My Back Yard, Please!

    1. Afernie

      Re: What’s the opposite of a NIMBY?

      Or NISEBY - Not In Someone Else's Backyard?

    2. Howverydare
      Paris Hilton

      Re: What’s the opposite of a NIMBY?

      I'm sure I don't need to justify the choice of icon here.

    3. Lamsey
      Coat

      Re: What’s the opposite of a NIMBY?

      If we rearranged it so it's PIMBY (Please, In My Back Yard), then if someone was swithering over whether they wanted it or not, we could say they were being a bit NIMBY-PIMBY.

  2. Lionel Baden

    well...

    I do wonder what the latency is like and, to describe it as broadband is probably stretching it a bit far.

    Its not like your going to be happy streaming TV or youtube vids on your mobile data package!

    Would much like to see this as a stopgap solution, not as a replacement.

    1. rhydian

      Re: well...

      When you're over two miles from the nearest exchange (or even cabinet) 2mbit is good going, so anything that provides more bandwidth than that is a real bonus.

      Plus of course there's the bonus of usable mobile reception when you're out and about (and for when Openreach take weeks/months to replace downed overhead lines)

    2. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: well...

      7-8Mb/s is better than a lot of people get on ADSL, so yeah, I'd call it broadband.

      My folks only get 1Mb/s and they live less than 20 miles from GCHQ.

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: well...

      "to describe it as broadband is probably stretching it a bit far"

      It's not that long ago that BB first arrived by cable in our area at 512Kb/s, at ten times the speed of the dial up, and was screaming fast!

      (Ok, so I have 60Mb/s now and 120Mb/s available if I want it :-) )

  3. AMBxx Silver badge
    Coat

    Bit disappointed

    Where are the Pringles tubes?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Most NIMBY's like me , don't have a 'Back Yard'...

    ...we have a 'Few Acres' instead...so im a 'NIMFA' (Not In MY Few Acres)

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Most NIMBY's like me , don't have a 'Back Yard'...

      So that's IMaFAN -- In My (approx) Few Acres, Now!

  5. NikT
    Megaphone

    SEGN

    Well, I'd only want it close by, so perhaps:

    SEHNBy - Someone Else's House Near By

    or

    NtMNIMG, pronuounced Nit-m-ning - Near to Me, Not in My Garden

    Nik

  6. Pen-y-gors

    Signal strength?

    Sounds like a good idea, but...

    one of the problems in many rural areas isn't so much the lack of coverage, but the lack of strong signals. Many people in rural areas live in lovely old houses, with thick stone walls (mine are 18 ins thick!), and small windows. There may well be mobile coverage on the map, but not once you go indoors, so landlines rule. I also need two wifi repeaters to enable coverage throughout the house. Will someone please come up with a useable solution to this? I suspect even a femtocell may not work!

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      Re: Signal strength?

      Box on outside of wall. Cables inside.

      You can't change the laws of physics.

    2. rhydian

      Re: Signal strength?

      Put a chair next to an upstairs window. Use the phone while sitting in that.

    3. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Signal strength?

      Many people in rural areas live in lovely old houses, with thick stone walls (mine are 18 ins thick!), and small windows

      People in the older towns/cities in the UK (Places considered urban by some) have exactly the same problem....

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hops, or nodes?

    This article talks about four or five hops, but says nothing about the number of nodes.

    Over at ThinkBroadband the ever-reliable MrSaffron says "The area covered by this initial trial is 0.5 square miles with three or four antenna"

    Four hops doesn't sound very plausible with three nodes (I make that two hops, probably).

    So, which is it ?

    Still, kudos to EE for having a go.

    http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/6737-ee-starts-new-trial-with-mesh-technology-for-rural-broadband.html

  8. thomas k.
    Thumb Up

    Nice to see

    Nice to see a telco actually trying something to expand coverage to un- or under-served areas. I guess that's what having some semblance of real competition in the marketplace gets you.

  9. Terry Cloth

    What security are they building in?

    Unless they've really made an advance in identification, verification, and authorization, I fear this is just an invitation to GCHQ to build a nifty box to play in the mesh. ``Oh, look! A new node! G'day, mate.''

    1. JetSetJim

      Re: What security are they building in?

      For additional boxes, I would imagine that when they fire up and connect, they need to register with the gateway box so that they can be establish some form of IPSec tunnel between them. Then there will probably be a proprietary handshake or two to set up the link - perhaps over the daisy chain of site, or perhaps direct, but nonetheless there will be plenty of authentication, possibly also against a list of device serial numbers that are expected to be installed.

      None of the above is much different to the macro network infrastructure.

      At the end of the day, GCHQ heavies can still lean on the operator to give them access - whether via a Legal Intercept gateway, or one of those mysterious black boxes that do pukka DPI

  10. breakfast Silver badge
    Flame

    EE have heard of 4G?

    When I ventured from not-very-yokel Surrey up to slightly-less-yokel London a few weeks ago I was amazed to see a symbol on my phone that looked like the number three followed by the letter 'G'. Although this mysterious sigil was something I had heard of, as an EE customer outside of the M25 I had never seen any evidence of its existence.

    As the saying goes: "Everything Everywhere except for phone signal in your phone."

  11. Nosher

    Opposite of NIMBY

    I propose either

    IWOOT - "I Want One Of Those"

    or

    IHOOT - "I'll Have One Of Those"

  12. shrdlu

    PIMBY

    Please, In My Back Yard

    1. breakfast Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: PIMBY

      If ever a comment required a Paris icon...

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