Exploding femtocells: No need for a full recall, says Vodafone Vodafone says that anxious customers of its home femtocell box are safe, despite experiencing continuing brownouts. Although Vodafone is replacing the Alcatel-made units on request, it has declined to carry out a full recall. Vodafone sells the Sure Signal V3 femtocell for £69 to help users with notspots in their home. But for …
They are a bit power thirsty as well. Mine was always pretty warm to the touch and the power meter I own claimed it was consuming 40w (for whatever that's worth).
I retired mine when I got my S7 because that supports 4G and will always use it in preference to 2/3G which is all that the SS3 supports. Since my house does have a 4G signal (albeit somewhat weak) the SS3 was being ignored. Luckily it turns out that one bar of 4G is good enough for voice calls (1 bar for 3G was not). My S7 also has wifi calling but so far hasn't used it.
Its a pity the operators aren't a bit more honest, only EE will have voice (VoLTE) at the end of '17 because they are contractually bound to do so for the Emergency Services.
Second is that greater than 50 or 60% of the handsets in use don't have VoLTE support. Yep good old 2G and 3G works well (still) when you can get it.
We have 2 femto's in our house (EE) and are battling vodafone to get a 3rd so a work's supplied phone can make a call!
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a seriously crap tat being pushed into peoples homes these days? Whether it's phone chargers, Vodafone Suresignals, washing machine or cookers. How does any of this stuff pass any safety tests? All electrical devices are supposed to be tested and certified by a qualified test house by the manufacturer or importer, but no-one seems to care.
Even worse, much of this cheap tat is expected to be running unattended 24/7. Maybe it's just me, but I remember when folks were encouraged to make sure all electrical devices were unplugged overnight and when not in use.
Wonder whether the CEO of Vodafone would be so non-chalant if one of these exploded in his childs face or started arcing when next to a pile of newspaper or dry clothes?
I really don't get why Trading Standards doesn't do random testing of stuff off of the shelf to see if it meets appropriate standards.
Even the infamous Note 7 had only around 100 reported fires out of about 1.9 million made. If you're suggesting testing (as opposed to analysis) you'd need to test rather a lot of devices to have any statistical validity. If you're proposing teardown and risk analysis, can you really see any Trading Standards or contract lab having the skills to diagnose the specific risks that made the Note 7 dangerous and the Samsung S7 adequately safe?
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a seriously crap tat being pushed into peoples homes these days?
'Twas ever thus. I think all that's changed is that we buy more electronic stuff, with a side order of wanting it cheap as chips as quickly as possible. It isn't limited to electronics - look at the real duffers of cars launched on an unsuspecting public going back many decades. Assorted tumble dryers have been a fire hazard for over a decade, one maker sold a range of fire-causing fridge freezers, a certain reputable German maker has a problem with self-igniting dishwashers.
Actually, from the article I get the impression that what the device had was exactly the above: A MOV.
The thing is, they get more and more sensitive over time, and WILL become fully conductive during normal voltage, eventually.
In a properly designed device you make sure that the resulting fire or explosion doesn't spread, and that there's a fuse that disconnects it when the short circuit does happen.
That's what the "Protection OK" light on a surge protector is for, once the MOV shorts and causes the fuse to blow, the light no longer gets power and goes out.
I had one of these units, when I had an account with Voda. It replaced a version 2 unit that was prone to losing contact. The first thing I noted, was that the unit became very hot. far hotter than experience said was good for an electronics package. I got rid and went back to the less than ideal ver 2. Shortly after that I gave Voda the heave-ho. Not from the reason of the femtocell units. The ver 2, when it worked had excellent range. No, the reason I changed supplier was the absolutely horrendous customer support service. Not just on one or two issues, but on EVERY issue. It didn't seem to matter where the issue was handled, England, Scotland, Sub Asia, User Forums, the results, or lack of results was just the same. I'm now with Three, and never a moments problem with support. How Voda holds onto its customers is totally beyond me.
Voda signal at my house dropped dramatically about 5 years after I moved in. Contacted Voda and was offered a femtocell at a cost of £60. Told em to stuff it. Acquired a used one from a friend for free but they are locked to a particular contract or some such so never worked. Binned it as useless junk. A few years later after many more problems finally ditched Voda for Tesco. Half the cost and no more problems.So, not only do they ask you to pay for the fact that their network coverage is crap, but the kit they sell you to remedy their poor coverage is Kak too. Sounds just like them and their piss-poor attitude towards customers. My advice is vote with your feet.
Acquired a used one from a friend for free but they are locked to a particular contract or some such so never worked.
That's a little harsh. The SS3 will (sensibly in my opinion) only provide a service to registered devices so you have to be able to manage the device list. That is done through the Vodafone account portal which means registering the device to your account. That requires that you enter the SS3 serial number and wait 24 hours. Granted the s/no on the SS3 is very small writing it wasn't too onerous.
But despite (or because of?) me being a Vodafone customer I cannot simply post a complementary message. As regards the SS3 I remember one occasion when the entire system was down for over a week. Vodafone's support was awful. Most of the team knew nothing about the fault (including some but not all forum staff). Those who did know could only acknowledge it and say that it was 'being worked on'. The rest just trotted out the standard troubleshooting steps often causing users unnecessary inconvenience in working through them. Some were even asked to send their SS3 back to get a replacement.
Three gave me a femto cell unit because of lack of reception at our flat. No idea what model it is, but it's a very different design, just plugs into your ethernet.
Interesting Vodaphone charge so much for what seems a similar piece of teckery.
They're essentially just the same. Despite usually being called "booster", all they are are a low power mobile mast setup, but only receptive to registered 'phones. They use your modem router to send the signal to the supplier. The advantage of the Voda unit, was that it was of a much higher power. I could get a full power signal up to 30 metres away from the unit, and that through several thick walls. The Three unit by comparison is much less effective, the signal level notable dropping off in the next room. I changed simply because of the incredibly bad customer service. In my entire life, I've never come across such consistently bad service, which applied across the whole of the company.
I hate to burst Vodafone's PR bubble, but I'm not convinced that all the failures happen in the way they describe.
I've had four units fail, each one with the lights remaining on. Each unit also burning hot to touch. When restarted, the lights *then* wouldn't appear, which suggests a more complex fault than just the MOV failing.
Subscribe to a network service.
Find out that the service is sub-standard.
Pay the network service provider for a gadget to alleviate the deficiency.
Assuming it works, pay the network service provider to route calls over a channel that you're paying someone else to provide.
Hope that the gadget doesn't burn your house down.
Why?
Plenty of sources to check coverage before you subscribe to anyone. And plenty of reasons why a loss of coverage might warrant one of these, or for those that live in a 400 year old building with thick stone walls but works from home. I wish people on this forum held a modicum of intelligence sometimes.
Just had to replace one that went completely dead at my boss's house - no lights on it at all. IIRC it was installed in 2014 - Voda's response was it was out of warranty so we had to fork out for a new one. I use EE and wi-fi calling on my own handset -works perfectly without additional hardware like voda need.
Doesn't work on corporate tariffs because <this is what we've been told by our account team> Vodagroan haven't worked out how to charge for the service on the corporate billing engine yet. Ignoring the point that you would only be using Wifi calling when their own network is insufficient in the first place.
Mine blew a few months ago, took it apart to see why - it must have been violent when it happened.
If I had known this was a common problem I would have asked for replacement, as it was the thought of talking to Vodafone and trying to get it sorted made me feel depressed, its been easier to do without...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
