Disqus - Latest Comments for jamesbody

Re: United Kingdom Wireless Frequency Bands and Carriers

jamesbody — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 02:44:39 -0000

Please add Vodafone UK (234-15) and Three UK (234-30) use of Band 32 SDL

See Peter Clark's notes at https://pedroc.co.uk/conten... for detail

Re: BBC Extends 5G Broadcast Radio Trial

jamesbody — Wed, 22 May 2019 08:49:35 -0000

Hmm - just wondering what 5G offers that 3G/4G does not for this particular application....

Also interested to understand what devices/spectrum/waveforms are being used here....

Re: iNum DID – The International Phone Number

jamesbody — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:21:07 -0000

Looks like Google are now charging USD 0.03 per minute to terminate voice traffic to +883 numbers

Re: We're trialling wonky veg boxes in our 'Beautiful on the Inside' range

jamesbody — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 07:07:57 -0000

This is a really good idea! Do not throw fruit and veg away because it is not perfectly formed - that is wasteful and 'shapeist'!

My experience is that the wonkier the veg - the better it tastes!

Re: LTE Small Cells Help VoLTE Indoor Call Quality Performance

jamesbody — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 15:33:20 -0000

LTE Small Cells are not just for existing Mobile Network Operators - with the opening of Band 42 (LTE-TDD) with Licensed Shared Access, other players can run their own LTE infrastructure....

Re: Three Breaking Down the Walls of Indoor Network Blackspots With 4G Super Voice Service

jamesbody — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 07:03:19 -0000

Did I sat 2600 MHz? I meant 2100 MHz (UMTS Band 1 - upon which Three UK run their 3G services)

Re: Three Breaking Down the Walls of Indoor Network Blackspots With 4G Super Voice Service

jamesbody — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:22:27 -0000

"Unlike Three's standard 1800 MHz wavelength, the 800 MHz wavelength is shorter" Um, not quite true! The lower the frequency, the LONGER the wavelength!

I am guessing that the author of this article may not have passed GCSE Physics!

Also - the 'standard' band for Three is UMTS Band 1 (2600 MHz) - they have use of a chunk of 1800 NHz spectrum donated by EE on th Orange/T-Mobile merger - but have much more spectrum at 2600 MHz!

Re: Have you booked your Mobile World Congress travel yet?

jamesbody — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 14:19:41 -0000

I have set up alerts to prompt me to make bookings when BA initiate online sales. I received the alert this weekend informing me that BA had started a flash sale for Business Class travel. I immediately checked MWC dates - and found a return passage LGW<>BCN for circa £250 - (£148 with Avios points). I was dancing around the room with joy - then went for a shower. On returning, I realised that I had only placed the flight in the 'purchase pending' slot - and had failed to complete the transaction - and (inevitably) the transaction had timed out. On re-engaging the purchase request I found out that the price had more than doubled!

Moral here is to NOT REST until the eTicket is in one's inbox!

Re: We’re getting there with BT’s Quad-play and Google’s Project Fi

jamesbody — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 05:36:25 -0000

Just keep on holding that slightly melted candle Ewan! You must join me for lunch at Truphone Towers sometime so that we can sync up on some of the new and exciting stuff that we are currently showing off!

Re: Q&A: John Sims and CEO of Movirtu Disclose More on BlackBerry’s Acquisition

jamesbody — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 10:28:01 -0000

I am not sure how a 'virtual SIM' would work in this context. Does this mean that the handset will have two profiles (IMSIs) active concurrently?

There is support for 2nd Line already in the 3GPP specifications - so I am not sure why there is a need for a 'virtual SIM'?

Can anyone explain how this might work (from a users perspective)?

Re: National roaming not a coverage magic bullet

jamesbody — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 08:21:21 -0000

Mandated National Roaming should change the economic model for rural Not-Spots.
Currently, areas with low densities of mobile subscribers may be uneconomical for a single network component of the in-range mobile users. However, by opening up roaming to other networks, a cell can potentially serve a much larger number of users (including those customers of other networks). The subsequent increase in user numbers coupled with the proportional increase in traffic will make previously un-economic sites into viable commercial opportunities!

Re: The next generation 3 MiFi from Huawei… brilliant!

jamesbody — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:14:06 -0000

Do you really think that calling Three's Indian based call centre is likely to produce any kind of useful feedback on this issue?

Three services are fine as long as they work - anything that involves contact with any form of CS = large amounts of pain and frustration.

I have taken to Tweeting Three to get things fixed (by a Glasgow based team) rather than have to deal with individuals who read scripts in Mumbai!

Re: I absolutely love the bttn: “the simplest internet user interface in the world”

jamesbody — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:55:16 -0000

EUR 69? Just bit of margin on that then!

Re: The next generation 3 MiFi from Huawei… brilliant!

jamesbody — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:53:30 -0000

I ordered an E5372 as soon as it became available on Three. First impressions were all good - routinely achieving 20+ Mbps throughput whilst in LTE coverage. However, my principal use of the device is on the train between Waterloo and Tisbury stations, a journey over which I have been using my wonderful trust E586 on a daily basis. After a couple of days I noticed that my E5372 appeared to be locking up, necessitating a reboot, apparently every time it switched between LTE and 3G modes.

I have subsequently reverted operation to the E586 until I can find a fix for this annoying problem.

Also - the web interface for the E5372 has been 'dumbed down' - whilst this may be fine for the majority of users on Three, I find it really limiting. Annoying!

Re: The only network in the village: How we’re bringing signal to the UK’s not-spots

jamesbody — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 04:03:14 -0000

Did Vodafone manage to select the next 12 communities for Open Femtocells? Do you have any updates on how Vodafone is addressing the problem of Rural Not Spots?

Re: S07E01 - The future of mobile networks

jamesbody — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 06:05:03 -0000

So - individuals *are* happy to have 'dumb pipes'?

Re: S07E01 - The future of mobile networks

jamesbody — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 05:19:51 -0000

"Rafe would love to see software-based SIMs that allowed devices to be reconfigured when needed."

Indeed - and in fact - the SIM-part of this is something that is likely to disappear. With the ability to remotely configure the contents of the SIM using Over the Air (OTA) re-keying techniques there is little need for a removable portable transfer device any more.

As an individual who routinely carries 100+ active SIMs I can tell you that I would not be sorry to see a way of reducing the complexity of SIM management for the end user!

Re: S07E01 - The future of mobile networks

jamesbody — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 05:04:08 -0000

Oh - and your 'survey' is just a little bit predictable - how many readers/listener of 361 Degrees are going to think that their mobile network operator(s) supply innovative services (Answer: Zero to very few) and how many would want their network to be more than 'dumb pipes' (Answer: Just about everybody!)

Re: S07E01 - The future of mobile networks

jamesbody — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 04:59:45 -0000

Ewan - I doubt that you will be bunging Simwood £25 per month for something innovative - as they are a WHOLESALE provider who will be supplying an API to developers and other small operators - unless you are considering becoming a developer and launching your own products? I *am* a huge Simwood fan - but Simon and his small team just do not have the resources or capability to provide support to multiple (troublesome) consumers for what will surely be a reasonably complex set of products....

Rafe's comments (around 17:00-ish) about heterogeneous networks and small cells strike a chord with me! What a wise chap he is!

Ewan - (23:30) - do you really think that the Google WiFi database is based upon the data gathered from the StreetView car data collection? I would be surprised if 1% of the WiFi data held came from this mode of collection..... Much more significant is the HUGE amount of data collected on a minute by minute basis by the millions of Android handsets who are constantly collecting/correlating GPS/CellID/WiFi SSID data - and routinely report results back to Mountain View!

Ben (25:00) - it is the GGSN that is always aware of the data connection mode/speed - and yes, the network *can* do all kinds of things depending on how the mobile device is currently connected.....

Rafe/Ben (27:00) Why would you want to 'take the mobile number away'. E.164 MSISDNs are extremely useful in that they are internationally recognised, compact and unique addresses which are backward compatible with existing communications systems.... And they are really EASY to enter on a telephone keypad.... I think that E.164 telephone numbers are going to be with us for some time yet! Mind you - there is no reason why an end point cannot have *multiple* addresses (such as mindless.sheep@bigMNO.com)

Ben (33:00) - What would you think about the possibility of allowing individuals to set up their own small cells (connected to their domestic or company broadband networks for the backhaul into the PSTN cloud)? Think of a kind of FON business model - but for 3G/4G mobile...? Would you set one up if the costs/benefits were advantageous? What sort of package would you find attractive?

Re: Truphone's Vastly Expanded International Roaming Plan

jamesbody — Wed, 21 May 2014 06:04:19 -0000

Oh - and having multiple telephone numbers in different countries that are always active for voice and SMS is incredibly useful too!

Re: Truphone's Vastly Expanded International Roaming Plan

jamesbody — Wed, 21 May 2014 06:02:48 -0000

It is worth highlighting the potential increase in quality/speed offered by Truphone over 'conventional' international roaming - this sometimes gets lost in amidst the headlines regarding cost cutting! I use Truphone for international data roaming BECAUSE the latency is lower in virtually all scenarios!

Re: Microsoft removes few ‘offensive’ Skype emoticons; invites rage from users

jamesbody — Thu, 01 May 2014 01:08:54 -0000

Stella Hollest was PA to CEO Skype - not CEO!
[LinkedIn is your friend]

Re: GoIP? What the %^&* is a GoIP?

jamesbody — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 01:18:43 -0000

I am not sure what advantages this unit offers over a standard Huawel GSM/3G USB dongle driven by Asterisk with chan_dongle? Any ideas?

Re: O2 details the cost of 4G tariffs in the UK, handset-inclusive deals to start from £32

jamesbody — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 06:51:34 -0000

1GB of data on 4G can be consumed in a couple of minutes.

The whole point of having an uber-fast bearer system is that you can shift LARGE volumes of data in little time. If users only want to move puddly small amounts (like 1GB) then there is little point on being on 4G!

Re: The death of roaming fees in Europe: Bring it on!

jamesbody — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:37:11 -0000

The fundamental problem here is that the method of settlement currently used to reconcile international roaming traffic between different mobile operators is antiquated and inefficient. This means that often charges for traffic arrive at the operator of the roaming user days and even weeks AFTER the calls/data have been used.

There is a mechanism for near realtime authorisation and settlement for international traffic - which is used for pre-paid customers (which uses the CAMEL protocol) - so in order to implement these EU proposals, carriers may have to sart using CAMEL for post-paid accounts as well.

Unfortunately, as the Mobile Network Operators currently generate considerable amounts of revenue from roaming traffic, they have little motivation to make any changes to the existing system.

It should also be noted that whilst roaming prices have been driven down within the EU, in many cases they have actually RISEN outside of EU - so if you are planing to use a roaming device outside of EU, be prepared for a large slice of bill shock!