[AusNOG] [off-topic] Femtocells

Thu Apr 14 15:14:51 EST 2011

On the other side of the coin, how much do you think a generous insurance
company would get exploited out of business?

"It was on fire when I got here, honest"

Also.. "Femtocell". Best. Name. Ever.

On 14/04/11 2:47 PM, "Kai" <vk6ksj at westnet.com.au> wrote:

>Bleh...insurance := legalised fraud.
>
>Pay us regularly "just in case" and don't miss your payments or we'll
>penalise you, but, when you make a claim expect us to try and get out of
>honouring your claim and, on top of that, we'll charge you extra for
>making the claim in the first place, because everyday we don't have to
>give you monay is another day we use that money to invest and make more
>money.
>
>Recommended viewing "The man who sued god".
>
>Apologies for the off-topic rant, I'll shut up now.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Matt S" <matt at mtt.me>
>To: "Richard Stephens" <r at js8.me>
>Cc: ausnog at ausnog.net
>Sent: Thursday, 14 April, 2011 11:54:06 AM GMT +08:00 Beijing / Chongqing
>/ Hong Kong / Urumqi
>Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Femtocells
>
>
>
>The issue I had with home & contents was while the excess was only $100,
>it would result in losing 5% of the no claim bonus which for me made each
>claim ~$500. 
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
>On 14/04/2011, at 10:49, "Richard Stephens" < r at js8.me > wrote:
>
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>To James - have you considered just getting insurance with a third party?
>I have my iPhone insured with protecsure for $150/yr covering accidental
>damage, loss, theft etc.
>Or if you have an existing home/contents policy, most will allow you to
>add "specified portable valuables". I have mine on my home/contents
>policy for about an additional $2/month. Much cheaper than carrier
>insurance. 
>
>
>-- 
>Regards, 
>Richard Stephens 
>
>
>On 14/04/2011, at 1:04 PM, Matt S wrote:
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>Femtocells as sold by carriers are whitelist based - you have to add
>phone numbers allowed to use the cell - if you didn't want a phone to use
>your femtocell you could just not whitelist it. I'm pretty sure the
>Femtocells are also fully managed by the carrier (at least in the case of
>AT&T, Vodafone AU/NZ).
>
>
>Vodafone NZ unmeter microcell data iirc - I don't see why Optus couldn't
>do the same thing.
>
>
>To James - have you considered just getting insurance with a third party?
>I have my iPhone insured with protecsure for $150/yr covering accidental
>damage, loss, theft etc.
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
>On 14/04/2011, at 9:10, "Narelle" < narellec at gmail.com > wrote:
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>Having looked at this previously, I'd say it is a really useful way of
>solving a number of issues, from the operator's point of view: local
>coverage problems (let's face it, no matter how good your network is
>there are always those building shadows and gullies that defy radio
>penetration), base station saturation (more users/usage than a nodeB can
>withstand), and backhaul capacity. In the latter case, the network
>operator even has the benefit of the customer paying for the backhaul, so
>what's not to like about that!
>
>On the down side, the management of interference becomes more
>problematic, but if the service provider can retain management capability
>on the femtocell, then the output power should be adaptable to manage the
>cell boundary issues. That does take time, and attention, and these
>things also cost. I expect there are some automatic adaptation
>capabilities, but I haven't looked at specific capability and
>effectiveness of it lately.
>
>The other issue is with billing - if the operator runs both the
>consumer/SME broadband service and the cellular service, that doesn't
>mean the two are on the same billing or metering systems, and it will be
>very easy to double count the usage. For voice, it can be mere 8kbps
>streams (compressed), but there is talk now of high definition voice
>services being releases, and that could easily be 1Mbps streams, either
>way, with the sort of plans I imagine most people on this list have, it
>will be a drop in the bucket.
>
>The catch, however, with suck it and see, is that one cannot configure
>one's handset not to use the femtocell if you find the usage too much.
>But really, voice calls are two tenths of a proverbial stuff all compared
>with data usage. 
>
>QoS may or may not be enabled, either on your home broadband, and highly
>unlikely to be across the network, but I can't really imagine it will be
>much worse, if at all worse, than mobile services generally, even in
>areas with great coverage.
>
>One would expect that bundles on home internet plans will emerge, and
>either discounting or metering changes will be integrated into the system
>then. The link you gave below implies that already for the service
>provider in question.
>
>
>Cheers 
>
>
>Narelle 
>
>
>
>On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 8:56 AM, Tony < td_miles at yahoo.com > wrote:
>
>
>
>===== 
>The Optus 3G Home Zone works on any broadband provider¹s network, however
>Optus recommends a download speed of at least 1 Mbps and upload of at
>least 256 kbps for ³best performance². So if your home internet
>connection gets throttled your femtocell is also crippled. The data used
>is not unmetered - even for Optus broadband customers - so you could be
>looking at excess data charges on your home internet bill. Optus
>estimates a femtocell will chew through about 1 GB per month. It seems
>stingy that Optus broadband cable customers don¹t have unmetered usage,
>although the trial is also designed to allow Optus to evaluate various
>billing scenarios so that may change.
>===== 
>
>It also has this link to the Optus website:
>http://www.optus.com.au/home/mobile-phones/homezone/
>which includes a list of Optus outlets to contact that might know
>something about it.
>
>
>
>-- 
>
>
>Narelle 
>narellec at gmail.com
>
>
>
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