Mobile Working Experiences
The realities of remote working
Friday 25 May 2007, 2:43 PM
Roaming, roaming, roaming...
Here's a challenge for any fellow users of this blog....
Try and find where the UK mobile operators publish the roaming rates they charge for users who take mobile data cards to other countries. In my experience they very keen to promote where you can roam and the service you will receive, far less keen to tell you how much a MB will cost you!
Any thoughts?
Try and find where the UK mobile operators publish the roaming rates they charge for users who take mobile data cards to other countries. In my experience they very keen to promote where you can roam and the service you will receive, far less keen to tell you how much a MB will cost you!
Any thoughts?
Friday 25 May 2007, 12:05 PM
Get on-board for mobile broadband?
Anyone working remotely will appreciate the value of good quality connectivity whilst travelling. The train companies go to great lengths to sell us the advantages of working on-board trains vs the restrictions when flying.
Fine if you are working off-line but as soon as you add connectivity to your requirements the reality changes.
Travel on the Great Western line from London and the early part of the journey has seemless 2.5G and 3G coverage if you are using a mobile connect card. Perfect, you can even watch TV on-board as promised by the recent poster ads from Vodafone. I travel 3-4 times a week from London to Newbury and the coverage means you gain 2 hours working time each day - a real bonus. Beyond Newbury (er... location of Vodafone's offices) and the coverage is less impressive.
Spare a thought for other travellers though...
Travel on the busy West Coast line and the picture is vastly different. As reported recently on zdnet (Virgin Trains boosts on-board mobile signals), coverage is very poor because of the construction of the Virgin carriages. Because it is a busy business trainline it results it lots of frustrated travellers struggling to make calls or get connectivity whilst on the train.
As a result, the 2.5 hour journey to Manchester can seem like wasted downtime... Or you end up scrabbling to make calls whilst the train is in a major station. A solution is in the pipleline (courtesy of Orange) that should provide far better reception.. time will tell.. and it may not be available to all network customers.
T-Mobile moved quickly to sign a deal with GNER to install wireless repeaters on their trains, the service is apparently excellent, free to first class travellers but expensive if you are travelling standard. A nice work around on a line where mobile coverage is poor.
Whatever else - the expectations of travellers are moving faster than the train companies are responding to the demand of customers...
Fine if you are working off-line but as soon as you add connectivity to your requirements the reality changes.
Travel on the Great Western line from London and the early part of the journey has seemless 2.5G and 3G coverage if you are using a mobile connect card. Perfect, you can even watch TV on-board as promised by the recent poster ads from Vodafone. I travel 3-4 times a week from London to Newbury and the coverage means you gain 2 hours working time each day - a real bonus. Beyond Newbury (er... location of Vodafone's offices) and the coverage is less impressive.
Spare a thought for other travellers though...
Travel on the busy West Coast line and the picture is vastly different. As reported recently on zdnet (Virgin Trains boosts on-board mobile signals), coverage is very poor because of the construction of the Virgin carriages. Because it is a busy business trainline it results it lots of frustrated travellers struggling to make calls or get connectivity whilst on the train.
As a result, the 2.5 hour journey to Manchester can seem like wasted downtime... Or you end up scrabbling to make calls whilst the train is in a major station. A solution is in the pipleline (courtesy of Orange) that should provide far better reception.. time will tell.. and it may not be available to all network customers.
T-Mobile moved quickly to sign a deal with GNER to install wireless repeaters on their trains, the service is apparently excellent, free to first class travellers but expensive if you are travelling standard. A nice work around on a line where mobile coverage is poor.
Whatever else - the expectations of travellers are moving faster than the train companies are responding to the demand of customers...
