Vodafone Frequency Bands

PhotogTom

Can anyone help me with info on what frequency band Vodafone uses in Ireland - 900Mhz or 1800Mhz would be the normal choices. I'm talking about a standard Pay as You Go phone here. I'd like to get a repeater station that will improve the marginal reception in my somewhat rural site. But the station is frequency specific. And, Vodafone has been the ususal unresponsive help!

Thanks,
Tom

irlrobins

Moved to mobiles/PDA

Gillo

At a guess I'd go with 1800.

It may be worth looking into the legality of using a repeater like that, you might need a licence, also what happens if a neighbour deciedes that your repeater is giving off too much radition and causing them ill-effects.

Sorry, don't mean to put a bummer on it.

byrnefm

Never heard of a person boosting their mobile coverage this way! Anyway, Vodafone uses both 900MHz and 1800MHz. If you go to http://www.comreg.ie/siteviewer/site_search.asp? and type in your address, you'll see where the nearest mobile phone masts are to you and what frequency each is transmitting on. Hopefully that'll help you out.

Urban Weigl

Vodafone use 900MHz almost exclusively, especially down the country. More built up areas they may use both. Like byrnefm said, go to ComReg's mobile base station viewer, and you should be able to find out the frequency of your nearest base station.

I kind of doubt what you're proposing is legal in Ireland. I know it's common in the US, as they have poor coverage in a lot of areas there, but here it's rare not to get good coverage. Perhaps all you need to do is get a better phone?

PhotogTom

Hadn't considered the legality issue, but there are plenty of vendors in the UK as well as America that sell these products. The American ones are just less expensive!!
We are in an area that has notoriously bad reception with Vodafone being marginally better than O2. It has to do with the mountains blocking the signal. I can actually see the signal mast only 2-3 miles away when I drive down the hill but we are in the "shadow" of the hill.
Thanks for the tip on the comreg site, sounds perfect and I'll check it out.
The coverage area is only 2500 square feet for the lower spec unit. My nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away so I wouldn't be too worried about that aspect but it is a good issue to raise.
The same companies in UK and America will do a site survey and spec and install systems to improve phone coverage in large manufacturing and office plants.
As far as a better phone - I'd certainly be open to that and it would be cheaper. While it was very little, my research said there was little or no difference between phones. My current phone is a 3 month old Nokia. But if anyone knows of a "super reception" phone, I'd be very interested in it.
If interested, here are the sites that I've looked at http://www.telecomtek.com/cellular_booster.htm and http://cellantenna.co.uk/?gclid=CNOss6Cq-4YCFRSuEAodWkWFIw

I know a method with a Motorola phone of testing which band is in use. Basically it involves changing the flex settings to disable 900 or 1800 and then you can see which one gives you a signal. But its a complicated process, requires a non-3G Motorola phone, a USB cable and a lot of patience. I'd say there's a better way of testing in your area, though its far more likely to be 900 than 1800.

The ComReg Site Viewer website used to state the bands used by the cells but it doesn't anymore.

The Doktor

Just had a quick look at some of those devices. If you get a Dual band (900/1800) type one you will be covered.
However one thing to remember, you need to have a signal to boost in the first place. For example, if you have no signal in a building, but its not too bad outside, you have an antenna outside, going to your repeater, and then boosting the signal through an indoor antenna.
The networks actually use these to provide solutions to business and certain customers. Though they are a little more advanced than the ones I seen on theose websites.

Urban Weigl

This would be compatible with Irish GSM networks, such as Vodafone:

https://powertec.c2.hostexcellence.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21/products_id/144?osCsid=4b3b231fa7d7af5b0acc0f3b85cebf59

Does both 900MHz and 1800MHz, which are the bands in use here, and it's relatively inexpensive.