Vodafone Access Gateway

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I've been looking at this - I haven't seen any user test results, but comments from people involved in trials say it works well.

There have also been suggestions that if you're a reasonable user and you complain about patchy coverage then you can get it for free, or worst case for £5/mth added to your tariff. After all, all you're doing is extending Vodafone network, but at your expense rather than theirs. They save on call charges (but you don't) and you pay for the electricity (getting other people to pay for their electricity is the Holy Grail for mobile operators).


I've held off as we have a corporate deal with Vodafone but several users have moved to 02 to get iPhones so we're thinking of all moving to 02 and I don't want to get into another contract period.
 
Ordered one on Friday - should be here today or tomorrow. Will let you know what I think.

I've heard they can take some time (24 hours) to get fully functional - but otherwise people have been raving about them.

I'm buying one because the transmitter in our area has been down for 6 days now, and I've had no signal during that time. Sure it will get fixed, but I'd rather have a backup option as well. Hence the gateway.
 
There have also been suggestions that if you're a reasonable user and you complain about patchy coverage then you can get it for free, or worst case for £5/mth added to your tariff.

Interested in hearing more about this bit, where's this info from - we are considering leaving Voda due to poor coverage at home.......
 
I'm looking forward to a report on the performance of this too, our Vodafone signal has virtually disappeared and we have 4 phones in our house all on contract with them. We are due a transmitter upgrade but not until 2011. This could be a nice neat solution.
 
Is this not like an admission that coverage is not as good as published?

I like the idea but I don't like the idea of paying for it especially as you would only need this if the coverage is below an acceptable standard anyway - in which case the costs of this 'workaround' should be borne by the telecoms company and include a rebate for electricity costs and use of your own internet connection.
 
A colleague who has one of these mentioned that he is still charged full rates for data access.

So, his entire mobile phone connection including his data access is going over his ADSL link that he pays for, at no cost to the mobile phone company, and they are charging him an arm and a let for the privilege...
 
It doesn't seem right to pay full rates for a free voip call on top of a monthly charge. Whats in it for the customer?

I also think these boxes shouldn't be restricted to one provider either. You should be able to associate all your household IMEI's to the box and route all calls regardless of provider via this connection. There is no logical reason why the hardware cannot have more than one Access Point defined in its routing tables.
 
Interested in hearing more about this bit, where's this info from - we are considering leaving Voda due to poor coverage at home.......

There's loads of stuff on the internet about this unit if you Google it - here's an article about the pricing: Improve your signal with Vodafone Access Gateway - News - Mobile Choice

The idea that you can get it free is suggested in a couple of articles, but it's the relevant writers own idea, nothing official from Voda. http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/News/Improve+your+signal+with+Vodafone+Access+Gateway/3636

On the basis that I never pay for anything if I don't have to, then I would call Voda and ask nicely. If that didn't work then I'd ask for my PAC code - when they asked why I'd say because it doesn't work well at home and try to steer them towards sending me one the units free. Thing to be careful of with either that, or the pay monthly deal, is that you don't cause a new contract period to be started.
 
Last edited:
...After all, all you're doing is extending Vodafone network, but at your expense rather than theirs. They save on call charges (but you don't) and you pay for the electricity (getting other people to pay for their electricity is the Holy Grail for mobile operators).
...

This would be my contention with the product. Great idea, but poor value IMO.
 
Vodafone have given me one for free.....

Here's the tips (that are not in the instructions) on how to get it to work....

(taken from email from vodafone technical support)

Please make sure that before you use this information, you ensure this is a firewall fault by turning it off and seeing your Vodafone access gateway working.

Destination ports and IP address that you need:

NTP on UDP-123 to 212.183.133.181
NTP on UDP-123 to 212.183.133.182
Ping on ICMP-8 to 212.183.133.181
Ping on ICMP-8 to 212.183.133.182
ESP on IP-50 to 212.183.133.177
IPSEC NAT Traversal on UDP-4500 to 212.183.133.177
ISAKMP on UDP-500 to 212.183.133.177
 
Vodafone have given me one for free.....

Here's the tips (that are not in the instructions) on how to get it to work....

How did you manage that?
 
I asked......(and agreed to renew for another 12 months)......Got a new Curve, and Storm2.

Storm2 going back because it's nearly as bad as the Storm1.....getting the new Bold when it's released on 6th Nov.
 
Does this give you 3G if you're not in a 3G area?
 
Yes... around the house. Ours seems to have about 40m-ish range. You need greater than 2MB ADSL, and the ability to manage your router (see above). We get from none to 1/5bar GSM only Vodafone signal here....now I have 5 bars of 3G.
 
I've got one and it's brilliant. They even text me an apology if it's not working properly. :eek:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom