Mobile network for BG?

[Adnan Khan]

This works adnan

http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/spink...=1&buffer=true

Thanks Mike. Looks like the Mamores didn't have much coverage.

[howfast]

Thanks Mike. Looks like the Mamores didn't have much coverage.

Anyone following on the day will know I had a problem with that tracker, where it hung up for 3 hours (pretty sure it was on O2 before it stalled). As mentioned above currently working pretty hard with testing to try and prevent this rare problem happening again, but Nicky's track over that area doesn't really represent the coverage. JT

[Nick Smith]

That is really interesting with the network names on each trackpoint. So Janson's tracker was actually using O2 coming down off Scafell until just before Wasdale.

Don't know why, but Alicia's BG track show 'Unk' for all the trackpoints.

[Nick Smith]

Oh by the way - on no BG trackers have we ever picked up ANY signal at Honister. I know there is wifi there, kind of place that be cool to put a 2g femtocell so our trackers could update data.

Where is the WiFi? Does the YHA have it? I asked at the Honister cafe and they said there wasn't WiFi

[Arkel]

Pretty sure the YHA has it

[howfast]

Don't know why, but Alicia's BG track show 'Unk' for all the trackpoints.

Nick my fault - I can toggle whether the tracker sends network used and I occasionally we leave it off. It does use that little more data and a hence a little more battery. All the trackers this weekend have it set to send.

[howfast]

As an aside we have a number of unlocked mobile phones for our events in the office and we use Manx telecom SIMs http://www.manxtelecom.com/mobile/ta...as-you-go.aspx - only cost £5 and any credit you put on them doesn't expire although you do need to make a call every 6 months and they enable your phone to roam on all 4 networks. It does cost 25p per min to call out so not so good as a regular phone but handy to have in an emergency or when you do desperately want to make that call.

[Martyn P]

As an aside we have a number of unlocked mobile phones for our events in the office and we use Manx telecom SIMs http://www.manxtelecom.com/mobile/ta...as-you-go.aspx - only cost £5 and any credit you put on them doesn't expire although you do need to make a call every 6 months and they enable your phone to roam on all 4 networks. It does cost 25p per min to call out so not so good as a regular phone but handy to have in an emergency or when you do desperately want to make that call.

Good call. I've got a cheap Nokia dual-sim phone for out on the fells and use one Orange/EE SIM and one Manx Telecom SIM in it. It pretty much guarantees coverage. I use the Orange SIM wherever possible to avoid having to pay the 25p/minute charge! I think it's 13p for a txt as well.

[Nick Smith]

As an aside we have a number of unlocked mobile phones for our events in the office and we use Manx telecom SIMs http://www.manxtelecom.com/mobile/ta...as-you-go.aspx - only cost £5 and any credit you put on them doesn't expire although you do need to make a call every 6 months and they enable your phone to roam on all 4 networks. It does cost 25p per min to call out so not so good as a regular phone but handy to have in an emergency or when you do desperately want to make that call.

Thanks, I ordered one of those SIMs earlier today to try out on a BG later this month. I think they cost 50p/Mb for data, so would be good for the live tracker assuming that all the scripts & images are already loaded over WiFi then cached in the browser.

[CharlieW]

I have a special running phone with a PAYG SIM from O2 (Eire) which I bought on eBay. As it is an Irish SIM, it is roaming in the UK, and connects to all the networks -- I set it up specifically to maximise my chances of staying in touch with the family in the Lakes (and to be able to make emergency calls, before 2009? when cross-network 999 calls were set up). I think the trackers may use Manx Telecom SIMs which are similarly able to roam across networks? As Ireland is in the EU and roaming rates have been pushed down by EU law, it's pretty cheap to make the odd call anyway, so there isn't much disadvantage over a UK SIM. Roaming data would be expensive though (not sure of the rates). I managed to send a text from pretty near every peak and road crossing last year using my Irish SIM (I too spotted the small patch of coverage on the Wasdale bridge, and backtracked to use it!)

In Keswick, only EE (i.e. Orange/T-mobile) and Three had 3G last summer at least.