Boostbox Activation

[Wardshome]

My sister has very poor signal where she lives (BH22 8SA), this means some calls and important text messages from her bank do not come through quickly. I suggested she ask O2 for a Boostbox but she was told they would only provide one if she was a Business customer even though the website misleadingly says Home and Small business https://www.o2.co.uk/business/solutions/connectivity/mobile/boostbox.

Thinking I could help I bought a new Boostbox for her but when she tried to activate it she was again told that only business users could use it!

Where do I go from here? I guess return the box and switch networks?

We are both long term O2 customers so we are more than a little disappointed with this lack of support for a user in an area of poor coverage.

Martin

[MI5]

@Wardshome 

It's useless to you unless you have a business account.

Either sell box or switch to business contract.

[Wardshome]

I guess I will have to tell her to change networks.

It seems strange that O2 don't help non business customers with this fix for areas with weak network coverage when they have the infrastructure in place already?

I have looked into wifi calling but understand that this doesnt fix the SMS messages issue.

[MI5]

Wifi calling is the only option and the no sms support is shocking.

But that's the way it is with O2 currently.

[madasaf1sh]

@Wardshome

No network provides boostboxes / femtocells for consumers any more.

SMS over Wifi is not perfect and I can see why o2 are hesitant to provide this service. Even VoWiFi is not perfect and in some cases especially across enterprise WiFi or homes with extenders and Access Points is a an absolute nightmare, with dropped services etc.

Just so you are aware no network provides 100% cellular coverage, so before jumping ship get some pay as you go sims and see which has the best reception.

[Wardshome]

Thanks - Got to ask why no more femtocells do they interfere with other local handsets reception?

[MI5]

Networks now rely on wifi calling as an alternative to femtocells and I know for sure that both EE and Vodafone offer the full calls and sms support over wifi, so I suggest you check either of those for suitability.

[madasaf1sh]

@Wardshome

Femtocells is exactly what a boost box is and I think it is down to the cost, and WIFI Callings a cheaper option and doesn't require any user intervention to setup and register devices.

Also now WiFi calling is available on a product called Mobex (Mobile Extension) they will soon I think be no longer available to Business customers either.

[Wardshome]

Thanks for the feedback and extra info, I will check the EE and Vodafone signal next time I visit but even if they are also poor if my sister switched she will have the option of wifi calling with SMS as she has reasonably fast fibre broadband.

I feel it would be really helpful if the networks started working together to provide better national signal coverage as the current highly competitive approach has not done that! Now they want to sell us 5G phones when 4G coverage is still far from complete!