# Orange signal boost (UMA)



## 2hats (Feb 17, 2012)

Couldn't find it mentioned via the search so thought I'd be cheeky and create a new thread...

Those Orange subscribers in weak reception areas at home/the office/etc where they have wifi might want to check out Orange's _Signal Boost_ offering.

Unlike Vodafone _Sure Signal_ this doesn't involve buying, installing and powering a separate piece of hardware (femtocell).

It uses UMA to route your mobile calls/text/data transparently over wifi (you need to specially 'pair' the handset with the wifi network to enable this). AFAIK Orange are the only carrier in the UK doing this (so far).

The downside is it only works with certain smartphones and the shiny, shiny iDevice is not one of them.


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## big eejit (Feb 17, 2012)

The instructions keep saying 'select the signal boost application from your phone's application list'. It's not listed under apps on my Galaxy S2.


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## mauvais (Feb 20, 2012)

Femtocells are a much better idea than UMA for that exact reason: better to be tied to a femtocell than a specific phone you may not really want. There's very little sign that UMA is going to break into more devices. Both are still ultimately a dubious offering since you are paying to both (a) offload the operator's traffic on to your own paid-for network and (b) to make up for their shoddy coverage.


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## Radar (Feb 22, 2012)

big eejit said:


> The instructions keep saying 'select the signal boost application from your phone's application list'. It's not listed under apps on my Galaxy S2.


I take it you're with orange ?? What android version you running ?


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## mauvais (Feb 22, 2012)

You need a recent Orange branded firmware for the S2, but I don't have one so can't tell you any more than that.


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## 2hats (Feb 22, 2012)

mauvais said:


> Femtocells are a much better idea than UMA for that exact reason: better to be tied to a femtocell than a specific phone you may not really want. There's very little sign that UMA is going to break into more devices.


 
I don't see any reason why UMA bridging shouldn't become as ubiquitous as 802.11, A-GPS capable chipsets already are.



> Both are still ultimately a dubious offering since you are paying to both (a) offload the operator's traffic on to your own paid-for network and (b) to make up for their shoddy coverage.


 
Indeed you are but in some cases (phone use underground or other heavily shielded locations) the operator can't really be blamed that much for the shoddy coverage. It's just a useful feature to offer. Now if the operators start charging for it, then yes, I would agree that they are taking the piss.


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## mauvais (Feb 22, 2012)

2hats said:


> I don't see any reason why UMA bridging shouldn't become as ubiquitous as 802.11, A-GPS capable chipsets already are.


Because it's a stopgap and already a fairly unsuccessful one - the S2 is the only real exception to that trend, and Samsung like early adoption, no matter what it is. Wi-Fi offload of some description is a large part of my job at the moment. 802.11u, ANDSF and a few other pieces will probably succeed where it fails to gain ground, whilst MIH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_independent_handover) is another apparent failure.


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## 2hats (Feb 22, 2012)

mauvais said:


> Because it's a stopgap and already a fairly unsuccessful one


 
Would probably be more successful if it were promoted more widely!


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## Radar (Feb 22, 2012)

mauvais said:


> You need a recent Orange branded firmware for the S2, but I don't have one so can't tell you any more than that.


Yep, reports on XDA say current kies pushed version for orange handsets support it.


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## bmd (Feb 22, 2012)

I use it with my S2. Makes a noticeable difference to the poor signal at home. Don't all Blackberrys have this too?


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## dervish (Mar 14, 2012)

Be very careful with UMA, when I worked for orange it used to be the case that if you have a UMA phone and connect using the service any data you use over your wifi with your phone will come out of your data allowance. 

I worked for them a couple of years ago so it may have changed, but be careful, we had a number of people caught out with this.


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## abbots (Jun 11, 2012)

i have had orange uma for years it does work, it must be said though it works better with some phones than others,
it would still be better to have a mobile signal.
come on everything nearly everywhere


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