Gadget: Vodafone Sure Signal
As BT has been reminding us in recent adverts, there's nothing more frustrating than half-heard mobile phone calls. Trying to piece together fragments of speech is a challenge harder than anything the Crystal Maze can throw at you. The problem was especially acute in my little house. Callers reported that, at best, it sounded like I was calling from one of Bin Laden's caves in Afghanistan.
Switching networks has previously been the prescription for such mobile phone signal ailments. However, Vodafone have recently released a small box of tricks which connects to your broadband internet router to solve this problem entirely. The Sure Signal uses a cunning technology called femtocell.
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Hide AdIn a nutshell, it piggybacks onto your broadband internet connection to create a mini 3G mobile phone cell in your house. Once everyone in your family has registered their mobile numbers on the online portal, the Sure Signal allows up to four people to make calls simultaneously. Although it needs a minimum of a 1Mbps broadband line speed, I saw no noticeable drop in my internet connection speeds.
The best bit about Sure Signal is that there's very little fiddling around. It costs either a one-off 50 if you've already got a 25-plus contract with Vodafone or 120 with a cheaper contract. You can also pay for it monthly. Once it was plugged in and my mobile phones registered I got a steady five bars of 3G signal. The downsides? Well, it uses a fair amount of electricity (the same amount as a 100W light bulb switched on for three hours a day) and although it pumps out fewer emissions than a wireless router, I'm not a fan of extra radio waves zipping around. If you can get over these little foibles, the Sure Signal solves a frustrating problem elegantly.
• This article was first published in The Scotsman on October 09, 2010