LTE

New Gear: Ubiquiti Unifi 5G Backup

Ubquiti Unifi 5G BackupApologies for the lengthy preamble. Back in 2001 when we moved into this house we started with Comcast cable modem internet access that delivered 5/1 mbps. We were committed to Comcast for cable TV since we were a Tivo household. Tivo DVRs leveraged cable and the Cable Card decryption scheme.

It also happens that Comcast’s internet access was not very reliable. That caused me to get a DSL service installed as a backup. The DSL service provided by Sprint was modest. We are some 11,400 feet from the nearest central office, which meant that 1.5 Mbps / 768 kbps was the best we could achieve.

Over a number of years, Comcast’s cable modem service got both faster and (somewhat) more reliable. Still, I retained the relatively pokey DSL service as a backup. After Hurricane Ike in 2008 I felt vindicated in that choice. Throughout and after that terrible storm we had sustained phone and internet access via that DSL service. In contrast, Comcast was out for a month.

There came a time when I realized that I had not used the DSL in over a year. And 4G wireless broadband had become available, so I could tether to a phone in a pinch. That combination supported ending the DSL service, which suffered declining cost/performance.

All that is back-story. In all that time, we never had a “dual-WAN” arrangement. Failover between the ISPs was manual. Typically, repatch the WAN port of the router to the desired modem, then load a different WAN configuration. Not difficult. But manual.

Well, no longer! Last week I took delivery of the new Ubiquiti Unifi 5G Backup device. Newly introduced for just $99 this wee magic wand promises an affordable, automatic backup to a 5G wireless service. It’s not locked to any carrier. At the outset it works with AT&T, T-Mobile, and presumably their MVNOs.

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T-Mobile Moves Beyond HDVoice

T-Mobile Nexus5 EVSI’ve been a T-Mobile customer for a long time. In fact, my transition to T-Mobile happened when I bought my first smart phone, a Blackberry 8100 (aka Pearl).

More recently I’ve been using an LG-made Nexus 5. No, not the newer 5X. Late last year I semi-regressed from a One+ One to a Nexus 5. One of the reasons for that step backward in time was to finally be able to enjoy mobile HDVoice calls to my wife, who also carries a Nexus 5.

T-Mobile, who lead the US in the rollout of mobile HDVoice, supports it’s use for in-network calls between a list of supported handsets, including the Nexus 5. That initial rollout of HDVoice came before the big build of their LTE network. They enabled the AMR-WB codec (aka G.722.2) over their existing 3G HSPA+ network.

Most other US carriers waited until their LTE rollout to launch HDVoice. An LTE network is natively an IP network, readily supporting advanced voice codecs and video. When the voice calls are handled over the LTE network it’s called Voice-Over-LTE or VoLTE, which is very different from how voice was handled on 3G networks.

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Q1-2016 Broadband Update: Bye Bye Global Capacity, Hello Tachus!

According to Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changing.” I certainly hope so. I’ve made some changes to our broadband service hereabouts, and I’m hopeful about a new alternative. The details of these two things are worth sharing.

I’ve long held that someone in a technology business, who works from a home office full time, should have redundant forms of internet access. If you’re going to have redundant access they should use different modes of connection. That way a single errant truck or backhoe doesn’t take out both of your services.

This belief was strengthened by our own experience in events like Hurricane Ike in 2008. We lost Comcast service for several weeks, falling back to our stodgy old DSL circuit. The DSL meant that we had IP phones running the morning after the storm, when even cellular service was down, amazed and confounded our neighbors.

Our first broadband service to this location was a DSL circuit. The name on the bill changed numerous times. What started out as Sprint Ion devolved into Earthlink, then Covad, Megapath, and most recently Global Capacity. The data rate was slow, but reliability was high.

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User Experience: T-Mobile’s Continental Plans

TMobile-Phones-CoOmpositeEarlier this year T-Mobile altered their US Simple Choice Plans to include coverage in Canada and Mexico without roaming charges. The plans eliminate roaming while out of the country, but also eliminate international long distance when calling Canada and Mexico. Further, they include “4G LTE data in Canada & Mexico.” Since we go to Canada to visit family at least once a year the new plan sounded quite useful.

Change is hard…

Last month we made our annual trek to the Great White North. While making plans an associate, who is also a T-Mobile customer, recommended that I call T-Mobile and make sure that we had the correct plan. Failure to do so would result in us incurring the usual roaming charges for platinum-plated voice and data service while travelling.

On the very eve of our departure I remembered to call T-Mobile and make the change to the account. In fact, I called from the airport (IAH) while we were awaiting the departure of our initial flight to Toronto.

Of course, I called the from my mobile phone. The automated system advised that there would be some on-hold time, and I could opt to have them call me back, which I did. The callback took about ten minutes.

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Advantage GSM Carriers: Simultaneous Voice & Data

Now that Verizon Wireless is getting traction with the iPhone 4 on their CDMA network AT&T is left trying to find ways of differentiating itself. While it’s too early to know how much of a bloodletting AT&T will suffer, it’s clear that in many parts of the country Verizon’s much touted network supremacy will win over a significant number of frustrated AT&T customers, even if it means buying a new CDMA capable iPhone4.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two carriers is the type of networks they operate. Networks based upon GSM standards, like AT&T and T-Mobile here in the US, allow the simultaneous use of voice and data. In marked contrast, CDMA networks like Verizon’s, simply don’t do this.

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