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Beer Fridge Caught Interfering With Cellular Network

Posted by Unknown on from the upgrade-to-the-faraday-fridge dept.

aesoteric writes "A man's backyard beer fridge in Australia has been busted interfering with the cellular network of major carrier Telstra. Engineers used an internally-developed software 'robot' to crawl log files from the network and sent a field team out to pinpoint the cause of the interference."

7 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Respect Your Elders, Telstra! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Incidentally, Australian beer fridges have the honor of being among the first commercially successful applications of refrigeration technology(the principles and some early prototypes were developed elsewhere; but Australia's not-exactly-robust ice-harvesting industry didn't imperil the cost effectiveness of the systems in the way that it did in places that actually have ice). Telstra should turn down whatever RF 'noise' the kids are listening too these days and let Grandpop play what he wants!

    Irrelevant history aside, what kind of dodgy does a motor have to be to generate enough RF to degrade a cell system in the course of performing relatively modest compression duties for a small refrigerator?

    1. Re:Respect Your Elders, Telstra! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      A good lawyer could probably claim that this is a clear cut case of the cellular network being a form of hacking the refridgerator technology, since the fridge tech was around first and therefore has claims to do whatever the cell signals should "work around". If this case were in the US, the lawyer could even pull in the DMCA, 'cause the DMCA specifically destroys any technology made to circumvent an older tech. This cell network is definitely attempting to circumvent the fridge owners right to his technology. Therefore, the cell network should pay $1,000,000 for damages and the CEO should spend a year in prison and have a permanent record for all this hacking of fridge's & then trying to blame the fridges for getting in the way. I don't even care if this is a case of hactivism on the part of the cell network(s) involved, this is unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE!!

  2. Re:G'DAY MATE by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're joking, right? We export that crap so we don't have to drink it.

    Want a good Australian beer, try something from Malt Shovel, Cascade or Mountain Goat.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  3. Re:G'DAY MATE by capt_mulch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry, no-one in Australia drinks Fosters anymore. We're all boutique these days - except for Queenslanders, who only drink Fourex (XXXX) - and the reason it's called XXXX is because they can't spell 'beer'.

  4. tough decision!!! by johnnybogosity · · Score: 5, Funny

    You want reliable network performance or ice cold beer? That's a tough question.

    1. Re: tough decision!!! by Mabhatter · · Score: 5, Funny

      After 5pm work can't reach you... THAT is a feature for a Beer Fridge!

  5. More pertinent information on beer fridge by RyoShin · · Score: 5, Informative

    The linked article is far more about the internal 'robot' and very little about the beer fridge. While perhaps the intent of the /. post, I was far more interested in how the beer fridge could have caused such an issue. Thankfully, TFA has a link to another, far more interesting, FA:

    Telstra engineers say any electric spark of a large enough magnitude can generate radio frequency noise that is wide enough to create blackouts on the 850mHz spectrum that carries our mobile voice calls and internet data.

    Engineers said the motor in the beer fridge was causing the interference.

    It includes an image of said fridge, which looks like something from the 50s/60s (maybe? I don't know, I still have people yelling at me to get off their lawns.) More modern models probably have much better, efficient motors that don't cause this kind of issue.

    Mr Halley said Telstra was increasing its black-spot detectors as Australians flocked to smartphones, and the rapid expansion of services revealed some very odd "ghosts in the machine". [...] These included faulty automatic teller machines, lights and illegal phone and TV antenna boosters.

    No mention of the resolution, but I assume it involved unplugging the fridge. (I wouldn't be surprised if he paid more in electricity for that thing per year than just buying a new, medium-sized fridge.)