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In Room With No Cell Service, Verizon Works On Future of Mobile
alphadogg writes "If you think your house has bad cellular coverage, Verizon Wireless has you beat: A small, windowless room high up in a San Francisco office building gets no service at all. That's not because carriers are neglecting the bustling South of Market business district where the room is located. Instead, it's because Verizon is paying so much attention to what's going on there. The room with zero bars is in the heart of the Verizon Innovation Center, where Verizon network and business experts help developers of new wireless devices and apps to turn their ideas into products."
I said... can you hear me now?
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Is there a good reason why the blurb for this is so poorly worded/written?
They just took a picture of a room that gets no Verizon service at all. You can find oh so many of them.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Let us hope that the work they do there comes to nothing, and is overwhelmingly forgotten. It's a more charming approach than simple brute force and lobbying; but this is also an extension of Verizon's work to stave off becoming a dumb pipe, and reap the rents that doing so allows. That isn't good news for anybody except them, and possibly their favored app and/or device buddies.
Not only are they surprisingly bad at it (hands up, everyone who ever had the pleasure of a phone with a fully Verizoned ROM, or a Comcast-rented cable box UI); but the conflicts of interest inherent between offering a product or service and controlling the infrastructure over which that offering is delivered are irreconcilably dangerous.
that "...small, windowless room high up in a San Francisco office building (that) gets no service at all." sure has one hell of a view according to the pic in TFA.
The shielded room, about the size of a walk-in closet, only has space for a small desk, a couple of chairs and a bank of network equipment. It isn't meant to stay wireless-free. Instead, Verizon engineers use current and emerging wireless gear to create special radio environments for testing.
The "shielded room" is a small part of the VIC.
It is called a Faraday Cage and it works very well at blocking RF signals. Pix....
I helped assemble one many years ago. There was an FM radio inside the cage that would receive the local campus station quite well...until the cage door was closed, then would just hiss.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Maybe they meant that is has no TCP window?
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
The downstairs bathroom at my house gets no Verizon reception, zero bars. The rest of the house does, just not that room. Other providers work fine, go figure...
Procrastination; I'll think of a sig tomorrow.
Are typically RF shielded as well. There is nothing new, exciting, or exotic about a Faraday cage. Why is this article even here?
"... help developers of new wireless devices and apps to turn their ideas into LOCKED-DOWN products THAT GOUGE USERS."
There. FTFY.
Come on, Verizon. Charging EXTRA to tether when they're ALREADY paying for the data?
Booooooooo.
A small, windowless room high up in a San Francisco office building gets no service at all...... because Verizon is paying so much attention to what's going on there.
If you're wondering, that means that they've built a faraday cage the size of a room. They're a lot of fun if you can get one.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Anybody who develops or tests radio receivers of any kind (including cell phones) has one or more shield rooms - it's no big deal. As a more economical (though less effective) alternative, many also have screen rooms, which are little rooms built out of two-by-fours that are surrounded with copper screening. It's about as amazing as the fact that Ben & Jerry's R&D department has a freezer.
that "...small, windowless room high up in a San Francisco office building (that) gets no service at all." sure has one hell of a view according to the pic in TFA.
it get's even more interesting when the ground starts moving...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
that "...small, windowless room high up in a San Francisco office building (that) gets no service at all." sure has one hell of a view according to the pic in TFA.
That's not the room.
Recent innovations include:
* Innovative means of continuing to maintain a completely locked down network, even in the face of FCC regulations regarding LTE, in the name of security.
* Forcing device manufacturers to lock down bootloaders such that only Verizon can issue security updates.
* Failing to issue said security updates, creating insecure devices, forcing customers to upgrade.
* Requiring upgrading customers to obtain a downgraded (limited) data plan in order to qualify for subsidized phones. (You're always paying a subsidized price, whether or not your contract is currently subsidizing a phone.)
* Introducing a marketing strategy where eager users can pay twice for their subsidized phones if they'd like to upgrade early. (Do the math, it's not friendly, and is difficult to understand by design.
I'm sure there are plenty of legitimate innovations coming from Verizon. But it doesn't nearly make up for the harm they're doing to the future of mobile. Their primary mission is control, not customer satisfaction. They have a lot of customers, a lot of money, and most importantly, a lot of cell towers, which keeps us "happy enough" as customers.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
RF chambers feel like coffins and definitely are not for the claustrophobic. Additionally they are not that rare . Anechoic chambers are in practically every place that does RF testing or RF engineering. See if you can find one at your local University. This article was clearly not written for scientists or engineers.
That's nothing. All of Canada is blocking Rogers cell service
rewriting history since 2109
What they really want to do is figure out how to charge you for using your phone over WiFi like you can do with properly equipped T-Mobile phones.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
The room stays put while the signal "moves".
the bars I get on my verizon iphone 4 are there for looks only. the moment i step into my house, all bets are off. I can go from 4 to 0 to 1 to 4 and back, just sitting in the same fucking location.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
I used to work at a contractor that built radio based stuff. It was intended for at-sea use, so the devices were overpowered and overlapped with regular radio and TV so testing needed to be contained. We had whole labs 20x30 and bigger with copper mesh under the cheap tacky paneling, even the doors had mesh seals so the rooms were a perfect Faraday's cage.
It's been 10 years since I worked there... Those would be Awesome for NOT getting signals now!
RF chambers feel like coffins and definitely are not for the claustrophobic. Additionally they are not that rare . Anechoic chambers are in practically every place that does RF testing or RF engineering. See if you can find one at your local University. This article was clearly not written for scientists or engineers.
Right you are. People also forget that every MRI machine, in every hospital, everywhere in the world, is in a totally shielded room (and much, much larger than the little test closet in the article.)
So reading about a room (closet really) that "Oh my golly gosh - has NO cel service!!!. Imagine that!!" is kinda lame.
MRI RF Shielding specifications ...more:
Copper soldered RF shielded enclosure for MRI scanner
SECTION 13095 RADIO FREQUENCY SHIELDING FOR MRI SOLDERED COPPER RF SYSTEM
PART 1 - GENERAL
1.1 DESCRIPTION
The purpose of RF and magnetic shield construction is to create an enclosure in which radio frequency (RF) and/or electromagnetic interference (EMI) is contained and/or prevented from entering. This environment is necessary to ensure proper performance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment.
http://www.national-mri-shielding-specifications.com/
Hey! That image looks really familiar! It fact, it looks just like where I work!
They must have the wrong place. There's no innovation or new ideas around my office.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
and stories like this are ran every year.
every radio developer and most bigger operators have such rooms and cages, usually with equipment to simulate wireless coverage of varying qualities.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Go anywhere on the dessert for one.
I stood on a few pies to test this hypothesis, but I still had signal. Am I doing it wrong?
Nothing like driving 100miles on a dangerous road with no signs of civilization anywhere when you need 911 the most.
Why are you doing such a thing without, at minimum, an emergency kit in the trunk consisting of a spare tire and tools, basic first aid supplies, a couple of blankets, flares, a firearm, some ammunition, and a jug of water? I don't travel for any significant distance in remote country without everything on that list. Even in town, most of that is still in the vehicle.
Write failed: Broken pipe
I don't think it's bad advertising. It shows they make an effort to understand their customers' experience. ;)
These rooms are common for anywhere people build radio products. We had dozens in an auto radio group I worked in. You also need them so you can run test broadcasts without it escaping to mess with the real world.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Unless they're talking about service in an uninhabited, isolated place, the obvious answer is wiFi. At my house there is no decent cell service from any of the major carriers. This is one of the reasons we have been using Republic Wireless' "hybrid" service--it uses wiFi for data and texting when you're near a known hotspot and mobile service from Sprint (or its roaming partners) when you're not, and it includes unlimited data--all for $19/month ( review here: http:///www.longmeadcrossing.com/republicWireless.htm ). Verizon can pretend that this sort of thing doesn't already exist but meanwhile their market share will fall and they'll deserve it. I think a windowless room is the perfect metaphor for their position.
This is that room.
I come here for the love
8 years ago, I worked for a wireless manufacturer in San Diego - and we had a room like this. It's an amazing new (177 year old) invention called a Faraday cage.
"Lame" - Galaxar
This is Verizon we're talking about - so its about on par for them catching up with modern tech :-)
It's just a bit more impressive --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXY-AQ9zHU