Walkie Talkies

[Neil]

5 hours ago, UEF said:

Another vote for EE here

me too, been on it for years and never have a problem at glasto. 🙂 

[Crazyfool01]

EE is always gonna be close to the best … for me though ME wins 

[moogster]

16 hours ago, incident said:

Beyond that, the only "sort of" on this is people with non-uk sim cards* who are roaming onto UK networks can manually select / override which network they roam onto if they go into their phones settings rather than just accept the (pseudo random) default.

 

True! And very convenient. And quite shocking to see the difference when you change the network. At first this year my partner had pretty much 0 connection (may have been O2). I take the phone, change the network and BOOM. 

[aj6658]

Im with O2 and my experience its pretty bad all over particularly in Bristol. On site it was not great but not terrible. 

 

Was wondering - anyone think Apple AirTags would be a good solution?

[incident]

19 minutes ago, aj6658 said:

Was wondering - anyone think Apple AirTags would be a good solution?

Depends what problem you're trying to solve.

A smart tracker won't help with communication in any measurable way. Even in the very limited sense that they can communicate, once out of Bluetooth range they'd still have to rely on mobile data via the paired phone so might as well just use the normal channels rather than add awkward extra hoops to jump through.

They do have a potential benefit at the festival though, as correctly utilised would likely reduce the chance of losing your keys/wallet - assuming you didn't also lose your phone at the same time that is.

[aj6658]

29 minutes ago, incident said:

Depends what problem you're trying to solve.

A smart tracker won't help with communication in any measurable way. Even in the very limited sense that they can communicate, once out of Bluetooth range they'd still have to rely on mobile data via the paired phone so might as well just use the normal channels rather than add awkward extra hoops to jump through.

They do have a potential benefit at the festival though, as correctly utilised would likely reduce the chance of losing your keys/wallet - assuming you didn't also lose your phone at the same time that is.

Im going in a big group so we usually splinter and regroup. Trying to find where people are in big crowds in a nightmare. I usually try to tell them via what part of the stage is directly in front of me.

I have AirTags for my keys and It gives me the option to navigate with an arrow 

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, aj6658 said:

Im going in a big group so we usually splinter and regroup. Trying to find where people are in big crowds in a nightmare. I usually try to tell them via what part of the stage is directly in front of me.

I have AirTags for my keys and It gives me the option to navigate with an arrow 

What 3 words 

[incident]

34 minutes ago, aj6658 said:

Im going in a big group so we usually splinter and regroup. Trying to find where people are in big crowds in a nightmare. I usually try to tell them via what part of the stage is directly in front of me.

I have AirTags for my keys and It gives me the option to navigate with an arrow 

It still needs data to discern that location.

[Neil]

3 hours ago, aj6658 said:

Im going in a big group so we usually splinter and regroup. Trying to find where people are in big crowds in a nightmare. I usually try to tell them via what part of the stage is directly in front of me.

I have AirTags for my keys and It gives me the option to navigate with an arrow 

you can whatsapp  what3 words locations and then use the what3words map to get to the right place, works very well but needs working data signals from everyone.

[dotdash79]

4 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

What 3 words 

Tried to use it this year and it was awful. Sent us to the wrong place every time 

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, dotdash79 said:

Tried to use it this year and it was awful. Sent us to the wrong place every time 

oh .... ive only used it once to find mates camper a few years back ... i guess it worked well  as we were out the crowds at that point 

[Skip997]

5 hours ago, aj6658 said:

Im going in a big group so we usually splinter and regroup. Trying to find where people are in big crowds in a nightmare. I usually try to tell them via what part of the stage is directly in front of me.

I have AirTags for my keys and It gives me the option to navigate with an arrow 

Never a problem pre mobile phones. Pre arranged meeting points e.g. just right of the mixing desk.

Or just accept it and hope to bump into them somewhere.

[Alvoram]

Airtags might work well if they're stationary for a while. They rely on a mobile data connection to report their location down to a few metres, but they will piggyback on the nearest Iphone that has not disabled the option. So if they stay put for a little while, chances are somebody on EE with an Iphone will walk by. 

I have Airtags on some of me things, my car keys, hidden in my car and sewn into my bag and old wallet. Mostly for when I forget where I put something, but also so that I can find my car in huge theme park or venue car parks. They work well, but I haven't tried them in a busy crowd, on the scale of Glastonbury, to be able to say for sure though.

[Neil]

38 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

Tried to use it this year and it was awful. Sent us to the wrong place every time 

Worked well for me. 

[Crazyfool01]

14 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Never a problem pre mobile phones. Pre arranged meeting points e.g. just right of the mixing desk.

Or just accept it and hope to bump into them somewhere.

things change embrace that or you end up bitter ... using mobiles to find mates when needed is a positive ... easy enough to turn them off and go blind if you want to ? I do a mix of the things you suggest .. we have standard before gig meeting places for main stages .... although thinking about it i did most stuff solo at the last one 

[Skip997]

7 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

things change embrace that or you end up bitter ... using mobiles to find mates when needed is a positive ... easy enough to turn them off and go blind if you want to ? I do a mix of the things you suggest .. we have standard before gig meeting places for main stages .... although thinking about it i did most stuff solo at the last one 

I have no problem with mobiles (except for when people spend a whole gig watching it through a phone), I use one myself.

Just making an alternative suggestion to people tying themselves in technical knots, when we always managed before.

I often do most stuff solo and am pleasantly surprised how often I bump into mates, although we do tend to go to the same bands/stages. I'm also fortunate in that I can nearly always find people I know in either Maceos (in the build up particularly) or in the Guerilla bar.

Between 10am and around 5pm, I'm able to immediaetly find a lot of my friends as they'll be on their stalls in the craft field.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Skip997

[MrZigster]

On 12/11/2022 at 9:04 PM, Crazyfool01 said:

EE is always gonna be close to the best … for me though ME wins 

I may be a bit late.

But I see what you did there.

Love a good pun me.

[dondo]

On 12/2/2022 at 4:10 PM, clarkete said:

Don't suppose we know which other providers also use EE, or is it best to stick to theirs? 

Sorry for delayed response. I'm with 1p mobile who use EE.  Never had any issue with them at the 22 festival. Compared with EE direct much better price wise.  Yes there are better deals from others such as Smarty but they don't use EE 

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, dondo said:

Sorry for delayed response. I'm with 1p mobile who use EE.  Never had any issue with them at the 22 festival. Compared with EE direct much better price wise.  Yes there are better deals from others such as Smarty but they don't use EE 

Thanks @dondo

Do you need to put a tenner credit on every 120 days, as this claims? 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/10/some-1p-mobile-will-see-their-minimum-spend-change-to-p2-50-ever/

[dotdash79]

There is other MNVO's that use EE networks, some won't support 5g others will do https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

[dondo]

39 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Thanks @dondo

Do you need to put a tenner credit on every 120 days, as this claims? 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/10/some-1p-mobile-will-see-their-minimum-spend-change-to-p2-50-ever/

@clarkete I don't use PAYG with them so not sure as don't top up. I'm on their £15 a month 50gb data bundle so am paying them every month.

If anyone does fancy joining there is a referral code I can use which I think credits both of us with money in our account 

[clarkete]

2 hours ago, dotdash79 said:

There is other MNVO's that use EE networks, some won't support 5g others will do https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

This looks quite useful as a place to check the economics of a bunch of PAYG ones, for those who want a secondary one for the festival

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/

[Acid Loafers]

Three was terrible last year. Might as well have been without a phone.

Joined O2 this year, might consider bringing an EE card as backup & as I test the waters. 

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Acid Loafers said:

Three was terrible last year. Might as well have been without a phone.

Joined O2 this year, might consider bringing an EE card as backup & as I test the waters. 

I heard O2 weren't the best.  That's part of the reason I moved away from Sky ahead of the festival as they use O2

[Boris]

On 12/11/2022 at 3:44 PM, incident said:

If you have a phone that supports eSIM, then you can add an account and enable/disable it without changing the physical sim card - however I think that (so far) there aren't any EE based networks offering eSIM access without signing up to a full contract.

Beyond that, the only "sort of" on this is people with non-uk sim cards* who are roaming onto UK networks can manually select / override which network they roam onto if they go into their phones settings rather than just accept the (pseudo random) default.

*same also applies if someone has a multi network sim - but they're rare and expensive.

So yeah, for most people effectively this.

Right. Yes. That's what I had in mind. My SIM is Spanish so hopefully I can.