RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info

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Wed 3 Apr 2002 13:35
RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - Alwyn
Has anyone use this system lately. I dialled 177 from my Orange mobile some time ago and was asked to punch in the number of the road I was calling about.
No problems there.

Last week I called again and this time I was told the menu had changed.

Instead of punching in the road number, I heard, " Please wait while we find your location" ............................pause....................." Your are near ...............Liverpool"

Actually I was in Llandudno, which is near Liverpool across the water, if you have a motor cruiser with the speed of Virgin Atlantic Challenger, but is 60 miles, or 1 hour 37 minutes away by road and ageing Volvo. They then proceeded to tell me about conditions on the M62.

Is this a case of some young whizz kid being too clever, I wonder. Worked fine before; now it doesn't.
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Wed 3 Apr 2002 14:02
Re: RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - Brian
Same problem with using a mobile phone in Dover.
Get in the wrong spot and the system thinks you are in France and charges you the international rate for the call.
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Wed 3 Apr 2002 15:19
Re: RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - Alwyn
France/ Crikey, that's dangerous to your wallet.
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Wed 3 Apr 2002 20:14
Re: RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - Lee H
Is it possible to set the network selection to 'manual' and so it won't change networks without you advocating it?

On a similar note, my new phone has a similar find me facility that seems convinced that Keswick in the Lake District is in fact Hyde, Cheshire. Technology, gotta love it!

Lee.
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Thu 4 Apr 2002 03:24
Re: RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - mybrainhurts
Anyone use Autoroute GB 2001?

It shows North York Moors National Park in the middle of Derby. Bet the squirrels are confused..............
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Thu 4 Apr 2002 16:17
Re: RAC/Vodaphone Traffic info - crazed
cellphone local services can only work from knowledge of which cell you are in

sadly the cell with best reception (ie signal from your phone to the base station) may not correspond with where you physically are, this is due to buildings/hills etc in the way, signal bounce off hills/atmosphere etc

so in these instances you will get info based on which cell is giving you signal (best reception) not the one nearest

this has same limitations when they are tracking drug dealers with known phones etc

however there is some new technology which allows gchq/mi5 etc to triagulate based on the nearest three base stations and tell pretty much exaclty where you are at any given time, due to the big brother nature of this it has been kept pretty quiet, but in future this will with satalite positioning allow much better locale specific services
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