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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:07 pm Post subject: Modern Technology Defeated by the snow |
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Top marks to TomTom for seizing this weeks snow and ice as a PR opportunity. The snowflakes had barely settled early on Monday morning when a PR email from TomTom UK landed in our inboxes proclaiming the benefits of HD Traffic which was reporting 1,086 miles of traffic during the morning not so rush hour.
However what they omitted to mention was that many of the UK's mobile phone networks (inc Vodafone used by the x40's) were struggling under the weight of additional call traffic as commuters called their offices and the train and other help lines. Although I was sat tight at home on Monday my 940 stubbornly refused to connect to the data network and so was unable to display any traffic data until 11am.
One website even claimed that sat-nav systems were refusing to function because snow was blocking the signal! On a brighter note the snow did result in many speed cameras not being able to operate owing to snow on their lenses and radar speed measurements systems and measurement markings on the carriageways being obscured, not that many motorists were speeding even if they had been able to. Congratulations to Boris Johnson, London Mayor who scrapped the Congestion Charge for the day on Monday but did anyone even know about this at the time?? _________________ Darren Griffin |
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gem Regular Visitor
Joined: Feb 06, 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Scotland
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Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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Likewise my Trafficmaster item was not picking up the data from the mobile network.
And also agree that folk in London did not know the congestion tax was abolished for the day.
However I heard from a (inner) London driver friend that it was a bliss day. No busses and the roads were clear and moved well as a result.
Here's a useful observation however on TMC messages. Garmin shows you with a VERY useful little arrow where the traffic alert is. i.e. if ahead, to the right or if behind, etc. And the approx distance from you.
Navman gives no indication of whereabouts in relation to you the problem is. If there were a little arrow pointing to the problem then this would be great.
I took this for granted and wonder if other users had noticed this flaw. I guess not as you only miss if you had that facility in the past. |
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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gem wrote: | Here's a useful observation however on TMC messages. Garmin shows you with a VERY useful little arrow where the traffic alert is. i.e. if ahead, to the right or if behind, etc. And the approx distance from you. |
Nice, I've never managed to pick up anything with the TMC on my 765! On my TomTom the TMC data is shown only for your route so no scope for confusion. _________________ Darren Griffin |
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mrsmith76 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 11
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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I used my 940 between 7am and 1130 am during the snow mayhem without any operational issues to HD Traffic, even rerouted me 3 times to avoid accidents and road closures! |
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technik Lifetime Member
Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 788 Location: Midlands UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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No problems here with GPRS Traffic sub on my 720.
I am on Orange network though, and have the benefit of HSDPA.
Does the TomTom x40 series use HSDPA or just normal GPRS?
The phone networks handled 4x normal traffic volumes on the big snow days this week, so that would show up the areas where network capacity upgrades are required. |
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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technik wrote: | Does the TomTom x40 series use HSDPA or just normal GPRS? |
GPRS _________________ Darren Griffin |
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mikealder Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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technik wrote: | Does the TomTom x40 series use HSDPA or just normal GPRS? | GPRS is what the x40 uses, the data packets are quite small although I would like to see faster returns from Google based location searches - Mike |
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