Huawei Deuce U8520 Dual SIM Android Smart Phone at Sydney Linux User Group

I have volinteered to give a lightening talk about the Huawei Deuce U8520 Dual SIM Android Smart Phone at Sydney Linux User Group Sydney Linux User Group (SLUG), Friday, 30 September 2011, 6pm at Google's Sydney's office. Here is a summary of what I want to say:

Huawei Deuce U8520 Dual SIM Android Smart Phone

1. Under $249 from AllPhones
2. 3.2 Inch touch screen, Android 2.2.2, 160 MB RAM, 2GB Flash card, QCT MSM7x27 processor
3. User Manual on the FCC web site.

Dual SIM

1. Dual SIM both active at the same time: one 3G one 2G
   
2. Have used it with a Virgin Broadband postpaid SIM (3G) and my Vodafone postpaid SIM (2G) at same time.
3. Catch is that using one SIM cuts off access to the other.

Good Points

1. Reasonable price,
2. Dual SIM,
3. Touch screen is very good,
4. Generic Google Android,
5. Usual smart phone features.

Problems

1. Smart phone functions work fine, but phone call audio quality is poor.
2. Battery only lasts 12 hours.
3. Unexplained activation of phone flattened battery in under six hours.
   

Suggested Solution

1. Convert into a Flip Phone with 3D Printing to improve call quality and prevent inadvertent activation flattening battery.
   

Huawei Deuce U8520 Dual SIM Android Smart Phone

Allphones are selling the Huawei Deuce U8520 Dual SIM Android Smart Phone for under $300. This device has two slots for SIM cards, allowing the phone to operate with two telephone numbers from two different phone companies simultaneously. This feature is popular in parts of the world where there are many phone companies competing. This could also be useful to have separate personal and business numbers available on one phone. One catch is that only one of the SIM cards can use 3G, the other is limited to the GSM network.

I would be interested to see if I can put my Virgin Broadband SIM card into the 3G socket, along with the Vodafone SIM into the 2G socket. The idea would be to use the GSM phone for ordinary calls and the 3G for data. While it is possible to get Internet access via a phone account, the prices are very high compared to broadband only plans. The phone would then act as a WiFi hub to provide Internet access to my laptop and TiVo. Has anyone tried this? The discussion in the Whirlpool Forum suggests it should be possible.

Buying a Smart Phone

The replacement battery for my old phone is only providing about 20 minutes talk time and so does not get me through the day. This is a good excuse to buy a new phone, as the current model is so old genuine replacement parts are no longer available. I would like an Android (or other Linux) based smart phone, but not too big, or expensive. Also I would like a flip cover on it. I would prefer a flip phone, but I don't think anyone makes a smart flip phone (Motorola has made some in the past and for the China market).

My first choice would be the Huawei range, as they are cheap and get reasonable reviews. Also Huawei tends to use a standard version of Android, not adding its own custom software to cause problems.

The question is if the cheapest model in the range, Huawei Ideos u8150, will be sufficient. It gets good reviews and they are available for under $200 from Vodafone, my current phone provider (Dick Smith has the unit prepaid of Vodafone and unlocked). One catch is if I can used my Vodafone postpaid account with the prepaid phone.

The major issue with the low cost Ideos is with the size of the screen, which is only 2.8 inch, compared with the typical 4 inch screen of other smart phones. This makes for a more compact unit, although the case has a large section below the screen with buttons, making it larger than the screen would suggest. The Ideos has only a 240x320 pixel, QVGA resolution screen, much less than contemporary phones. But my current phone has a QVGA screen which is fine.

A step up is the Huawei Ideos X5. In some ways this is like the smaller model with a longer format screen (3.8 inches 800 x 480 pixels) filling more of the case (the X5 is only 6 mm wider, but 16 mm longer than the Ideos).

The Huawei Ideos X6 looks much more interesting. It has a slightly larger 4.1 Inch screen than the X5, but a much faster processor and HDMI output. It would be interesting to see if with a HDMI LCD screen, USB keyboard and mouse plugged in, if this could be used to replace a desktop computer. But at a cost of two to three times as much as the low cost model, it would seem to be more than I need in a phone.

Connecting Communities With Broadband

The report "Connecting Communities: The impact of broadband on communities in the UK and its implications for Australia" by Dr Tim Williams was was launched with a talk at the National Press Club in Canberra today at 12 noon. The report was sponsored by Huawei and draws lessons from the UK for Australia. Available are the Executive Summary, The full "Williams Report" and Release from Huawei.

The report is timely as submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into the NBN close on 25 February 2011. Themes of the report were the importance of access to high speed broadband for social and economic reasons. This is is something Huawei should be happy with as a major provider of equipment for both fibre optic and wireless broadband networks. However, from a public policy point of view I do not agree that high speed broadband is most important. The skills to use the
Internet are more important and will provide more value to society, with the use of low speed broadband, or even narrowband.

Dr. Williams claimed the report provided a "balanced scorecard" approach for broadband in various areas. The chapter on "High Speed Broadband Towards With a Low Carbon Future" was particularly interesting to me as I teach Green ICT this to IT professionals around the world.

What was disappointing about this report was that I could find no mention of the differences between the UK and Australia in terms of population density and area. The UK is tiny compared to Australia, but even so has difficulty providing broadband to remote areas. Overlaid on a map of Australia, the UK would look like a postage stamp.

Also it is frustrating to have to have someone from the UK come and tell the Austrlaian government what to do with broadband, when there are world class experts in the field within a few KM of Parliament House. But then it is useful to have an outsider to tell you what should be the obvious. ;-)

After Dr Williams, Peter Quarmby from Community Sector Banking (representative of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited) announced they would sponsor a summit on connecting communities later in the year.

Unfortunately Huawei have chosen to reserve all rights to the "Williams Report" with a copyright notice, making it difficult for Australia to make use of the lessons in the report. In addition the work is presented as a poorly formatted PDF document making use of it for education very difficult. Huawei may wish to consider re-releasing the report with a Creative Commons licence and formatted as web pages meeting Australian accessibility standards, allowing wider use of the material.

Curiously, apart from the announcement of today's launch I could find no reference to this work on the web, not even on Dr. Williams blog. It seems odd that what claims to be a major study was conducted without leaving any presence online. It might well be that there are details of how the project was planned and executed online somewhere, but I could not find it.

Recommendations include:

• Establish a formal national survey into current patterns of broadband use by individuals and diverse communities
• Appointment of a National Digital Champion by government – a distinguished lay enthusiast drawn from outside politics and the industry to help galvanise enthusiasm
• A network of local and sector digital champions
• Set a target for all to be digitally literate by 2020 and establish the duty to draw up a digital participation plan by all public service providers
• Legislate so that the regulator ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) has a duty to promote digital inclusion
• All public agencies to review how new broadband capacity can transform the design and delivery of services and the process of engagement
• National and state summits of third sector organisations to share best-practice and agree on plans of action for digital inclusion
• A national annual digital participation week with national awards
• Concession Passes for over 65s
• Establish a national helpline to support those that are having difficulty accessing the internet
• Facilitate a volunteering program so that young people and other volunteers can “buddy-up” with the elderly online
• Government to commit to open source principles and sharing data ...

From: Executive Summary, Connecting Communities: The impact of broadband on communities in the UK and its implications for Australia, Dr Tim Williams 2011

Huawei Wireless Modem

Having accidentally destroyed my router by plugging in the wrong power supply, I was considering replacing it with the Huawei E5832 wireless modem. This battery powered pocket size unit is recharged by a USB cable (thus making it difficulty to plug in the wrong charger). The unit is relatively new but has got at least one good review. The advantages of over the usual USB dongle 3G modem are that you do not need to configure the computer for the modem, it has a built in firewall for added protection and can be shared over the WiFi with several computers. Also you can place it in a location for good 3G service away from the computer (perhaps put in a waterproof container on a pole with a solar panel to make a WiFi hotspot).

The disadvantages are that the unit does not have an Ethernet socket, only USB, so it can't be directly plugged into some devices, such as a TiVo and it can only be configured with a Windows PC. Usually a router is configured using a web interface from a host computer, but it seems this unit requires a custom program, which has only been provided for Microsoft Windows. This last restriction perhaps could be got around with some trial and error.