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O2 updates it’s broadband router

Categories: O2
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 9:45 AM

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Whilst browsing the local shopping centre recently, I noticed in the O2 shop that the hardware design of their router has changed. Rather than being a matt-black unit, it’s now a slightly smaller, white/clear plastic design.

Both the old and new routers are based on products from Thomson – the Speedtouch 780WL and Speedtouch TG585, respectively – pics below (old on the left, and then new on the right):

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From the product documentation, it would appear that the features on each box are largely similar, and in fact the main changes are cosmetic. As an owner of the older “v1″ box, I definitely think there is an improvement here. Both boxes have the capability to support ADSL2+, which is a good thing for all of us that like turbo-charged download speeds!

About The Author

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

  • Nigel Jones

    The most significant difference is that the “old” 780WL had build-in VoIP support. This was hidden & unsupported by O2, but was trivial to get working.

    And work very well it does too. I’m using it with voipcheap.com. The dect base unit plugs into it and if adsl is down or router off, it automatically falls back to PSTN.

    Otherwise they’re virtually identical in capability I think – although I’ve not looked into the more complex QOS type functions.

  • Ben Robinson

    Nice work Nigel, thanks for the extra info :-)

    Ben