Caretakers Mobile

[Darksoth]

Hi All,

I've been asked to source 3 mobile phones for our site team. Ideally they need to be hard-wearing, access emails & be around £100 each. I'm thinking the best solution may be a standard Android smartphone with the mother of all cases on it. Any input would be great. What do your site teams use? For years they've had a radio set-up which is on it's last legs...

Cheers,

AJ

[LeMarchand]

Is email negotiable? The JCB Tradesman 2 is £30 at Sainsbury's if you don't need email. If it's just accessing emails, the CAT Caterpillar B25 is around £50 but only has a 2G connection and I'm not 100% sure you could actually access webmail on it. There are many more sub £100 rugged phones, but the all seem to be Candy Bar types, so email would be a problem.

[TechieWils]

I've just brought some Samsung XCover 3 devices for our drivers, water, dust, drop etc resistant. Android based. Seem pretty good.

[HTCPCP]

You can always look at devices such as Samsung Galaxy XCover 3 Dark Silver Value Edition 2016 4.5" 8GB 4G Unlocked & SIM Free - Laptops Direct

 

We just have a cheap Nokia from Virgin, and it works just fine for them to receive calls.

[LeMarchand]

There are many more sub £100 rugged phones, but the all seem to be Candy Bar types, so email would be a problem.

 

^^^Not strictly true if you want to risk brands you've (probably) never heard of: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=rugged%20mobile&index=blended

[Darksoth]

Hi all,

Thanks for the pointers so far. Yes email is an optional extra so I'll take a look into those suggested. They currently use a radio system so I've been looking at ways to update this & join it to our VoIP setup but that's some blue-sky thinking right there!

[bald_pig]

Hi all,

Thanks for the pointers so far. Yes email is an optional extra so I'll take a look into those suggested. They currently use a radio system so I've been looking at ways to update this & join it to our VoIP setup but that's some blue-sky thinking right there!

 

They exist!

 

Wi-Fi VoIP Phone

[john]

JCB used to make an Android handset as well in the same indestructible range, I can confirm they do seem amazing things know many farmers that use them and they go into alsorts of places you'd never stick your iPhone and still work fine after a quick wash to remove the mess etc...

[Blue_Cookeh]

Yeah we have a couple of Wi-Fi based Avaya IP phones that can do H323 or SIP if that's something you're after, we had good results extending our Wireless network out onto our field using Ubiquiti sector antennas for this. These are primarily for the after school clubs in summer, though.

 

For our site team we gave them CAT B30 phones and an iPad Mini in place of a laptop. They seem to love that setup.

 

None of this replaced our onsite digital radio setup, though, we still use those all over the place.