Femtocell, A Cellphone Mini Tower in your Home, Will Get 3G Support
In the US, with its vast areas, cellphone blanket coverage has been an issue across carriers. In many home, office buildings, receiving consistent cell signal is still a challenge for both voice and data.
Starting last August 2008, Sprint was the first carrier to make available its femtocell device call AIRAVE, a mini cell tower, which connects to the cellphone carrier network using your home broadband and is aimed at improving indoor network coverage (as much as 5,000 square feet), providing low-cost unlimited in-home voice calling plan and reducing monthly communication expenditure.
Subsequently, Verizon launched its femtocell product in early 2009 (voice only). Vodafone became the first carrier in Europe with the commercial launch of its femtocell product in the UK in July 2009. Spain’s Telefonica is also currently conducting trial runs through its subsidiary O2 Europe.
According to Yahoo! Finance, AT&T is set to unveil nation’s first 3G femtocell product. The device (called “3G Microcell”) is expected to reach select U.S. markets including Atlanta, San Antonio, Seattle and North Carolina in the next week. The company has been conducting field trials of 3G Microcell in several test markets with nationwide rollout is expected by the end of 2009.
AT&T’s 3G Microcell is designed to improve wireless signal for both voice calls and data applications in home and small business settings and supports up to 10 3G capable cellular handsets. This is in contrast to the femtocell products of Verizon and Sprint that does not support 3G data applications and works with 2G handsets.
There is no pricing available at the moment.
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