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Femtocells To Replace Parts of the 3G Network
sweetpea23 writes "Grown-up versions of femtocells — devices which beef up 3G network strength in the home — are set to take over parts of the outdoor cellular networks, according to technology vendor picoChip. Femtocells — such as Vodafone UK's Sure Signal device — are cut-down versions of mobile phone base stations, redesigned to operate inside buildings, using home broadband networks to route 3G data onto the Internet. Now, picoChip, which claims to provide 70 percent of the chips used to make femtocells, has unveiled a toughened up version, which takes the femtocell idea back out onto the streets."
"femtocells -- devices which beef up 3G network strength in the home"
Never heard of these gadgets. Are they expensive? Large in size?
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
In a world... with spotty 3g service...
//Shot of woman trying to call 911 while being mugged, only to have no signal...
One company is taking it's toughened up version... to the STREET.
This summer, picoChip is... FEMTOCELL.
FTA:
“Instant messaging and Exchange are the worst offenders,” claiming that a smartphone with “always on” applications like Exchange - while doing very little - can produce the same signalling load on the network as a device making 1000 voice calls per day.
I'm not trying to be facetious, but how does a phone with Exchange produce the same amount of load on a network as a device that's constantly making voice calls? I realize that the phone will be signaling to a server to keep data synced, but how does it produce that much load?
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
This is neither new nor going to happen any time soon. The cellular industry is talking about femtocells for a few years already, as this is more or less the only practical way of getting good coverage with high (think LTE) throughput. The problems with femtocells are numerous and even though vendors such as picoChip would love to see femto deployments today, providers will not rush into it until they figure out how to solve these problems. Today's cellular network work that good partially thanks to careful network planning which is impossible with femtocells. And think about regulatory problems - nobody can prevent me from taking my femto Node B to a different country where it would work on a spectrum allocated to somebody else.
Aren't these home signal booster things just repeaters? If so, what happens to mobile bandwidth when a lot of these repeaters are used instead of actual basestations?
So let me get this straight. I already pay at&t over 100$ a month, but I can't use my cell phone in my new apartment because I have a crappy signal (other providers are fine, but I'm locked into my contract for another year), so I can PAY them for a device to make calls over MY internet connection so they don't have to upgrade their shoddy network! bah humbug!
Note I do have at&t and have no issues at home, but this is the situation a friend of mine is going through and they want him to buy this device to use a service he's already paying for.
AT&T's microcell uses your broadband connection to extend their coverage and has a GPS to validate that you're using it in an 'approved area'. Also, calls don't transfer in, so you'll lose calls as you approach your house. No thanks.
From this page:
"AT&T 3G MicroCell acts like a mini cellular tower in your home or small business environment. It connects to AT&T's network via your existing broadband Internet service (such as U-verse, DSL or cable) and is designed to support up to four simultaneous users in a home or small business setting."
Also,
"Calls transfer out, but don't transfer in. Calls seamlessly transfer from the 3G MicroCell to the strongest available AT&T cell tower signal. However, calls connected on the cell tower do not transfer to the 3G MicroCell."
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
The biggest problem with femtocells is that customers expect them to be free. This isn't unreasonable, after all they're paying a monthly fee to get a service and they expect that they can stand in the bathroom in their city centre flat and be able to make a call.
The problem is that building a business case for purchasing a tonne of femtocells and giving them away to customers for nothing isn't a pretty read and getting a director to sign off on such an endeavour has been tough.
They'd far rather that the money was spent solving the signal problems (which improves things for everyone, not just the femtocell owner - but at the cost of a slow resolution time) rather than publicly admit that their signal is rubbish in urban places and needs "boosting".
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Why should I pay money for a device which uses my power and my DSL connection to relay my calls, and then let the cellular carrier charge me for the "airtime"? Especially since there are WiFi alternatives?
Can't we get this ourselves right now with OpenBTS? Is anyone selling a cheap ($100-200) HW unit with all the OpenBTS installed and ready to connect to an Internet VOIP/PSTN gateway?
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make install -not war
The way I look at it, if cell service isn't provided to your area or it's that crappy, either get a different provider or don't give them any money at all. Get Skype or some other VoIP provider (or now use Google VoIP unlimited for free) and then lower your cell to its lowest number of minutes. The difference between basic minutes and unlimited is like $30/mo. And a femtocell is just VoIP.
Why pay $100 on top of your monthly bill to get service, when you can just not pay extra and actually pay less?
If you call Sprint cus. support and explain that you have bad service in your home, they'll send you a femtocell for free and wave all charges.
Also, Micro > femto. Microcells are large enough to cover a large campus (like a school or office campus).
If such a device is available it will only be a matter of time before someone makes a network using only these type of devices and perhaps slightly more powerful ones with an outdoor antenna. Its already possible to set up your own GSM network using a USRP and route the calls over SIP.
Give it a few more years and they will have femtocells for 4G. The only 'mobile operator' that will be necessary is some guy with a server to do the accounting (which femtocell gets the most traffic and allocate credits from its users to the owner) and an ordinary SIP/XMPP server. Maybe people won't even bother with such trivial issues as tracking down bandwidth usage as broadband quality improves. then we can just think of femtocells as a sort of long-range open wifi system.
Where no coverage is available satellite would act as a backup, transceivers for this are also much smaller and cheaper than they were a few short years ago. The only thing holding it back is the governments who are as usual very slow to react to change and keen on their lucrative mobile network licensing deals. I have been using SIP over open Wifi networks since '06 with Nokia E-series phones and the only real problem is the range. the rest is just a few small software issues
Office timing signal. much more reliable and accurate than SS7 copper or fiber links
wanted: one clever sig,apply within