Femtocells - an evolutionary tale

Ever had the frustration of a weak mobile signal when you're at home or at the office? Of course you have, who hasn't. Sometimes the problem is caused by where you live in relation to the mast, sometimes it's because of the thick walls in your house. All those promises that the 3G network would create a revolution in mobile telephony have only partially come true because of factors like these. As this communications ecosystem evolves (and it's evolving at an ever-increasing pace) we now see a new creature emerge from the primordial soup designed to bridge the gap between the wired world, and the wireless one we all would prefer.

It's called 'Femtocell' and it's a low power wireless access gateway that provides localised 3G coverage. ‘Femto’ means one quadrillionth in the metric measurement system, in the same way that ‘deci’ means a tenth and ‘centi’ means one hundredth. Femtocells can improve coverage by connecting to the network using your broadband connection. They then create a strong local mobile phone signal that allows connection with 3G mobile phones and devices. Typically, several mobile phones will be able to transmit data and calls through one femtocell at the same time. Another benefit will be improved battery life due to the stronger signal.

Vodafone will be the first to commercially launch these boxes in the UK on July 1st, to be known as the Vodafone Access Gateway, price will be £160 or from free at around £15 per month.

So with smartphones that are now effectively mobile computers when used with WiFi, femtocell equipped homes and offices will offer speeds of up to 7.2mbps on your mobile through the 3G network. Forecasts suggest that there will be 105m handsets using the technology by 2011.

With these speeds, the smartphone can now access websites as quick, (sometimes quicker) than with your computer. This means that W2P (Web-to-Print) becomes even easier to access. Yet another reason why now is the time to take your business online.

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