One of the problems with relying on a cellular phone as the sole source of voice connectivity is spotty coverage indoors and underground. One solution for small buildings is femtocells, small indoor networks that provide better indoor coverage for cellular phones. According to a story on Reuters, ip.access, a UK-based company, says that femtocells will begin hitting the market in greater numbers beginning next year, giving cellular providers a counterweight to dual-mode cellular/WiFi phones and extending the reach of cellular carriers' 3G networks.
Femtocells basically act as small cellular base stations, providing better coverage for both voice and data applications. They can easily integrate with 3G networks, meaning that EVDO and other wireless broadband users will be able to take full advantage of the services in areas where coverage would otherwise be spotty.
Airports and other large buildings currently use microcells to boost cellular coverage, but those are more expensive to deploy than femtocells; they're overkill for houses and other small buildings.
ABI Research thinks that femtocells are poised to take off in the next few years, with 102 million people using over 32 million femtocell access points by 2011. "From a technological standpoint, their better in-building coverage for technologies such as WCDMA and HSDPA is an incredibly important aspect of service delivery," notes ABI Research principal analyst Stuart Carlaw. "On a conceptual basis, femtocells allow carriers to price cellular data services in the home aggressively, with the ultimate goal of shaping consumer behavior."
Whether femtocells have the kind of rosy future envisioned by proponents—at least for home use—remains to be seen. T-Mobile is bringing a dual-mode UMA handset to market this summer, and the phone will be able to transition seamlessly from cellular to WiFi networks, and users will be able to make and receive VoIP calls over an 802.11b/g/n network if there's no cellular signal available or if they want to hoard their minutes. WiFi is nearly ubiquitous, and if dual-mode cellular handsets—or even Skype handsets like the iPhone CIT400—become more popular, it could drastically reduce the demand for femtocells in the home.
Still, WiFi is sometimes locked down, and microcells are expensive. Femtocells will reportedly cost in the neighborhood of $200, and that could make them an inexpensive option for subways and other places where the only alternative would be repeaters or microcells. The ability of femtocells to carry 3G data is another plus. After all, who wouldn't want to surf the Internet while riding the subway?