Like many young adults, none of my four, grown-up children has a fixed line telephone. Their generation has largely substituted mobile phones for traditional phone lines, even though coverage in their homes and workplaces is not always great. But help could be at hand to reduce the frustration of low signal strength and poor call quality at home or work. Some of the worlds largest mobile network operators are testing new mini cellular base stations, called femtocells, designed to improve in-building call quality and coverage.
These small, low-power wireless base stations, which plug into a broadband internet connection, are at the cutting edge of fixed/mobile telecoms convergence and could deliver benefits for both consumers and network operators. They could operate alongside other technologies that improve in-building cellular coverage like WiFi-enabled dual mode handsets that use the UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) standard.
For six months I have been testing HotSpot@Home, a new UMA-based service from Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT)s T-Mobile USA mobile unit, that could provide a model for mobile carriers looking to develop services based on dual-mode handsets (WiFi and cellular). To use the service, which costs an extra $20 a month, I had to swap my regular BlackBerry smartphone for a WiFi-enabled BlackBerry Curve from T-Mobile that incorporates the UMA technology.
Setting up the service to work with my existing Netgear WiFi wireless router was easy. I simply activated the WiFi connection on the BlackBerry Curve from the main menu, which involved identifying my home WiFi network and providing the secure network key. After that, the handset automatically recognises and locks on to my home network when I am in range and routes calls via my broadband internet connection instead of the cellular network. UMA means the handover between cellular mobile network and WiFi connection is seamless in both directions.
The handset also works well with most open or unsecured WiFi networks and with other secure networks if you have the network key, but WiFi hotspots that require a web-page log-in are more problematic. Perhaps the most serious drawback of UMA-based services is that they need a dedicated dual-mode handset and in T-Mobile USAs case only three are on offer: T-Mobiles BlackBerry Curve, Samsungs T409 and Nokias 6086.
Femtocells, however, work with any handset designed for a particular carriers network. Like dual-mode UMA handsets, desktop femtocells promise better in-building coverage and higher data throughput for mobile phone users.
Femtocells also look an attractive option for mobile network operators, particularly those that are short of spectrum or want to offload bandwidth-hogging cellular traffic like the rapidly growing volume of YouTube video clips and other multimedia content.
Offloading in-building traffic to a broadband internet connection (already being paid for by the consumer, of course) via a low-power, relatively inexpensive femtocell could potentially save mobile carriers considerable sums in both operating expenses and capital spending and enable them to expand coverage and potentially speed up the move to fixed-line services.
Femtocells provide a more efficient way for operators to manage traffic generated inside buildings rather than installing additional full sized outdoor cell sites - particularly if, as seems likely, carriers are able to charge subscribers for the femtocell service. Femtocells cost about $500 each, but prices are expected to fall fast and carriers may subsidise their cost initially. Sprint Nextel, the third biggest US mobile carrier, which pioneered the femtocell concept in the US, charges customers $50 for a Samsung-made femtocell and another $30 a month for an unlimited family, local and long distance calling plan.
The US carrier tested its Airave service in Denver and Indianapolis last year and has said it plans to expand the service to customers nationwide this year.
Outside the US, an estimated 20 femtocell trials are under way including in Europe. Vodafone and Telefnica O2 Europe revealed at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona this month that they have been testing femtocells in Spain and the UK respectively. Vodafone said the trials using kit supplied by Alcatel (NYSE:ALA)-Lucent and Huawei were an opportunity to assess what benefits femtocell technology could bring customers - including the potential to enhance the 3G broadband experience. In the UK O2, which began testing equipment this month from NEC and UbiqiSyss ZoneGate femtocell, believes the technology could support increased growth in the use and consumption of services and data and help to underpin fast growth of mobile broadband usage - driven in part by new mobile internet devices like Apples iPhone.
Mobile network operators believe femtocells could help them boost flagging revenues, improve relationships with subscribers and grab even more customers from their fixed line rivals.
Certainly, if the leading backers of the technology are correct, the femtocell could soon have a place alongside the broadband modem, set-top box and WiFi routers found in more and more homes and offices. But if mobile network operators position the technology wrongly or set the price too high, the promise of femtocell-based services will just fizzle out and die.
Personally, I look forward to comparing a femtocell service with my Hotspot@Home experience.
Inside story on getting the best from your mobile phone
Q. How can I improve my mobile phone coverage inside buildings? Do cheap signal boosters work? In my experience, cheap signal boosters are a waste of money. Probably the best way to boost in-building coverage is to install a repeater system but they are often expensive and are not legal in some countries. A good starting point is CellAntennas website (www.cellantenna.co.uk)
Q. What is UMA technology?Unlicensed Mobile Access technology enables subscribers to access GSM-based networks using unlicensed wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi (802.11). Subscribers can roam and swap between cellular and public and WiFi networks using dual-mode handsets.
Q. What are femtocells and should I want one? If you experience poor call quality indoors, femtocells could be the answer. These small cellular base stations extend mobile coverage indoors and route calls over a broadband internet connection.
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