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What on earth is a Femtocell?
Vodafone in the UK are offering consumers and businesses the ability to purchase their own Femtocell devices. Great, but what on Earth is it and why would I want one?
A Femtocell is effectively a very small GSM base station that can be used to extend wireless coverage to mobile devices (by wireless we are talking CELLULAR service rather than WiFi) in areas either where there is no coverage, or where coverage is poor. The Femtocell device itself connects back to the MNO’s network infrastructure via a regular broadband Internet connection.
Which begs the question – if you have a fixed-line broadband connection in place already (presumably with a broadband router that the chances are has WiFi built-in), why do you need to make your GSM phone connect to a Femtocell device rather than just turn on WiFi instead? Vodafone are not bundling any additional minutes or gigabytes if you buy your own Femtocell, so all you are doing is providing them with free additional coverage entirely at your own expense. The ability to place and receive voice calls on your mobile in an area of otherwise poor signal is a benefit, but what about from a data perspective?
The key reason (and as far as I can see the only reason), is to be able to ‘hand off’ from your Femtocell to the rest of the Vodafone network when you leave home. If you are connected to the Internet via WiFi at home or at the office via your broadband connection, when you leave the coverage range of the WiFi access point, you need to break the connection and then reconnect to the 3G network. Admittedly most devices will do this automatically, but it will involve being assigned a different IP address and effectively dropping off the 'net and popping back up again somewhere else.
If you have an unlimited data tariff, then you can leave your device connected to the same service all the time, without having to worry about WEP keys, SSIDs, etc and remembering to turn off your WiFi when you’re not at home to preserve your battery life.
NOTE - you won't be able to pick up your Femtocell and plug it in anywhere you like. You will need to tell Vodafone the IP address that you will be connecting from. Attempting to connect from an unauthorised IP address will be blocked.
A Vodafone Femtocell costs £160.
You can read more on the Vodafone web site:
http://www.vodafone.com/start/responsibility/mpmh/mobiles_health/masts_h...
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