Femtocells Make Their Move

The benefits of femtocells have long been clear: These devices, which in essence are small base stations that sit at the customer's home or office, increase network coverage and transfer traffic from expensive cellular networks to the Internet.

The femtocell world

There has been significant news this month in the femtocell world. Engadget reported last week that Sprint seems close to releasing what it calls an upgraded Airwaves femtocell from vendor Airvana. The femto is said to support Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) protocol and to support six calls simultaneously and a VoIP landline connection. The short post is unclear on when it will be available.

Mobile Business Briefs also noted the increase in action in the 3G femtocell arena. The site referred to an item at Light Reading Mobile pointing to a Verizon Wireless job posting related to an in-building initiative that emphasized the importance of 3G femtos. Mobile Business Briefs also noted a recent Dell'Oro Group study that said 1 million femtocells will ship next year. That number will balloon to 62 million in 2014.