An end may be in sight for long suffering mobile phone users stuck in pockets where they have no reception.
Alcatel-Lucent this week demonstrated new technology that would allow users to run their own mini-cell towers on their premises and create their own personal mobile coverage hotspot.
Called femtocells (No, they did not explain where this exotic name originated), the device is essentially like a wireless modem that extends mobile network coverage to devices within a confined area such as a home or office.
The unit uses the user’s broadband connection to link back to the carrier’s mobile network.
This means homes or offices located in areas with poor cell coverage no longer have to wait for carriers to build a new cell tower to cover their area, but can take matters in their own hands and extend coverage in their own premises themselves.
While this would bring relief to scores of users who find themselves in areas where cell coverage is patchy as best, the most obvious application for this technology may not work in New Zealand… extending mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
Farmers and other rural business owners who fall outside of the mobile operators’ 97% coverage areas would be the most likely adopters of femtocells.
However, many of these areas may not have access to broadband either and would therefore not be able to use femtocells, as they definitely need good quality DSL connections, according to Alcatel-Lucent.
But, this technology should give satellite broadband providers, like Baycity/Farmside another selling point – with a femtocell in the mix a satellite connection not only delivers broadband access but also mobile coverage.
At the same time, farmers could sign up to a home zone-type mobile package and do away with their landline connection. However, data caps on their satellite broadband plan could restrict this, and could be an issue for users with fixed broadband connections too, although Alcatel-Lucent says the bandwidth requirements would be quite modest.
Meanwhile Alcatel-Lucent says that its research found that half of all mobile calls are made at home, while 30% are made in buildings, including offices.
There is therefore a clear case for carriers to offer ways to ensure effective coverage inside users’ premises, especially as mobile devices become increasingly web-centric.
The company also demonstrated a number of enhanced services femtocells enable – such as getting the unit to route calls to a fixed line to all mobile handsets in its coverage area.
For business users Alcatel-Lucent foresees that companies could establish a network of femtocells, effectively creating their own mobile network, while integration with office systems and eventually the PBX are also on the cards. This could enable extending presence capabilities to mobile phones and automatic synching of email and calendar items when a handset enters the office zone.
Femtocells are not commercially available in New Zealand yet, but Vodafone has said it would offer the technology here, while Telecom is reportedly examining it too.