According to this article, Vodafone will be next week the first mobile network operator to launch a femtocell product in Europe:
“Looking like a home router, femtocells give 3G coverage indoors, and use home broadband to connect calls across the Internet to the mobile network.”
“… will be available on different price plans… Essentially, the femto is free to anyone on a £30 contract, and £5 otherwise – including dongle customers”
Femtocells are in fact compact devices (similar to Wi-Fi routers) that act as very low power cell phone base stations that can be installed in end-users premises. Typical cell phones can connect to them instead of the remote “high-power” towers operated by mobile network operators. Femtocells carry the usual communication services through standard Internet connections in homes and offices.
Key benefits to operators (O) and users (U):
- Better in-building coverage (O, U)
- Overall network infrastructure can eventually be operated at lower power levels (O)
- Off-loading cellular networks (O)
- MNOs can still charge service costs while using end-users resources (Internet) (O)
- Use the mobile device at home at lower rates (U)
- Does not need regular phone service at home anymore (O, U)
Could this femtocell approach be exploited in the context of digital broadcasting as well? At CRC, we have developed a compact software transmitter for DAB. This platform could be further integrated as a low-cost personal DAB transmitter or FemtoDAB cell!
Such a FemtoDAB approach could offer interesting benefits:
- Better in-building coverage (O, U)
- Overall network infrastructure can eventually be operated at lower power levels (O)
- Outdoor, indoor roaming with the same device (broadcast enabled handhelds) (U)
- Transmission of additional Internet radio content in the femtoDAB cell (U)
One of the challenges will be to make FemtoDAB more attractive than the Wi-Fi options.
Do you see any use cases for FemtoDAB?
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