Femtocells represent signal of change

Technical, practical issues remain
T-Mobile users must have one of the company’s six Wi-Fi-enabled phones, such as the BlackBerry Curve or Nokia 6086, in order to get better indoor coverage by connecting wirelessly to a high-speed network at home. By the end of the year, four more phones will be added to the mix.

Customers pay $9.99 a month for unlimited calling from home for single-line plans and “family-time” plans of up to five lines.

T-Mobile, too, is saying little about how the service is going. In a statement, a company spokeswoman said that since launching the service nationwide in June, “we’ve seen strong adoption by young adults, as well as families looking to save money and simplify their lives by having only one phone.”

“None of these operators are talking at all, but the fact that most of them are still quite interested after running trials is a good sign,” said Nogee of In-Stat. “There are potential problems from interference and roaming, and the price of these femtocells is still relatively high.

“But considering how fast they’ve come about, and that there’s still so much interest in them, that’s encouraging.”

Among some of the technical and practical issues that remain to be addressed with femtocells, he said:

• Because the devices are small and portable, “a person can pick them up and move them anywhere.” Cellular operators need to have ways to authenticate that the femtocell is located within the areas in which they’re licensed to operate.

• Femtocells need to negotiate — but not interfere — with other cell base stations in an area. “If you live in an apartment complex, and your next-door neighbor is a customer of the same operator that makes the femtocell, you have to make sure it doesn’t interfere with the neighbor’s signal,” which could be 10 miles away, Nogee said. “Even though that little femtocell isn’t powerful, it is very close to that other person.”

• Cell phone operators are relying on the goodwill of high-speed Internet providers by using their bandwidth to operate femtocells. “If, for example, it’s not Sprint you’re getting your broadband service from, you’re at the mercy of your broadband provider,” Nogee said. “To date, they’ve been letting the signals go through, but there’s this network neutrality type of argument going on that hasn’t been resolved yet.”

Milliman, of Colorado, enjoyed the improved reception he got from his femtocell. But a Sprint software update to the Airave wound up creating a conflict with a “firmware bug” in his Internet router.

He decided he “didn’t want to spend $100 for a new router,” and ended his trial run with the service. He also didn’t like paying the extra monthly charge on top of his regular cell bill.

“I told Sprint that they ought to have a different tier of service for this,” he said. “They’re trying to go to landline replacement for people who want to use their cell phone for everything. But there’s a whole class of us out there who just need a signal booster, and not a home phone replacement.”

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