Verizon Promises In-Home Cell Boosters This Year, But For How Much?

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:23:08 EDT

Femtocell, femtocell, femtocell. Get used to it, because it's a word you'll be hearing a lot of from now on. Yesterday, Verizon Wireless promised to offer broadband-connected mini cell towers (yep, femtocells) to customers in 2008. We're told that products such as the EV-Do model just introduced by Motorola and Airvana are intended for home use, not just in offices. There will be a cost of some kind for the hardware, possibly along the same lines as your monthly cable-box fee. The question is, how much more will you pay to get guaranteed cell voice and data reception in your home? [AP]

Motorola and Airvana To Make High-Speed Cell-to-Broadband Boxes

Wilson Rothman — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:33:09 EDT

One of the ugliest named cool new technologies is the "femtocell," a desktop-friendly cell tower that connects to your broadband network to add cell service where it otherwise might be crappy. Today Motorola and Airvana announced that they are partnering to build CDMA femtocells that provide standard 1xRTT and high-speed EV-DO connectivity. It's not clear whether this would be geared for the home, like Sprint's Samsung Airave (which, though cool, apparently doesn't do EV-DO). This one might be more for businesses, but we hope that changes—and that Verizon follows Sprint's lead and picks it up—because I would love to have the ability to add cell service to my home as needed. Wouldn't you? [Airvana]

Gizmodo: femtocells

Verizon Promises In-Home Cell Boosters This Year, But For How Much?

Motorola and Airvana To Make High-Speed Cell-to-Broadband Boxes