femtocell

Overheard - Improving iPhone reception in your house

AT&T may be working to improve its cellular network reception by building a femtocell, an in-home cell base station, directly into its fiber-optic U-Verse service’s modem. Glenn Fleishman, AT&T might insert femtocell into fiber modem

Don’t tell my husband, but I’m about to write something…err…negative about his beloved iPhone. You see, in the house, it’s a brick. A lovely, sleek brick, but it’s still a brick. If he wants to make a call when it’s minus 10 degrees, he either has to put on his coat and go out on the deck or use an AT&T calling card.

When he first realized the iPhone wasn’t an indoor phone, he wanted to pick up VoIP from our cable company, but really — how can you justify the cost of iPhone service AND VoIP when our local phone company only charges $7.98 a month for local service? I couldn’t.

Bless you AT&T. A femtocell for ALL our AT&T cell phones is just what we need.

Overheard: Imagine never having to go outside to get a good connection

“If they catch on, femtocells have the potential to save carriers hundreds of millions of dollars in cell-tower costs. In effect, carriers would be shifting the burden of providing complete coverage to their customers — a nifty trick if they can pull it off.” Bryan Gardiner, Femtocells May Help Improve Cellular Coverage — On Your Dime