UK Femtocell manufacturer goes it alone A UK manufacturer is planning to sell Femtocells direct to the public, just as soon as it can get enough punters signed up to force interoperation on the network operators. The femtocell comes from HSL - Hay Systems Ltd. - who have eschewed the usual path of making deals with network operators in favour of a straight-to- …
(Not griping about the fact that I walked out of NSN due to redundancy exactly 2 years ago today, which is why I'm celebreating - heartily - in the rub-a-dub, but...)
I always thought this was a daft idea, with connection to Skype, et.al. available cheaply/no charge (here in Finand, natch). Plus, phones cheaply available* that can connect to your WiFi port, allowing Voip from the garden/sauna/pub.
Femtocell? What's the point?
Too late.
* How's €20/month sound? Shiny new Samsung. 2 year contract. About £0.05/min. No data cap. 1Mbit? http://www.dna.fi/Yksityisille/Sivut/Default.aspx - OK, it's in Finnish, but you'll get the drift. (KK=Month, Matkapuheli.. = Mobile phone..)
You know what'd be really good? (and I reserve the right to claim rights on this one!)
Link the cell to existing WiFi and allow it to shovel outgoing calls via another route - let's say, SIP...so if you don't have WiFi, the cell nabs your call, routes it over SIP (via a home asterisk PABX or on board trunk for example) and saves you cash.
That would, obviously upset the operator - so even if they didn't support the idea, some cunning 'on wire' jiggery pokery betwixt the cell and your network could reroute it mayhap?
Still, the more important question is this : If I have a Voda based mobile, and so does my neighbour, and I install a Voda cell, does it nick his calls too? Or can it be trained to only recognise certain devices?
Who would pay £160 just so they can get the service they should get anyway?
Should come free with the phone, at least for customers who can't get a decent signal where they live.
Hopefully a network with balls (I'm thinking Three) will do exactly that, offer them bundled cheap/free with the phone, and the rest will have to follow suit. Shame for HSL though.
I erroneously said "How's €20/month sound? Shiny new Samsung. 2 year contract. About £0.05/min. "
Data is €10/month. All you can eat. 348Kb or whatever. Run a server on it, if you want (if you can handle that speed...)
I was referring to the talk-time, not the data. My bad*.
*In memory of Michael Jackson, who (so says the Edinburgh Fringe crap joke competition) invented 'moon-walking' so he could sneak up on children. Now, that's BAD!"
This is excellent news I hope this gets implemented soon. For most of the people this might not make sense but for some living without coverage in 21st century it’s a boon. Next time I look for a house I won’t have to check if there is sufficient coverage by my mobile operator or will I have to change the mobile operator with the house I move into.
Operators are trialling 4G and dont even have full 2G coverage??? I feel operators should be penalized by regulators for not providing 100% coverage or disqualify them from 4G spectrum auctions..
... They might be sweating but it won't be due to there being no real market. You can't escape the fact that the whole idea of a 3G femtocell is lame. In-home coverage is a problem for 2G and 3G but so far the femtocell vendors (other than HSL and maybe Ericsson) are solely pushing 3G femtocells at operators, trying to convince operators that great riches will follow from the resulting "new" services. A 2G femtocell that can deliver voice and text for 2G and 3G handsets is a winner. A 3G-only femtocell is just a gimmick.
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