CES 2010: Manufacturers Rush To Integrated Femtocell Technology In Consumer Devices

Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile USA have all announced femtocell services, and so have Vodafone in the UK and China Telecom, according to a panel of experts in the femtocell space.

In fact, although femtos aren't yet seeing widespread use in the US, by January of last year, Sprint had already introduced a home femto device called the Airave, while Verizon had unveiled the Network Extender and AT&T had rolled out the 3G Microcell.

At this year's CES show, femto advocates are making a big push around quicker adoption of the home cellular technology.

Essentially, femtocell gizmos are designed to act as miniature cell phone towers when they're hooked up to home broadband networks. When you and your cell phone enter your femto-enabled home, calls will be "seamlessly transferred" from femto-supporting carrier networks to your personal mini cell phone tower, said Tom Hussey, business development manager for the Americas at Ubiquisys, speaking at the CES 2010 press event.

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But why would a consumer want a femotcell, anyway? The first slate of services from carriers are aimed at improving the quality of cell phone calling, the panelists said.

"It is unrealistic to say that [right now] cellular networks are beautiful, and that everyone is getting great coverage," acknowledged Rupert Barnes, VP of marketing for picoChip.

While calls made and received from inside buildings will show the greatest benefits, the quality of outdoor cellular calls should improve, too, since femtocells will "offload some of the burden" from mobile carriers' networks, according to Dr. Andy Tiller, VP of marketing at IP Access.

In a future set of femto services, mobile providers will probably start adding bells and whistles such as single-number calling for your cellular and landline phones, automatic synchronization of podcasts with cell phones, and ads and promo offers aimed at people living in specific geographic areas.