A femtocell is a 3G wireless or Wi-Fi access point that is specifically designed for cell phones and used to enhance cellular reception indoors and also lower overall telephone costs for both consumers and cell carriers. A femtocell device will, for all intensive purposes, allow each person to have their own mini cell tower/network within their home. It’s a way to booster your cell phone signal without using a traditional cell signal booster. With femtocells, gone will be the days of standing in one spot like you are on an old cord phone, or the enjoyment of hanging outside of or near a window in order to keep a call from dropping. With crystal clear service and potentially unlimited minutes while calls are routed through femtocells traditional landlines may become obsolete.

Femtocells look just like wireless routers and are used to route cell phone calls, by lower power antenna, to broadband internet connections (DSL or Cable) and then back onto cellular networks. There has also been reports about a possible small USB device, called the FemtoJack, that works just like other femtocells. A femtocell behaves just like a VoIP repeater and the following occurs when a phone call is made from a house or office that has femtocall capabilities. A phone call is made from a cell phone, as it is being made it is redirected to the femtocell, then routed through a broadband internet connection and from there is redistributed back to the cellular network. This is especially important because it allows people to set up a femtocell network in an area where traditional cell phone service is not available.

Femtocells allow cell phone users to get extended range in indoor areas where they previously had little or no service because of a dead zone. Femto cells are also beneficial because they can lower the cost consumers pay for their cell phone plan. Costs are lowered because minutes used within a femtocells range are generally unlimited when included with a plan. Carriers usually can offer free calls with a femtocell because they allow carriers to move data traffic away from cell networks and therefore lower their overall costs and also eliminate the need for uneconomical cell towers. Another benefit of using a femtocell within your home involves better data bandwidth performance which results in a better experience with music, photos, and live video on your cell phone.

As a leader among U.S. carriers in rolling this technology out Sprint recently began offering a femtocell device for $49.99 and $15 per month. This deal included the Airave femtocell router and an unlimited amount of minutes routed through the femtocell. This means that all mobile phone calls made within range of the femotcell were unlimited for only $15 per month. Currently femtocells are being made with ranges of 50-100m which is more than enough to support most phone calls in and around ones home. Another Femtocell product that we have recently began hearing rumors about is the Femto Jack (made by the same company as Magic Jack) which is expected to quite a hit as a USB compatible femtocell. Another great thing about a femtocell is that if you are talking within range of the femtocell and jump in your car and drive off it will automatically transfer you to a traditional cell tower signal without a disruption of services.

Currently femtocell devices can support 2 to 5 cell phones at one time, depending on which model you choose and they can work with most major cell technologies including CMDA2000,TD-SCDMA, WiMax, UMTS, and GSM carriers. This of course means that a femtocell can be used with most major U.S. carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Alltel, and Verizon.

Femtocell devices are expected to be widely available by sometime in 2009 and the number of users is expected to more than quadruple over the next several years. Most wireless customers should be able to purchase a femtocell from the same retailers that sell cellular phones and cell phone plans. This would generally include availability directly from carriers and from electronics retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. As of today femtocell cells are expected to cost several hundred dollars but as sales and productions volumes rise prices are expected to drop. Major carriers are also expected to offer special prices for those that sign cell phone contracts that include femtocell services.