News

• 10 top reasons for integrating Wi-Fi radios in small cellular cells

  With the growing demand for mobile data, cellular service operators are increasingly turning to small cells -- picocells, microcells, metrocells and femtocells -- to deal with the capacity crunch in dense urban areas and to add coverage in areas with low or zero cellular signal levels, such as indoors and in remote rural locations.

• Vodafone gets on NBN trial bandwagon

  Telecommunications provider, Vodafone, has connected 12 customers in Armidale, NSW to the National Broadband Network (NBN) as part of the company’s first trial.

• Optus to boost indoor mobile reception

  Optus says a new product to boost indoor mobile reception will encourage people to ditch their fixed-line phone and save on line rental fees.

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  Optus releases femtocell mobile 3G 'base station'

  Optus has released a portable 3G “hot spot” based on femtocell technology that can be used by its mobile service customers to get full coverage in areas without a regular base station nearby.

• How to improve the smartphone experience inside the enterprise

  Every day in large and small offices across America, business workers ignore the PC or desk phone and grab their smartphones for convenient voice, email and Internet access. But delivering high quality cellular service inside office buildings is a challenge for wireless carriers, especially for high-speed data which requires a particularly strong signal.

• What is a femtocell?

  When it comes to telecommunications, Australia isn’t usually far behind the curve. In 2010, we had the third highest number of mobile broadband subscribers per capita, our average broadband speeds are growing by the day, and let’s not forget that the National Broadband Network will be one of the few nationwide fibre-to-the-home deployments so far.

• Femtocells may boost more than just cellular coverage: Study

  Femtocells will soon be able to improve home security, personal safety and help integrate smartphones with TVs, laptops and media players, in addition to improving cellular coverage in the home, ABI Research said on Monday.

• MagicJack femtocell misses planned launch date

  The magicJack femtocell, a product unveiled to much excitement earlier this year, has not launched as expected during the second quarter, although the company says it will still become available this year.

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  Femtocells held back by technical difficulties: Ericsson

  The technological and business complexities of femtocell deployment has kept the market from flourishing locally, according to Ericsson head of strategic marketing, Kursten Leins.

• Femtocell prices have dropped below $100, says vendor

  The wholesale cost of a femtocell has dropped below US$100 and that will help give the sector a boost, femtocell vendor Ubiquisys said on Tuesday.

• MagicJack harnesses femtocell for VoIP

  MagicJack is demonstrating a device near the International Consumer Electronics Show this week that it claims will let consumers make VoIP calls using any GSM phone.

• Networks have to get more dense, Qualcomm says

  The wireless industry has reached the limits of what it can do to use radio spectrum more efficiently and needs to move on to making networks more dense through tools such as femtocells, the cofounder and the current CEO of Qualcomm said Thursday.

• Ubiquisys adds speedier femtocell

  Ubiquisys said Monday that it is aiming for a fourth quarter release of consumer and business versions of its next-generation femtocell, the G3, designed to offer mobile broadband download speeds up to 21.6M bps (bits per second).

• Groups combine efforts to push WiMax femtocells

  The WiMax Forum has joined forces with the Femto Forum to speed up the development of femtocells for mobile WiMax networks, the organizations said on Wednesday.

• Femtocells key to speedy LTE services

  To get the most out of upcoming mobile broadband networks based on LTE (Long Term Evolution), the use of femtocells is a key ingredient, according to industry organization the Femto Forum.