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Need to Know: Femtocells

Earlier this week, Vodafone announced that it was releasing the first commercial use of femtocell technology in Europe. We tell you what it is and why it’s important.

By Benny Har-Even, 26 Jun 2009 at 14:55

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Are there any issues I should know about?

While it sounds like a great idea if you’re suffering from poor coverage, the business model involves getting customers to pay to fix the issues with a network’s coverage, in this case Vodafone's. And how ISPs will feel carrying traffic from another telco remains to be seen. It’s sort of equivalent to operators brushing away dust under each other’s carpets, as each tries to avoid dealing with their network issues.

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2 comments

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Too expensive

One of the reasons that I'm a Vodafone customer is that coverage is good most places I tend to be (work has a pico-cell). This gizmo would be fantastic for the odd occasion when I find myself without coverage and for such occasional use £160 is far to expensive.

By calmeilles on Tuesday Jun 30

Can't wait

I live and work in a rural area where all mobile phone signals are poor. A Femtocell would mean that I could use my mobile at home ( and work) which currently I cannot. Unfortunately I'm on 3 at present!

By timpars on Tuesday Jun 30