Targeting enterprise users frustrated that their shiny new 3G phones don't get good coverage in the office, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has released a new, high-speed, indoor "access point" -- the AXPT.

One of the little secrets of third-generation cellular wireless technology such as the High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access (HSDPA) upgrade to UMTS (which Motorola will support with its new access point) is that coverage can often be patchy indoors. Motorola says the AXPT will address "the specific indoor coverage and capacity challenges that mobile operators face when delivering HSDPA mobile broadband within the enterprise space."

Pricing for the AXPT has not been announced yet, but Raghu Rau, senior VP of global marketing and strategy at Motorola Networks, says in a statement that the AXPT adopts "the WiFi model to deliver cost savings to the enterprise." The new APs will be sold to enterprise customers via mobile operators.

To date, upgrading in-building coverage has been a large-scale project for users running networks in very large spaces, such as airports and convention centers.

For instance, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport just spent six months upgrading its cellular coverage using a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) system from LGC Wireless . The installation covers 5.8 million square feet using more than 700 of the LGC units for multi-carrier, multi-band coverage. In comparison, the airport has around 150 WiFi access points installed to provide a/b/g wireless LAN coverage.

"People are still attached to the tradition of using their cellular phones," Lance Lyttle, CIO of the airport, who says that was the main motivation for installing the LGC system. "But now that we have the infrastruture in place we're looking at value-add applications."The cost of traditional indoor coverage units and their size and complexity have tended to be barriers to enterprise adoption. Base station vendors like Andrew have typically made such in-building repeater systems and DAS for carriers.

Motorola is clearly eyeing such applications as well, pushing the data transfer capabilities of the APXT as well as the call coverage. This could lead to a showdown between voice-over-WiFi systems and these new in-building products, according to Gabriel Brown, chief analyst at Unstrung Insider.

"Indoor 3G products will be more expensive than WLAN, but you can use the same terminals and can benefit from features such as security and seamless handover that are supported by the carrier’s network by default," says Brown.

"Wireless LAN access is cheaper, but will require dualmode terminals and possibly PBX integration, which is more of a challenge to the service provider business model."

Betting on both horses, Motorola also has a dualmode WiFi/cellular smartphone on the way.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung