Dude, Where's My Femto?
3:45 PM -- Let's face it, I'm the perfect candidate for a femtocell.
My apartment has successfully seen off a whole bunch of phones and service providers over the years with its thick old walls that even provide an effective blanket of radio silence with some handsets (cough, Sidekick, cough).
I currently have a T-Mobile G1 and a Verizon BlackBerry Storm. I will grudgingly admit that they both perform better than some older phones, perhaps because there are fewer people on the 3G networks. Nonetheless, the service is still just edging into the barely tolerable zone.
All of which makes me the ideal candidate for a coverage-boosting mini-base-station in my home. Only trouble is, unless I swap to Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), I can't currently buy a damn femtocell anywhere. We're still waiting around for AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless , or T-Mobile US Inc. to actually bring one out in the U.S.
Guess it is time to look into the [email protected] service or wait for 2009... 2010... whenever.
For one thing, I'm not convinced the big femto sell isn't just going to be a chimera for the forseeable future. I suspect that a $100 box that improves coverage in your home (I mean, shouldn't the carriers pay for that anyway?) is going to be a tougher sell in a sour economy. Why spend the bucks when you can just walk closer to the kitchen window?
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung
My apartment has successfully seen off a whole bunch of phones and service providers over the years with its thick old walls that even provide an effective blanket of radio silence with some handsets (cough, Sidekick, cough).
I currently have a T-Mobile G1 and a Verizon BlackBerry Storm. I will grudgingly admit that they both perform better than some older phones, perhaps because there are fewer people on the 3G networks. Nonetheless, the service is still just edging into the barely tolerable zone.
All of which makes me the ideal candidate for a coverage-boosting mini-base-station in my home. Only trouble is, unless I swap to Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), I can't currently buy a damn femtocell anywhere. We're still waiting around for AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless , or T-Mobile US Inc. to actually bring one out in the U.S.
Guess it is time to look into the [email protected] service or wait for 2009... 2010... whenever.
For one thing, I'm not convinced the big femto sell isn't just going to be a chimera for the forseeable future. I suspect that a $100 box that improves coverage in your home (I mean, shouldn't the carriers pay for that anyway?) is going to be a tougher sell in a sour economy. Why spend the bucks when you can just walk closer to the kitchen window?
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung
