Femtocells: Pros and Cons

摘要

Indoor signals have long been a weak point of cellular coverage. That's why femtocell technology has created such a stir over the past year or so -- it offers the possibility of using a device like a broadband router to boost cellular reception indoors. Like the wireless router that distributes a Digital Subscriber Line or cable broadband signal throughout your home, a femtocell device -- sometimes called a miniature cellular base station or a mini cell tower -- grabs your carrier's cellular signal and boosts it for indoor use, routing your calls through the broadband connection rather than directly through the larger cellular network. Femtocells use proprietary security, with a firewall that sits between caller and carrier.