femtocell

Living or working in an area with weak or intermittent mobile service (voice and/or 3G-4G data) can be a serious problem, but T-Mobile's hushed trials of a new device called the Cel-Fi could offer a solution (and unlike femtocells such as AT&T's Microcell and Verizon's Network Extender, it won't require broadband Internet access to do it).

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.

AT&T announced this week at the CTIA show in Las Vegas that it will soon make its femtocell device available to subscribers nationwide. The femtocell--which AT&T has dubbed the MicroCell--creates a mini 3G cell tower in your home or office, and leverages your existing broadband network to resolve slow or spotty 3G coverage.

The Femto Forum has announced a new initiative that aims to provide a common applications environment and standardized APIs to enable developers to create applications that work across femtocells from different vendors, it said on Tuesday.

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.