MagicJack makes a femtocell, might make that advertising worth hearing
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 8th 2010 4:29AM
posted January 8th 2010 4:29AM
Femtocells now offer cell phone service for $1.70 a month with MagicJack! That's just $19.95 a year. $19.95 a year! MagicJack's femtocell works with mobile phones "potentially" from any carrier, though only GSM is mentioned. Apparently just coming within eight feet connects your phone to the femtocell, after which you can supposedly travel anywhere you like in the house. Calls through the femtocell won't use your minutes. Replace your phone company or get a second line, with MagicJack!
nice
@jonimo It is, but, why does this read like an advertisement?
@JonS To make fun of infomercials of course.
@jonimo
oh man i am so sold!
@jonimo Oh AT&T I hope you're hearing this one. "Femtocells now offer cell phone service for $1.70 a month with MagicJack! That's just $19.95 a year. $19.95 a year! " lol, What can you saw now with MJ's new femtocells? More MagicJack Details: http://bit.ly/magic-jack-femto-cells-detail
I wonder how this will affect the game.
@F C - It's like a high-resolution HD remake with a bargain bin price.
..and how does it know if you exit the house?
@microlomaniac
Why, it watches you! Silly human!
14M1337!
@microlomaniac
This'll be perfect for my unlocked storm. When I'm in my apartment my phone can automatically switch to GSM (Magic Jack) and when I get too far away it'll switch back to CDMA (Verizon).
@PlatinumSkeet
You'll certainly need a SIM card in the Storm; whether or not said SIM card will need to be active (on a subscription or at least a "live" prepaid account) will be the question to answer! good thinking...now to investigate further
@Scoopster I don't think you even need a SIM card
If it works it is brilliant.
Usually when I hear somebody talking about magic jack it isn't so much in the context of it working.. but more in the context of it not.
@savagemike
works fine for me. not that i use it all the time, but it seems to work. Could be interesting to have MJ work with my cell phone, tho... I'll wait to see something more in depth then this "commercial" Engadget just did.
Shenanigans.
The wireless operators own the spectrum that a device like this would need to operate. I just don't see this getting by the FCC. I smell vaporware...
@Cactus
There might be an exemption for it similar to how FM transmitters are allowed to exist. 8ft is pretty limited, and I don't see any reason for that kind of technical limitation on range, so it could be regulatory limitation.
@Cactus
First, they license the spectrum from the government.
Second, there are third party transceiver amplifiers for all the major carriers. I don't see why this would be that different.
Third, goodbye $10 mo Tmo @ Home HELLO $1.70 mo MagicJac!
@Kamokazi Just looked up more info on it, and it has a range that covers 3,000 square feet, not 8 feet.
"The femtocell's range is wide enough to cover a 3,000-square-foot (278-square-meter) home, he said."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186308/magicjack_harnesses_femtocell_for_voip.html
@Cactus : FCC rules are complicated - a bunch of different factors like output power (i.e. range), modulation scheme etc. The ideology behind the rules is NOT to provide monopoly powers but more to ensure that the spectrum is split so that radios don't trample each other (no fun for everyone). Having said that, I've not specifically read the FCC spec - I don't interact with them.
@ArhcAngel
There's a huge difference between a bidirectional amplifier boosting an existing, FCC-licensed signal, and operating a distinct, separate service on those same airwaves. Yes, the carriers license these airwaves for their exclusive use (hence why I used "owning"); even if the FCC does nothing to stop something like this, the carriers would likely seek injunctions against it, unless it's done with their permission (which it likely won't).
Second, a true femtocell transfers your inbound cell phone calls over VoIP while you're within range of it. MagicJack cannot pull this off without carrier approval... thus, unless you have call forwarding properly set up, you'd lose the ability to receive phone calls to your wireless number -- instead, you'd be getting the inbound calls to your MagicJack number.
So what happens when you end up going with 8ft of your friend's MagicJack femtocell? You start receiving the calls to his MagicJack number?
I repeat my call of shenanigans. Unless and until this thing gets demo'd by a neutral party - on-stage smoke and mirrors won't cut it - this just smells like a ploy to get free publicity by the hordes of reporters at CES who are eager to report the latest scoop.
@Cactus
*within 8ft. Oops.
@sid
I realize the reasoning behind the policies - I do have a license, not that this makes me Internet Authority or what not - but you may have heard of the huge debate around TV white space. The NAB is getting quite bothered at the thought of broadcast-unrelated low-power devices operating at the fringe of their stations' licensed spectrum... how do you think AT&T would feel about COMPETING devices operating ON their spectrum?
Unless the FCC specifically allows something like this to operate, I see two swiftly filed petitions for permanent injunctive relief from AT&T and T-Mobile. Unless MagicJack can pull off a partnership with one of the two... which I can't see a carrier doing.
@Cactus
> Second, a true femtocell transfers your inbound cell phone calls over VoIP while you're within range of it. MagicJack cannot pull this off without carrier approval... thus, unless you have call forwarding properly set up, you'd lose the ability to receive phone calls to your wireless number -- instead, you'd be getting the inbound calls to your MagicJack number.
Yeah, this is what I'm wondering. If this is a "true" femtocell (which is hard to define right now) like other carriers have, then it'd be amazing.
But this sounds like just a cell phone to magicjack VOIP bridge, which is still neat but not nearly as useful. It'd be really amazing if it could route all calls through my existing carrier with no extra phone number, simply using my internet connection at home. Doesn't sound like this is the case.
So it's a neat product, and I like where things are going. But it's not nearly as exciting after hearing more about how it works. I can't wait till I can plug in a femtocell at home and use my existing phone number on my normal (non-wifi/voip) cell phone via my femtocell. The end of bad coverage at home, and maybe even a minutes savings (for those not on an unlimited minutes plan).
Google Voice
why do these small companies with great tech look to put me on the bread line with their good products
Why do they both sound like some sort of interconnecting dildo device?
Is there any original description or commentary about this product or is it just a straight up advertisement?
I thought this was supposed to be demoed last night. Anyone see it?
Worthless. Yes, free minutes for phones sounds cool, but only in your house? What's the point? Damn near everyone has unlimited minutes on their landline by now as well as wireless phones.
@ddhboy: I don't have unlimited long-distance minutes on my landline, unless I want to PAY for it.
@ddhboy What is this "landline" you speak of?
@ddhboy I would pay $1.70 a month for this, just based on the fact that my neighborhood only gets 1 bar, from every carrier (none with tmo). Sometimes I can't even send a text. With this I could probably even cancel my home phone if I wanted, saving me hundreds of dollars a year. I say it's brilliant, if it works.
if it only had an 808 area code, it is absolutely the killer of landlines...it saves me $20.00 a month from time warner oceanic cable which doesn't include the mainland. that is another $10.00 extra. $20.00 a year from magicjack is incredible and it works just like a landline....still have my cell phone but it is trully what it says it is. can't tell the diff except for the $1.70 us a month..................AMAAAAAAAZING!
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, now Magic Jack?
T-moble, how about getting off your ass and releasing one of these? I'd really like to answer a call from my couch instead of a mad dash to the kitchen when the phone rings.
And, no, the hotspot@home thing isn't a femtocell, and I don't really want to have to buy a blackberry just to get UMA.
@(Unverified) They make these cool things called 'cordless' phones. They use wireless magic to let you talk on the phone using a landline!
They called their Service "YMAX". Boy do i smell Sprint, ClearWire and the Wimax Forum Lawers running down to the FTC for name similarity to "Wimax".
Novel idea thou.
If they just had a coked up Billy Mayes, they would totally have a successful product!
What are the security implications of something like this? If all one needs to do is pass within 8 feet of this femtocell for one's cellphone to switch over to it, then in principle someone could hide one or more of these up in a crowded place and people's phones would quietly switch to it.
Seeing how GSM encryption has been cracked, imagine setting up a number of these femtocells in the various bars and restaurants that surround Wall Street (perhaps hiding them inside ATM machines near the exits)...
@arcasinky I don't think that any random cell phone will automatically switch over as soon as you get within 8ft. There is probably some sort of configuration that needs to be done, and also a limitation on the number of devices that it can support at once.
@arcasinky huh? a sinister plot to give random passers-by free minutes?
@arcasinky dude your a dork!
@ror Well, I'll give you free minutes if you let me quietly monitor the voice and data traffic that passes through your phone. See, by using my femtocell, all your data is now passing through my device and my network. And since GSM encryption has been broken, you're now vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. See, that's the subtle difference between using a femtocell to facilitate such an attack and using a traditional radio scanner.
Now, if QChronoD is right and cellphones don't automagically switch to the femtocell without an explicit action from the user, there's no problem. But if cellphones will automatically switch to the femtocell because they see a stronger signal when they're within 8 feet then that could be a problem.
@arcasinky GSM encryption may have been cracked, but you obviously only read the headline and not all the details... it's very simple for carriers to once again protect their network. I don't think AT&T and the likes are just going to stand around with people listening in on their network.
@bhuber "GSM encryption may have been cracked, but you obviously only read the headline and not all the details... it's very simple for carriers to once again protect their network."
The GSM Association would disagree with that assessment:
"It would be a huge logistical operation. In some cases it could be just a software upgrade but it may require replacement of hardware. Every single base station may have to be changed in some older networks," said James Moran, security director of the GSMA. "It would be the nuclear option."
Keep in mind that GSM is used in over 200 countries and not every network uses the latest and greatest base stations. Something similar happened about 4 years ago in Latin America and Asia and it took carriers about 18 months to patch their networks.
I like my majicjack. It's nice to have a second number, especially for so freakin cheap!
Don't femtocells just connect your cell to a VoIP service, then relay that call back to the cell provider? Or am I wrong?
It may, just may, be possible that MagicJack is just hyping a dongle that does what the old MagicJack does, but adds Wifi... It'll seem to work like a femtocell, but it's really just regular old VoIP from you Wifi-enabled cell phone.
Not that that's a bad thing, $1.70 a month would beat the pants off of even Skype's fees. It seems to me MagicJack wouldn't be able to afford to license the bandwidth from the FCC on the popular frequencies of the cell carriers for less than 2 bucks a month...
Any word as to what frequencies this Femtocell will operate at?
GSM 1800/900?
UMTS 900/2100? (I wish!)
I love my MagicJack only because I am using it without the dongle. If I was a "regular user" that needs to leave a PC on all the time with their stupid software up, I'd have different opinions about it. I'm currently using an ATA with MJMD5 on my DDWRT router. Sometimes calls don't go thru so you have to try again, but I'm okay with it's quirks for $20/year. In fact, I just re-upped for my second year. As long as MJ leaves us BYOD users alone, I'll be singing it's praises.
I'm interested to see what MJ does with this femtocell. I hope it doesn't have the same latency issues that my Airrave has.
found it- http://www.pcworld.com/article/186308/magicjack_harnesses_femtocell_for_voip.html
@incognito53 Too bad it still relies on a PC to operate just like the current Magic Jack. That's my main gripe with it, that you have to have a PC logged in and running the software to make it work. If a machine reboots and you have a password on your account(which you should do for basic security) the damn thing goes offline. I know there are ways to run it as a service, etc, to get around these limitations but that's a pain as well. So I just have a old Windows XP laptop setup to auto login that runs the software. I thought the reason for the required GUI interface was ad revenue, but the only ads I have ever seen on the screen are those for magic jack renews for like 5 years.
Can we get/use these in Canada?