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Motorola's femtocell tests a success, let the trial begin
Busy times for the people over at Motorola, as new cells seems to be dropping at all the majors lately. Yesterday's announcement featured news that Moto's femtocell end to end testing is complete and that the trials are now set to begin. Femtocells, once called Access Point Base Stations are said to be set to turn the 3G world on its ear with improved access and better pricing -- we''ll believe that when we see it, at least the pricing bit -- while in areas covered by them. From a provider's point of view costs are reduced by having a simplified -- in an UMTS installation, the Node-B, RNC, and GSN -- in one package using wired broadband for connectivity. We'd love to be in on the testing, but it seems that honor has been reserved for a "major European operator" and not for the team at Engadget Mobile.
Netgear, Ubiquisys develop femtocell residential gateway
It wouldn't be too surprising to see a networking firm and a developer of intelligent 3G femtocell access points work in harmony to crank out a dazzling all-in-one contraption, and it looks like Netgear and Ubiquisys have done just that. Aiming to simultaneously enable mobile operators to provide enhanced cellular coverage in the home and allow consumers to access and control a range of home networking services via standard 3G handsets, the two have joined forces to stuff Ubiquisys' ZoneGate into future Netgear WAPs. The currently unnamed solution will reportedly pack an integrated DSL modem, WiFi, VoIP, and 3G femtocell technology into a single box, and while it's not scheduled to go commercial until early next year at best, operator testing should go live by Q4 of 2007.
