deadzones
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Optus intros 3G Home Zone, Australia's first consumer femtocell
Friends down under: have you been craving a femtocell even more than that luscious vegemite sandwich sitting in your fridge? Undoubtedly you have, if your humble home was built squarely in a black hole of coverage. Optus has the perfect solution, but it's going to cost you; the new 3G Home Zone beefs up the signal in your abode, using your broadband connection to magically transform your dead zone into five bars of wireless heaven. All it takes is a fair amount of green stuff -- the upfront cost ranges from AU$60 to AU$240, but monthly installment plans are available -- and a minimum 1Mbps down / 256Kbps up broadband connection. Oh, and it's only available in select stores for now, so check to see if your neighborhood store has one in stock before squandering away what's left of your day. One last thing: in view of the fact that the 3G Home Zone sucks up data like a milkshake, it's a good idea to make sure a capped data plan won't leave you sidelined before the month is over. Full PR after the break. [Thanks, James]
NYC taxis to map out dead zones in mobile networks
We've already seen an influx of hybrid vehicles take their places in the mammoth fleet of New York City taxis, and now that the Taxi 2.0 will reportedly sport GPS tracking an built-in televisions, what else is really left to implement? Stockholm-based Ericsson has apparently seized the opportunity in using the random, perpetual motion of NYC's yellow mainstays to better itself (read: make some coin), and has recently received permission from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission to install small devices "about the size of a computer modem" into cabs in order to "feed information about signal strength and clarity to engineers." The research, which has already been completed in other areas of the world, is being conducted in the Big Apple on behalf of a yet-to-be-named carrier, and it purportedly hopes to more accurately map out dead zones in mobile phone networks. Currently, "at least one fleet" has signed up to participate, and others could join in considering the royalties that will be paid out for tagging along on those zany routes through the city. Of course, this whole system should be relatively invisible to cab riders, but a continual voice recording of furious (and disconnected) passengers could probably work equally well in pinpointing those dead spots.[Via Textually]
