One of AT&T’s senior executives said that the carrier’s femtocell system is looking forward to a national launch by the end of the year, reports MobileBurn. Users in the United States could access a private beta version of this device until now. According to news sources, AT&T is going to launch the device in a sort of public beta in a few weeks from now.
Reportedly, AT&T’s executive director for radio access network delivery has disclosed that the UMTS femtocell which has already undergone many trials during the past few months, will further undertake more test customers before emerging out completely into the market.
“Certainly we’re looking at integrated femtocells. Some people think that integration is putting a femto into a residential gateway, and that’s one aspect. We’re looking at other things in the home [and asking]: How can I leverage all the elements in the home? There’s a lot of research and investigation in these areas and nothing definitive on what we’re going to do,” commented Gordon Mansfield, AT&T.
The new 3G Microcell will be a standalone device instead of a residential-gateway style multifunction unit, and is expected to be supplied by Cisco. It is expected to offer coverage improvements for the company’s customers. It could also support other improvements. This femtocell is also expected to offer up to 5,000 square feet of coverage. It also supports up to four simultaneous, secure voice or data connections at the same time.
The working of the AT&T femtocell is similar to Verizon and Sprint’s existing models, which are already on sale in the US. The compact box first connects to a user’s broadband and then re-routes calls and data over that particular connection instead of the carrier’s wireless connection.
There is no mention of the pricing of the 3G Microcell.