Femtocells aim to boost indoor cell reception

Can’t get a decent cell signal in your living room? I know the feeling. That’s why more and more carriers are offering femtocells: compact, antenna-equipped boxes that use your home broadband network to boost cell reception. Clever idea—although you’ll pay extra for the privilege, of course.
Sprint has had its own femtocell device—the Airave—on sale for more than a year now, while Verizon Wireless announced its own femtocell service this week. That leaves AT&T, which is rumored to have a femtocell product in the works, and T-Mobile, which offers something a little different: Unlimited HotSpot Calling (formerly known as T-Mobile HotSpot @Home).

So, how do femtocells work? You can read up on the nuts and bolts at Wikipedia, but roughly speaking, they act as cell network signal repeaters (with an effective range of about 5,000 square feet), piggybacking onto your home broadband network to boost patchy coverage—good news for those of us with terrible reception in our homes and apartments. (I live in a 150-year-old-plus brownstone in Brooklyn, and unless I stand by a window, callers can’t hear me.)