Vodafone has confirmed plans to come out with what will be Europe’s first commercial 3G femtocell offering, a system that will boost mobile signals indoors and use home broadband to connect calls across the internet to the mobile network.
A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable.
Announced today at the Global Femtocell Summit the £160 Vodafone Access Gateway, which is to be sold out of the company’s High Street shops from the beginning of July, will support only Vodafone phones.
“The Vodafone Access Gateway will boost indoor mobile phone coverage for customers who today, find they need to move around the rooms in their home to get a consistent signal strength,” said Ian Shepherd, consumer director for Vodafone UK.
The small device, which is reportedly built by Alcatel Lucent using silicon from femto specialist picoChip, is said capable of supporting up to four voice calls.
As well as being sold outright, the carrier will offer the device as part of a monthly subscription plan.
