In-home cell ‘towers’ pursued
From Times Wire Services
As more and more people drop their telephone land lines, the wireless industry faces a challenge: poor cellular coverage inside residences.
To tackle it, companies are looking at providing devices that would essentially give customers their own, private cellular towers.
The devices make cellphones work like cordless phones, connecting to a home base station called a femtocell (“femto” is a scientific term for something that is very small).
The devices look much like home-computer wireless Internet routers.
Verizon Wireless is joining Sprint Nextel Corp. in jumping on the femtocell bandwagon, rolling out the devices this year.
