Femtocells for Rural Customers

It looks like femtocells may soon be used to serve sparsely-populated rural areas that are conventionally thought of as uneconomic to install a cell phone tower.  Femtocells can now serve as "instant economical infrastructure" to help emergency services or rural residents who are just fed up getting the run around from their local carrier or cell phone tower companies.  Getting the attention of carriers to install new cell phone towers has been the frustration of many wireless customers who live in remote areas.  Femtocells can now provide an economic alternative to to ugly and expensive cell phone towers that often require multiple carriers piggybacking upon a new development site.

Roke Manor Research a Siemen's company has developed the world's first 3G Wide Area Coverage Femtocell capability. Using picoChip's technology as the development platform, Roke's reference design has a 40km range which delivers more than 40,000 times the area covered by most other femtocells. It is also the first to support full mobility at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour, allowing mobile users to travel while connected to the 3G base stations. The femtocell will support up to 12 simultaneous users, with Release 5 HSPA and a software upgrade to Release 6.

Femtocell basestations offer a low cost and low power solution for implementing a WCDMA network. However, they are only suitable for short range communications of around 200m and as such are ideal for home networks. Roke, however, can now offer all the benefits of a femtocall (small size, weight and power consumption) with an enhanced range of up to 40km.

Roke has demonstrated a reference design on a picoChip PC202 platform. The Physical Layer code has been modified to extended the coverage area by 40,000 times whilst maintaining full mobility. In essence, the Roke modifications permit a macrocell performance in terms of range and mobility within a fetmo hardware platform. The modified solution has been tested on-air at ranges up to 25km and vehicle speeds up to 120km/hr.

Benefits of Roke's modified femtocell base-station include:

• Small Form Factor
• Low Power Consumption
• Range up to 40km
• Support of 16us Delay Span
• Mobility up to 120km/hr
• Up to 12 users
• IP Connection to Network
• Circuit Switched Voice Support

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What Are Femtocells?

82% of the World is a Cellular Dead Zone

Satellite Phone

Cellular coverage has now reached almost 90% of the world's population while geographical landmass coverage only about 18%.  82% of the world's landmass has zero cellular reception.  If you are into ocean or mountain activities that take you further than a few miles offshore or away from cities you will likely be in one of these locations.

The world of satellite phones is now available to everyone and prices have never been lower.  Devices available include personal tracking devices that fit in your pocket like the SPOT from Globalstar.  Another popular device in the US for both hikers, boaters and corporations looking for an emergency back-up solution is the Iridium 9555 satellite phone. It is a ruggedly built phone and not a toy to surf the web or text your friends.  This phone will work anywhere you have a clear line of sight to the sky and built to withstand the same tough weather environments.  The last phone designed for the remote business traveler is the World's First Satellite Cellular Smartphone TerreStar GENUS Smartphone (not available yet from AT&T). This phone is designed to switch between cellular and satellite networks as needed.

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Satellite Coverage Maps for Cell Phones

Satellite Coverage Maps for Cell Phones

Satellite Coverage Maps You Can Believe

SkyTerra's satellite network system operates over North America and within 200 nautical miles of the waterways surrounding North America.  Terrastar's coverage map is a lot more believable coming from low level orbit versus AT&T's, Verizon & Sprint maps which are derived from cell phone towers on the ground.    Satellite cell phone service is coming to the masses and should be a viable alternative to the congested and spotty cellular networks.  If you have needs for reliable cell phone coverage, especially in the Western US you will be a good candidate for this new service.  

A prominent New York hedge fund billionaire intends to take on several of the country's biggest telecoms by building a massive 4G wireless network that one analyst has called "breathtaking in its ambition." Harbinger Capital Partners, run by Philip Falcone, and SkyTerra announced a merger -- a take-private deal with an enterprise value of nearly $2 billion, according to the companies. The FCC formally approved the deal last Friday.

Harbinger issued a statement saying it's building a new network that will cover most of the country by 2015, with tests rolling out in Denver and Phoenix next year. Falcone aims to use spectrum owned by his satellite investments -- including SkyTerra and TerraStar -- to build a wholesale data network "that could be resold by anyone wanting to offer 4G services to their customers, such as retailers or laptop/device manufacturers."

SkyTerra's satellite network system operates over North America and within 200 nautical miles of the waterways surrounding North America. Certain technical considerations and limitations, as well as the nature of customer terminals, can affect the availability of service in certain areas, including Alaska and Canada. In addition, the availability of service at the edge of coverage fluctuates depending on various conditions.

Related Article:

82% of the World is a Cellular Dead Zone