Vodafone boosts mobile reception with UK's first femtocell

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 23 Jun 2009 at 12:10

Vodafone has announced a small femtocell device that will boost mobile phone reception in a customer's home by piggybacking on their broadband connection.

The Access Gateway service will be offered from 1 July. The device hooks up to a landline broadband connection from any ISP and uses it to bolster 3G phone signals.

"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," says Ian Shepherd, consumer director of Vodafone UK.

It's the first such device to be launched in Europe, and will be available on a range of packages depending on the mobile tariff of the customer.

For customers on a monthly deal of £60 or over the box will be free, which means that for most customers there will be an additional charge. Despite working with multiple handsets, two customers in the same house with £30 tarrifs will fail to qualify for a free box.

On a 24 month mobile phone contract it can be had for £5 per month, for £7 on an 18 month deal and £10 over 18 months.

The company will also be offering a complete deal for new customers which includes a 3G handset, Access Gateway and 100 minutes and 500 texts inclusive for £15 per month over 24 months.

The device supports up to four phone calls at a time, but only Vodafone phones will be supported.

However, those with data plans should beware of downloading large files. Despite the connection running over the customer's own broadband line, which is already paid for, any traffic over the Access Gateway will count towards their data plan.