Get Your Own GSM Cell For Home

Written by Adam Gosling

Thursday, 16 November 2006

You got lousy phone reception at your house? Get your own 3G/HSPA 'hotspot' and link it back to your carrier's own network using ADSL2+. Ericsson has announced an indoor WCDMA/HSPA access point for the home market, though it's also likely to prove very attractive in the SME market. HSPA (which combines High Speed Uplink Packet Access and High Speed Download Packet Access) supports speed up to 14Mbps in the downlink and 5.8Mbps in the uplink. The company says the access point offers secure access both over the air and over the backhaul link as all traffic is securely encrypted and authentication is done with the regular security features that the SIM-card offers for regular mobile phones. The SIM-card authentication mechanism can even be used to support secure payment solutions. Available through "selected operators" next year, the Home 3G Access Point is seen as a way to build the customer carrier relationship as it encourages all occupants of the home or business to use the same operator. There's also a fixed to mobile conversion spin on the new device. Mikael Bäck, vice president of WCDMA Radio Networks at Ericsson, says: "The operator also has the opportunity to offer one specific tariff for the home and a different one when the end-user is on the move." "Many operators are fixed-line operators, and now that more and more households are becoming wireless, they are looking for solutions where they can use their fixed line infrastructure to gain advantages in the wireless space," Bäck says. Multimedia convergence opportunities are also apparent as it would allow for pay-per-view content downloads using the current HSDPA build out currently underway globally. The access point offers full integration with the radio macro layer allowing it to use the same radio frequencies as the outdoor radio macro network so moving from one network to the other would be seamless. www.ericsson.com Related news items Ericsson To Build Vodafone HSPA -06/03/2008 Telstra Wireless Hits Speed Record -24/09/2007 Optus, Vodafone Adopt A New Windows Smartphone -08/08/2007 New BlackBerry Has Wi-Fi -18/07/2007 Vodafone HSDPA Stretches To Brisbane -05/07/2007 Newer news items Spin Internet Expands Free Mobile Broadband -07/12/2006 ACMA Hunts For Useful Spectrum -05/12/2006 Municipal Wi-Fi Planned For Sydney -29/11/2006 Wireless Broadband Extended On Darling Downs -26/11/2006 Canberra Gets Free Mobile Broadband -16/11/2006 Older news items ACMA To Hold Spectrum Management Conference -14/11/2006 Wellington Gets WiMaxed (Slowly) -05/11/2006 Other States Must Wait For Vodafone HSDPA -24/10/2006 Mile High 3G Gaining Momentum -18/09/2006 Weekly Broadband Rental For Irregular Travellers -18/09/2006 Tag This Now: