Cell Tech

What if there were a way to go to that dark corner of your basement and still get signal on your cell phone, in case the boogie man comes out to get you of course. What if this were possible without a gigantic cellular tower in your back yard? Well it just might be possible with the help of something called a femtocell.

First off, you don't need to take another biology class to figure out what a femtocell is. With that out of the way, allow me to elaborate. A femtocell is basically like a special wireless router that acts as a miniature cellular tower. It has the range of around 15 meters, making it ideal for the home. Oh, and it is as small as a residential wireless router too.

Say your house is usually a dead spot, and as soon as you walk in the front door, you lose signal. This is where the femtocell will come in handy. Now, if you have one of these little buggers connected; as soon as you walk into your house, your cell phone will jump from the cellular tower to the femtocell signal and it will send your signal through the internet to your carrier's servers and vice versa.

Although femtocells are still quite pricey (~$200) even after being subsidized, they still represent a step in the right direction. Imagine an entire community with a femtocell built into every wireless router. Dead spots would almost be completely eliminated...except, of course, if you are in the desert.