Femtocells: your very own home cell network
Besides the “femtocell” sounding like a robotic sex toy or an individually wrapped feminine hygiene product, in technological terms it is a router-like device which converts a portion of your broadband bandwidth to provide you with a compact cell network in your house.
The concept is a relatively simple one. You buy a femtocell from your mobile network operator, because if you were on Verizon and bought a T-Mobile one, that would be pretty pointless. You switch it on, plug it into your broadband router, and as simple as that, you have cell signal.
In the recently built postgraduate college on the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus, students were left without phone signal due to the lack of cell transmitters in the area and a building which was designed, almost to withstand the blast of a nuclear explosion. For many living in hilly areas, especially but not exclusively in England, will find that cell signal can be patchy from room to room.
