The New York Times today cleared up a question I’ve had about the AT&T Femtocell. It will (read-does not yet) carry data to the mobile phones and 3G ready devices, modems, dongles and more.
In my mind AT&T should build a FemtoCell into every uVerse installation. Oh….that’s right, then they would have to carry the data…
This is where I see Femtocell failing and where UMA excels. Most of the chip vendors (Qualcomm) are embedding UMA stacks on their chipsets now. The cost for a UMA equipped mobile handset has basically dropped to nothing, and I can use my existing WAP with no additional hardware needed with full data access to all services (ie. BBmessenger, Google Maps, and voice)
Granted there are millions upon millions of non UMA equipped handsets (all current and past iPhones) in circulation so the concept of femtocell’s make sense – but when you force someone to buy yet another piece of hardware to get decent coverage (they technically already pay for) and don’t provide data access as well – it seems like a tough sell.