The end to global mobile roaming rip-offs? your own base station

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 27 January 2011 09:09

Business IT - Networking

Ubiquisys - a developer of femtocells - has gone one step further with the attocell: a cellular base station designed for the iPhone that you can plug into your Internet-connected laptop anywhere in the world and connect your cellphone direct to your home operator's network.

The attocell will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month and Ubiquisys says it is already in discussions with several mobile operators to sell the device.

Femtocells are small mobile base stations designed to be sold in retail stores and installed in the home and 'backhauled' into the operator's network over a DSL or other terrestrial broadband connection. They enable mobile operators to provide in-building coverage without the cost of higher powered main network base stations and to retain the in-home traffic and revenue of their customers. In Australia both VHA and Optus have indicated plans to offer them.

A key aspect of femtocell technology, which Ubiquisys has exploited in its attocell, is their ability to self configure based on received signals of the networks in which they find themselves. Configuration and optimisation of normal base stations is a complex process which would be impracticable to extend to devices bought off the shelf from retail shops and installed by the purchasers.

According to Ubiquisys, its attocell "analyses the IP address and radio environment to determine which country it is in, and sets its 3G radio power accordingly to below the licensed levels."

The downside is that in some countries this means the range of the attocell will be limited to 5mm; so the phone will have to be laid on top of it and used with a headset. In other countries, the signal could reach across a whole room.

Ubiquisys adds: "although developed specifically for the iPhone, the attocell works out of the box with any 3G phone, and has also been tested with Blackberry, Nokia and Android Smartphones."

The downside of the product is purely commercial. It routes the calls and data over the Internet to the user's home country and requires an operator in that country to receive and deliver them. High mobile roaming charges, especially for data, are extremely lucrative so no operator is likely to forego these entirely. What the attocell does do though is to enable mobile operators to avoid sharing these charges with the operator in the country where the caller is located.