Maybe you've dropped your landline and ported to it the number you've had for decades like I have. Now you're reliant on your cell phone much more. Now the call quality at your home or business is more significant - I mean a quick call to order Chinese is not a big deal (unless they miss the “not spicy!” part during a dropout) but a half-hour call to your Mom peppered with “hello? hello?” can get old fast. If you have Internet access where you are, you may have an answer to this problem depending on your cell carrier.

Prompted by an article by Jonathan Sidener in the April 19 2009 San Diego Union-Tribune, I wanted to tell you about the concept of having your OWN cell site.

The reason that this whole thing is called “cellular” is that it was designed to use geographically small areas of radio coverage. In comparison, the old mobile phone system they had before (IMTS, http://www.privateline.com/PCS/mobilephonepictures.htm ) had radio towers up on mountaintops so they'd go as far a possible. Analog cellular and the current PCS system have lots of small radio “footprints” and if you look at a map of these areas they look like cells in a beehive. As you move around town you get “handed off” from one cell to another so the carriers have better control over the calls.

Obviously, it makes economic sense for the carriers to spend money and put up towers where they will serve the most customers. If your home or office is shadowed from the closest tower or is simply in The Boonies, you may have little or no coverage. Now, you can install a “femtocell” in your home to add or enhance coverage there. Think of this box as a WiFi Access Point except that it works on the cellular service frequencies and is made to talk to cell phones and not WiFi clients.

Your Personal Cell Tower Phones Home
Once your cell phone finds the femtocell in your midst, the unit carries your voice to and from your cellular carrier via the Internet. This might introduce a little bit of delay or occasional dropout if your voice packets are competing for resources with web pages, email, attachments, and other things going over your Internet connection at the same time. But it's surely better than dropped - or NO - calls and the faster your Internet connection, the better the calls will sound.

Different carriers have different offerings and plans. Info from various people and web sites:

T-mobile: not in the near future

AT&T: apparently in the works but the local data rep didn't want to comment.

SPRINT “Airrave”: The rep at the San Diego area Carmel Mountain store says it's $100 for the unit + $5/mo (rental fee) for a maximum of  3 simultaneous calls and a maximum of 50 EINs (individual phones) that can be used with it. Doesn't work with Air Cards but I'm not clear if it supplies Internet to an Internet enabled phone like an iPhone. This snippet from their web site seems to say that such phones are supported at about 20% the speed of full EV-DO:

Does the Sprint AIRAVE support Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO)? AIRAVE does not currently support Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO) data speeds. Your mobile device will continue to receive Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO) services directly from the Nationwide Sprint Network while within range of the AIRAVE. [If no EVDO is available nearby] Your mobile device will use the AIRAVE for data services with a maximum data throughput of 153.8 Kbps. 

Verizon Network Extender: $250 to purchase, no fees, no contract. Covers 5000 sf. Lindsey Sanford, San Diego data rep, says they are available overnight and will provide Internet to a smartphone but not to an Air Card. I hope to get my hands on one and will supplement this posting with speed info.

ADDENDUM (5/21/09): Read about my TeleGeekazoid fun with a Verizon Network Extender here