Both these technologies enable you to have one phone and one phone number with which you can communicate from virtually anywhere.
Sprint has started offering femtocells on a trial basis. Sprint has started offering femtocells on a trial basis. A femtocell looks a bit like a Wi-Fi router but performs the same function in the home or office as cellular base stations that sit in brick buildings at the base of cell towers. That is, they communicate directly with your cell phone and carry the signal to the larger network via a broadband line such as DSL or cable. Popular Resources eGuide Sponsored eGuide: Mobile Security eGuide Sponsored An IT Survival Guide: Big Chaos in Small Packages See All "Carriers will offer femtocells the way cable operators offer cable modems," said Paul Callahan, vice president of business development at femtocell vendor Airvana Inc. "They'll give you five bars in your home." That means you'll be able to ditch your landline and use your cell phone everywhere. Sprint is offering femtocells, on a trial basis, to customers in Denver and Indianapolis and is charging $15 a month for individuals or $30 for a family. Subscribers can then make as many local and national calls as they want. T-Mobile USA launched its fixed-mobile convergence Hotspot@home program last June, which requires a cell phone that supports both Wi-Fi and regular cellular access. Built into the phone is software that enables you, for example, to walk into your home or office while talking on the cellular network and have the call seamlessly switch to voice-over-IP on the Wi-Fi network. You also need a compliant Wi-Fi router. As with femtocells, fixed-mobile convergence allows you to lose your landline. T-Mobile is charging about $30 a month for unlimited local and national calls. The program has met with generally good reviews. Why it's important: Having a single phone and a single phone number will be a great convenience and money saver. Also, some of the disruptive applications discussed later depend on the ability to track your availability no matter where you are. Using only a cell phone makes this more possible. What could hold it back: To some extent, these technologies will duke it out against each other. That will take time to sort out. Better devices With faster, more ubiquitous access, devices can start to radically change. "Imagine a Bluetooth headset in your ear but that's the phone," said Dan Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research Inc. and author of the book Technotrends. "And it will continue to get smaller from there until it's implanted in your ear. You ask for whatever you need [with your voice] and it will tell you the answers." However, smaller, more powerful phones themselves will be the end result of several enabling disruptions, Burrus and the other experts agree. These disruptions may seem relatively minor but, added together, they will result in the phones and applications of tomorrow.
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