One of the technologies that was scattered out across the exhibitor area at CTIA, is a device called a femtocell.  What is a femtocell, you ask?  Think of it as a miniature cell tower connected to your broadband connection at home.  Here’s how it works.  You connect the femtocell to your cable or DSL modem at home and then you throw away your land line.  That’s right, open up the trash compactor, toss in your old home phone, and turn the compactor on.  You don’t need it any more. 

Now turn on your cell phone.  In fact, everybody at your house can turn on their cell phone.  As long as you are in the house, the femtocell works as your cell tower.  You can make and receive regular cell calls, but instead of going over the regular cellular network, they go to the femtocell, and then over your broadband connection.  I bet several of you already using parts of this technology.  At my house we all have cell phones, and we contract with our cable provider for our home phone service which goes over our broadband connection already via a technology know at Voice Over IP (VOIP).  So we have the two end pieces, but not the device that lets us use our cell phones over that broadband connection.

So why would you want to do this?

1. First of all, you will get better cell coverage in your house.  I don’t know about you, but most folks call me on my cell anyway, whether it be for work or personal use, and I don’t get the greatest reception in my house.  How would you like four bars?  A femtocell can deliver that.
2. You will save money.  I pay about $50 or so for a home phone line that I basically rarely use.  In fact, the primary people that call us on it are telemarketers.  Don’t really need those calls do you?  A femtocell is typically a fixed price service that is under $20 depending on how many lines will use it.
3. You will save minutes on your mobile plan.  As long as your are on your femtocell, the minutes typically do not count against your plan minutes.

Believe it or not, more and more people are ditching their home phones anyway.  Clint posted an article a few weeks ago on MobileBizBuzz about how Oklahoma is leading the way in this trend.  Oklahoma has 26.1% of households who are mobile only.  That means they have no home phone (landline).  That is number 1 in the nation. 

What is so important about this trend?  The more people ditch their home phones, the more we are drawn toward a world that is completely mobile from a technology perspective.  In fact, it is already becoming a part of the fabric of our lives.  Check out your teenagers, and you will see most of them communicate primarily via their cell phone via text, voice, or even Facebook.  Mobility continues to move forward, and femtocells are just one more catalyst accelerating that move.