Pay your mobile provider to use your broadband connection

Mobile networks are eyeing a new(ish) technology that can put a mini mobile base station in your home.  This is being sold on the basis of providing better connections, especially high speed data connections, to those who otherwise struggle to get a decent signal.  Interestingly the units, generically known as femtocells, use an existing broadbandi connection to route the calls from the mobile phone.  This is not to be confused with VoIPi, where, at least for computer to computer connections, the call is effectively free.  In the case of femtocells the calls are routed via the Internet to the mobile providers networki and onwards as per a normal mobile call.  The calls, therefore, are likely to be charged at similar rates to other mobile calls.

Of course what mobile operators are really interested in here are not normal voice calls, but the premium data services, e.g. 3G, that they have been struggling to sell for many years now.  These are particularly affected by phones being inside, and are also under threat from the expanding availability of wifi.  It does remain to be seen though, whether the mobile providers can pull off the challenging trick of convincing people who already have broadband in their homes to pay for their access to content twice by downloading it via their phones.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6916125.stm

http://www.ipaccess.com/products/oyster3G.htm