T-Mobile Venture Fund announced that it has invested in a Swindon-based, home-networking company called Ubiquisys, which also counts Google among its backers, as it prepares to test the potential of the companys in-home mobile masts in the UK later this year.
Ubiquisys has been focusing on Femtocells and these are a very low-powered mobile phone base station, which consumers can place in their home. As the device uses less power than a Wi-Fi connection, there are no health risks. When connected to a broadband line, it greatly increases in-home mobile coverage and allows a mobile user to make free calls while at home from their existing handset.
Mobile phones companies including O2 and Vodafone are testing the technology as a way of increasing take-up of their own residential broadband services and differentiate them from existing providers such as TalkTalk, Sky and BT.
T-Mobile, however, does not have a residential broadband offering in the UK and its tests suggest it is looking at the potential of tying broadband with its mobile phone service.
Several major telecoms equipment companies such as Alcatel-Lucent and Chinas Huawei are also developing femtocell technology. Several major technology names have already become interested in the potential of femtocells and invested in a series of start-ups.
As well as Google, Ubiquisys, which manufactures its products in a former Sony plant in south Wales, has received funding from Accel Partners, Atlas Venture and Advent Venture Partners.
As well as cheap calls from home, T-Mobile said femtocells allow operators to bundle mobile and fixed broadband services, and to differentiate themselves by offering mobile applications based on home presence and sharing data with the home network. For instance, one femtocell maker has suggested working parents could be notified of the return of their children after school as the femtocell would pick up their mobile signal when they come home and send an email or text alert.
"Femtocells are fundamental to the future of mobile," said Axel Kolb, fund manager at T-Mobile Venture Fund. "They pave the way for new mobile phones services that put the mobile phone at the centre of the connected home."
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